Penny’s ‘No Knead’ Bread

This easy bread recipe is a firm family favourite, with Penelope having made quite literally thousands of these loaves over the last few decades in her country kitchen, and is one we share with all our customers in our stoves’ Operating Manuals. It makes the greatest toast bread – if you are also from New Zealand, it is very similar to the iconic “Vogel’s” brand bread. It’s a moist, dense loaf that is best toasted over the following days and freezes well – brilliant for a big family.

It doesn’t require any specialist equipment (like a breadmaker or mixer), so give it a go!

Recipe:
(Makes 3 loaves, does not require kneading)
4 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons yeast
8 cups wholemeal flour
4 cups white flour
4 – 5 teaspoons salt [Tilda only added four in the above video, and it was fine!]
6 – 7 cups lukewarm water
Optional: sunflower or pumpkin seeds

Add the sugar and yeast to 6 cups of lukewarm water. Oil tins really well (otherwise can be difficult to remove!), giving yeast time to activate. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl, and add the yeast mix. Mix well – you need a sturdy spoon! – adding extra water from the 7th cup as needed to make a sticky dough. Pat down into tins. Leave to rise almost to top. Bake for 60 – 75 minutes or so in a moderate oven, until well-cooked: the crust should have a golden-brown appearance.

Some tips:
We typically put a baking tray on top of the tins (as seen in the video) when putting in the oven, to end up with nice square loaves that are easy to slice and toast well.
Leave in the tins for a few minutes after removing from the oven to sweat, then run a knife around the edges and tip out to cool on a rack.
Allow to cool for about an hour before attempting to slice.
If you decide to add some stovetop boiled whole wheat, like we did in the video, just make sure you drain it really well to not upset the moisture balance too much!
You could try dividing the recipe by 3 to make a single loaf (1 heaped tsp of the sugar, yeast and salt; 3 cups of lukewarm water; 3 cups total flour).

Enjoy! 🧡 – Penelope, AKA “Granny”, AKA “Penny”