This Easy No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Artisan Bread is the BEST savoury bread for sandwiches! It’s packed with spicy pickled jalapeños and real cheddar cheese, and it’s SO easy to make!

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This No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Artisan Bread is a savoury version of my Easy No Knead Artisan Bread that I shared as one of my very first recipes on this blog! One of my favourite variations of that recipe is this No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Artisan bread – it’s SO cheesy and spicy, and it’s GREAT For sandwiches!! And the best part? It’s SO easy to make it’s almost embarrassing, so anyone can do it! And with my pro tips below, you’ll be a total Artisan Bread pro!

Pro tip#1: Pre-heat your Dutch Oven pot before baking.
This bread is baked in an oven-safe Dutch Oven pot which traps in steam, making the crust of the loaf extra crispy and golden brown! If you’re looking for a great Dutch Oven pot, I will tell you that it’s one of the best investments you can ever make for your kitchen – mine is a total beauty from Le Creuset (affiliate link) and I use it multiple times a week throughout the year for soups, stews, sauces, curries, and of course for baking this bread (if you want my original Dutch Oven Crusty Bread recipe, get it HERE!). A pot like this one is definitely a financial investment, but considering how much I use mine and considering its high quality, it’s definitely a worthy investment that will last you for 10 or 20 years. I’ve also used similar cast iron pots from other brands, like THIS ONE from KitchenAid and THIS ONE from Lodge Cast Iron (both affiliate links) if you’re looking for something a little less expensive but still high quality – they’re both great!
Pro Tip #2: Shape your loaf firmly but gently and dust the top of the loaf with flour.
Creating a round shape will help the loaf bake evenly and dusting the top with flour will create that gorgeous, bakery-style appearance that everyone loves!
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Why you should NEVER cut into a hot loaf of bread
Pro Tip #3: Let the loaf cool completely (or almost) before cutting into it!!
Resist the urge to slice the bread while it’s hot. Did you know that after removing a loaf of bread from the oven it continues to bake inside as it cools?? Slicing into this gorgeous loaf too early will cause the inside of the loaf to be under-cooked and gummy. Letting the loaf cool completely before slicing ensures the perfect fluffy texture when you slice into it!

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I hope you love this No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Artisan Bread as much as we do! Let me know in the comments below, what’s your favourite homemade bread recipe? I’d love to know!
KITCHEN PRODUCTS I RECOMMEND:
Looking for even more delicious bread recipes? You’ll LOVE these:
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Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
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Healthier Cornbread
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Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
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Easy No Knead Artisan Bread
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Easy No Knead Cinnamon Raisin Artisan Bread
EASY NO-FAIL HOMEMADE BREAD RECIPES AND BAKING TIPS
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Recipe Video
Watch the video below to see exactly how I make this quick snack. You can find more delicious recipe videos on my YouTube channel
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Easy No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Artisan Bread

Recipe: Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapenos (or more, if you wish!)
- 1 1/2 cups water at room temperature
Recipe: Instructions
- Start with a large bowl and a wooden spoon, and add your flour to the bowl. Measure the yeast and add it to one side of the bowl. Measure the salt and add it to the other side.
- Using a wooden spoon, stir the yeast into the flour on its side of the bowl first and then stir the salt into the flour on its side of the bowl. This will prevent the salt mixing directly with the yeast. Give the whole mixture a few good stirs to make sure everything is combined.
- Add the sharp cheddar cheese and the sliced jalapenos to the flour mixture and stir until well coated and evenly distributed.
- Once the dry ingredients are combined, measure the water. Make sure the water is at room temperature; water that is too warm or too cold can kill the yeast and prevent the bread from rising at all. Pour the water in and stir with a wooden spoon. The dough will be rough and a bit sticky, but that's normal.
- Stir until all the flour is combined. This is not normal bread dough (there's no kneading involved in this recipe), so you don't need to be too concerned about the appearance of the dough at this point. Just make sure the ingredients are combined well.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It's a good idea to ensure there's adequate space left in the bowl for the dough to at least double in size. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free place and let it rise for 12-18 hours.
- After the dough has risen for 12-18 hours, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your Dutch oven with the lid on in the cold oven and let it heat up with the oven.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it with flour. Rub flour on your hands and scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl, gathering it in your hands as best you can (it may feel kind of fluid and not at all like regular bread dough) and forming it into a circular loaf on the parchment paper. Don't worry if it still looks a little rough in places. This lends to the rustic look of this loaf.
- Once you have it shaped, the dough needs to undergo a second rise (much shorter than the first). The goal is to handle the dough as little as possible at this stage because any amount of tugging at the rough can cause it to deflate after it has undergone its second rise. The next few steps will help prevent this. But don't worry if it deflates a bit. This bread dough is pretty forgiving.
- Sprinkle flour over the top of the loaf and loosely cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming over the dough. The flour also prevents the plastic wrap from sticking to the dough so when you take it off at the end of the rise, it doesn't disturb the dough and wreck the rustic shape you've created. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes. Your oven will also be preheating during this time (and so will your pot).
- Once 45 minutes have passed remove the plastic wrap from the dough and trim the parchment paper into a circle closely around the dough. If it doesn't look like the dough has risen that much, don't worry about it. The loaf will puff up a bit when it hits the heat of the oven.
- Remove the preheated pot from the oven and transfer the dough into the pot as carefully as possible by handling only the parchment paper. Place the lid on the pot and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven during this time, and certainly don't take the lid off the pot; the crispness of the crust develops because of the steam that builds up in the pot during this 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes have passed, remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for another 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes have passed, remove the pot with bread from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. You'll probably hear it crackling as it cools - this is normal.
- If you can, resist the urge to cut into the bread until it has pretty much cooled completely. The bread continues to bake on the inside even after it has been removed from the oven and cutting it too early could result in the inside becoming gummy or rubbery.
Recipe: Notes
Quick rise method:
- Add 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast instead of the amount listed in the recipe.
- Rise for 2 hours and follow the recipe directions after the rise time as written.
No Knead Bread Troubleshooting Tips:
- If your dough seems too fluid after the first rise, simply add 1/3 cup of flour to the top of the dough and mix it in, shaping the loaf into a round shape to rise again while the oven pre-heats.
- If your loaf falls or flattens during the second rise, simply re-shape before baking into as tight a ball as possible (creating surface tension should prevent the dough from falling).
- Add 1 tablespoon of Vital Wheat Gluten to the dough with the flour to create a very voluminous dough that rises beautifully every single time and isn't too dense.
- If the bottom crust of your bread burns or becomes too hard or tough, it's likely that the bottom burner of your oven is too hot OR you're using a pot that's black on the inside (these conduct heat more efficiently than one that's a light colour on the inside). Try lowering your oven temperature by 25 degrees, using the convection setting, or using a different pot that's light in colour on the inside.
- Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven temperature is correct. If your oven runs hot, lower the temperature of your oven by 25 degrees to be sure you don't burn the bread.
Recipe: Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.

