As many of you know, my lovely mama moved to Chicago last year after living on the west coast and she, of course, brought all of her incredible recipes with her — including this READER FAV bread recipe.
When I used to visit my mom we’d spend time doing what we both love the most — cooking up nourishing meals and creating some amazing baked goods. I remember the first time she made this beautiful honey oatmeal artisan bread and I knew this would become a staple. We would toast it up with a little butter and flaky sea salt, or build delicious sandwiches with these perfectly thick, chewy slices of bread.
Check out all of my tips and trick throughout the post, including my step-by-step video, and enjoy a fun baking project with the people you love. Let me know how it goes in the comments, plus your favorite ways to use this wonderful bread!
Why you’ll love this honey oatmeal artisan bread
This artisan bread recipe is the perfect project for bread-baking beginnings. It’s called “artisan bread” because it’s meant to be more rustic and imperfect than a traditional bread loaf, which is what makes it so unique and beautiful! This bread is:
- So easy to make without any kneading required, so you won’t even need a stand mixer!
- Made with simple ingredients and kitchen tools
- Deliciously hearty and perfectly sweet thanks to the oatmeal and honey
- Incredibly soft and fluffy on the inside with a golden, crispy, chewy crust
- Amazing served as toast, dipped into your fav soups, and used as sandwich bread
Basically, this is everything you could ever want in homemade bread and you’ll feel so accomplished when you make it!
Ingredients in the best oatmeal artisan bread recipe
You’re going to love how simple the ingredients are for this lovely no knead artisan bread. This bread is egg-free, easily made dairy free, and naturally sweetened with a little honey! Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Flour: we’re using bread flour in this recipe to give this bread the perfect fluffy texture.
- Oats: rolled oats help to give the bread a nice hearty chew.
- Seeds: you’ll add roasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds (or both) plus flax seeds to the dough, then a few sunflower or pumpkin seeds on top.
- Baking staples: you’ll need salt and rapid rise yeast, which is also known as quick rise yeast, to help the bread rise.
- For moisture: we’re adding both water and milk to the dough to give it just enough moisture. Feel free to use regular or dairy free milk. You’ll also need a little olive oil.
- To sweeten: as I mentioned, this bread recipe is naturally sweetened with honey.
Can I make it gluten free?
Unfortunately, no, I cannot recommend a gluten free flour substitute for this recipe.
How to measure flour properly
While the most accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it, many baking recipes are much more forgiving and won’t require a scale. Get all of my tips and tricks for measuring flour accurately here! This will ensure that your bread comes out nice and fluffy instead of dense.
The best yeast to use in this recipe
As I mentioned, you’ll want to use a rapid rise or quick rise yeast in the bread recipe. Rapid rise yeast doesn’t have to be “proofed,” so you don’t have to wait until the yeast “activates” before continuing with the recipe. In this honey oatmeal artisan bread, you’ll simply:
- Mix the yeast with the rest of your dry ingredients.
- Heat up the milk and water until they reach 115 degrees F, then mix in the honey and olive oil.
- Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until they’re just incorporated.
That’s it! No proofing required. The rapid rise yeast will activate (rapidly) when mixed with the warm milk/water mixture and will interact with the sugars in the honey to activate.
Tips & tricks for baking honey artisan bread
- Do not overmix. When combining the wet and dry ingredients together, be careful to not overmix the dough. Overmixed dough will lead to a dense bread loaf.
- Let the dough rest. After letting the dough rise for 2 hours, you’ll dump it out onto a well-floured surface, turn it over 8-10 times, and shape it into a ball. You’ll then want to place the dough ball into a bowl lined with parchment paper, cover it with a warm towel, and let it rest again for about an hour. Don’t skip this part! It is essential for the texture and lovely pockets that will bake up in the bread.
- Heat your dutch oven. Before adding the bread dough to your dutch oven and baking it, you’ll want to heat it up in your oven. Place the dutch oven in your cold oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (the temp you’ll bake the bread at). Heating up the pan FIRST ensures that the bread has what’s called an “oven spring,” which is the additional burst or rise that occurs in the bread right when it gets into the oven before the crust starts to form.
- Bake it with the lid on. You’ll want to bake the bread in your dutch oven with the lid on first so that the bread is able to steam a bit while it’s baking. This will give the bread that wonderful, crispy crust.
- Let it cool before cutting. Like almost every baked good, make sure you let the bread cool for 1 hour before cutting into it so that it retains its shape.
Our favorite ways to enjoy this bread
I mean, can you really go wrong with freshly baked bread? I think not. Here are a few of the endless ways you can enjoy this beautiful honey oatmeal artisan bread:
- Spread a toasted slice with butter and a sprinkle of sea salt (maybe some honey, too?)
