Easy Bone Broth Bread Recipe

An experimental recipe that’s become a stable in my house

Drinking bone broth neat, as is the recommended way to enjoy all of the benefits, isn't really for me. So I use mine in soups as a stock, gravies, and now, in bread.

Using bone broth in place of water gives the loaf the most warming, malty depth of flavour. It's become a staple in my house.

I was, I'll confess, a lockdown cliché. I did the sourdough thing; fed the starter daily, made bread, cinnamon buns, pizzas. It was genuinely wonderful, in the way that lockdown projects could be when you didn’t have anywhere to be.

But then life picked back up and my sourdough starter slowly died. This active dried yeast recipe is everything I needed instead. It’s easy, low-fuss, requires minimal kneading, and it’s genuinely deliciously malty.

For a small, deeply flavoured loaf, you'll need...

• 390g bread flour. You can use strong white on its own, or a 50:50 mix of strong white and wholemeal or seeded bread flour

• 2 teaspoons of salt

• 4 teaspoons of active dried yeast. I use the Doves Farm yeast, but I’m sure any active dried yeast will work just fine

• 300ml chicken bone broth. You'll want to have your bone broth ready before you start. Follow my recipe here, or use a good quality shop-bought version. I tend to roast a chicken on Sundays and leave the bone broth ticking away in the slow cooker overnight, and it's ready by morning.

Equipment:

• A bread proving basket, banneton or a medium mixing bowl

• A dutch oven with a lid

This is a low effort, serious flavour recipe. Here’s how to bake bone broth bread…

1 | Measure

Weigh out all the dry ingredients and tip them into a large bowl.

2 | Warm the broth

Gently warm the bone broth in a pan until tepid.

You want it just below lukewarm to the touch, not hot. If it gets too warm, leave it to cool before using, otherwise it may stop the yeast from doing it’s magic.

3 | Mix and rest

Pour the tepid broth into the dry ingredients and stir until everything comes together. No kneading yet, just mix, cover with a tea towel, and leave somewhere warm for 2 hours.

If the kitchen is cool, I put mine in the airing cupboard on top of a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel, or leave it in the room with the fire going.

4 | Knead and prove

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 4–5 minutes. That's genuinely all it needs, this isn't an overly kneady bread. (Sorry. I had to.)

Shape into a round and place into a proving basket or bowl. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.

While the dough proves, put the dutch oven, with it’s lid on, into the oven and heat to 220°C, or as hot as your oven will go.

5 | Bake

Place a piece of baking paper over your banneton or bowl and tip your bread upright so it’s sitting on the baking paper. Then, lower it into the hot dutch oven.

Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes.

6 | Encourage a crispy cust

After 30 minutes in the oven, remove the lid and reduce the temperature to 200°C. Bake for a further 10 minutes until the crust is deep and golden.

7 | The best part

Leave to cool for a little while and enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread fill your home.

When it’s cooled, slice and eat with plenty of salted butter dipped into soups or as part of a hearty ploughman’s lunch.

If you’re a Marmite person, this bread makes an exceptional toast and Marmite combo too.

This bread is the final chapter of a Sunday roast done properly. The chicken fed us once, the broth made stock for the week, and now it's in the bread too.

Nothing wasted, everything delicious. That's the kind of cooking that feels most wholesome.

📍 Save to Pinterest for January marmalade season…