Yep, you CAN make an amazing bread without yeast that’s just like proper bread! 5 common ingredients: flour, baking powder, oil, milk and sugar. It’s a no yeast bread based on Damper, a traditional Australian bread historically made by swagmen and drovers over campfire – except we’re using an oven!
Use for sandwiches, toast, grilled cheese, French Toast – anything you normally make with sandwich bread.
Bread without yeast
This no yeast bread is inspired by the Australian Damper, a traditional bushman’s bread made with flour and water that was cooked over campfires.
Except I’ve brought it into the 21st century to make the crumb fluffier, more tender and tastier, and made it look like sandwich bread rather than a freeform loaf. (Oh, and we cook this in an oven instead of over fire!)
This is THE emergency bread that you make when you don’t have yeast, or you don’t have time to make yeast bread. It has a proper crumb like real bread, rather than being crumbly like muffins which many no-yeast breads are. It’s mixed in a bowl with a wooden spoon – no kneading, no rising. You’ll have this in the oven in mere minutes!
Is it as good as a yeast bread? Yeast gives bread a chew and stretch in a way that bread made without yeast will never have. But this is as darn close as you will get to a yeast bread recipe without using yeast. And it’s off the charts delicious for something that takes 3 minutes to get into the oven!!
What goes into sandwich bread without yeast
Bread lovers might recognise this as a simpler version of Irish Soda Bread. It’s easier because the dough is just mixed up in a bowl (ie no kneading at all) and it doesn’t require buttermilk or baking soda which aren’t pantry staples for everyone.
Here’s all you need to make bread without yeast (let’s pretend I didn’t forget to put the milk in the photo!!!):
- Flour – plain/all purpose flour, or switch up to half with wholemeal/wholewheat. Can use self raising in place of flour and baking powder;
- Baking powder – this is what gives this bread rise. Skip if using self raising flour, or substitute with baking soda;
- Milk – any type, dairy or non dairy, fresh or powder (reconstituted), full or no fat. Can be substituted with water plus 1 tbsp oil or butter;
- Oil – Just 1/4 cup gives this bread some much needed moisture. Without it, it’s very dry. Any neutral flavoured oil is fine – canola, vegetable, peanut, grapeseed, rapeseed, sun flower, even a light olive oil;
- Sugar – just 1 tablespoon makes quite a difference here to bring out flavour; and
- Salt – for seasoning
No egg. That’s the secret to the real bread-like crumb!
The flour and baking powder in this recipe can be substituted with self raising flour.
How to make bread without yeast
This is just like making your favourite Chocolate Chip Muffins! Mix the dry ingredients, then add the oil and milk. Mix, pour, bake!
Why use a loaf pan? Because the mixture is a very thick batter rather than a kneadable dough (like Friday’s pizza dough). So you can’t freeform it like Irish Soda Bread. If you don’t have a loaf pan, make it in a muffin tin – well greased, 20 minutes at 180°C/350°F.
It takes 50 minutes in the oven, so I like to do half the time uncovered to get a lovely golden brown crust, then I cover it the rest of the time (otherwise the crust gets a bit thick and dark).
LOOK at that crust!↓↓↓ It’s tempting to just lift the whole thing off and run away with it! (Swipe the butter while you’re at it)
TIP: Let it cool completely before slicing, otherwise it will be susceptible to crumbling on the edges. On Day 2, it slices 100% perfectly!
Slice it up like normal bread then use it for anything and everything you ordinarily use sandwich bread for. A simple ham sandwich. Or an epic Pastrami or Reuben sandwich. Grilled cheese – or cheesy GARLIC bread. Toast it and slather with jam, Vegemite, peanut butter or whatever you heart desires.
Dunk into soups and stews. You can even make French Toast or Bread and Butter pudding!
Storage
As with all homemade breads, this no yeast bread is at its best on the day it’s made. But even the day after, it’s still very, very good thanks to the touch of oil which keeps the crumb moist. Then on Day 3, a light toasting is all that’s needed to resurrect it.