- Toast it up and add your fav avocado toast toppings
- Dip it in a bowl of soup like this Roasted Garlic Cheddar Cauliflower Soup or this Easy Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup
- Make a delicious sandwich like my go-to Ultimate Spicy Cheddar & Apple Fall Veggie Sandwich
Storing & freezing homemade artisan bread
- To store: it’s best to store no knead artisan on the counter. Once the bread is completely cool, wrap it in plastic and store at room temperature. If the weather is hot or humid, it’s best to store the bread in the refrigerator.
- To freeze the bread: wrap it in plastic wrap, then seal it in a bag, making sure to get all the air out of the bag. You can also wrap the bread in plastic and then wrap it tightly in foil. Bread should last 3 months in the freezer. Once ready to serve, unwrap the bread and thaw at room temperature.
More bread recipes you’ll love
- Best Healthy Soft Seedy Sandwich Bread
- Good Morning Almond Flour Blueberry Muffin Bread
- Best Ever Healthy Banana Bread Recipe
- Pistachio Poppy Seed Orange Yogurt Bread
- Healthy Honey Flax Tahini Banana Bread
Get all of my bread recipes here!
I hope you love this no knead honey oatmeal artisan bread! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Good Mood Food Episode 8
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
No Knead Honey Oat Artisan Bread
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients:
- 3 ¼ cups (390g) bread flour
- ½ cup (48g) rolled oats (or use a hot cereal blend such as Bob’s Red Mill 5-grain hot cereal)
- 2 ½ teaspoons rapid rise yeast (also known as quick rise yeast)
- ⅓ cup roasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds (or a mix of both!)
- 2 tablespoons flax seeds (not flaxseed meal)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup (240g) water
- ½ cup (120g) milk of choice (I use dairy free milk)
- ⅓ cup (112g) honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Additional:
- A few tablespoons extra flour for shaping
- 1 tablespoons sunflower or pumpkin seeds for on top of bread
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, yeast, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and salt.
- In a microwaveable bowl, add water and milk and heat up for 1 minute until slightly warmer than bath water or approximately 115 degrees F. Stir the honey and olive oil into the water/milk mixture once warm. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just incorporated, do not over mix.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- After the dough has risen, place it on a well-floured surface and sprinkle it with a little flour. Using a scraper (or your hands is fine), fold dough over about 8-10 times and then flip over and shape into a ball. Place dough in a parchment paper-lined large bowl and cover with a warm towel. Allow the dough to rest again for about 45 minutes to an hour.
- Right around the 30 minute mark of your dough resting, place a 4 to 6-quart Dutch oven with lid on in the cold oven and preheat to 425 degrees F and allow the pot to heat up in the oven for 20 minutes. Once the oven has preheated all the way, remove the pot from the oven and immediately add the parchment paper with the dough to the hot pot (be careful as you do this!). Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon extra sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, then cover with the lid and bake for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, remove the lid from the pot and return to the oven, uncovered. Bake for 10-15 more minutes until bread is nice and golden on top to your liking. Allow bread to cool for an hour before slicing. Makes 1 loaf, about 12 slices. This bread is great when toasted and served with butter and a little salt. I love it for dipping in soups and making sandwiches too!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on January 26th, 2023, republished on June 1st, 2024, and republished on March 20th, 2025.
This bread is delicious and comes out perfect every time I make it. It’s my go-to addition to any dinner party I attend. I use all oats instead of the other seeds your recipe calls for and it’s delicious!
The only problem I’m having is when I have a dinner party after a work day and don’t have hours and hours to let the dough rise during the day since I’m at work. Is there a way I can make the dough the night before (complete all the rising steps) and store it (fridge or freezer?) and bake it just before my event so it’s still warm? I don’t want to pre-bake it and freeze it, I’d rather it be freshly baked.
Have you tried pre-preparing the dough all the way up until the baking step and then baking it on a different day? Thanks!
This bread was so so tasty! In both flavor and in texture. I’ll continue to make it,but maybe workshop it a little next time. Like some of the other commenters my dough also came out very very wet and flat when baked. I used the scale for all the measurements and also King Arthur bread flour so I’m not sure what happened. It’s a very forgiving bread so the end results was still yummy.
Next time I’ll probably add a little more flour to get that shaggy sort of dough.
This bread is amazing in both flavor and in texture and I will continue to make it and kinda workshop it. Even though the end result was still tasty I had the same issue as some of the other people in the comments did with the wet dough and it coming out flat when baked. I used a scale for everything along with King Arthur bread flour so I’m not sure why it was so wet. Like I said it was still so so good and obviously a very forgiving type of bread so I’ll continue to make it and make some flour adjustments next time!
This is a great recipe. My husband and I love it. It is a hearty, healthy, with a touch of sweetness delicious loaf. It holds up well for sandwiches and toast. Plus, it’s no knead, which makes me happy. With recipes like this, I never plan to buy a loaf of bread again. Thank you.
