This small batch crusty bread recipe has a thin, crispy crust and a soft interior. Ready in just 3 hours (with no kneading required). The perfect size for two or three people!
We've taught thousands of people to bake their first loaf of bread with our best Easy Crusty French Bread recipe. And while we love digging into that giant loaf, we know that sometimes you just don't need that much bread!
Enter: This small batch crusty bread recipe.
(Also: How FREAKING CUTE is this lil' mini baby loaf?! I'm in love).
This is a scaled-down version of our classic no knead artisan bread, and it's perfect for just a few people! It makes a small loaf that fits easily in the palm of your hand - typically about 6 inches in diameter.
I make this small batch loaf with soup or stew for two people; if we're making sandwiches or crostini, it will serve 4. I usually get about 10 half-inch slices of bread with this recipe.
PS - If you've made our original recipe before, you'll notice a few small differences here: we tweaked some things to keep this loaf of bread extra simple, and we adjusted the cook time to account for a smaller size.
How to make this small batch no knead bread
Mix the dough (10 minutes)
Mix active dry yeast and a bit of honey with warm water, then let that mixture sit for a few minutes until the yeast activates and foams. Next, mix in the flour and salt. Stir everything together until no dry flour remains and you have a nice, shaggy dough.
Let it rise (1 hour)
Cover the dough with a clean towel and let it rise for about an hour until it's doubled in size.
Shape your loaf & final rise (30 minutes)
Shape the dough into a boule (see the video below for how to do this!) and let it rise another 30 minutes or so in a small mixing bowl or proofing basket while you heat the oven.
Bake! (30 minutes)
Bake your loaf in a hot Dutch oven (or use one of our other methods!) for 22 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake another 5-10 minutes to give the crust some more color.
A few tips for successful loaves
- Use a kitchen scale if you have one! Measuring by weight (with a scale) is much more accurate than measuring by volume (with cups). If you have a kitchen scale, please use it! (No kitchen scale? Measure your flour with the scoop and level method for best results!)
- Great bread takes patience and persistence. When you're first learning how to make crusty French bread at home, it might not look exactly like these pictures. THAT'S OKAY! The more you practice, the better your bread will get. Stick with it!
- Use high-quality flour. Trust us: The type of flour you use matters. A LOT. We recommend baking with King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill flour for best results - these flours are the most consistent, and they both have a high protein content (which gives you a stronger, more elastic, less sticky dough!)
- Read through our baking tips in this post or join our Everyday Artisan Bread course for extra help and support!
Small Batch Bread FAQs
Yes! We love using a Dutch oven to create a crispy, crackly crust on our bread, but it's definitely not the only way to bake great bread at home. Check out our post about how to bake bread without a Dutch oven.
Yes! We call for All Purpose Flour in this recipe because most people tend to have it on hand, but you can swap bread flour for some or all of the AP flour here. Bread flour will make your dough a little bit smoother and more elastic, and may give you a slightly taller loaf.
You can replace up to 50% of the All Purpose flour in this recipe with whole wheat flour if you like. We don't recommend using more than 50% whole wheat flour here as it can change the texture of the loaf and result in a denser crumb.
Use water that is "warm to the touch" - you should be able to comfortably hold your hand in it! We typically aim for water between 95° and 110° F.
We recommend mixing this dough by hand in a mixing bowl! Because it's such a small amount of dough, we've found that a stand mixer doesn't work quite as well here. You spend so much time scraping down the sides of the mixer bowl and repositioning the dough that you might as well just mix by hand!
See even more detailed FAQs about bread baking in our Easy Crusty French Bread post, or enroll in our Everyday Artisan Bread course for step-by-step training lessons that take you through every technique, buzzword, and more!
VIDEO: HOW TO SHAPE A LOAF OF BREAD
This video is an excerpt from our Everyday Artisan Bread online course. It demonstrates how to shape a loaf of bread into a round boule. The dough in this video makes a large loaf, but the technique is the same for this small batch recipe!
📖 Recipe
Small Batch Crusty Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Inactive Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 small loaf (2-4 servings) 1x
- Category: Bread
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This easy small batch crusty bread is perfect as a quick side dish for two or three people!
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (4 grams)
- 1 teaspoon honey (6 grams)
- ⅔ cups warm water (150 grams)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (4 grams)
- 1 to 1 ⅔ cups All-Purpose Flour (200 grams), plus extra for dusting (see recipe notes)
Instructions
MIX THE DOUGH AND FIRST RISE (1 HOUR)
- Combine yeast, honey, and warm water in a large mixing bowl.
- Let the yeast proof for about 5 minutes, until the mixture looks nice and foamy.
- Add flour to bowl. Mix with a sturdy spatula until the dough starts to come together, then add salt and mix well, until no dry flour remains. Dough should be slightly loose, shaggy, and a bit sticky!
