July 10, 2024
Slow Cooker Yeast Bread
When I first stumbled across this slow cooker bread method from Stephanie O’Dea’s blog, my brain just about exploded—in the best way. No rising, punching, waiting, or fiddling with a bread machine? Just toss it in the slow cooker and go?! Game. Changer. After testing a bunch of our Better Batter bread recipes, I can confirm this method works like magic for all kinds of loaves. The gentle heat and humidity in the slow cooker do all the work, and honestly… I prefer it over my fancy bread proofer and oven. Less effort, great results—that’s a win in my book.
Slow Cooker Yeast Bread
Serves: 1 loaf | Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 5+ hours
Equipment
- You will need your slow cooker (obviously)
- chopstick, skewer, wooden spoon etc to prop the lid slightly. Propping the lid is what enables your bread dough to bake rather than steam.
- bread pan (for an oval cooker method) or a 2-quart round glass or ceramic casserole dish (for a round slow cooker), although this is not strictly necessary.
Notes: You will need a Large Cooker for baking bread – I have used both an oval cooker and a round cooker with good results. I found that an oval cooker will fit both a 9×5 and an 8×4 pan comfortably, while the large round cooker is best if you are making bread directly in the crock pot or using a round glass or ceramic 1- or 2-quart casserole dish to bake.
Instructions
Mix up the bread dough according to the instructions in the recipe – you will want a bread dough scaled to a single loaf, unless you have multiple slow cookers. This may mean you will need to scale your recipe!
Place the dough in your prepared (greased) pan, if desired and shape it as you wish (I like to smooth the tops to create a rounded corner on my loafs and a smooth crust), then put into the slow cooker – if you are using the slow cooker directly you will want to grease it before adding the dough.
Place. Take a chop stick, skewer etc. and place it so that the lid of the slow cooker is very slightly propped. If you get too big of a stick or wooden spoon, the cooker won’t be able to maintain ideal humidity and heat to make this work, so I have found that the smaller the better.
Place the slow cooker on high and cook the bread for 5 hours or until the crust is golden brown. You heard that right – golden brown bread without an oven!! Remove the loaf from the cooker and allow to cool before serving.
