Persian Mama

Persian Food, Desserts, Baking and Pastry Recipes with step-by-step instructions and illustrations

QUICK CRUSTY BREAD

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Quick Crusty Bread in the Dutch oven
This Quick Crusty Bread is everything that you would want in a homemade bread! The golden brown crust is delicious and crispy, and the crumbs are light and airy. Best of all, there is no kneading, and no need for a mixer! Four simple ingredients are briefly combined and left alone over the counter top to mingle for several hours, or overnight, to create a beautiful dough that does not need too much handling! I have previously posted another bread recipe for a very popular Persian flat bread, called Barbari, which is also made with very similar ingredients. Both these breads, though made with very different techniques, and with origins thousands of miles apart, have a very sticky dough and bake with a crispy crust and light porous crumbs.
Quick Crusty Bread sliced with tender crumbs
Bread is an essential part of most non-khoresh (Persian stews over rice) dishes at my house. If you love bread as much as I do, this Quick Crusty Bread recipe is going to become a complementary side for many dishes such as soups, or stews! Whenever you crave some crusty bread to dip in your favorite olive oil on a family lasagna night, or when you want to pile spoonfuls of borani esfenaj on chunks of freshly baked bread for an evening get together, this simple bread with soft texture will come in very handy.
Quick Crusty Bread is dusted off with a pastry brush
The dough is put together in matter of minutes, then it rests at room temperature for 12-18 hours to rise. I usually make the dough the night before, and it’s ready to be baked the next afternoon in time for dinner; if you want it for breakfast, simply make the dough in the early afternoon. The proofed dough is baked for 30 minutes with high heat in a preheated, covered small Dutch oven. The steam builds up within the thick walls of the pot, and the crust rises and creates a beautiful high dome on this round bread. At this point the crust is crispy but pale, so to achieve the beautiful golden brown color and the light textured crumbs, the bread is baked for an additional 12-18 minutes, without the lid.
Crispy golden brown crust of Quick Crusty bread
I have not met anyone who doesn’t love fresh homemade bread. The heavenly aroma of bread baking in the oven is incredibly inviting and nostalgic. It brings back warm memories of childhood, of easier and more carefree times. There is nothing more comforting or satisfying than to take a beautifully baked bread out of the oven, wait impatiently for it to cool enough not to burn my hand, and then tearing a chunk off to try! A true taste test with this kind of crusty bread is to spread a bit of  fresh butter while it’s still warm, watch the butter melt, as you bite into it. The beauty of this Quick Crusty Bread is that, you can be sure that it’s going to be perfect every time without any surprises. I have made this bread several times in the past few weeks and have made some minor changes to the original recipe, and have loved it a little more every time.
The following pictures illustrate some highlights; please follow the printable recipe for the details:

 The correct measuring technique: {Use a spoon to fill the measuring cup with flour and then level it off with a knife. Avoid dipping the cup in the flour, as this method adds around 1 extra ounce per cup to your measurements, and this will result in a very dense bread; the picture on the left shows the scoop with the excess flour that is measured with the dipping method}. Use a whisk to combine flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the water and mix with a heavy spoon, to combine well.

Do not over mix; you only want a sticky dough with no visible dry flour. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let it rest at room temperature on the kitchen counter for 12-18 hours. The dough should be well risen with visible air pockets on the surface. Place the covered Dutch oven on the center rack of the oven and preheat to 450 F.

 Use mittens to remove the heated pot from the oven, remove the lid, and sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour in the bottom of the of the pot. Flour the palm of your hands and sprinkle little flour on top of the risen dough, to keep it from sticking to your fingers. Use your fingertips to gather the risen dough into a ball and gently drop it in the pot. Cover the pot with the lid and return it back to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, and as you observe in the picture, the crust has expanded beautifully with a pale golden color, but not quite ready. Continue baking the bread for an additional 12-18 minutes, without the lid until the color is a a nice golden brown like the picture below.