- Cover bowl with a clean towel. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
SHAPE THE DOUGH & FINAL RISE (30 MINUTES)
- When dough has risen, lightly flour a large cutting board.
- Tip dough out onto the board. Don’t punch the dough down - handle it gently to preserve all those air bubbles! If the dough is sticking to the bowl, run your hand under cold water (to prevent sticking) and gently pull the dough onto the cutting board.
- Shape your dough into a round loaf by gently pulling each edge into the center like you’re folding an envelope. Fold the dough in towards the center several times, until the dough stiffens and begins to resist your folds. When that happens, flip the dough over and gently pull it towards you, across the cutting board, so that the loaf tightens a bit.
- Dust a small mixing bowl with flour (I like to line my bowl with a linen napkin to help distribute the flour more evenly) and place your loaf into the bowl seam-side down. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for another 30 minutes while you heat the oven.
HEAT THE OVEN
- While bread proofs, place an empty dutch oven (with the lid on) in your oven and heat to 460° F.
BAKE! (30 MINUTES)
- When the oven is hot, tip your loaf - seam side UP this time - onto a piece of parchment paper.
- Use oven mitts to pull out the hot Dutch oven and remove the lid. Use the parchment paper to carefully lift your loaf into the pot, then use your oven mitts to return the Dutch oven lid and then slide the pot back into your hot oven.
- Cook bread for 22 minutes.
- After 22 minutes, carefully remove the lid from your dutch oven. The bread should be crusty and lightly browned. Continue baking, uncovered, for another 5-10 minutes to deepen the color.
- Transfer bread to a cooling rack and let cool at least 30 minutes (and ideally a few hours) before slicing. Enjoy!
Notes
Equipment. We have tested this recipe in Le Creuset, Staub, Marquette Castings, and Challenger Breadware Dutch ovens. Be sure your Dutch oven is safe at high temperatures, and as always, please check the care instructions on your own equipment before baking.
Ingredients. For best results, use a high-quality flour for this recipe: We recommend King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill flour. This recipe was developed with Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which is colloquially known as the "least salty salt." If you need to use table salt or another fine salt and you are measuring by volume with a teaspoon, reduce the amount of salt by ¼ teaspoon (if you're measuring by weight, don't worry about what brand of salt you're using - just follow the gram measurements!) If you don't have honey, use sugar in its place.
Please use a kitchen scale! Measuring flour with cups is notoriously unreliable, so please use a kitchen scale and follow our gram measurements if you can! If you don't have a scale, measure your flour with the scoop-and-level method to be as accurate as possible. (We have a whole write-up about this flour measuring conundrum in our online course!)
This is a slightly sticky dough - it won't pull into a smooth ball as you mix it, and it will be a bit sticky and shaggy. Don't worry - it will smooth out as it rises! If the dough is sticking too much while you're shaping it, add another dusting of flour.
Do I need a proofing basket? If you've made our Easy Crusty French Bread before, you know that we love using a proofing basket to help the bread hold its shape during its final rise! With this small loaf, a 9-inch proofing basket is often too big, so we prefer using a small mixing bowl (about 6 inches across) to help this loaf hold its shape more effectively.
Love this recipe? Check out our Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread or our Easy Asiago Bread next! And if you're ready to level up your bread game (and get our best recipes without the ads!) check out our Everyday Artisan Bread course.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 191
- Sugar: 1.6 g
- Sodium: 313.2 mg
- Fat: 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 40 g
- Protein: 5.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Carrmin
Do I leave the parchment paper in with the dough to cook or no?…likely a silly question but never made bread
Team Life As A Strawberry
Yes! We like to leave the parchment in the Dutch oven while it cooks to provide a barrier between the dough and the hot enameled cast iron, which helps prevent burning. It also makes it much easier and safer to move the dough in and out of the hot Dutch oven!
Aimee
I love the idea of no-knead bread but they're so often massive loaves, full of holes, and needing a whole day's preplanning - this recipe has none of those issues! This loaf is a great size for my two-person household to use up in a couple of days, the crumb is tight enough to use with messy toppings, and you can think of it in the afternoon and have it ready for dinner. Will definitely be making again!
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're so happy to hear you loved it!
Jennifer
I’ve made this recipe probably 15 times and it never looks nice and round like yours. Mine is always a bit flat.
Team Life As A Strawberry
We'd love to help you troubleshoot! A flatter loaf typically happens when we haven't built enough strength into the dough before baking. Because this is a relatively quick bread recipe we build strength into the dough by folding it over on itself many times during shaping. If your loaf isn't as tall as you'd like, first be sure to thoroughly mix the dough so that no dry bits of flour remain. You may also want to knead the dough a few times by hand (you can do this right in the mixing bowl) or let your mixer run an extra minute or two with the dough hook attachment. Next, while the dough does its first rise, you can perform one set of "stretch and folds" at the half hour mark to increase strength. Finally, when shaping the dough, be sure to fold the dough over on itself several times until the dough feels tight and begins to resist your folding. Keep in mind that because this bread is made on a quick timeline, it won't typically rise as high as a hearty sourdough loaf or other bread that has had hours or even days to proof. We cover a ton of techniques to bake taller, more open bread in our online course.
kat
Good news is a whole loaf is only 700 calories !!!!!! not that I'd eat the whole thing in one day........I'd never do that........
