Easy Crusty Vegan Bread Recipe (2024)

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Crusty homemade and super easy Vegan bread recipe (+ Video) with only 3 ingredients: flour, water and instant yeast. Plant based, no knead, no fancy equipment needed, and we won’t be using any oil at all. Truth be told this is really my Italian pizza dough recipe in loaf form.

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The best plant based vegan bread recipe ever!

Easier than making a ciabatta, this is for when you want your house to smell like a French or Italian bakery on a cold December day with minimal effort. It’s as easy as mixing three ingredients together in a large bowl, shaping a loaf and baking it.

There’s nothing else like the comforting sound of crackling crispy crust being torn over a steaming bowl of soup. This artisan bread loaf is also wonderful with this broccoli potato soup, or used for bruschetta, sandwiches and casseroles, for making bread crumbs, French toast, cheesy garlic bread and even Thanksgiving bread stuffing.

Am I right, or am I right…?!

By all means, feel free to chop up some fresh rosemary or black olives to add to your dough and give it that artisan Tuscan flair. You’ll still be under 5 ingredients, like a boss!

This vegan bread recipe is:

  • Quick & Easy
  • From Scratch
  • Egg & Oil-Free
  • Perfect for Sandwiches
  • Crackling Crust
  • Big Holes + Soft Center
  • Dairy-Free
  • Simply the Best!

The Secret to Making Crusty Bread

  1. a preheated pizza stone or cast iron dutch oven with a lid.
  2. a blasting hot oven.
  3. a tray of water to create steam <—crucial!
  4. allow the loaf to cool off in the oven or on its side on a cooling rack.

TIP: If you don’t have a pizza stone you can still bake your bread inside a cast iron skillet or dutch oven (lined with parchment paper) with the lid on instead.

FAQ

  • Is Bread Vegan or Not? Yes it is, as long as you don’t add any animal products into the mix!
  • Can I make bread without yeast? Yes you can but it will have to be a flatbread like this quinoa or potato flatbread.
  • What to do with stale bread?So you forgot you made fresh crusty bread and now you have a stale loaf instead? No problem! it’s a sign from above that you must hurry and make Panzanella + a big pot of this Italian Bread Soup / Pappa al Pomodoro right away.

How to Store It

If you happen to not eat this loaf in the same day just store it on the kitchen counter in a bread box or a reusable bag for a couple of days.

What to Serve With

My favorite way to enjoy bread is fresh out of the oven, grilled for panzanella, dunked in this vegan zuppa Toscana, unstuffed cabbage roll soup, chunky potato soup, chickpea salad sandwich and next to grandpa’s tomato cucumber salad+ vegan ribs.

how to make homemade crusty bread

Easy Crusty Vegan Bread Recipe (6)

4.94 from 45 votes

Easy Crusty Vegan Bread

Easy crusty Vegan Bread made with only 3 ingredients: flour, water and instant yeast. Homemade, plant based, no knead recipe!

Print Recipe

Prep Time:10 minutes mins

Cook Time:30 minutes mins

Total Time:40 minutes mins

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Add the all purpose flour, yeast and sea salt to a large mixing bowl or your kitchen aid mixer. Mix in the water and stir well until incorporated. Cover the bowl loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. ( you may leave it overnight as well but it is not necessary )

    3.25 cups all purpose flour, 1.5 cups warm water, 2 tsp instant dry yeast, 1.5 tsp sea salt

  • After about 2 hours check the dough and you should notice the surface dotted with bubbles. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle it with a little flour. Shape it into a round loaf by folding it over on itself a few times. NO KNEADING Allowed!

  • Meanwhile preheat your oven to 450"F with a pizza stone inside. I If you don't have a pizza stone preheat a cast iron dutch oven with the lid on instead). Place a baking dish with a couple of inches of water in it on the bottom rack to help create steam inside the oven for a crispy crust.

  • Sprinkle a pizza peel or a cardboard box with some flour and place the bread loaf on top. Allow it to rest for 45 minutes while the oven warms up.Using a serrated knife make a few slits on top of the loaf.

  • Sprinkle the pizza stone with a little bit of the semolina flour then gently slide the bread dough onto it just like you would do with a pizza. Cook for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool down before slicing. For an even crispier crust allow to bread to cool inside of the oven with the door slightly open.

