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Emergency No Yeast Bread made with only a handful of ingredients.
This No Yeast Bread recipe is super easy and quick to make, no kneading or special ingredients are required. This bread is rustic, and hearty, with a lovely crust on the outside. It’s a great recipe to have on hand, when you don’t have yeast, but still want to have some homemade freshly baked bread.
I originally planned to share with you my all time favorite no knead bread recipe. However there is no chance to buy any yeast in Germany at the moment. I have asked everybody I know to look for yeast when they go to supermarkets, and checked personally every online shop I know, but no luck. So what do you do in such a situation? Go for an Irish style soda bread.
The beauty of this No Yeast Bread recipe is that you really don’t need any baking skills to make your own bread. Yet you’ll end up with a delicious hearty bread with a nice, thin crust and soft inside. It has a slightly different texture and taste than regular yeast bread, but I promise you that you’ll love it still.
This recipe couldn’t get any easier. All you have to do is mix together some flour, baking soda, and vegan buttermilk (which is milk and vinegar). Literally just mix for a few seconds, no kneading is needed. Then shape the dough into a small disk and bake for 35-40 minutes. That’s all! Now you can serve the bread with your favorite spreads.
There are a few things about the ingredients to keep in mind with this No Yeast Bread recipe:
- Use white flour for a softer version, or whole wheat for a stronger taste. I personally prefer it with a mix of the two, you know, best of both worlds.
- It’s important that you use baking soda and not baking powder. Baking soda is a lot stronger.
- Making vegan buttermilk is super easy. Just mix together 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice with a cup of unsweetened plant milk, and let stand for 2-5 minutes. Vegan buttermilk is a must for this recipe, since it’s what activates the baking soda.
- This version is a plain one, but it works really well with flavorings and add-ins too. You can add garlic powder, chili, nutritional yeast or green herbs to the dough for extra flavor, or nuts, seeds, or dried fruits for extra texture.
And a few important details about the whole process:
- Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and additional seasoning, if using. Prepare vegan buttermilk. Baking soda will be directly activated by buttermilk, so make sure that your bread will be in the preheated oven after combining ingredients as soon as possible (ideally in 1-2 minutes).
- For that reason prepare everything before you combine the ingredients. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and lightly flour your work surface. You might find you need a little more flour, than what the recipe calls for, so have 1/2 cup of flour next to you just in case.
- This is a no knead bread, so you should just combine ingredients, and then shape the dough. Don’t over mix or knead the dough too much, otherwise it won’t work.
- The dough should be as moist as possible, for the softest result, but it should be shapeable. So in case your dough is too runny, add a little extra flour to the mix.
- Shape the dough into a disk, about 3 cm/1 inch thick. Thicker dough will not rise properly.
- Using a sharp knife cut cross on the surface of the dough.
- The measurements are for 2 breads. You can half the recipe, if you need just one bread.
Normally I would share measurements for a single bread, but given the current coronavirus situation, I highly suggest you making both breads. You could freeze the other bread for later, or even better, give it to a friend or someone in need. You might have an elderly neighbor who would love some freshly baked bread. ❤️
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would highly appreciate if you could leave a comment and rate it. Also don’t forget to take a picture and tag it on Instagram (use the hashtag #greenevi) or post it on Facebook! I love seeing what you come up with! ♥︎
Print
No Yeast Bread
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 2 breads 1x
Ingredients
400 g/14.1 oz whole wheat flour + more if needed
250 g/8.8 oz white flour + more for dusting
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
500 ml/16.9 oz unsweetened plant milk
2 tbsp vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/400ºF. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- In a bowl mix together whole wheat and white flour, baking soda and salt.
- For the buttermilk mix together milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Let stand for 2-3 minutes, until milk thickens and curdles.
- Sprinkle some flour onto a working surface, and prepare additional flour on the side, in case you need more.
- Add buttermilk to flour-baking soda mix, and stir a few times with a spoon to combine. Baking soda will directly start to fizz, it’s perfectly normal.
- Pour dough onto your floured work surface, and knead just a couple of times, until everything is combined. Add a little extra flour to the dough, if it’s too runny. Dough should be soft, but shapeable. Don’t over-mix or over-knead, otherwise the bread won’t work.
- Transfer dough to the baking tray, and shape into 2 flat disks, about 3 cm/1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on the surface of both breads.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until bread has a nice crust and seems cooked through. Let cool a bit before slicing. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
Lovely! I like soda bread and could eat at least half of it at one go!
Hahaha, same with me. That’s actually the reason why I bake bread so rarely, because I can never resist any fresh bread 😍
It looks delicious. I like soda bread too, but I haven’t made a vegan version so far. I should.
