Gifts in a jar recipes are some of my favorite and this DIY no-knead bread mix in a jar is the perfect gift for busy folks wanting super yummy homemade bread. Because honestly, who doesn't like homemade bread?
Maria is up today with a fun DIY No-Knead Bread Mix in a jar recipe. This no-knead bread mix would be perfectly paired with a jar of homemade jam and jelly (this low sugar no store-bought pectin strawberry jam is our favorite) or some flavored butter. (Hint: try these awesome knock your boots off flavored butter recipes !!)
How is it this close to Christmas already? It seems like just yesterday schools were letting out for summer break. Though it is nearing faster than I would like, I am very excited for Christmas this year. Most years I am constantly on the verge of pulling my hair out. With every advertisement saying if I really love my family I will get their product, and trying to find the funds for Christmas (not to mention the big family I have to prepare a feast for), I began to hate this time of year. I really did.
But this year, I am making everything. Yup, thats right, homemade food gifts to the rescue. I am excited too, because I love crafting and baking. It is going to be SO much fun for me, and the receiver.
The gift I am looking forward to making the most is this DIY no-knead bread mix in a jar recipe. Doesn’t it just sound awesome? It’s easy for the receiver to make, and the final product tastes fabulous! I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be given a homemade mix than a necklace, or box of chocolates.
Need mason jar gift ideas for teachers? This one definitely fits the bill.
Let’s dive into how this simple gift is made!
The things you will need are flour, salt, yeast, a quart sized mason jar, a canning funnel (or epic scooping and pouring talents), a bowl, a whisk, and some ribbon or twine to make it pretty. 🙂
Start by putting the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl and whisk it together.
Using the canning funnel and a measuring cup, scoop the mix into the mason jar.
Tie it up with your ribbon, or twine for a more rustic look. You can label it with a sticker label or attach one with your ribbon. Either way the lucky person getting this gift is going to LOVE it!
This recipe is from my book Hand Made: the Modern Guide to Made-from-Scratch Living, where I share how to take this base dough and make it into cinnamon rolls, pretzels, pizza dough and more! Grab your copy and over 100+ from scratch recipes and tutorials here.
DIY No-Knead Bread Mix in a Jar
Equipment:
quart sized mason jar (complete with lid and ring)
canning funnel – this helps me get the contents in the jar and not all over the counter!
mixing bowl
whisk
measuring cup
Watch how to form the bread and make the dough here Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients. Transfer the mixture to the mason jar using a measuring cup and a canning funnel. Seal the jar and tie up with ribbon or twine. Decorate as desired.
There you have the easiest no-knead bread recipe there is!
To Make No-Knead Bread Mix:
In a large bowl, empty the contents of the jar, and pour in 1 and 1/4 cups of warm water + 1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar. Stir until no dry patches remain. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 1 and 1/2 hours.
Preheat oven and baking stone to 450 degrees. Punch dough down and remove it from the bowl. Using your hands, pull the sides of the dough down and to the bottom until you have a round loaf. Place on a piece of parchment. Let rest 40 minutes. Just before baking, dust the top with flour and slash three times.
Transfer the dough with the parchment onto the baking stone or cast-iron skillet. Bake for 24-30 minutes. Let cool before slicing and eating.
Update from Melissa: Several of you have asked what to do if you don't have a baking stone. You can also use a large cast-iron skillet. I bake all of my dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls in my cast iron skillet. If you don't have a large cast-iron skillet, you can also use a bread pan. If you prefer the shape of a bread pan, use that route, it looks more rustic when done on the stone or skillet, but all the methods will bake fine.
Other DIY Mixes in a Mason Jar Recipes
- DIY Homemade Brownie Mix in Jar– Best Ever Fudge Brownies
- Homemade Cake Mix Recipe in a Jar
- Homemade Pancake Mix
- DIY Homemade Pantry Mixes
- Homemade Spice Mixes and Herb Blends + Free Printable Tags
- Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix 3 Ways (From Scratch!)
Maria Alison is family-focused Christian, who's finding new ways to feed her family quality home-cooked food on a budget. She understands how difficult it can be to prepare a meal from scratch with such a busy schedule. On Maria's blog Ten at the Table you will find time saving recipes that are friendly to your budget and your health.
