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 or focaccia). 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 cooking / kosher salt (REDUCE to 1 tsp if using table salt, Note 3)
- 2 1/4 cups milk , warmed (any – Note 4)
- 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 😂
What is your 4 cups flour in grams? and for the milk wat is your cups in ml?
Hi Rose – there is a button at the top of each recipe that allows you to switch between metric and cups! N x
By some miracle, my loaf came out OK even though I realized halfway through that the metric conversions listed are just plain wrong! See for yourself before you start the recipe and stick with US measurements unless you’re ready to correct the metrics. Since I didn’t want to throw all the flour mixture away I corrected the milk and oil quantities and used that. The result is decent but with a very cakey crumb and too salty to eat plain. So I’m using the rest for a grilled cheese sandwich or 2 and the rest, croutons.
As a single person, though, I really do appreciate knowing that there are ready-free, quick bread recipes out there, so thanks for that!
Don’t use the following substitute for ingredients: Almond Flour, BAKING SODA SUB, light olive oil, cane sugar, Grinded Sea Salt, and almond milk. Followed instructions to the T first 30 mins looked like it was turning out well but the bottom was more liquid than baking. put on bottom shelf for remainder in time and came out like oatmeal consistency… having sensitivities to things like yeast, corn, cows milk really sucks.
Hi Taryn – thanks for that feedback – it’s really helpful for people trying different versions due to intolerances. But I am sorry the subs didn’t work out! N x
OMG thank you! This is a game changer for me. I am allergic to most grains, dairy, eggs and yeast. I tried this with cassava flour and although it didn’t completely rise, it is the first bread I have been able to eat in months. So yummy Thank you!
This is the most well-written recipe I’ve ever seen – love, love, love all the notes on substitution, as my cupboard is nearly bare and that’s why I’m making my own bread.
this came out like rubber. followed instructions to the T and awful. weird taste
Bread without yeast was amazing and so easy
Can we replace with buckwheat flour? Or have to mix with normal flour?
Hi Amy – I haven’t tested buckwheat sorry! N x
How long should U cook half the recipe?
I made half the recipe and I did it the same amount of time
hi if i make this with gluten free flour will it still rise
I made this recipe using Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Flour and the bread turned out great!
I think there is a problem in the conversion from cups to grams… four cups of all purpose flour is 480 grams, not 600. (1/4 cup = 30 grams in King Arthur’s AP flour, and other values within 3-4 grams for other flours.) I made it with 480 grams of KA AP flour and it was fine. if I used 600 it would have been a very stiff, dry dough.
Fabulous bread made 1 first to try super! So quick to make just made 2 more today baking as I write…did not add salt to the 2 this time around as I forgot 😁 I don’t use salt so hoping it wont impare the flavour!
I’m on a low sodium diet, so I try to cut salt wherever I can. Bread is not one of those places. Bread tends to collapse into a pile of crumbs without salt! It’s not the recipe at fault if the texture is off.
Made this twice. First time it came out a bit browner than I wanted so I adjusted cook times and made again. The bread has a really nice texture but the baking powder flavor was so forward it wasn’t really edible. I used Clabber Girl and the loaves themselves came out just beautifully shaped etc but all I could taste was strong salt/bitter from the baking powder. I’m an experienced cook but I’m at a loss to what happened. I may try honey next time I make this experiment to see if it helps.
Just made this bread tastes great but mine bumped up in the middle and turn as brown, Any suggestions. Thanks
Hi Susan mine went brown on first attempt did you cook on fan or standard oven. I did standard first time, just cooking now on fan and took 5 minutes off the uncovered cooking time much better…covered now on the lower temperature recommended. Teresa
Amazing how it turned out! Right amount of crusting, and went great with deli meats and herb spread! Thank you Nagi, I added some oregano and sunflower seeds to up the ante 🙂
Hi, can I use almond flour? I love bread but regular flour is not good for my health. Thank you
Awesome bread, but mine fell apart when cutting it. What could i do to make it stick together a bit more next time?