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Enjoy a crusty, fluffy, and incredibly flavorful loaf with this No Knead Skillet Bread, effortlessly filled with marinated olives and garlic. It’s simple to make and irresistibly delicious!
If you’re a bread lover who craves freshly baked goodness without the hassle of kneading, this No-Knead Skillet Bread is the recipe you need! This simple, flavorful homemade bread is crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and studded with savory olives. With just a few basic ingredients and a cast-iron skillet, you can easily create a delicious loaf that will impress everyone, including yourself!
Why We Love This Recipe
- Perfect Texture: Achieve a delicious texture with a soft, fluffy interior without kneading.
- Adaptable: This recipe includes marinated olives and garlic, but you can easily swap and customize it by incorporating other ingredients.
- Effortless: This bread recipe requires minimal effort, making it a perfect choice for bakers of all levels.
Ingredients For Skillet Bread
- For the dough: lukewarm water, yeast, all-purpose flour, and salt.
- For the filling: olives, herbs, and garlic.
How To Make No Knead Skillet Bread
As championed by the authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, in a nutshell, this Skillet Bread is just a batch of straightforward dough.
- Start by combining lukewarm water, yeast, flour, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the olives, herbs, and garlic and let the dough rise for 1 hour.
- Coat a 10-inch skillet (a 12-inch skillet works, too) with olive oil. Shape the dough into a disk, transfer it to the skillet, and let it rest for 30 more minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Drizzle the dough with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and parsley, and bake for 30 minutes or until browned.
- Invert and cool completely on a rack before cutting and serving.
Tips For No Knead Skillet Bread
- Mixing the Dough: When combining the ingredients, the water should be warm but not hot.
- Flour: I have only tested this recipe with all-purpose flour and haven’t tried it with other types of flour.
- Resting and Rising: After mixing the dough, cover it with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm spot to double in size.
- Baking Time and Temperature: Every oven is different, so keep an eye on the bread towards the end of the baking time to ensure it doesn’t overbake.
- Cooling and Serving: Once the bread is baked, transfer it to a wire rack to cool. Allow it to cool completely before slicing into it. This helps the bread retain its structure and moisture. To maintain the ideal texture of your bread, it’s crucial to remove it from the pan promptly after baking. Allowing the bread to remain in the pan can result in wet and soggy bread.
Recipe Variations
- Herbs and Seasonings: Add dried herbs like oregano, rosemary, or basil to the dough for extra flavor.
- Cheese: Mix in grated or crumbled cheese such as cheddar, Parmesan, or feta for a savory twist.
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Incorporate chopped sun-dried tomatoes for a tangy Mediterranean flair.
What To Serve With Freshly Baked Bread
Spread it with butter, dip it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sop up some tomato soup or chicken noodle soup with it, grab an heirloom tomato salad, or do what I do: break off a chunk and inhale it as is.
More Bread Recipes
- Rosemary and Garlic No Knead Skillet Bread
- No Rise Slow Cooker Bread
- Skillet Soda Bread
- Apple and Zucchini Bread
ENJOY!
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No Knead Skillet Olive Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups lukewarm water,, about 105˚F
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 4⅓ cups all-purpose flour,, divided
- 1 cup garlic and basil marinated olives,, drained, herbs and garlic reserved
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil,, divided
- coarse salt
- dried parsley
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine water and yeast. Add 1 cup of flour and salt; stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
- Stir in the olives, herbs, garlic, and garlic powder.
- Add remaining flour, one cup at a time, stirring until thoroughly combined. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour.
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil in a 10-inch to 12-inch cast iron skillet; using a napkin or your fingers, coat the bottom and sides of the skillet with the olive oil.
- Flour your hands; remove the plastic wrap and using your hands, transfer the dough to the prepared skillet and shape it into a disk. Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400˚F.
- Drizzle remaining olive oil over the top of the bread and sprinkle with salt and parsley.
- Score the top of the loaf with a knife and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.
- Remove from the oven, turn the bread onto a wire rack, and let it cool completely before cutting and serving.
Video
Notes
- The olives sit in a liquid with garlic and herbs; reserve as much of the herbs and garlic as possible when draining. Alternatively, add your own garlic and freeze-dried basil to the dough.
- If you can’t find the specified olives, use whatever marinated olives you can find. Then, you can add garlic, dried basil, or other herbs.
