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!
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
Keywords: baking, fall, winter
Katie
This comment and rating are way past due. I make this recipe ALL the time. It's quick enough to throw together when the craving for homemade bread strikes me, it's easy, and it's the perfect amount for my husband and me. Best of all, it consistently turns out great! Thank you for what has become a staple in our home!
★★★★★
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you love it - Happy baking!
Oliver
Do we lift the dough into the Dutch oven by lifting it, then placing it down in the Dutch oven still seam side up on the paper? Or by flipping it off of the paper into the Dutch oven so it that bakes seam side down?
Team Life As A Strawberry
This recipe is written to have the bread placed in the Dutch oven with the seam side facing up. In step 3 of shaping, you'll flip the dough over and gently pull it toward you so the seam should be on the bottom for the final rise while the oven preheats. Then the dough can be gently tipped onto the parchment and easily lifted into the Dutch oven. If you happen to put it in the Dutch oven seam side facing down, you can (VERY carefully - the Dutch oven will be hot!) use a sharp knife or pair of scissors to make a slice or two in the top to allow for a place for steam to escape!
Hannah
I used bread flour and it turned out great!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! So happy to hear you loved this bread!
Joi
This is my 1st time making bread. Do you have a recommended brand of yeast that should be used for this recipe? I tried using a Fleischman's active dry yeast packet and prepared by the instructions on the packet but it did not foam and the the temp was in the right range and it was a new packet. Please help, I can not wait to try this again
Team Life As A Strawberry
Hi Joi! We've had success with many brands of yeast including Fleishman's, but there's a chance your yeast was expired or had gone bad. Try a new packet of yeast and triple-check the water temperature for your next loaf!
Charlotte
OMG! Made this tonight to have with homemade vegetable beef soup. It is AMAZING a wonderful crusty bread that was so easy to make and looks just like yours. I will be making this often. Very often 😊🙌😋😋
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy to hear your bread was a hit!
Rose
Since all ovens vary what should the internal temp be after its done baking
Team Life As A Strawberry
You're absolutely right that all ovens are different! We recommend using a small, inexpensive oven thermometer to check the true temperature of your oven (I've had ovens that are off by as much as 40 degrees in one direction!) We don't typically take the internal temperature of bread, but once a loaf reaches an internal temperature of 190° F it will be perfectly cooked.
Amanda
This is a great recipe! If I triple the ingredients to make a larger loaf would I also triple the baking time?
Team Life As A Strawberry
We have a larger version of this loaf here: Easy Crusty French Bread! We haven't tested a loaf larger than our Easy Crusty French Bread, we expect the baking time for triple of this small batch recipe would be between double and triple the baking time, and you would need a very large Dutch oven!
Chris
First, THIS ITTY BITTY LOAF IS SO FREAKING ADORABLE AND COOL! I'm not going to lie. I just jumped and cheered when I removed the over top. It's so good and it smells delicious! Thank you for this recipe! You made a grown man cry of joy! I thought I was gonna end up with a burnt deflated volleyball. But not at all. 120 percent recommend for everyone, esp people that are low on food and have very little ingredients!
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy you loved baking this mini loaf!
Wendy
This is the BEST and my first loaf of bread recipe -- it turned out fantastic!!! I followed instructions and measured dry ingredients on the scale. Very tasty -- crusty on the outside, and soft on the inside. I even had a whole bunch of air holes so I know I did it right. I had my fingers crossed the whole time cuz my yeast mixture didn't foam up a lot and I thought my dough wasn't sturdy enough - but everything worked out and I am thrilled!!! Perfect size for one or two people 🙂 I couldn't be happier . . . THANK YOU!!!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're thrilled to hear you loved your first loaf!
Pat
Can I omit the honey? Patricia
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
Yes! Our first recommendation is to swap the honey for sugar in this small batch loaf. If you are confident your yeast is active, you can also remove the honey or sugar altogether. Happy baking!
Melissa
Maybe try white sugar instead of honey
Marie
I made this bread two times now, and each time the loaf was delicious, and it looked beautiful. The crust had a great brown color, BUT it was soft not "crusty." I actually liked it on the softer side, but I can't figure out why it didn't develop a harder crusty top. I followed the recipe exactly, and I used KA bread flour. I baked it in a Dutch oven, removing the lid for about ten minutes at the end. I have made other similar breads, and they all had a very crunchy top to them. Any ideas as to why mine was soft?