DIY No-Knead Bread Mix Recipe in a Jar
Ingredients
- For the Jar
- 3 ½ cups bread flour Melissa here-all purpose works fine, if using whole wheat, cut back to 3 cups
- 2 teaspoon active quick rising dry yeast
- 2 teaspoon salt
- When it's time to bake
- 1 and 1/4 cups of warm water
- 1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar.
Instructions
- Stir until no dry patches remain. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat oven and baking stone to 450 degrees. Punch dough down and remove it from the bowl. Using your hands, pull the sides of the dough down and to the bottom until you have a round loaf. Place on a piece of parchment. You can also use a large cast iron skillet. I bake all of my dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls in my cast iron skillet. If you don't have a large cast iron skillet, you can also use a bread pan. If you prefer the shape of a bread pan, use that route, it looks more rustic when done on the stone or skillet, but all the methods will bake fine.
- Let rest 40 minutes.
- Just before baking, dust the top with flour and slash three times. Transfer the dough with the parchment onto the baking stone. Bake for 24-30 minutes. Let cool before slicing and eating.
How long can you store this mix? I was thinking of preparing a bunch to have on hand.
it was the best recipe ever im rilly bad at baking and this was rilly esye
still wondering if this can be done in a Dutch Oven or Cookie Sheet
Can you use gluten-free flour?
No, you can’t sub gluten-free flour one for one in bread recipes.
No, you can’t sub gluten-free flour one for one in bread recipes.
Hello..I thought of giving this No-knead bread in a jar as gifts this year. I decided to make it before giving it. I found I needed to add a little more water. The dough was very sticky. Also the recipe didn’t mention spraying the bowl so the dough doesn’t stick. It is rising now. I am wondering if this bread is going to be heavy. Guess I’ll find out after I bake it. I am thinking this will not be good for a novice baker. Thoughts, ideas welcome
No-knead dough is wetter than knead recipes, it’s sticky. I don’t spray my bowls and it’s not heavy. I recommend watching the video on forming the loaf here https://melissaknorris.com/pioneering-today-bake-your-own-bread-no-kneading/ I typically let the dough chill in the fridge but this tutorial/recipe was adapted by Maria and she’s had great success just baking it then.
I can’t find the no knead bread recipe in a jar in your HandMade book. The online recipe says to use 4 1/2 cups flour which doesn’t fit in a quart jar. Yikes! What to do?! I’m trying to make it for a Christmas gift. Please help.
Hi Judy,
My original recipe makes two loaves and calls for 6 and 1/2 cups bread flour so you could make this with 3 and 1/4 cups flour for a slightly smaller loaf. Flour will settle so you can lightly tamp the jar to see if you can get the rest of the flour to settle and top it off, if not, it will still bake up fine without all of the flour. I’ll edit the recipe above for anyone else finding difficulty. Thank you!
This recipe is off. It is too much flour I believe. 4 1/2 cups flour does not fit in a quart jar for this gift in a jar to work. Please advise what change needs to be made. Thank you. Judy
Hey there Melissa! I was wondering if I could half the recipe for smaller jars. In that case, what amount of time should the loaf bake for? Also, would baking it on a cookie sheet work? The friend I intend to give this to does not have access to a baking stone. Thanks!
Yes or a cast iron skillet. I’m not sure what the baking time would be for a smaller loaf as I haven’t tested it.
I couldn’t make this recipe work as is. I am wondering if your recipe has a typo. Instead of 1 1/4 c of water, should it be 2 1/4, Typically flour to water ratio in bread is about 2:1.
What about if I use Spelt Flour? Would I still need to use the vital wheat gluten I have on hand?
Spelt works but you’ll likely want to increase it slightly. I find spelt tend to spread out when baking so the loaf might not be as tall. If you have the vital wheat gluten you can use it but you don’t have too. Spelt has less gluten than regular bread flour but it still works for bread.
I too have a very very dry dough. We’ll see. I am mostly looking for a no knead bread recipe that’s that’s on the counter for one hour after mixing and then you bake it. None of the fuss.
Hi Melissa, if I make the no-knead bread dry mix ahead of time, how long does it last in the storage cabinet?
The main thing that would expire would be the yeast. So you could leave out the yeast for long term storage and add it in at the time of baking. Otherwise, you’d go by the expiration date on your yeast packet.
We are trying this recipe today. We mixed the dry ingredients at a museum event this week and added the wet today. It doesn’t seem like the dough rose at all. Should we bake it anyway?
