100% Whole Wheat No Knead Bread
If you’ve ever wanted to bake bread but were always too chicken to try, then please visit Jim Lahey’s article and give No Knead Bread a whirl. I’ve been baking bread this way for months and I swear it’s the best thing ever. Why? Because fresh homemade bread is like sliceable heaven. There is a certain beauty in its simplicity: water, salt, yeast and flour. That’s all it takes! This is whole, natural food, folks. No preservatives needed. All that hippy stuff aside, what really gets me baking are the flavor and the time. Jim Lahey’s recipe turns out a seriously delicious loaf of bread, and because there’s no kneading involved, it’s super quick to throw together (aside from the 18-hour rise time!).
Jim’s No Knead bread is perfect for whole wheat loaves because it turns out a light, moist loaf. That’s right, this is a whole wheat bread recipe that doesn’t turn out a dense, brick-like loaf more suitable as a doorstopper than something you’d actually eat.
Here is my version made with 100% whole wheat flour. I use Doves Farm Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour because I like the flavor, but feel free to experiment with different brands and different blends. There’s no reason you can do half whole wheat, half white, or get crazy with spelt, rye and malted grains.
100% Whole Wheat No Knead Bread
470g whole wheat four
1/4 tsp. yeast
12g salt
350ml water
- Combine all dry ingredients then add the water. Stir until the dough has the consistency of a shaggy ball, adding more water if necessary (chances are, you’ll have to add quite a bit more water so don’t be shy – it’s better to have a dough ball that’s too wet than too dry). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 12 – 24 hours (the longer you leave it, the lighter, more flavorful the result will be). The dough is ready when it’s about double in size and spotted with big bubbles.
- Give the counter top and your hands a generous sprinkle of flour. Turn the dough onto the counter. Pull the dough at either end to form a strip. Fold this strip into thirds (like a business letter). Give the dough a quarter turn and fold in thirds again. I’ll refer to these folds as “seams”, i.e., “right now your dough is on the counter, seam side up.” Cover with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
- Oil a large bowl with olive oil. If you like, sprinkle the bowl with seeds (this is not only tasty, but it also makes it easier to turn the dough out of the bowl when you’re ready to bake it). Put the dough ball into the bowl seam side down. Cover with the plastic wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours. The dough is ready when it has more than doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, remove the HOT pot and pour in a bit of olive oil. Swirl it around so that oil covers the entire inside of the pot. Now, take the bowl containing the dough and quickly turn it upside down over the pot so that the dough falls in seam side up. Cover the pot with a lid and bake for 40 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake another 5 or so minutes, until the loaf is browned. Cool on a rack at least 45 minutes before slicing.
No Knead Recipe Variations
No knead Bread – Jim Lahey’s original recipe
Related posts:
- Seeded Whole Wheat No Knead Bread
- Four-Seed No Knead Bread
- VeganMoFo: Naturally Vegan Seed Bread
- Wholemeal Spelt Bread
- Malted Grain Loaf: Best Loaf Ever?
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LOVE, LOVE whole wheat homemade bread. I have one recipe that I adore but I see taht I’m going to have to try another one very, very soon!
Maris, we totally need to swap bread recipes. Hook me up! I make this loaf ALL the time. It’s good to try new things. =)
Hello. I just found your site and I’m loving it. I put a little blurb on at Cidtalk.com and a link to your bread recipe and blog.
Thanks for all the great recipes, ideas, and honest motivation. I’m not healthy (YET) but I’m slowly slowly trying to reverse 41 years of mid-western eating and cooking. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but the Velveeta had to go!!
Do you know how many servings this would make?
Thanks for that. Having just made the all-purpose white flour version of this I was wondering how I might up the health factor and found this posting. I look forward to trying this next time.
But I have a question coming from my first try with white flour. I had to halve the recipe because I did not have a big enough pot for the full loaf. Despite this and using active and not instant yeast, the loaf came out great, though it didn’t last long being half-size. Plus my pyrex lid shattered upon cooling.
Is there any more economical way of baking the whole loaf than having to go out and purchase an expensive heavy-lidded pot? For example, I’ve got pans up the wazoo and aluminum foil and bailing wire… I priced out some pots after feasting on that delicious loaf, but my happy tastebuds couldn’t overcome the gasps from my wallet nor the squeeks from my storage challenged abode.
Hi charlie, isn’t no knead bread the best? You definitely DON’T need to be a fancy cast iron pot for this. I use a cheapo IKEA saucepan, kind of like this one (a $12.99 bargain):
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40101158
I bet aluminum foil would work, too. I say just give it a go and hope for the best. I’ve made no knead bread without the lid, too (I was visiting my sister who had a bread tin, but no oven-safe lid). If I recall correctly, I baked the loaf in the bread tin from a cold oven. This was helpful:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3401/nyt-bread-bread-pan-cold-oven
As was this:
http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/faster-no-knead-bread/
Hope this helps… let me know how you get on with the wholemeal bread!
Hi ff – the number of servings really depends on how much bread you consider a serving.
If it’s just me, one of these loaves lasts me about a week, eating a slice or two per day. So I guess that’s about 10 or so slices? Of course, the slices vary in size, so it’s hard to measure servings by slices! I hope you can glean some amount of help from this comment… =)
Thanks! That’s a great help.
I love this recipe and have used it many times now. Just thought I’d stop by and let you know.
I have another rising right now. LOVE IT!
Can you provide US measurements? Or are they the same as for the no-knead white bread, that I have been making every weekend for about a year. Everyone LOVES it!
hi freckles – thanks for stopping by! glad you like the recipe. we’re going to make a loaf tonight to go with some roasted veggies. so good!
Epicure – the US measurements should be the same as for the no-knead white bread, but you will probably have to add a bit more water. Let me know how it goes!
Amazon.com have a Lodge cast iron pot (7 quarts I think) for about $25 plus shipping. Works just as good as an expensive Le Creuset. Little more maintenance compared to enameled maybe. Lahey actually recommends them in his book. His fave is some rare French ceramic pot. Very inspiring book where he writes about how he worked at small bakeries in Italy and eventually came up the ideas behind the no knead bread. He doesn’t have a 100% whole wheat recipe in it though, it’s more like 15%… Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Thanks for the tip on the pot, Simon. I use a basic IKEA stainless steel pot. Very low maintenance. =) I’m going to have to pick up Lahey’s book… I am all about being inspired by bread. Let me know how the whole wheat goes!