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
There are a few things that could affect the crustiness of your loaf! The top thing we recommend checking is the actual temperature of your oven with an oven thermometer (we've had ovens that are off by as much as 40 degrees in one direction!) If your oven temperature is too low your loaf may not be baking enough in the recommended time. For your next loaf, try adding an extra 5-10 minutes with the lid off until the top is quite dark, this should get the crusty texture you're looking for!
Leigh-Anne
Help, I don’t have a Dutch oven, what can I use i stead?
Team Life As A Strawberry
You're in luck! Check out this post for details about all our favorite alternatives to a Dutch oven!
karen marie
I made this bread yesterday and it came out really well! It was gorgeous and tasty! I ate half of it for dinner last night. The second half I split, buttered both sides, put in a layer of Iberico cheese, wrapped in tinfoil and heated in the airfryer. It was so good! Takes me back to my days in Fall River, MA - all Portuguese, all the time. A local Portuguese bakery made beautiful rolls into sandwiches with St. George cheese and butter. I would take them home, wrap them in tinfoil and heat them in the oven to have with soup. The Iberico (from Trader Joe's) has a similar flavor to the St. George. Nom!
I'm making it again tonight but I'm sticking it in the fridge for the first rise overnight. I also kneaded it more - even though it says "no knead" - because, on the first go, when I approached the dough after the first rise, it seemed a bit lumpy. Could have been the way I added the salt after I had mostly incorporated the flour. This time I stirred the salt into the flour before adding it to the yeast/water/honey.
I'll report back on my findings!
Thank you for a lovely small loaf suitable for one or two people!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're so happy you loved making this mini loaf! Kneading will help ensure every last bit of flour is thoroughly mixed in and help your dough build a bit more strength, meaning a taller loaf!
Leigh
Absolute amazing! My first time making bread and it definitely won’t be my last!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so glad you loved your first bread-baking experience!
Ashley
Big question- how can I tweak the recipe to get more bubbles in the finished product? Tasted great, but mine was a little dense. It may have been something on my end but I tried to be very precise. Would appreciate the help!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
The most common culprit to a too-dense loaf is too much flour! Measuring by weight (with a kitchen scale) is MUCH more accurate than measuring by volume (with cups) and will give you more consistent bread. If you don't have a scale, measure your flour with the scoop-and-level method to be as accurate as possible and start with the lower amount of 1 cup of flour. This is a relatively slack (wet) dough, so it will be a bit shaggy and sticky at first but it will smooth out and become more elastic as it rises and again as you shape it!
If your flour measurement is on point and you'd like even bigger air pockets or a taller loaf of bread, give the gluten in the dough more time to develop by mixing the dough, covering with plastic wrap or a reusable bowl cover, and letting it rise in the fridge overnight. The next day, bring dough to room temperature on the counter, shape and bake as directed! PS - We have a ton of different baking timelines and tips like this in our course!
maria
im good at ruining everything I bake! i followed this recipe and it turned out excellent!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy to hear your bread was a success!
Suzy
I made this bread this morning to have with soup for lunch. Easy and delicious. I proofed the dough in the pressure cooker on the yogurt setting. For the second proof, I placed the dough on parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal and put it in a pressure cooker sized springform pan. Proofed again on the yogurt setting for 30 minutes. Then I scored the top and placed the springform pan inside the preheated Dutch oven. Beautiful crust and soft bubbly inside. My yeast was about 6 weeks expired, so I used 1/3 water and 1/3 room-temp beer for the liquid. Very forgiving!
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you enjoyed this bread recipe!
Mel
I made this recipe recently for my parents since it's just the two of them (empty nesters). I followed the recipe and it came out looking just like the picture, I was so impressed! Not only did the little loaf look amazing but it actually tasted good too! I looked like an old pro and I don't have a lot of bread-making experience! My parents devoured the loaf in a day or so. Notes: I used bread flour because we had it on hand. When making any dough from scratch I always weigh my flour in grams. I made sure my yeast wasn't expired -- this is key, when the yeast proofs if you don't have foam and bubbles after ~5 minutes your yeast is bad or your water is too hot, you murdered it, start over. And lastly, I didn't have a proofing basket but a small glass mixing bowl worked perfectly, just as the instructions said. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you loved making this bread!
Lynn McWaters
Thank you for your clear, easy to understand instructions. The video was very helpful and took the quess work out of shaping the dough. I have made bread and rolls for years, but this was something new and a little intimidating. You made it easy. My husband declared it perfect.
.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy to hear you loved making this crusty bread!
Jacqueline Waters
I am a hobby baker and this was the worst. Enough said
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're sorry to hear this recipe didn't work for you!