No Knead Cheese Bread! Just five ingredients and stupid easy to make. Crusty golden outside, and pillowy soft cheesy inside. The BEST.
No Knead Cheese Bread
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I can’t even believe how good this was. I have botched a few bread recipes of late. But this one turned out amazing. The olive oil gave it a lovely richness and the cheese crispies were divine!
sera
First of all, how good is warm, crusty, soup-dunkable bread.
Secondly, take that and times-it by 100 because how good is warm, crusty, soup-dunkable CHEESE bread. Remember this life-changing No Knead Bread? Let’s take it next-level.
We’re talking a beautiful loaf of cheese bread that you MADE, you boss baker you! With your own two hands. Your own two clean hands that didn’t need to do anything fancy except hold a bowl and a wooden spoon.
This cheese bread is soup’s best friend. It is crusty and golden on the outside – enough to really crackle when you tear into it – but the inside is pillowy and soft with an appropriate amount of density from that melted cheese holding it all down. Please put down all the knives and just pull it apart with your hands in hot, steaming chunks. It’s a rustic, hands-on bread and it doesn’t need you to pretend.
I don’t make homemade bread, you say? A) I understand you because I am you, and B) This one is different. You can make this bread.
Here’s How To Make No Knead Cheese Bread:
Step 1: Stir up a dough – with a wooden spoon is perfect. Work a little cheese in there. Cover and let it rest.
Step 2: Now it’s puffy and loose, so just roll it out and onto a piece of parchment. Bake it in a Dutch Oven with a tight-fitting lid, and finish without the lid to get it browned.
Step 3: Tear into it. Dunk it. Butter it. Butter and salt it. Dunk it again. Impress your friends and family because you are a now a person who makes homemade cheese bread.
Grab your soup bowls. Put on your sweaters.
No Knead Cheese Bread season is upon us!
Check Out Our Video For How To Make No Knead Cheese Bread:
No Knead Cheese Bread
- Total Time: 12 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
No Knead Cheese Bread! Just five ingredients and stupid easy to make. Crusty golden outside, and pillowy soft cheesy inside. The BEST.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 1/4 cups room temperature water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup shredded cheese of choice
Instructions
- DOUGH: In a large mixing bowl, with something basic like a wooden spoon, combine the flour, salt, and yeast together until mixed. Stir in the water and olive oil until a chunky, thick dough forms. If it needs a little more water, add just a few more tablespoons. Gently stir in the cheese. It’s gonna look scrappy and weird and you’re going to question me, but just you wait.
- REST: That’s it. You don’t have to touch a thing. Just cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap, or a towel, and let it rest for 12-18 hours at room temperature. Overnight is ideal.
- BAKE: When it’s baking time, preheat the oven to 450. Stick a 6 quart Dutch Oven (or similar) in the oven for about 30 minutes to preheat. At this point, the dough should be big and puffy and pretty loose, with little bubbles in it. Gently scrape the dough out onto a well-floured surface. (Remember: NO KNEAD.) Gently shape it into a ball with flour on the outside, set on a piece of parchment, and wait for your pan to heat up.
- BAKE: Lift the dough and parchment together into the pan. Bake, covered with a tight fitting lid, for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake another 10-15 minutes to get the exterior nice and golden brown and crispy. Now start breaking chunks off, admiring the cheesiness, spreading with butter and salt, and dunking in all your best soups. THIS IS LIVING!
Equipment
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Notes
I like to use cheddar cheese, white cheddar cheese, pepperjack cheese, and Gruyere cheese. All make for a differently-flavored and slightly differently textured bread! All are delicious!
This works well with vegan cheese, too!
If you want to get a melty cheese bread situation, check out our spicy cheese bread that gets rolled up.
- Prep Time: 12 hours
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cheese bread, no knead cheese bread, no knead bread, homemade bread
November 26, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
The videos are fabulous! I’ll be trying this recipe over the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy, Allison! Happy Thanksgiving!
I don’t have a dutch oven so how do in bake this no knead bread. Can’t wait to try it. Please let me know soon. Thanks heaps
If you do not have a Dutch Oven, you can use an oven-safe pot or pan with a tight-fitting lid that can be heated to 450 degrees. We hope you love it, Sheila!
Maybe your crockpot, I’m going to try my casserole dish.
I wonder if I messed this up; my loaf was drenched in oil and the bottom crust was sitting in an oil/flour sludge so the end product was really unappealing. I only used a quarter cup! What could I have done wrong?
Hi Evelyne! So hard to say. Perhaps you had some pockets of flour in the dough that weren’t fully incorporated prior to letting it rest.
Your writing “voice” is just the best. Just so authentic, interspersed with humour, bluntness, and a little sassiness. It’s like we’re having a little conversation in my mind and is so pleasant to read. Please don’t ever change!!!
Oh yah and the recipe looks great too! Lol
Whatever that you dip the bread in it looks so good and I can’t find the recipe I appreciate it thank you.
Hi! What’s the best way to store this so I can make ahead of time? How long will the bread be good for once baked ahead of time?
If you’re making a day ahead, you could keep it out on the counter in a plastic bag or sealable container. Then, pop it in the oven for a few minutes to crisp it up. The bread should last for a few days. I’d just store it in the refrigerator if you’re baking more than a day ahead of time. Enjoy!
Hi just wanted to check how come the bread only needs one rise and not the usual two rises (proof once, deflate dough and proof again right before baking?) Thanks!
Hi, Grace! We’ve found that just the one rise works well here, so there just wasn’t a need for a second rise.