So happy to hear this is a favorite! I still make this almost weekly (it’s THAT good and versatile!)
This bread is DELICIOUS! My family loves it, and it even won over my father in law! I would love to make it in sandwich loaf form, but I would not be able to use my dutch oven. Would I be able to use my loaf pan preheated in the oven, and aluminum foil for the moisture? Sorry, I’m just a beginner. 😅 Thank you!
So glad you love it! I don’t recommend turning it into a loaf, I’m sorry. You can try my seedy sandwich bread HERE!
This bread is hearty, delicious, and so easy to make. We love it at our house and it doesn’t last long! The last time I made it, I was out of pepitas so I used chopped pecans instead. So good!!😊
Love it! My go-to bread!
Great recipe!! Turned out lovely! I would maybe add a bit more salt but that’s to my own taste. Overall, great and easy recipe, will definitely be using often!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
Hi, I love the taste of this bread and I have made this a handful of times using the metrics to weigh my ingredients. However, each time the dough is very wet. I am having a hard time working with it after the second rise. All measurements are weighed and I use bread flour. Could you help me with either adding more flour when mixing or what I am doing wrong.
Hi! Happy to help! 🙂 This bread is very forgiving, so if you need to add more flour you absolutely can. I’d do up to 1/4 cup more if necessary. It is a shaggy dough but in no means should dit be extremely ‘wet’ if that makes sense! I’ve made using the weights as listed and it works great, but it could be brand of bread flour, etc.
I planned on making this today although what I have is Harvest Grains blend (Kin Arthur). Using your recipe, what do you think of supplementing all the seeds with this blend? Thank you!
That should work fine!
Everyone loved it!
I’m so glad!
I made this and love the taste but am wondering if I can leave it to rise over night instead of the initial 2 hour rise?
I haven’t tried it but I’m afraid it may overproof.
Sorry I can’t type. It was GREAT!
So happy to hear that!
I just made this for our dinner tonight to have with stew, and it was get. Husband loved it. We also love the one in your cookbook.
Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Denise
This is a must make! Delicious and easy!⭐️
My fav bread, too!
Amazing! The best bread I have ever bake. One of my most favorite recipes to date, within Ambitious Kitchen. Thank you!
So happy to hear that!
This is a simple, simply delicious bread recipe. I didn’t have flaxseed on hand the first time I made it so I substituted finely-chopped walnuts. Soooo good!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
I’m getting ready to try this but I’m a bit confused as your printed recipe says to use 1/2 cup of milk but in your video you say to use 1 cup of milk. Can you please let me know which amount is correct? Thank you.
Hi Kym! Thank you for catching that – it is 1/2 cup of milk as mentioned in the written instructions!
I wanted to try this bread but needed a gluten free version so I used AI to create one. I used King Arthur Gluten Free Bread Flour and increased the water to 1 3/4 cups. I also added a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and only went through one rising cycle of an hour before putting it in the oven at the temperature indicated. I did miss adding in the olive oil but don’t think that impacted the recipe. The bread rose very nicely in the oven and smells wonderful. Can’t wait to taste it and see how it turned out!
I’m glad you had success making it GF!
Super good – my husband was shocked this was my first time making bread. Perfect with butter and some salt, or for avocado egg toast
Love that! Such a great first bread recipe to make, too!
I use all purpose flour and this turns out perfectly every time! My go to recipe. Who needs sourdough! LOL. 🫶🏻
Perfect! And agreed!!
Would it be possible to exclude the wheat berries and add more oats?
Hi! Do you mean the flax seeds? Or the sunflower or pumpkin seeds?
I never leave comments on recipes but I am absolutely obsessed with this recipe! I have made this bread 5 times in as many weeks. Twice as written, comes out amazing! But then I decided to play around. I’ve used it as a base, 1- replaced seeds with cinnamon and raisins 2- replaced seeds with cinnamon , dried cranberries and pecans and 3-(my husband’s fav) roasted garlic, rosemary and parmesan. Monique, I can’t thank you enough for writing this easy, uncomplicated,fast and (most importantly) delicious bread recipe!
So happy to her that, Tina! It’s always fun to have a go-to recipe that you can then customize 🙂
I really love this recipe, it’s a real upgrade (and an easy one) on your typical artisan bread. My dough seems very wet and very very sticky, and the loaf came out somewhat flat. Wondering what I may be able to improve for next time. I have to say, that it was still delicious flat so recipe is very forgiving! If you are a beginner and doubting whether to still bake the bread, no matter how it looks, still bake it and it will most likely come out great!
I’m glad it still tasted great! Did you weigh your ingredients? Or use the spoon and level method for the flour?
LOVE this bread! It’s so easy to make and it has a wonderful flavor! Yet another favorite from AK! 🥰
My fav, too! Glad you loved it!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! This recipe was so easy and the bread is DELICIOUS! I made a loaf for my family yesterday and it is GONE! Making four more now to share. This will easily be my new go-to bread recipe. Thank you for sharing!
