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 😂
The quick sandwich bread turned out as good as you said it would. I’m sending the recipe to my sisters both bread makers. Thank you!
Nagi, I have a great deal of respect for your knowledge and skills. I’ve been looking at this no yeast bread and your no kneed artisan bread. Here’s my question, can either of these be made using gluten free all purpose flour (like King Arthurs or Pamelas both are 1 to 1 in measurement)? I didn’t know if you’ve experimented with it. I thought if you had I’d try it your way which usually turns out great. If not its going to be experimenting for a bit on my end.
Appreciate any insights you have.
~Sia
Hi Sia, unfortunately not – the no knead bread needs the gluten to get those beautiful holes and the right texture. N x
Thanks for getting back to me, Nagi! I have something that works like gluten but not as good a performer as gluten. I am going to try this sandwich bread recipe with the gluten free artisan flour. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Hi Sia, please let us know how it turns out. I have been holding on to this recipe with Hope’s of trying it soon but my husband is gluten intolerant.
Hi, Nagi. I was just wondering, does your recipe have an automatic changer because I don’t know how to do the math. ;-;
Hi Sadie – what math do you need to do? You can change the servings on any of my recipes and all the ingredients will change too. You’ll need to adjust cook time with this recipe too if changing the size of the loaf. N x
I have a newly found yeast allergy and tried your recipe because I just can’t live without sandwich bread. It was way better than any store bought bread that I have ever tried and even compared as well to my mom’s homemade yeast bread that I loved growing up with! I did notice on day 5 that there were gummy strings in it but I kept eating out anyway because it was so delicious and fresh still. I’m just wondering how long should it last sitting in an airtight bag on the counter?
I made this bread when we had no bread in the house but needed some for my scratch made gumbo.. I added fresh garlic and sesame seeds.. My whole family LOVED it!! Can’t wait to make it again! Thanks for the recipe
I made this exactly without any changes, but in a Convection Microwave Oven. The bread turned out as hard as a rock.
What did I do wrong? Doesn’t this work on the Microwave convection mode?
Hi Pras, sorry you had issues here, I imagine it has to do with the microwave – I haven’t tried this cook method so it’s hard to advise here! N x
Hi Nagi. I am going to attempt the no yeast bread today. Am I able to substitute wheat flour for any other flour? Due to mild allergy to it.
Since I’ve discovered you you are my go to recipes for everything! Every weekend I attempt one of your recipes. Lol
Hi Ashrafa, changing the flour will mean the water content will need to be changed (as other flours have different hydration percentages) so I haven’t tried with any other type of flour sorry! N x
I followed the recipe and it’s okay. The problem I went through was that the bread stuck to the parchment paper.
The other was the bread us very heavy and dry, not moist at all. Please let me know how to overcome these problems.
Thanks.
Hi Nelly, and you definitely used baking paper? It should slide right off! Can I ask what type of flour you used here? N x
Hi Naji, I’m new to baking bread. I love the idea of a bread like this for health reasons. But for some reason, my loaf did turn out right.
Color is blonde, did not rise much from what I put in pan.
Here’s what I used:
Eikorn all purpose flour, which should be okay right?
Lakanto sugar sub in place of reg sugar. Shouldn’t affect color or rise right?
Warm almond milk (unsweetened)
Used Almond oil.
I also put my new baking powder and soda in freezer (both aluminium free). Unopened and wrapped up, but maybe that did something too?
I live in southern Virginia in US, but it’s in mid 60’s today, inside humidity about 65.
Any insights would be helpful.
Baking with Einkorn is tough to bake with, never seems to rise like you want. I would bet your bread didn’t turn out as expected because of the Einkorn.
Thank you Hope! I’m learning to work with Einkorn and make sourdough bread. My starter looks fantastic. Hoping (😉) for the best.
Thanks again!
Hi Judy, you’ve changed the recipe completely with majority of the ingredients – the type of flour, sugar substitute and milk – I can’t say for sure what would have affected the rise, but I imagine it would be the type of flour as it reacts differently (and is more dense) than regular white flour. – N x
When I make the no yeast bread, it splits on the side during the first 30 mins. Bread still wonderful. Any help would be appreciated.
My loaf of bread did not turn out as lovely as I thought it would, appearance wise but dang, that was a great loaf of bread! Very imressed and will continue to use your recipe!
Impressed, lol.
I have been baking bread lately but always with yeast.
I will have to try your recipe.
Thank you and stay safe!
Elke
Hi I tried the recipe and when I baked for the first 30 mins uncovered, the top kind of split open so done of it is hollow. Do you know why that would have happened?
Can I use half whole wheat flour? I usually stock whole wheat pastry flour.
This recipe works in a pinch for sure! Great fresh after an hour of cooling down so you don’t destroy the loaf when you cut it. Made toast also delicious!
This is a dynamite dunking bread – try Nagi’s beef stew and make this on the side. Perfect meal now that it’s getting chilly out!
1. 8 tsp baking powder, is how many gram.
2. 1 1/2 tsp salt, is how many gram
Hi My natropath wants me to be gluten, dairy and egg free, do you have a recipe that I can make a pizza dough without these ingredients please
Hi Liz, I have tried my pizza base recipe with gluten free flour but wasn’t happy with the end result unfortunately – it wasn’t browning and as crisp as I’d like. It would need further testing and modifications. Why don’t you give something like this a go: https://promotown.info/pizza-stuffed-mushrooms/%3C/a%3E using vegan cheese it could be a winner for you! N x
Thanks Nagi, they sound great.
I appreciate you getting back to me.
Hi, if I use half the ingredients, because my loaf pan is smaller, do I need to adjust the oven baking settings?
Will substituting white sugar with coconut sugar or muscovado (barbados) sugar make any difference with the taste? 🙂
Hi Lisa, it just helps with the colour of the loaf – it should be fine with any! N x
Great! Thank you so much for the response.
How much wholewheat flour should be used if I decide to replace the all purpose flour? (Sorry, I’m having a hard time understanding your note on this 😅)
Can I use buttermilk instead of milk?
This is crazy! I haven’t tried it but it looks amazing! How does it work without yeast? Dozer is the most adorable doggo ever!
Hi Erin, it works as it uses baking powder as the raising agent (not the yeast) N x
Hello.
Can I omit the sugar? Is it purely for taste or does it have a function in the cooking process, please?
Many thanks
Hi Kylie, it truly makes a difference to the flavour and colour here 🙂 N x
Will substituting white sugar with coconut sugar or muscovado (barbados) sugar make any difference with the taste? 🙂