This looks so amazing and easy! However o don’t own a Dutch oven.. 😫
Another piece of heavy duty cookware with a tight lid might work here instead, Katie. 🙂
For the normal no knead bread, I have used aluminium foil tightly sealed around edge of a normal oven proof pot with good results! I’m sure this would be the same.
Superb recipe. What to do if i only have active dry yeast?
Hi Sheenam! We haven’t tried this using active dry yeast yet, but we think it could work. We’d suggest just using a smidge extra yeast if you end up using the dry yeast – something a little less that 3/4 teaspoon should do the trick. Let us know how this goes for you! 🙂
I used the recommendation of just a little less than 3/4 tsp. It worked perfectly! Delicious and thank you.
Thanks for the tip, Kiki!
Do you have to activate the dry yeast if you don’t have instant yeast? I didn’t realize and put in the same (1 tsp) amount of dry yeast and it isn’t raising. 😬
Yep! Here’s more info on that.
Why do we add olive oil for the cheese version? Will it work ok without it? We just made the regular type today, and it was super! BTW, I used active dry yeast and it worked great.
It should be okay without the oil if you don’t have any. It just helps add a bit more flavor.
When I got my dough out of the bowl it was extremely wet and sticky. Is it supposed to be that way? I’ve got it cooking in the oven now
THIS. LOOKS. AMAZING. Did y’all test it with white wheat flour by any chance? That’s what I keep stocked in my pantry.
We haven’t tested this yet using white wheat flour, but we think it should work just fine. Enjoy!
Hi, Is it possible to do this bread with whole wheat or other grains flour without having a massive and hard dough?
Hi Jacinthe! We haven’t tested this cheese bread using another flour besides all purpose flour, but we did some testing with different flours in this no knead bread. We imagine it’d be about the same results here. You can see the results in the notes section of the recipe card.
I want to try making this but am hesitant about leaving the cheese (in the dough) at room temp for that long. Does it not need to be refrigerated?
Right, you’ll want it to rest at room temp. 🙂
Usually cheese is safe at room temp for quite a long time.
These Videos look amazing Lindsay! What a great idea. I´m craving this delicious bread right now 😍
The videos are awesome – they make me actually believe that it is so easy that even someone like I – who has never baked bread before – can do it. 🙂
I do not have a Dutch oven, though; do you, by any chance, have any advice on what else might work here? Thank you!
Hey dogrescuer (you rock just based on your name), if you can afford it, get a dutch oven. Life altering! I don’t think anything else will work as well, tbh. Just my humble opinion.
This looks delicious! I’m going to have to try it.
Any chance you tested this with a gluten free all purpose flour? If not, do you think it would work relatively the same?
This looks delicious! I can’t tell you the last time I had cheese bread like this. I’m currently trying it using a gluten free flour blend and an Italian cheese mix. I’ll let you know how it works out.
For those of us who are dairy-free, could you mix in chopped herbs or olives or something? Thanks for the recipe! It does look easy and delicious!
Dear Lindsay, I do have a question about substituting all purpose flour to gluten free flour. Do you think it will work, or shall I try and let you know? Thank you for your time and awesome recipes.
Oh, my, but this is SO good. If one has little time today but even less time tomorrow, this is the perfect solution. Warm, crusty without being hard, and oh so fabulous with sharp cheddar. Thank you!! As an aside, I use a pizza screen in my Dutch oven when I bake bread, as I prefer having a slightly softer bottom crust. Otherwise, I made it exactly as written. My Facebook feed now features your bread, along with photos of the side of the bread after being sliced to show off its nice, even crumb.
Great! This looks amazing!
I love the video…… and the bread looks amazing!
When I watch a cooking process it seems easy but when I start to cook myself – you’d better call firefighters.
Hi! I made this for Thanksgiving and it was AMAZING! I don’t like baking and have never made bread before but it was so easy!! How long do you think this bread will last at room temperature? I would like to make another one and take it to work a couple of days after I bake it. Thank you so much!!
Hi, Beverly! So happy to hear you enjoyed the cheese bread. To keep it the freshest, we’d suggest keeping it for about 2-3 days at room temperature in a tightly sealed bag.
Thank you for this recipe! The bread came out really soft and tasted great… I used a bundt pan actually because I don’t have a Dutch oven or an equivalent and it came out well. Definitely going to keep this recipe as it was so easy!
Thanks for the tip on the bundt pan, Ankita!
My husband can not get enough of this bread! The recipe is so easy to follow!
💃
You always have the best bread recipes! This looks amazing!
Enjoy!
I don’t have a Dutch oven, unfortunately. I do have Pyrex dishes, but no lids. Any ideas?
Hi there, Jessica! A Pyrex dish probably won’t work here. We’d instead suggest another oven safe dish with a tight fitting lid.
This bread is delicious! I made it for Thanksgiving and it was a bit. Decided to make it again but this time used white whole wheat flour for about 1\3 of the flour. Today when I was getting ready to bake it, I noticed that the top of the dough had little brown spots on it. Darker than the flour so not sure what that is? Could it be mold from sitting out for 18 hours or possibly just from the wheat flour?
Hi, Christie! It’s hard to say without seeing the dough, but we’re guessing it’s not mold. It was likely just the flour. 😉
Baking it tomorrow to serve with Hummus Soup to good friends! Can’t wait and I’ll try to remember to post the results!
Yep! Making this too! It will go great with the Creamy Tortellini Soup. 😉
We totally agree!