It also freezes 100% perfectly – which is what I’ve done with the 8+ loaves I’ve made in the past few weeks, trying to nail the recipe. I’m going to be eating this for weeks and weeks – no complaints here!! ~ Nagi x
Watch How To Make It
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Sandwich Bread WITHOUT Yeast! (Dead easy)
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour , plain/all purpose (Note 1)
- 8 tsp baking powder (Note 2)
- 3 tsp white sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 cups milk , warmed (any - Note 3)
- 1/4 cup oil , any plain (vegetable, canola, sunflower, rapeseed, grapeseed, light olive oil)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan).
- Grease a 22 x 13 cm / 9 x 5" loaf pan, then line with parchment/baking paper with overhang (to lift out).
- Mix dry: Place flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl, mix to combine.
- Add wet: Make a well in the centre, pour in oil and milk. Mix until flour is fully incorporated - batter will be thick but stirrable.
- Fill pan: Scrape into loaf pan, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl clean and smooth the surface.
- Bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with foil.
- Return to oven. Turn oven DOWN to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan), bake 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then use excess paper to lift out and transfer to cooling rack.
- Cool completely before slicing - 45 minutes+. It IS more delicate than yeast breads (can't change science!) but slices far better than the usual "cake like" no yeast breads. Slices perfectly on Day 2 and beyond.
- Use for sandwiches, toast, grilled cheese, french toast, bread and butter pudding - anything you use "real" sandwich bread for!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Video Bomber. I cut him from the video edits 😂
Thank you for the recipe. I haven’t made it yet. If I want to freeze it, should I pre-slice it or freeze the loaf uncut? Is it easy to slice while frozen?
Hi Elizabeth, I would slice first if you want to be able to quickly grab once slice once frozen 🙂 N x
I just made this in muffins tray ,I don’t have a bread tin but will buy one now ,thank you so much for the recipe,,tried one and it’s so yummy ,wish I could leave sugar out but it’s ok not much goes in it 😆
Would this possibly work with gluten free flour and dairy free milk like almond?
Not a written sorry Natasha! N x
Hi Nagi,
I made this bread yesterday and I had great success, Thank You! This is definitely ‘One for the book’ as we say in the UK. The time-saving is great, and of course there is no worry over how best to knead the dough, which itself is an acquired skill when using yeast.
Hi Nagi,
I made this bread today and it came out looking amazing. I can’t wait to to slice into it😁.
Excellent! Quick…no messing with yeast. Added it to the “notes” app on my iPhone.
After smoothing the batter, poured on 2 tablespoons of oil and smoothed with clean spatula. Smoother and softer top.
Can I use buttermilk with this recipe (without making Irish soda bread)?
Hi Majik, it’s heavier than regular milk so will affect the rise and texture. N x
I made this today in an air fryer! I never thought it would work, but I modified the recipe for the air fryer and made two small loaves and it came out great! I used almond milk because I am out of dairy milk. Thanks for posting this.
I tried making this today.. did exactly as instructed, but used a grain free baking blend, that is supposed to be a 1:1 ratio for normal flour, instead.. it never fully cooked and just remained raw in the middle, no matter how long I baked it…. 😭😭 I just want sandwich bread back in my life! 😫🍞😫
Did you use a GF flour blend? I’ve found that if you use a GF blend without any Xantham or Guar Gum (like King Arthur GF All Purpose Flour) it will cook through. I usually throw in One Tablespoon of Bob’s Red Mill Egg replacer too which seems to help.
I forgot to warm the milk too. The top looks more like a biscuit. I haven’t tried to cut it yet.
Amazingly simple! Thank you or the recipe. We didn’t have any bread but we did have the ingredients to follow this recipe. We will be making our own bread from now on.
First time making this. Worked really well. Do you ever let the dough rise before baking? Do you ever cut into dough so when it bakes, it has a controls crack location? Mine split open along one side a far amount.
I made my first loaf of bread!!!! Yaaay, thanks to you for this easy recipe. I used whole wheat milled flour though. It is so amazing.