This slow cooker white bread recipe is simple and delicious and perfect for when you want to bake at home, producing a crusty round loaf with soft white bread within.
I do love to make bread in a slow cooker and in fact you’ll find a lot of different recipes for bread made with yeast (as well as without yeast!) in the crockpot on my website.
Sometimes I run out of plain white bread so I need an easy white bread recipe to use at those times, and for me the easiness factor always involves convenience.
Convenience for me means leaving the loaf to bake while I get on with my work or go on a long walk. The slow cooker is the perfect solution for this!
White cob loaf
This recipe makes a plain crusty white bread loaf that is perfect for sandwiches, dipping into soup, serving with casseroles, stews or salads, or as toast.
The rounded shape of this bread makes it a cob loaf or boule, in other words the dough is shaped into a round before baking.
You don’t need a tin for this type of loaf, making it ideal for beginners at bread-making. You’ll find all my tips for shaping the dough into a round in the post below.
What’s more, all the colour on this loaf is achieved in your slow cooker – I didn’t need to put this bread in the oven at all. This is perfect for saving the pennies as you don’t need to switch on your oven at all!
The bread still has a nice crust to it even without going near an oven. How great is that!
Ingredients
To make this simple slow cooker white bread loaf you just need a few store cupboard ingredients.
Just check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the quantities you will need.
- strong white flour/bread flour – this type of flour is made with hard wheat varieties and has more gluten than other flours. This makes it more elastic and allows it to rise well.
- fast action yeast (also known as instant yeast) – I keep a few sachets of this in my baking cupboard, it is useful in case I run out of bread and seems to last pretty long (even past the expiry date I’ve found it to work well).
- salt – salt adds flavour to bread, if you ever leave it out by accident you’ll find the bread tastes very bland.
- olive oil – olive oil makes dough easier to knead and the bread easier to slice.
- water – water is vital for hydrating your dough, the salt and yeast will dissolve in the water, it is needed for the yeast to ferment, and is an important factor in the consistency of the bread.
Step by step
I use my large oval slow cooker for this slow cooker white bread (5.7 litre / 6 quarts).
You could also make this loaf in a smaller (oval) slow cooker e.g. 3.5 litre / 3.5 quarts) – just bear in mind that if you do, you might find that the loaf takes on the shape of the slow cooker pot more as there is less room to expand, so the overall shape would be oval rather than round.
- Put the strong flour in a large bowl, add the yeast on one side of the bowl then the salt on the other side of the bowl.
- Pour in the warm water then the olive oil.
- Stir the liquid into the flour mixture to form a dough. Use your hands to bring the dough together so all the flour is incorporated, then shape the dough into a rough ball and transfer to your work surface.
- Knead the dough for ten minutes (by hand, or alternatively you can use a dough hook in a stand mixer) until it is smooth and elastic.
- Form the dough into a round ball shape by folding the four edges into the centre in turn, as if making an envelope, then flipping the dough over so the folds are on the bottom. Next you need to drag the dough towards you creating tension against the surface which rounds it more.
If you are a beginner at making bread, this video has a good demonstration of how this is done and this guide has useful step by step explanation and instructions.
- Put the ball of dough on a piece of baking paper, in your slow cooker pot.
- Cook on low for 1 hour, with a tea towel/dish cloth under the lid to stop drips falling onto the bread. During this time the dough will prove and it should double in size.
- Next, switch your slow cooker to high and cook for 1.5 hours approx. Now you are baking the bread and it will start to cook and brown on the underside through contact with the hot slow cooker pot.
After the 1.5 hours, flip it over to brown the top of the bread (you’ll see the brown bottom of the bread as shown here).
If you like you can remove the sheet of baking paper to increase contact with the pot, for better browning.
- Cook for a further 30-45 minutes until the top has browned. You can flip the bread back over (using an oven glove) to check the level of browning.
Remove from the slow cooker using oven gloves, allow to cool then slice and enjoy!
FAQ
Yes as seen in this recipe, the proving stage can be done in the slow cooker, using the low setting. This allows the bread to rise on a gentle heat so it doesn’t rise too quickly.
In this recipe which uses yeast you need to use strong bread flour rather than self-raising/rising flour. There are other types of bread recipe that use self-raising flour which you can make in your slow cooker or oven. My mozzarella and herb slow cooker bread is one of my most popular slow cooker bread recipes, and that is a no rise bread recipe that is made with self-raising flour.
To make bread I put a long piece of baking paper/parchment in the base of the slow cooker pot. This is useful as you can pull the bread out of the slow cooker using the edges of the paper without burning your fingers.
More to try
If you have caught the bread baking bug and want to make bread in the slow cooker all the time now, you might like:
Pin for later
Recipe
Slow Cooker White Bread
Ingredients
- 500 g strong bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 7 g fast action yeast (1 sachet or package)
- 300 ml water lukewarm
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Put the strong flour (500 g / 3 cups + 2 tbsp) in a large bowl, add the fast action yeast (1 sachet, 7 g, ¼ oz) on one side of the bowl then the salt (1 tsp) on the other side of the bowl.500 g strong bread flour, 7 g fast action yeast, 1 tsp salt
- Pour in the warm water (300 ml / 1 ¼ cups) then the olive oil (2 tbsp).300 ml water, 2 tbsp olive oil
- Stir the liquid into the flour mixture to form a dough. Use your hands to bring the dough together so all the flour is incorporated, then shape the dough into a rough ball and transfer to your work surface.
- Knead the dough for ten minutes (by hand or alternatively you can use a dough hook in a stand mixer) until it is smooth and elastic.
- Form the dough into a round ball shape by folding the four edges into the centre in turn, as if making an envelope, then flipping the dough over so the folds are on the bottom. Next you need to drag the dough towards you creating tension against the surface which rounds it more.
- Put the ball of dough on a piece of baking paper, in your slow cooker pot.
- Cook on low for 1 hour, with a tea towel/dish cloth under the lid to stop drips falling onto the bread. During this time the dough will prove and it should double in size.
- Next, switch your slow cooker to high and cook for 1.5 hours approx. Now you are baking the bread and it will start to cook and brown on the underside through contact with the hot slow cooker pot.
- After the 1.5 hours, flip it over to brown the top of the bread (you’ll see the brown bottom of the bread).
- If you like you can remove the sheet of baking paper to increase contact with the pot, for better browning.
- Cook for a further 30-45 minutes until the top has browned. You can flip the bread back over (using an oven glove) to check the level of browning.
- Remove from the slow cooker using oven gloves, allow to cool then slice and enjoy!
Libby says
I noticed that there is no sugar within the ingredients for the white bread recipe – I thought that a little sugar was needed to activate the yeast?
bakingqueen74 says
Hi, no it is quite common for there to be no sugar in bread recipes. If you google white bread recipe for example the top hits don’t have it. I believe it speeds fermentation but isn’t necessary.
Ian says
Baking paper all stuck to the bottom of the bread when I turned it over for the final 30 mins cook time!
Why?
bakingqueen74 says
I’d try using non-stick baking paper next time!
Ian says
Didn’t know I’d bought wrong paper! Will try again. Bread was great though! Thanks for replying x
bakingqueen74 says
I hope it helps for next time. Another tip I read was to wet the paper if it is stuck to bread, and it helps it to come off a bit. I’d also say look out for the dough being a bit sticky as that could cause this, maybe add a little more flour to stop it being too sticky.