I had a really hard time shaping it after the first rise. It was really fluid and whenever I did try to shape it it just flattened out. Should I be adding more flour when shaping? Or is this normal?
You can add more flour when shaping, but it sounds like you didn’t use quite enough flour to begin with if your dough is too fluid (or you added too much liquid).
Hello,
Silly question , but you need to grease or oil the Dutch oven before adding the bread to it?
Thanks!
Nope! Line with a bit of parchment paper to prevent sticking!
Do you think I can use fresh jalapeno for this recipe? 🙂 If so, you would just chop them and add?
Yes, absolutely. Just chop them and add them as directed.
My Dutch oven is only oven safe up to 350…is it possible to adjust the temp & time? Or would that make the bread come out weird?
It likely won’t crisp up at a lower temperature, however any oven-safe pan with a lid will work for this recipe. It doesn’t have to be a cast iron dutch oven.
Follows the instructions and let the bread cool down for 45 minutes on cooling wrack. Cut open and the bread is gooey. What did I do wrong!
Taste is amazing though.
Hmmm it sounds like there was too much liquid in the dough, or it was under-baked. This can happen if your oven temperature is lower than it should be. Hope that helps!
At the temperature the oven was set at the outside (mainly the bottom) of my bread was pretty dark. Wouldn’t turning up the heat likely cause this to burn? Or should I try to lower the temperature and heat longer?
(This was actually my very first bread made so it’s experimenting from here on for me)
I’ll also try a loaf with less water.
I’m wondering if I had too small a Dutch oven (3.5q)
Hi
Made this the other day it was good
But I found it to be dense and heavy is it supposed to
Yes, this bread is pretty dense. It’s an artisan-style bread 🙂
It is a great recipe. I was going to make it when my grandson came to visit.He doesn’t like jalepeno peppers so he made his with fill pickles and cheese. Both loaves of bread turned out fantastic. He is tweive. He was impressed with himself that he could make bread. Thanks so much for the recipe.
So glad you to hear you two enjoyed doing the recipe! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment! 🙂
Is it better to cube the cheese or shred it?
I’ve done it both ways and either works well!
Hi, thank you for recipe.I’m going to attempt making it tomorrow and have one question. Once I remove dutch oven from the oven after baking process is over do I take bread out of dutch oven to cool it on wire rack? Thank you again.
Yes!
Can you make this with fresh jalapenos? Or do they have to be pickled?
Feel free to make it with fresh if you like! 🙂
Can you substitute fresh jalapeños for pickled? Or does it need the vinegar?
Feel free to use fresh jalapenos 🙂
How big is the Dutch oven?
It’s a 28 cm (serves 6-8 people, 6.7 liters). 🙂
When making the jalapeño bread, when you transfer it to the pot, do you keep the dough on the parchment paper in the pot? Or try to jiggle it off the paper??
You can do either – I bake it with parchment to make sure nothing sticks, but you can do it without as long as you flour the pot.
How long doesn’t the bread last for? (If it’s not all eaten anyway😋)
It’s best the day it’s made, but we eat it for 2 days afterward as toast 🙂
Can you use fresh jalapenos?
Yes, absolutely!
I live in Canada. I made this yesterday starting early in the morning. I used marble cheese and fresh jalapeño. After the 12 hours had passed I dumped out the dough on the counter and it was supremely liquidy. I had to add at least another cup of flour to even begin to shape it. Nonetheless, I put it on the parchment paper and waited another hour. It did not rise at all. I still baked it according to the instructions and because it was so flat I did not bake it for the extra 15 minutes. When it was cool I sliced it into squares and it was really really delicious. I wud make this recipe again but probably double it for a bigger volume. Really good tasting bread tho. 🙂
So glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! 🙂
How many qts should dutch oven be.
I have a 7.25 quart dutch oven.
I have a bounty of fresh jalapenos from my garden, do i have to pickle them before doing trying this recipe?
Feel free to use fresh jalapenos 🙂 Enjoy!
I have several fresh jalapeños I need to use up, would they work in this recipe?
Feel free to use fresh jalapenos. Let me know how you like it! 🙂
Want to make this, however I have no canned jalapeños BUT I have fresh, would these work??? I’m so excited!
Feel free to use fresh jalapenos 🙂 Enjoy!