Quick Crusty Bread draped with a light towel
Remove the Quick Crusty Bread from the pot. The crust is a delicious golden brown and the bread is light to touch and hollow sounding. Use a pastry brush to dust off the excess flour from the bottom of the loaf. To achieve the best crumb texture, allow the bread to cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes, or maybe even longer, if you’re able to resist the temptation!! I have to admit, we love the taste of hot bread and sometimes it’s not possible to wait for it to cool completely. You could loosely drape a thin towel over the bread during this cooling period. If you have any bread left at this point, store it in a plastic bag. The crust looses its crispiness once it’s stored in the bag, but you can easily toast it briefly to make it crispy again.  So make this bread, fill your kitchen with its heavenly aroma & Enjoy!! I would love for you to make a comment and let me know what you think! Happy Baking my friends.
This recipe has been adapted from here

5.0 from 5 reviews
QUICK CRUSTY BREAD
 
Print
Yields: One 8-inch round loaf
Preheated 450 F oven
Prep time: 5 min
Rest time for dough: 12-18 hrs
Bake time: 42-48 min
You will need a 3/12-4 Quart size Dutch oven, or a similar heavy pot with a secure lid
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Ingredients
  • 3 cups bread flour, plus 2 TBSP to dust the bottom of the pot, and your hands (I use Gold Medal brand)
  • 1 ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 ½ tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 ½ cups water, room temperature
Instructions
  1. Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and combine well with a whisk.
  2. Make a well in the middle of the flour mix and add the water. Use a heavy spoon to stir and mix the ingredients only for a few minutes. Stop stirring when you have a very sticky dough, without any trace of dry flour. Do not over mix.
  3. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and leave it on the kitchen counter for 12-18 hours at room temperature. At the end of this time the dough will be well risen and very sticky.
  4. Cover the small Dutch oven with the lid and place it on the center rack of the oven and preheat to 450 F.
  5. Using mittens transfer the heated Dutch oven to a heatproof surface and remove the lid.
  6. Flour the palms of your hands and sprinkle a little flour on top of the risen dough. Use your floured fingertips to pull the dough away from the sides and bottom of the bowl, and roughly form it into a ball, then gently drop it in the preheated pot.
  7. Cover the pot and return it back to the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.
  8. Remove the lid and continue baking the bread for another 12-18 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
  9. Remove the bread from the pot and use a pastry brush to dust off the excess flour from the bottom of the bread. At this point the bread sounds hollow and is very light.
  10. Allow the bread to cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes or longer for the best texture.

Comments

  2. Thank you, please more of it, I want to learn a lot about iranian way of life, people and culture.Bye for now, best regards Michael

  3. Hi Homa,

    This bread recipe is a dream come true! I accidentally picked up the rapid rise yeast instead of the slow stuff, but I proceeded anyways. It took about six hours to get to the air bubble stage, and it baked up beautifully. My mother, grandmother, and I have practically devoured the loaf. Thanks for another awesome, tasty recipe:-)

    • Hello L.Hashemzadeh; I’m very happy to hear that all of you have been enjoying this bread; it’s always the same story around our house 😉 Thank you very much for writing and sharing your experience here. Please keep in touch and have a great week!

  4. I want to make this in the UK but I can’t get a US legal cup for measuring the flour. Is there a way of converting this to international measures?

    • Hi Saadi; here are the conversions for 1 cup, dry and liquid, and 1 dry teaspoon

      1 cup of bread flour = 140 grams
      1 cup of water = 250 ml
      1 tsp = 3 grams

  5. خانم خانمها، با سلام،

    ایکاش منهم به چنین غذاهای خوشمزه‌ای در این دیار غربت دسترسی داشتم. من که هر غذا ی ایرانی‌ را که درست می‌کنم خوب از آب در نمیاید. نمیدانم این نان خوشگل را می‌تونم خوب درست کنم یا نه؟ من فقط گهگاه میایم اینجا برای تماشا و مزمزه. خوب و خوش باشید!

    • درود و سپاس خسرو عزیز! این نون خیلی راحته درست کردنش.. امیدوارم بپزین و لذت ببرین. هر
      سوالی در مورد هر صورت تهیه داشته باشین با کمال میل راهنمایی میکنم. ممنون

  6. I no longer have an actual Dutch oven, but I have seen recipes for bread baked in a Pampered Chef deep covered baker (stoneware unglazed on the inside. Would that work for this?