Hahaha, and I’ve actually only tried the vegan version 😛
If you make a vegan one, let me know if you can actually taste the difference! 🙂
The vegan version is delicious. I make it almost every day.
The vegan version is delicious. I make Irish soda bread every day.
I’m so happy you like it 🙂
Wow, it looks phenomenal, i could bite the screen! I will definitely try this one and will spare the few packages yeast for langos ;-). Thanks for the recipe, Evi! Best wishes from Hungary
Hahaha, I’d save my yeast for langos too! 😀
Stay healthy and safe, Ági! ❤️
I never imagined a day might come when something as basic as yeast would be unavailable at large. Crazy days, to say the least… Glad you’re still making the most of the situation, and making such delicious loaves nonetheless!
Yes, same with me! The most annoying part is that I normally always have 20-30 packages of yeast at home (just like baking powder, baking soda, etc.), but just a few months ago I decided I will first use up all the old ones, before I start to get new ones….my luck, right? 😀
Did you just say no-yeast! ohh girl, you nailed it 🙂
Thanks, Priya 🙂
Really good bread! Thank you for the receipt!
I added sesame (about a half cup) and baked with spelt flour – both whole and white, like in the receipt. Everything went well, didn’t have to put a lot extra flour. Definitely the fastest bread ever!
Side info: I had only baking soda as pills (Natron in Tablettenform) – and since I couldn’t get them really powdery already other times, I use to soften them in water and mix with the liquid ingredients. Just now I put the baking soda- pill-water-mix into the flour and – of course – couldn’t mix it as well. So the result is, that the bread has brown marks that taste a little acid if you try it at excactly those spots – looks really interesting 😀 but doesn’t change the good generel taste!
I’m so happy you liked it, Lisa! I love your addition of sesame seeds and spelt flour 🙂
Thanks for the notes about the baking soda pills! I have actually just made this bread myself today, and used up my last spoons of soda for that. So I might need to buy Natron in Tablettenform if that’s all they have – but now I won’t be surprised if I get brown spots 😀
I made this during the yeast shortage a while ago and was surprised how much I liked it. No yeast shortage anymore but because it’s such a quick & easy recipe, I thought I’d experiment with the ingredients a bit. This time I made a white flour version – and of course mixed up baking soda and baking powder. Like I always do. It’s still in the oven. I hope it’ll taste okay. How embarrassing…
Next time I’ll mix white and corn flour.
I really don’t enjoy baking at all but this is so simple, I love it. Thank you! 😀
I’m so glad to hear you like the recipe!
Don’t worry, the baking powder thing happened to me too already. I was looking inside the oven and didn’t understand why my bread is basically burnt already but still super flat…had to throw out the whole thing. Did you have any success or is it in the trash can already? 😀
PS The corn flour version sounds super interesting, can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
The bread turned out just fine, nothing burnt or too flat. Perhaps using only white flour helped in that case? It took a little longer to rise but ultimately became surprisingly voluminous and fluffy. It tasted great together with black olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Yum! 🤤
I’m going to make the corn flour variant over the weekend and get back to you.
Oh really? That’s amazing! I have experimented a little with baking powder too, but for me absolutely nothing happened. The bread stayed flat and hard. But now you made me curious, I should give it a try again 😀
I just made this yesterday as a first time bread baker (vegan) and was so impressed with the results! I really was skeptical but now I am recommending it to everyone via my mama-friendly blog. It’s so quick and easy and confidence boosting as a first time bread baker. Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear you liked the recipe!
And thank you so much for recommending it to others ❤️
Hahaha, decided to make this on a whim and read 15 tsp of salt instead of 1,5!
Well it’s a good thing I like salt, now I don’t have to use salted butter… (cryingwithlaughter)
Could you make that a little bit more clear for idiots like me? XD
Great recipe and so easy! There is definitely the feeling that if you can make your own bread you can do anything! 😉
Hi Charlotte,
Oh no, 15 spoons of salt sounds horrifying. I like salt too, but I’m not sure I would be able to eat that much 😅
Regarding the clarification: Do you have an idea about how to make it more clear? I get constantly comments, when I use 1,5 (which I think is more visible) instead of 1.5, that it’s not understandable for people. When I used 1½ or 1+½ people said the same. And writing out one and a half just seems weird to me personally.
It seems like using 1.5, 1,5 or 1½ is a bit of a cultural thing, many countries use different ways of writing….
I would be actually totally good with either, I really don’t want anybody to use 15 spoons of salt again (or 15 cups of flour as happened last time 😅)
Hi, I’m going to make the bread again today, this time with only 1,5 tsp of salt! 😉
I think it was the typeface that almost hid the dot, it looks clearer now in the ingredients list, thank you! X
I really hope you will like it with less salt 😀
And cool that the new ingredient list is more clear. Thanks for the feedback 😘