The fact that you can make homemade bread in a slow cooker shouldn’t surprise me. I mean, you can make meat, soups, stews, macaroni and cheese, fruit butter, yogurt, spaghetti sauce, veggies – even dessert! I don’t think there’s anything you CAN’T make in a slow cooker.
But BREAD in a slow cooker?! Time-laden, kneading-required, yeast-filled bread? Yeah.Right. I thought that only fared well in a real oven, not in a kitchen counter appliance created so that home chef’s didn’t have to stand monitor over a hot stove for hours.
Fortunately for all of us who love homemade bread but don’t always have time to make it, I was wrong.
PS – if you’re looking to expand your repertoire of slow-cooker meals, follow me on Pinterest. I’m constantly adding new recipes to the boards, including the slow-cooker board!
In case you hadn’t heard, our oven broke last December – just two weeks before Christmas.
Yes, it was inconvenient in that we had to find alternate methods for cooking pizza on family night and yes, we had to buy bread for the first time in well over a year, but in the grand scheme of things, not having an oven really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
We made tortillas and pita flatbread on the griddle. Baked a double chocolate peanut butter lava cake in the slow cooker. We also pan-fried chicken, ate lots of tacos and basically “made do” with what we had. Meals were good, cooking got creative and no one starved. Mission accomplished.
Well, except for the yearly Christmas cookie bonanza. Some of our favorite recipes were put on hold for a few weeks during this oven debacle, though we were able to snag a few while visiting family out of town… and according to my post-holiday waistline, their oven worked perfectly!
Once we got back from vacation we officially looked into getting the oven fixed. Our first method of repair was to order a part recommended by a neighbor and fix it ourselves. Unfortunately, he didn’t really know what he was doing and we were afraid to mess with the gas lines and end up making a bad situation worse. Blown-up house = bad.
Our second option was to call another friend who is skilled at this sort of thing, but he was busy and we were busy and our schedules just weren’t jiving. Y’all know how that goes, right?
Finally, our third option was to call landlord’s maintenance. Looking back in hindsight, we should have done this in the first place. Which is how this whole “bread in a slow cooker” idea came about… Lesson learned.
Meanwhile, amidst the issue of trying to get the oven fixed was another issue – eating. The family was growing weary of tortillas and pita flatbreads. Store-bought sourdough was getting expensive and I was getting grouchy because my bread-loving family was inhaling $3 worth of bread in one meal and the cost of those pretty loaves was adding up.
Money-Saving Tip: One of my lessons in Grocery Budget Bootcamp is to evaluate what are the best items for you to make from scratch. Bread is on the top of the list in my home. We love bread and making it from scratch saves a ton!
Finally, it dawned on me that the slow cooker might be able to do the trick. Sure, there would be some adaptations needed, but if it could bake a cake, it could bake bread, right?
RIGHT!
Armed with a freshly kneaded loaf of rosemary olive oil bread, I gave the “bread in a slow cooker” a chance in the spotlight.
Holy smokes. It turned out AMAZING! Mr. Crumbs said it was the best sandwich bread he had ever had and even preferred it over traditional oven-baked bread. Now THAT’S saying a lot!
How to Bake Homemade Bread in a Slow Cooker
A few notes worth mentioning on this method:
- It will work for any bread recipe that calls for two rises. It very well might work for one rise and even quick breads, but I haven’t tried those yet. Those experiments are coming in the next few weeks.
- Your bread will come out fully cooked and soft, but it will not have that golden brown crunchy crust that the oven is known for. You can run the loaf under the broiler or use a mini blow torch to achieve that same hard crust if you desire.
- This method would be AMAZING for soft dinner rolls! Here’s my favorite recipe if you want to give it a try.
- The shape of your slow cooker will make a difference. Use a machine whose capacity is twice the size of your unbaked dough. I have this slow cooker.
- Because slow cooker temperatures vary, don’t leave the house on your first attempt. You’ll need to time your slow cooker to see how long it takes your bread to reach the appropriate temperature. Once you’ve successfully made a loaf, you’ll be able to set it and forget it. Or at least run an errand or go to storytime at the library.
- Handle the bread as little as possible while baking. Opening and closing the lid and testing for temperature can damage the loaf, so your first loaf may be a bit on the ugly side while you figure out the best timing of your slow cooker. Once you’ve got the details figured out, you’re good to go. Even ugly bread tastes good though!
- I hear it’s possible to bake the bread in a loaf pan… but I haven’t tried it myself and therefore can’t vouch for it. And if you have a smaller slow cooker, your loaf pan probably won’t fit anyway unless you use mini loaf pans.
Alright then – here’s the how-to!
- Grease the bottom and sides of your slow cooker well with butter and set aside. (We use this slow cooker.)