Team Life As A Strawberry
Just another reason we love this small-batch recipe!
Kristi
Love this recipe for a smaller loaf! And I love that it doesn’t take all day to prepare! I used bread flour and it was so soft. I plan to try again with some whole wheat. Thank you for the scaled down recipe!
Team Life As A Strawberry
YAY! We're so happy you found this recipe! We recommend swapping only up to 50% of the all-purpose or bread flour for whole wheat flour. My personal favorite is 30% whole wheat!
Eddie
Am 73 years old and my wife lets me cook 1-2 times a month .... just to humor me, I think. Have never been successful at bread. All of a sudden ... I am the hero of the kitchen. I put it next to a loaf of fresh baguette, it looked better, was done in time it would have taken to the store to get an artisans load and it was gone before the second slice of baguette (which will not likely be bought again). WOW. I have no idea what I'm doing the kitchen BUT THIS !!!! Thank you ... thank your.Eddie
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're SO happy you loved this recipe! We have a larger version of the recipe and an online course all about bread making if you're interested in growing your baking repertoire!
Chef Potpie (Laurel)
What a lovely little loaf this makes! In very little time I have a fresh-made loaf of bread with a nice crust and great texture, just enough for the Hubs and I for a dinner or two. I'm so happy with the way this came out, I will be keeping this recipe and using it often! Oh, and the house smells great! Thanks!
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're SO happy you loved it!
Julie Lewis
Made this small batch for just the two of us. It was so easy and delicious, today I am making the bigger one. Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe.
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy you loved it!
Fritz Peterson
I posted some weeks ago about difficulty using the site due to ads.
Sorry. I was frustrated. But, want to thank you for sharing the recipe. It’s really good and not difficult. The hint about stretch and folds during first rise helped it not to “pancake”.
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Tonia
This was effortlessly delicious. Thank you!
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you enjoyed it!
Heidi Eisele
I followed the instructions. The bread turned flat, what could be gone wrong?
Team Life As A Strawberry
We have tons of recommendations in our Easy Crusty French Bread post about this! Typically, a flat loaf happens when we haven’t built enough strength into the dough before baking. Because this is a relatively quick bread recipe, we build strength into the dough by folding it over on itself many times during shaping.
First, be sure to thoroughly mix the dough so that no dry bits of flour remain. You may also want to knead the dough a few times by hand (you can do this right in the mixing bowl) or let your mixer run an extra minute or two with the dough hook attachment. Next, while the dough does its first rise, you can perform one set of “stretch and folds” at the half-hour mark to increase strength. Finally, when shaping the dough, be sure to fold the dough over on itself several times until the dough feels tight and begins to resist your folding.
Happy baking!
Chris
I’ve struggled with making bread at home - this recipe was easy to follow. I measured all ingredients rather than weighing. It worked out perfectly and the bread was tasty. It was a little dense but am planning to make this again and tackle making homemade bread.
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! Congratulations on your bread-making success!
Summer A
Made this recipe tonight after going over the recipe a zillion times to make sure i did everything right. Lol and it came out wonderfully!! Made a tasty grilled cheese with this bread. Can’t wait to make the bigger loaf.
Team Life As A Strawberry
We love using this bread for grilled cheese!!
Victoria
Made a few mistakes such as adding all the flour called for and had too dry of a mix so had to knead in some water and I forgot to cut the top of the loaf before baking. Thought it would ruin the loaf but it didn’t, it came out just fine despite my errors and never having formed a boule either. Had a Staub cast iron pot which I was anxious to try out. Loaf came out perfect and was very very good. Will continue with this recipe , correcting my mistakes next time. Thank you very much.
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy to hear you loved it!
Mom
Can instant rise yeast be used?
Team Life As A Strawberry
Yes – just reduce the amount of yeast to 3/4 teaspoon (about 25% less than we use with Active Dry Yeast)!
Rhonda Hudson
Can I bake more than one loaf in the oven at a time? For example one in a Dutch oven and 2 on a pizza stone with the cast iron underneath filled with ice cubes to create steam?
Team Life As A Strawberry
Yes, absolutely! Keep an eye on your loaves as you may need to adjust the cooking time for each cooking method!
Penny
I have made this bread 7 times over the past few weeks. It turns out perfect every single time. I make it for my family and take it to friends in a pretty paper bag as a little gift. One of the best recipes ever!
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy to hear this recipe has become a family favorite!