    • Hi Beth I’m familiar with the line of Pampered Chef stoneware and they are porous with the possibility of loss of too much moisture, which could lead to a dry bread with hard texture. I would place a bowl of water in the oven (on a different rack) for some added moisture and see how this works out for you. Happy New Year 🙂

  7. Can I use white whole wheat flour instead of bread flour? Also, I have an air fryer, would that work? my afghani neighbors got me interested in looking up bolani which led me here. Thanks!

    • Hi Dianne; Welcome to my blog; I love bolani which is very different from our borani as I found out a while back 😉
      I have not tried this bread with whole wheat flour and have not used an air fryer to bake it, so I really can’t tell you how the result will be; please let me know if you try either or both variations. Have a great week and please keep in touch 🙂

  8. Hello Homa,
    I would like to thank you for giving such pleasure and fantastic information on your web page, so pleased to have found you! I have always had what some would say an obsession with the Middle East and it’s rich culture and food, so finding your wonderful and traditional recipes is great.
    I’m from Uk, but Iv been living in Papua New Guinea for the past 2 years for my husbands work( who was born in Oman), so ingredients here for pretty much anything are hard to find. But on a recent visit to Dubai I was pleased to hit the supermarkets for me to bring back lots of spices to play with.
    Sorry I am rambling, what I wanted to say was I made your bread today, sadly only white plain flour to hand, but it was absolutely delicious… it probably didn’t rise as well without bread flour but was a lovely texture and flavour. Here we can’t buy bread and has to be home made so this was a great find and very little work.. so thank you.
    Am looking forward to working my way through your recipes and now I have ways of using up my egg plant from the garden.
    Thank you again so much, wishing you and your family well ?

    • Hello and welcome dear Marie, it is a pleasure to have you here. I’m truly happy that my recipe has been so helpful to you. I’m sorry to hear that you can’t buy bread where you are. I must say it is one of my favorite foods on earth 😉
      I have another bread recipe that I know you’ll absolutely love. This one is a popular Iranian bread and so many have made and loved this recipe: https://persianmama.com/noon-barbari/ I hope you bake it and get back to me with a feedback. This one is also with bread flour, but no worries, I have also made it with regular flour and it is so good! Yes, you have many ways to use your fresh eggplants, lol! Enjoy!! Please keep in touch and have a great day!

  9. Hi.What can I use instead of a Dutch oven or very heavy pot . I don’t have one.
    Or is it a must , to be able to get this result.
    Thank you

    • Hi Rose, this bread needs to bake under some kind of cover. I would try a covered deep casserole dish or just cover an oven-safe pot tightly with aluminum foil.

  11. Hi Jenya, I have never baked this bread with gluten-free flour. But I have seen many gluten-free no knead bread recipes online that are almost identical to this one. Have a great weekend and happy baking!

  12. Hi,
    I just made your bread and it was really good. I had a really hard time removing the bread from the pot. If I use cooking spray next time it should do the trick?

    • Hi Chan, I have never had that issue but there are couple of things that you could try. Next time, either sprinkle some cornmeal in the heated Dutch oven before dropping the dough in. Or, layer the pot with a large sheet of parchment paper. Both these methods will help the bread release easier. Let me know how it goes next time! Good luck and happy baking 🙂

  13. Lovely recipe, thank you! Could you share with recipe another kind of bread? I was in Iran, I was impressed with variety of bred and cuisine at all! I’d to come back to Iran, travel, learn and discovery it. Thank you for giving us nice recipes and amazing fotos!

    • Oh, thank you! I try and then tell you. I know, each area of Iran have ‘own’ famous bread. I remember bread with dill, very original and tasty.

  15. Love your recipes Homa, I am making your Koresh Geymeh and Aromatic rice tomorrow for the third time for some treasured guests 🙂

    In making this bread what do you consider to be “room temperature”? If I leave the dough in the kitchen overnight the temperature will only be about 10C – will that be enough for it to rise?

    • Hi David, glad you like my recipes. Even though 10C is much colder than most rooms, it is still warmer than a refrigerator and it should be fine. The idea is that the dough should not proofed in warm temp, or chilled