- Follow the bread recipe according to the instructions through the first rise and shaping of the dough. Place unbaked dough in the buttered slow cooker and turn it on high. The bread will complete its second rise and bake at the same time.
- Allow bread to bake for 45 minutes and check internal temperature using an instant read thermometer. Bread is done when the internal temperature reaches 180-200 degrees. This may take up to 3 hours, depending on the slow cooker. After the initial 45 minutes, check the temperature every 30 minutes until you are familiar with the timing of your slow cooker.
- The bottom and sides of the bread will become a beautiful golden brown, but the top will remain pale.
Pros to Homemade Bread in a Slow Cooker
- Doesn’t heat up your house
- Can bake bread and leave the house
- Bread is much softer than oven-baked
- Frees up the oven for other items
Cons to Homemade Bread in a Slow Cooker
- Can only bake one loaf at a time
- Takes longer to bake one loaf
- Requires planning ahead since you can’t use your slow-cooker for two things at once
- Loses signature flaky crust
Lesson Learned: Just because you don’t have an oven (or don’t want to heat up your house because it’s the middle of July and a blazing 500F outside) doesn’t mean you can’t bake bread in a slow cooker!
Here are a few of our favorite recipes to get you started:
- Beer Bread
- Potato Buttermilk Bread
- Rosemary Olive Oil Bread
- Sourdough Bread
- Very Little Bother Oat Bread
- Soaked Whole Wheat Bread
- Man Bread
I’d be interested to see how a loaf of sourdough bread in a slow cooker would turn out… Hmmm…
I’ve made a few loaves of the Artisan 5 minutes a day bread in my slow cooker. It’s great because you leave the no knead dough in the fridge in a large container, then when you want it, just pull out a loaf size ball, and it’s ready for the slow cooker straight away. I put it on parchment paper then place in slow cooker. As I do like crusty bread, I also turn it as soon as I can see the bottom half going brown, and the loaf is stable enough to be turned without wrecking it. I end up with crusty bread all the way round, and it’s yummy.
Oh wow – I haven’t tried going from fridge to slow cooker before. I’ll have to give it a go – thanks for the idea Sharon!
Made your Rosemary Olive Oil bread in the crockpot AND oven today! Rave reviews all around from everyone in the family! This bread will become a frequent occurrence in our home now! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
That slow cooker double chocolate peanut butter lava cake sounds delicious! I cant find a recipe for it anywhere. Do you have a recipe?
My crockpot only does warm, low and high, not temp adjustment. Which do I use for this?
I did this bread today… It was so delicious…., but the dough seemed a bit
raw, although the temperature has reached 182 F.
Did it cool all the way? The bread continues to cook after it’s pulled out of the oven. A full 20-30 minutes is needed to completely cool, but to be honest, it rarely lasts that long!!
I prove our bread in the slow cooker on low for an hour, then crank it up to high for about 1hr 45mins. Worth checking every 30mins from the 1hr mark if you’re using a new recipe/ready mix. Then I brown the top under the grill just to give it a little crust.
You can also put water in the bottom of the slow cooker and bake the bread in a bread tin if you prefer a more square shape.
Intriguing! We often stop baking in summer so we don’t heat up the house, and this would be a great work-around. (Since we’re currently excited it’s up to 12 degrees, baking is the method of choice at the moment.)
LOL, I think my blood as gotten used to our moderate temperatures. I don’t even know what I’d do with myself if it was only 12!! 😉
Looking forward to trying this method in the summer. I confess that homemade bread becomes scarce when the temperatures start to soar. We cool our house by pulling in cooler air overnight and then sealing things up during the day to keep the cool in. So baking just doesn’t get a high priority. We have learned to make pizza very successfully on the grill but homemade bread would take a backseat in summer. I do cook many a meal on the porch in my crockpot in the summer but never thought about doing bread. Thanks for all the great info!
You’re most welcome Kristine!!
I’m happy to find this. My oven broke yesterday and I found this on a search today. Thanks.
You’re most welcome Ka! Enjoy! 🙂
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT put the whole batch of Very Little Bother Oat Bread in the crock pot!! LOL. Lets just say it was the ugly betty of all bread loaves. Still delicious though! Tiffany, when you said to make sure that the slow cooker was twice the size of your bread, I thought you meant BEFORE rising. Oops. Still laughing about it. Next time I will just put in half. Maybe I can freeze the other half? Has anyone ever baked frozen bread dough in their slow cooker? Mmm… I think there might be a Crumbs post about that somewhere.