Video

Notes

  • No pizza stone? No problem, you can still bake the bread inside a preheated cast iron skillet or a dutch oven with a lid on instead (line with parchment paper but do not preheat the paper with the dutch oven). If using this method you won't need a tray of water to create steam as the lid will trap the steam inside the pot).
  • Can I make bread without yeast? Yes you can but it will have to be a flatbread like this quinoa or potato flatbread.

Nutrition

Calories: 188kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 5g | Sodium: 294mg | Potassium: 63mg | Fiber: 1g | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 2.4mg

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: bread, plant based, vegan bread, vegan,

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 188kcal

Author: Florentina

Easy Crusty Vegan Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of crusty bread? ›

To make crusty bread, create steam in the oven.

They have a professional secret: the steam-injected oven. Nothing offers the baker quite as nice a crust as an oven filled with steam for the first part of the baking process.

What makes bread soft and crusty? ›

Bake at Lower Temperatures

This technique gives the bread a flaky, slightly crisp crust. But if you want a melt-in-your-mouth soft crust, you need a much lower temperature for a longer period.

What is a vegan bread substitute? ›

The most common vegan bread types are sourdough, Ezekiel bread, ciabatta, focaccia and baguettes. Don't miss our recipe for homemade vegan banana bread!

How to get homemade bread crusty? ›

CREATE STEAM IN OVEN

Close the oven door immediately. You've just created a "steam bath" in your oven. Steam hitting the bread surface will facilitate the process of creating crust, especially during the first part of the baking process.

Why is my bread not crusty enough? ›

Introduce some steam into your oven

This turns the starch in the surface of your dough to a gel-like substance (gelatinisation) which, eventually, bakes to form the crust. Adding steam helps this process by encouraging the starch to gelatinise. Secondly, steam helps your loaf to bake well.

How do you keep crusty bread soft? ›

For best moisture retention, slice bread from the center out, rather than from one end. Store airtight with the two cut halves facing each other and pressed together. Wrapping bread to retain moisture keeps it soft, though it robs crusty artisan bread of its crispy crust.

What is crusty bread called? ›

Baguette. The longer, thinner cousin of a French bread loaf, the baguette is a chewy bread with a thick crust that's traditionally made solely from water, yeast, white flour, and salt.

What makes homemade bread crust hard? ›

Baking quick breads at too high temperatures can cause a hard outside crust. Most quick breads bake in a moderate oven (350°F to 375°F). Double check your recipe to see the temperature they recommend. Oven thermostats can vary over time, requiring adjustments by the baker or calibration by a professional.

What do vegans use instead of butter on bread? ›

What are good vegan butter substitutes? In baking, you can use vegan butter, applesauce, dairy-free yogurt, coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, nut butter, mashed banana and mashed avocado. In cooking, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable stock, or avocado oil to replace butter.

What do vegans use instead of flour? ›

Coconut Flour
  • Almonds.
  • Baking.
  • Cassava Flour.
  • Chickpea Flour.
  • Coconut Flour.
  • Flour.
  • Rice.
  • Spelt Flour.
Feb 2, 2021

What can I use instead of breading for vegan? ›

Coconut oil

Coconut oil is widely used as an egg replacement in vegan baking and it's easy to see why. Once melted, this delicious oil will mix well into most batters, brownies and bakes. And it can be used to replace eggs when you're breading foods, such as tofu, before baking or frying.

What makes bread crispy? ›

Bread is usually baked at a very high temperature. And crust formation begins the instant your dough is in the oven. Crusts are formed when the sugars and proteins present in your dough react together at high temperature. The sugars caramelise, giving that golden-brown colour and creating flavour.

What gives bread an open texture? ›

There are two proteins in wheat flour called gliadin and glutenin. When wheat flour is mixed with water these proteins combine with the water to make gluten. Gluten makes the dough stretchy and elastic. The stretchy gluten makes it possible to produce a bread with a large volume and open texture.

How do you make soft crusty bread? ›

If your bread is especially hard, brush the outside with water before wrapping it. Then, heat it on the center rack of your oven for about 30 minutes for a whole loaf; or 15 to 20 minutes for a partial loaf, or if you have a long, skinny loaf like a baguette.

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