So happy to hear that!! It’s my go-to recipe, too 🙂
This bread is AMAZING!!! So easy to make but it looks so beautiful that people will think you are an expert bread maker!
Absolutely! Glad you loved it!
Easy, hea!thy, and great tasting! Thanks AK!
Glad you loved it!
Is there a gluten free flour that can be used in this recipe to make a gluten free loaf of bread?
I haven’t tested this type of recipe with a gluten-free flour – sorry!
When I made this bread I only used 1 tablespoon of honey and it still has a hint of honey without being too sweet for me!
Perfect!!
Love this bread! The crust is crisp and chewy and the inside is filled with taste and texture! Perfect!
My all-time fav!
Can you use regular flour instead of bread flour??
I’ve seen some readers use all purpose flour successfully!
This recipe is a weekly family favorite of ours for a few years now!!! It was super simple and helped me overcome the mental hurdle of making my own bread! It’s now probably one of the easiest things I make. It’s super delicious and nutritious and I often make it for friends in which they comment it’s some of the best bread they’ve eaten. I add 2 tbsp hemp seed for extra protein. About a year ago, I started using freshly ground flour from wheat berries (250g hard red wheat and 250g hard white) because of daughter’s sensitivity to gluten and it’s amazing!! And I recently started using my sourdough starter as a replacement for the yeast. Followed everything else the same in recipe and it was fantastic!!!! (Used 100g of starter and replaced 50g of water and 50 g of flour). Highly recommend this to anyone looking to feed family nutritious bread or wow their guests!!! So good with drizzle of EVOO or butter with pinch of salt, or drizzle with honey or even almond butter!
Amazing!! So happy this is a favorite 🙂 and tons of yummy toppings!
I have not yet made this bread but it sounds delish! I will be baking in the next couple of weekends. I do have a question though. I cannot do flax so what would I substitute it with? Thank you in advance and I can’t wait to bake a loaf or 5!
Hi! You can omit them, or replace with more sunflower seeds 🙂
Hi Monique! Huge fan of your recipes, my three boys have loved every single thing I’ve made from AK (especially the breakfast cookies). I was wondering if you’ve tried rising this bread in the fridge over night? I would love to be able to serve a fresh loaf for breakfast.
So happy to hear that! I haven’t tried an overnight method yet for this bread, but I’ll definitely update the post if I test it out 🙂
Could I use maple syrup instead of honey so I could feed this to my daughter who isn’t yet one (and can’t have honey until then, according to her doctor)?
Yes, that should work!
This is our favorite bread. I have had trouble getting bread to come out the way I’d like it to be but this is perfect every time. I often substitute molasses for the honey and it works very well. Perfect crust outside and a soft chewy inside. It’s so easy to make and freezes nicely.
So happy to hear that! My all-time fav, too 🙂
Can you use sourdough starter as a sub in this recipe? If so – how? Thanks!
I haven’t tried baking with a sourdough starter so I’m not 100% sure – sorry!
can i make it in a breadmachine
I haven’t tried it but I would imagine that should work!
I wish I could post a photo of my loaf!! I’m not good at baking. I have been intimidated to make bread, but have always wanted to try. Monique, you had me feeling ambitious (😉) and I am so proud of myself! I followed along with the YouTube video tutorial and it was a success. My kitchen smells amazing and the bread tastes unreal! Now I am emboldened to make other types of bread too. 😊 Thank you for making baking accessible and fun!! 🧡
I wish I could upload an image of my successful bread! I’m not good at baking. I have been intimidated to make bread, but have always wanted to try. Monique, you inspired me to be ambitious (😉) and give this one a try since you have not let me astray with any other recipes! I followed along with the YouTube video tutorial (which is very slightly different than what is written here, but not by too much!). My house smelled amazing and I am so proud of myself! It tastes delicious and now I am emboldened to make other types of bread too. Thanks for making me a bread maker!!! 😊
This is delicious! I made lots of modifications based on what I had on hand.
I didn’t have any seeds, so I used oatmeal as directed and generously sprinkled it on top. I also didn’t have any milk (dairy or otherwise) and just used water. I swapped honey for maple syrup. I could’ve reduced the liquid a bit, there was lots of added flour at shaping to get it to resemble a shaggy ball, but I’m thrilled. This loaf might not last 24 hours lol.
Perfect! So glad you loved it!
I love the flavor of this bread, but mine keeps coming out flat. I weigh ingredients and it’s wet after the first 2 hours. I sprinkle with flour and do the folds then wait again. It spreads out in mg Dutch which likely makes it even more flat. Any suggestions for improvement? Could I bake in a bread pan?
Try a smaller dutch oven! It could be that your base is too wide.