No-Knead Cheddar Jalapeño Bread
An overnight artisan loaf shot through with molten cheese and chilli heat.
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Before You Start
A no-knead dough does its work overnight while you sleep, so the only skill needed is patience. Cheese is the one complication: add it at the shaping stage rather than the start, or the fat interferes with gluten forming and the loaf turns dense.
Instructions
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Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon until you have a shaggy, sticky mass with no dry flour left. It will look wrong; that is right.
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Cover the bowl and leave at cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours, until the surface is bubbly and the dough has more than doubled.
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Scrape the dough onto a well-floured surface. Scatter over the cubed cheddar and jalapeños, then fold the dough over itself six or eight times to distribute them.
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Shape into a rough ball, seam side down, on a piece of baking paper dusted with cornmeal. Cover and rest for 45 minutes while the oven heats.
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Put a lidded cast iron pot in the oven and heat to 230°C / 450°F for a full 30 minutes. The pot must be properly hot or the crust will not blister.
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Lower the dough into the hot pot on its paper, slash the top, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 12 to 15 minutes until deep golden.
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Lift onto a rack and wait at least 30 minutes before cutting. Cutting hot bread makes the crumb gummy.
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💡 Baker's tips
- Cube the cheese rather than grating it. Cubes survive the bake and leave molten pockets; grated cheese melts away into the crumb.
- Some cheese will leak and burn on the base. That crisp bit is the best part of the loaf.
🔀 Make it your own
- Use pickled jalapeños from a jar, drained and patted dry, for a milder, tangier loaf.
- Swap the cheddar for gruyère and add 1 tbsp chopped rosemary.
📦 Storing & freezing
Cut side down on a board at room temperature for 2 days. Refresh in a 180°C oven for 8 minutes. Freeze sliced for 3 months and toast from frozen.
❓ Frequently asked
How many grams is a cup of bread flour?
About 130 g per US cup, so the 3¼ cups here is roughly 423 g. Bread flour matters in a no-knead loaf, since the extra protein builds structure without kneading.
Can I make this faster than overnight?
You can raise the yeast to 1½ tsp and rest it for 3 to 4 hours, but you lose most of the flavour. The long slow rise is where the taste comes from.
Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.
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