- Dough Mixing: Use warm, not hot, water to combine the ingredients. Excessive heat can harm the yeast.
- Flour: This recipe has been tested with all-purpose flour.
- If you do not have a cast iron skillet, use a stoneware baking dish instead.
- It is crucial to remove bread from the skillet when it comes out of the oven because it will get moist and soggy if left in the skillet.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
do you need to activate the yeast first as it says on the yeast package? my sister just added it to the water called for in the recipe and she said it did not rise as it should have
Hi! No, you don’t have to wait for the yeast, but you do have to use lukewarm water. Do you know what else, if anything, she might have done differently?
She did use lukewarm water. Used a thermometer to check it too. Not sure what happened. Thanks for replying
Check to make sure the yeast was not expired.
What altitude are you at? I have to tweak all baking recipes at 7000′.
A few times I’ve been caught out that the ‘new’ packet of yeast I have purchased is close to expiry and isn’t as active as it should be. I now always check expiry dates of the yeast I buy. I always store my yeast in the freezer because it lasts longer. I also bloom my yeast with lukewarm water and half a teaspoon of sugar for five to ten minutes. If it doesn’t bubble and form the foamy yeast cover at the top of the water, it gets thrown and I start again.
Could I replce the Olives with jalapinos
Hi, Will non stick baking pan work for this recipe?
It will work so long as the dish can handle high heat, and because it’s in a baking dish and not a cast iron skillet, you may have to bake it longer or raise the temperature by about 25 degrees to get the same outcome.
Will this be good without the addition of olives, as just a plain bread? We don’t like olives! Also, will a nonstick pan work? Thanks.
Yep! You can definitely leave out the olives. A different pan or dish will work so long as the dish can handle high heat, and because it’s not in a cast iron skillet, you may have to bake it longer or raise the temperature by about 25 degrees to get the same outcome.
I am the only one who eats olives. What would happen if I left them out? Is there something I could substitute? Maybe sun dried tomatoes?
You can definitely leave out the olives and make it without anything, or yeah, use sun dried tomatoes – that sounds delicious!
Most glass containers and Corning Ware cannot withstand the high temps for this bread and may explode in your oven. Please do not use unless you know that it will work for temp for the time required. Just an FYI….
I made this using all whole wheat flour and it turned out great. Couldn’t find olives listed at any of our stores, so I used garlic stuffed olives and added my own basil. I have a question, though. What is the purpose of scoring? I had a beautiful pan of dough that was puffy in the center, and as soon as scored it, it fell where I scored it. I thought it would puff back up in the center after I baked it, but it did not. It remained flat.
Have you tried this with white whole wheat flour?
Hi Melissa!! I tried it with half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour… the texture was way off. I just didn’t care for it, but if you want to give it a go, please, if you have a minute, report back and let me know how it went! I’d love to know.
I would really like to make this, but all I have is a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Would it work to just increase the amount of each ingredient by 50% to account for the larger pan, or would that throw off the recipe?
Hi Alex!! I have made this bread in a 12 inch skillet and it turned out just fine with the same exact recipe. The loaf wasn’t as tall, but not bad at all…not that big of a difference.
Hi Katerina,
Thanks for this awesome recipe! I tried what Alex suggested (above), increasing the ingredients and baking time, and using a 12-inch skillet. I also used a mix of green and black I had on hand. I think this is the most flavorful bread I’ve made! Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as yours, I think because I scored it too much. Anyway, it’s soooo delicious, my husband liked it, too, and we had it for our ‘dinner’ last night. ๐ Thank you so much!
I made this bread for the first time today. Easy to follow recipe, looks beautiful, nice and golden brown, however, the inside is not done all the way through. Still a bit doughy. 30 minutes at 400. Top was perfectly brown. I know the answer is more time in the oven, but I don’t want he outside to get overly brown. Suggestions ?
Hi Joann!! All ovens do cook/bake at different times/temps so possibly a little more time would have helped, but I would also make an aluminum foil ‘tent’ to shield the crust, and then return it to the oven. After the bread has browned, remove it from the oven, place the tent-foil over, and then return it to the oven to finish baking. Also, was the bread cool enough when you cut into it? Sometimes just giving it a bit of time to cool down will take care of the moisture inside. I hope this helps! Happy Holidays!!