How long did you let the dough rise for? Was it in a warm spot? If it didn’t rise at all, you can mix in more yeast now, but it does need to rise otherwise the bread will be pretty dense if the yeast isn’t active.
[…] Source : Melissa K. Norris […]
Add qtr tsp ginger powder to the mix. It prolongs life of loaf.
[…] DIY No Knead Bread Mix in a Jar from Melissa Norris […]
Is it possible to make this recipe gluten-free? How would I do that? Thanks – looking forward to making some of these for Christmas gifts for coworkers this year.
Stephanie,
You could try using a gluten free flour, but you’d need to add some type of binder I believe and increase the liquid. I’ve never tried this gluten free so unfortunately, I don’t have any tips on how to adapt it for you.
Thank you so much – I really appreciate your reply. 🙂
[…] the baker, a basket with homemade bread mix in a jar and linen bread bags along with some homemade extracts and herbal infused honey would be a […]
Am I able to make a large amount of this for Christmas gifts and just separate into like 10 jars or would you suggest doing each jar individually?
Probably each jar to make sure there’s the correct amount of each ingredient
A quart jar is not big enough. this was disappointing as I had bought new jars for this project. 1-1/2 quart would probably work, although I don’t know if they make that size.
YES! This was my thought exactly! One quart is 4 cups, so at step one it’s already going to be overflowing! Maybe with some random jars it could work, but the standard sizes are one quart (too small) or half gallon (way too big!).
Flour settles and most people haven’t had issues getting in the jars, just gently tap the jar on the counter and the flour will settle and compact.
My recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of flour? Has the recipe been changed?
Yes, we scaled it back to a slightly smaller loaf because some people couldn’t fit it in the jar.
I’m a little surprised that there isn’t a little bit of sugar in this and no fat at all…What does the vinegar do to it? Saw a recipe yesterday that had lemon juice in it
Debra,
The vinegar helps with the development of the gluten when it’s a no knead recipe. It creates a better and lighter texture in my opinion, plus, it provides an acid which helps this become more of a true soaked bread recipe.
All I have is active dry yeast, will that work?
Audrey,
Active dry yeast needs to be dissolved in water before adding to ingredients, so you could put it in a little plastic bag on top of the dry ingredients in the jar, with a note to dissolve yeast in water before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. Hope that helps!
Hi am making this wonderful idea as apart of my hampers this year for friends and family, i am trying to get my hands on the Ball Mason jars, and wondering what size in Ml i would need as dont want to purchase ones to big. 🙂
thanks so much will let you know how we get on. 🙂
Charlotte, please forgive my ignorance, but what does MI stand for? The size in the tutorial is a quart jar and that holds 4 cups of ingredients. I hope that helped answer your question.
[…] Consider bringing bags of flour, rolling pins, mixing bowls. If you’re brave, bring a cooler of fresh fish! Can you stomach a baking mess on your table, go for it! We’ve assembled “bread in a bag” dry ingredients with instruction cards to take home with our class before – LIKE THIS RECIPE […]
Tested this recipe today and it turned out beautifully! I used the parchment in my cast iron skillet.
I also had trouble fitting the dry ingredients in the Mason jar, so I just filled them as much as possible and used the rest in other jars I was putting together. The wet ingredients were the perfect amounts; no adjustments needed (even though the dry ingredients were less than the recipe, due to the jar size). Very good bread! So glad I gifted it to my family and friends for xmas this year!
Thanks for letting us know! So happy it turned out for you.
Help! I’m trying to make these to give out as gifts tomorrow at church but I’m having a hard time fitting all the flour into the jar. I’m using my air tamper from my canning equipment but its still not enough. Is there a trick to fitting all the flour inside?
Jennie,
Sorry, I just saw this. Some folks have had this problem and others haven’t. It must depend on the flour. I’d fit in as much as possible and not worry about it. As long as it’s a half a cup of so, it should affect the end results too much. You can always say to use a little less water when mixing up the dough and to add more if necessary.
[…] No-Knead Bread Mix in a Jar from Melissa K. Norris. […]
Does the wheat you refer to have to be wheat bread flour or is wheat flour enough?
Jeanne, wheat flour is fine. I’ve never purchased bread flour in my life and I bake all of our own bread.
Yes, you can. This is Maria’s recipe, but I’ve used it for years and only used regular yeast.
Mona,
Thanks, will change it. It won’t let me put in the “loaf” part on the recipe printable.
