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My family loves Sunday bread. Whether it’s my Perfect Sunday Dinner Rolls or a good crusty bread, when we do special Sunday dinners, those meals aren’t complete until the bread bowl makes its way to the table. This Simple Sunday Artisan Bread recipe is my favorite “Easy Like Sunday Morning” bread. It hits all the marks: a deliciously crusty exterior, a wonderfully soft and hole-y interior, and it also boasts a slight sourdough flavor. And it does all of that with very little input from the baker.

This is a photo of Simple Sunday Artisan Bread.

This one is incredibly easy. To make it even easier, I’m giving you the whole process in pictures!

About this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread

My Simple Sunday Artisan Bread is a traditionally crusty, no-knead Dutch oven bread. Dutch ovens hold heat beautifully, creating a deeply caramelized and beautifully thick exterior crust. This bread is decidedly un-fussy; you mix a whopping five ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk, then let it rise for 3-4 hours. That’s right. You leave it all the way alone for 3-4 hours. So, you can start it on Sunday before breakfast and have warm crusty bread (that is ready for pats of butter or beef stew) in time for dinner.

It’s still confusing to me that something this easy can be this incredible.

How to Make this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread Recipe

This lean bread recipe uses five ingredients: flour, water, salt, instant yeast, and sugar. It all goes in one bowl, and stays there for a while.

Before you start, though, test your yeast by combining one teaspoon of yeast, 1/8 tsp of sugar, and 63 (1/4 c) grams of warm (110°F-115°F) water to a small bowl. Stir together and wait for 8-10 minutes. If the yeast blooms on top of the water, then you’re working with good yeast. You won’t use this yeast in your recipe, but this step will give you the confidence of knowing that you’re working with live yeast.

Want to see what properly proofed yeast should look like? Check out this post, Yeast Basics for Beginning Bakers!

To make the bread, check out these easy steps:

Add bread flour, kosher salt, sugar, and instant yeast in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine thoroughly. *Note: You can absolutely use all-purpose flour for this recipe, but you won’t get as much chew or as much variation in the size of the holes in the final bread. It will be delicious though!

This is a photo of prep for Simple Sunday Artisan Bread.

Next, pour water over the mixture. This dough has 70% hydration, so don’t be intimidated when you see a lot of water in the bowl.

Stir with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until the mixture looks shaggy and the flour is mostly moistened. I love my Danish dough whisk but my big wooden spoon is going to do the job every time.

This is a photo of Simple Sunday Artisan Bread dough.

Cover with plastic wrap and go away for 3-4 hours. Seriously. Scram. 😆 The longer you allow the bread to rise, the more sourdough quality it will have.

After the first rise, spray cooking spray on your hands and then gently squeeze the dough to de-gas it slightly and remove any large lumps. Then, perform eight folds, pulling the sides of the dough into the middle of the dough.

This is a photo of Simple Sunday Artisan Bread dough preparation.

Turn the dough over and spray some non-stick cooking spray on the bottom and sides of your bowl. Place the dough into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for another hour.

Shape the loaf into a circle by stretching the top and folding it underneath. This is necessary in order to create good surface tension on the top of the bread. Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another 45 minutes. While the bread is doing its final rise, heat the oven to a true 450°F. Place the Dutch oven in the oven while it’s preheating so that it will be hot when you place the loaf into the Dutch oven. During the last ten minutes of the preheating time, place a cup of water in a loaf pan and place the loaf pan on the rack underneath the Dutch oven will bake.

Gently move the loaf, still on the parchment paper, to the heated Dutch oven. Be careful not to burn yourself! Dust the top of the loaf with flour and then score (slice) the top of the loaf several times with a sharp knife or razor blade. Your scoring should cut DEEP. Like at least 3/4″ of an inch deep. The flour on top of the loaf will help the blade avoid sticking to the loaf during scoring, and will allow you to get clean cuts.

This is a photo of a Simple Sunday Artisan Bread loaf before baking.

Cover the Dutch oven with its lid and place in the oven on the middle rack. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes. Remove the lid and allow the loaf to bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the loaf is deeply caramelized (golden brown). At the end of the bake time, you’ll have this:

This is a photo of a Simple Sunday Artisan Bread loaf after baking.

Carefully remove the loaf from the Dutch oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for at least thirty minutes before cutting. When you cut it, you’ll be treated to an incredible sight:

You’ve done it. You’ve made an incredible artisan bread in one day that is beautiful and appropriate for any dinner table. And you’ve spent a grand total of forty minutes of active time to do so.

Beginners Start Here

If you’re new to baking, or if you want to become more consistent with bread in general, here are a couple of super helpful articles from the BwB site that will help you get set up for success with this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread.

Meet Your Kitchen BFF–Your Digital Kitchen Scale!
Baking 101: How to Measure Ingredients
Knowing When to Stop a Technique
Baking Science: Dough Hydration
The Five Flours I Keep Handy in My Kitchen
Yeast Basics for Beginning Bread Bakers
How to Test Bread Dough
Of course, you can always sign up for my Bread Bootcamp and get every one of my bread-making secrets during that two-day extravaganza! You’ll be able to make the best artisan bread of your life (and bread for the rest of your life!) after taking that class!

These resources are super helpful to help you build consistency and confidence on your baking journey. Happy Reading!

Important Tools Used in this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread

Below, you’ll find some tools that I used for this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread. These are the tools that I use all the time in my own kitchen.

If you have them already, great! Think of this as a checklist to help you build the confidence that you’ll need to execute this recipe!

This homemade artisan bread works with every kind of Sunday dinner, whether it’s a simple soup or a coq au vin. Serving multiple courses or having a dinner party? Slice and serve this bread some great olive oil and freshly cracked pepper and create a bread course that will knock everyone’s socks off and prepare them for the special meal that is to come!

Enjoy the recipe, BBs! May this Simple Sunday Artisan Bread be loved by your family, as it has been loved by mine.