Mona,
I grind my own wheat and hard wheat has a higher gluten content than soft wheat. Honestly, when using all-purpose for bread, I’ve never added wheat gluten and haven’t needed too. If using all whole wheat, adding some vital wheat gluten will help the texture not be so dense. I grind the hard white wheat as most store bought whole wheat flour is made from red wheat. The hard white wheat isn’t as dense either. Thanks for your tips!
Another reader put in the comments she makes this into a pizza dough. 🙂
Allow the dough to rise and preheat the oven just before baking. 🙂 You are using the parchment paper to transfer the dough to the preheated cast iron skillet or pizza stone so you don’t have to lift a hot pan out of the oven to put the dough on. Hope that helps.
Found your recipe on Pinterest! Very nice! I also make no-knead from the 5-Minute a Day method.
Just thinking here but this presentation would also be great for pizza crust (jar gift).
My only change would be to mix the jarred ingredients with the warm water and place in the fridge overnight. The next day – MAKE PIZZA!
Just wanted to share with you as pizza is the thing I make the most with this dough, although the bread is a piece of heaven, I tell ya! 🙂
Gina,
Thanks for the tip on the pizza dough.
Also, while you’re changing “flower” to “flour,” you might want to change 450 degrres to degrees. Ha, I hadn’t even noticed the “flower” typo until someone pointed it out!
And for Serves: 1 does that mean one person eats the entire loaf of bread? I’d say Serves: 8
OR
Yield: 1 loaf or even “one 1 1/2 pound (is it?) loaf”
I’m testing this recipe today, too, before giving! Can’t wait to taste results! A quart is 4 c. so I would think a quart jar would only hold 4 cups and I, too, was wondering how I would fit 4.5 c. flour plus the salt and yeast, in the quart jar. For testing today, I just mixed it all in my bowl.
Step 1 “Stir until no dry patches remain” I had to knead it by hand for at least five minutes (I considered using the dough hooks) and had to add 2 Tbsp water in order to get it to come together. I was okay with this until I remembered, “oh yeah, this is supposed to be NO KNEAD!)
Step 2 is a bit muddy for me: I’m preheating the oven and stone to 450; is it preheating the entire time the dough is rising (40 min)? That seems like a lot of energy!
I found a cast iron skillet. Am I putting the parchment paper on the cast iron, or on the baking stone? or on the counter top, just to rise? Or is the cast iron skillet a substitute for baking stone?
In the past, I have had good success with nothing but a cookie sheet sprayed with oil and dusted with cornmeal. Although sometimes the cornmeal that is not covered with dough can scorch. No baking stone, no cast iron, no parchment paper.
I use the ABin5 method (upon which this recipe is said to be loosely based) all the time, I love it. They say they have tested using all purpose (AP) flour. I used to think the only difference between AP flour and bread flour was the glutent content, and I would just add gluten (1 tsp per cup flour) to AP flour if I wanted to call it “bread flour. But then I found out that bread flour is supposed to be made with “hard” wheat not “soft” wheat (there are different varieties of wheat: hard/soft, red/white, winter/spring wheat), and that affects the structure of the bread. AP flour is made with a mixture of both hard and soft wheat. Splitting hairs here, I know, but it might matter to somebody. I prefer to use as much whole wheat (WW) flour as possible, but ALL WW is pretty dense, so I like to use a bit of each. Hodgson Mill makes “whole wheat white” flour which is the best of both worlds: “hard” for bread products, “WW” for fiber and goodness.
I do like the look of a rustic round boule of crusty bread!
Fingers crossed!
Looking forward to gifting my loved ones with this treat!
I had to use a canning tool that normally gets air out of liquid in jars and that helped me fit all of it with room left over! Good luck!
Only calls for 3 1/2 cups flour not 4 1/2
Hi,
I can’t seem to fit 4.5 cups of flour into the quart jar. Has anyone else had this problem? I am using the Ball wide mouth jars.
Cheryl
Yes! The recipe did not fit in the quart jar. Glad I’m not the only one.
If you use a plastic knife to press the flour down into your quart jar, it will fit. That removes the air pockets that are taking up space. I just did this recipe in a regular mouth jar and when I used the plastic knife it all fit fine, with a half inch to spare.
My daughter was wondering if this recipe can be used for pizza dough. If not, do you have any suggestions as to what recipe like this one is good for pizza dough?
Thank you SO much for solving MY Christmas giving for this year 😀 Made preserves all summer but nothing to go along and this is perfect!!
I have a jar sealer with my Food Saver – would you suggest vacuum sealing the bread mix?
Can’t WAIT for the butter recipes as the last touch to my gifts <3
Celeste,
You could vacuum seal it if you think the bread won’t be made right away, but not necessary. So glad you’re enjoying these posts and ideas. I am, too!
EEK!! I am typing your instructions for my gifts and am positive that most of my recipients do NOT have a stone so will be using either cast iron or a loaf pan. Do EITHER of those methods require the pan be preheated or is that just in the case of using the stone? With that in mind, is the parchment paper a step that can be ommitted??
Thank you!!
Celeste, you don’t have to preheat the bread pan or the cast iron. The stones tend to be more sensitive to cracking with extreme temperature changes. And parchment paper just makes the bread come up easier if it happens to stick to the pan, but not necessary.
When I make my bread I like to add seeds, Oats, poppy s, sunflower, flax, etc.>>>
I just scoop it out and level it with a knife. It doesn’t have to be packed.
I was wondering if I could use regular yeast instead of the quick rising?
I was wondering if it had to be raw apple cider or just apple cider? My friends don’t like vinegar nor do we have lots of raw cider.
You don’t taste the vinegar, but it helps with the rise on no-knead breads. You can leave it out, but I personally think you get a better texture with it. You can use regular apple cider vinegar or even white vinegar.
How packed should the flour be when you are measuring it out, i.e. stir with fork? Thanks!
Hi there; I am seeking info on baking bread using a “passive”method I saw a few times on facebook. It involves mixing your favorite ingredients and then “baking” using large aluminum cans wrapped in two foam bead filled pillows (usually used as filling for bean bags), and placing all in an 18gal. storage container . I thought this would be a fun project with my grand-daughters, but lost the directions. Have you got any references to this you might send to me? Thanks a bunch.
Sorry, Katherine, I don’t. Do you mean like the wonder bag ovens?
is there an alternative to the raw apple cider vinegar? Honestly, I don’t have that and I don’t think anyone we would give this to would either. I love the idea of giving this pretty gift though! Oh, also, if I don’t have mason jars, can I put the mix into a plastic container instead – that way, it’s kind of two gifts 🙂 Thanks!
How would you recommend baking the bread without a stone?
I don’t have one and know my gift receivers don’t either.
I’m also curious about the shelf life of the mix in the jar.
Thanks!
Recipe provides options to stone (like bread pans).
What would you suggest for folks who may not have a baking stone?
Any suggestion if you don’t have a baking stone? Glad to find your blog!! Tina
Love this idea! How many loaves does one batch make?
This looks like the perfect gift idea! Would love it if you would share your post over at the HomeAcre Hop today! – Nancy
The Home Acre Hop
I was just wondering if this would work with a cookie sheet and parchment paper? As I can guarantee that my friends and family do have baking stones. Thanks for this great Christmas idea.
Should say do not.
Can you use this mix for long-term storage whats the shelf life
How long would this stay good? Is there a way to make it last longer? Refrigerator or …
Do you mean the dry mix or the baked loaf, Jenifer?
I had the same question regarding how long the dry mix will last.
Oh, heavens, Debbie, that might make a pretty loaf but it would bake funny. Thanks for letting me know so I can fix that.
Amy,
So happy you’re enjoying it, so are we!
Hello, what did I do wrong. I followed the bread recipe to a tee but it was too dry. Not enough liquid to wet dry ingredients?
Bea,
Different types of flour absorb liquid at different rates. Just add more water until it incorporates. It should be slightly more wet and sticky than regular kneading dough, but not soupy.
I am going to go and make a loaf right now. I did want to let you know that you have a typo that is kinda comical. You have dust with flower not flour.
Melissa this recipe is great. I went ahead and made a loaf today to , well, taste test of course! Can’t be giving something away if I don’t know how yummy it is. I did need to add a little more water and sort of knead a little to get a dough to form. Maybe if I had been using my mixer with the dough hook it would have gone together easier so I will try it again that way. And enjoy another loaf.
Melissa and Maria-
This looks like so much fun and would actually be a blessing to the recipient! I am working on getting away from all the commercial type gifts too because frankly we have everything we need (in fact, much more…:). I am loving the handmade Christmas series – keep up the great work!!