Oh Michelle, that surely won’t be a problem after I MELTED MY CROCKPOT IN THE OVEN! LOL, even still, I should probably make note that you can only bake one LOAF of bread at a time, not an entire batch? When you’re dealing with two loaves, put the second loaf in the fridge during the first rise of loaf #1. Then pull loaf #2 out for its first rise while loaf #1 is baking. When loaf #1 is done, #2 should be ready for the crockpot. I have not tried baking frozen bread in a crockpot, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!
I dont know if I can reply here but will try
I have baked a loaf of frozen Rhodes dough in the slow cooker. It was really good all I remember us putting it in a greased foil loaf pan not a big one nor mini still big big so squashed the sides in a tad.
My AC was out and it was 100 degrees. I made bread with my regular bread recipe by setting a reusable cookie sheet liner on my electric griddle and making two rectangular 7″x10″ flat breads (just make sure they fit your griddle perfectly. I let them rise the regular amount of time, removed the liner from the griddle and then set then preheated to 350. I then returned the bread to the griddle and baked 6-7 minutes on each side. They were very brown but not burned. Turning was tricky, but I did it with two pancake spatulas and it worked. I cut the finished flatbreads into 6 pieces each that reminded me of english muffins. I sliced open each piece and got 12 sandwiches. My usual loaf is only about 16 slices, so the bread went a little farther which I liked. My kids all thought this was a wonderful treat. My loaf of bread normally cooks 55 minutes, so this saved me sooo much time. I’ll be making bread this way a lot in the future.
Way to improvise Regina! I can see doing bread on a griddle… similar to biscuits, but a much larger scale. Nice, flatter pieces of bread would make some great grilled sandwiches too! Thanks for sharing your method!
Hi Tiffany! I made pretzels last night and had a lot of dough left over, so I let it rise and figured I’d give crock pot bread a try. I don’t have a thermometer, however and am wondering if there are other ways for me to check for doneness?
Hi Nikki! You can do a visual test – the edges/bottom should be a medium/dark brown (being so close to the heat) and the top will be lighter. It should be mostly firm on the center top and barely uncooked, if any. Hope this helps, and that your bread comes out delicious!!
Awesome! Thank you 🙂
Just ran the recipe off and will try it when we get back from running errands. My oven gave up the ship about 3 or so weeks ago – and my Breadmaker decided to “bit the dust” this week. My horoscope (which I very seldom read and do not take much stock in it) predicted a small appliance would give up. So on the mark!!! Saving for another breadmaker as they are so nice to have. Thanks for this recipe.
You’re most welcome JoAnn! I’m sorry to hear about your oven AND breadmaker giving up on you. Hopefully this will tie you over for a little bit. Darn those horoscopes. 😉
Can you make this bread with fast rise yheast or bread machine yheast. I have a machine but lost the paddle.
I don’t cook with fast rise yeast Kathleen, so I’m not sure what the difference is between the two. If bread machine yeast is the traditional dry active yeast, then yes! You can. 🙂
According to some “baking websites” the difference between fast-rise and traditional active yeasts is that the sizes of the yeast granules is different. Apparently fast-rise yeast has small granules so that it can be mixed directly into the flour mixture, whereas active dry yeast is in large granules, requiring mixing with water and proofing before mixing into flour mixture. Thanks for reminding me that i was curious about this too! love, jackie
Okay, dumb question, but I don’t SEE the bread recipe on this site. 🙁
Hi Mary!
I’ve got TONS of bread recipes for you to choose from. You can find them here: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/recipes/
Neato! We’ve pinned it!
Thanks Daja!
Thank you so very much for sharing this! We have been without an oven or four months, we use the toaster oven for cookies, and small things but bread doesn’t bake well in it. I cannot wait to try this!!!
You’re most welcome!
This sounds so good! I’m making your olive-oil rosemary bread right now, though I’m going to bake it in the oven since I didn’t start it soon enough for the crock-pot. Question: did you put the whole batch (dough for two loaves) in the crockpot, or halve the dough?
Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Christy! One recipe makes two loaves, so I put half a recipe (one loaf) in the fridge for a very long and slow first rise while did the normal instructions for the other loaf. Then when the slow cooker was done with loaf #1, I pulled the other from the fridge, shaped and put it in the slow cooker.
Okay! Thanks, that makes sense. 🙂 We loved the bread! It was the first time in a looooooooong time that I’ve made homemade bread! I was so happy to have such a treat for literally pennies (we already had wheat and own a wheat grinder – I think the most expensive part was maybe the yeast?) compared to the $4-$5 I could spend on a loaf from a bakery. Hopefully this will become part of my cooking routine.
I’m so glad you guys liked Christy! Try buying yeast in bulk from Sams/Costco. You can get 32oz (I think) for $3-4 and it lasts a REALLY long time, and that’s with me baking bread each week. Just store it in the freezer and you’re good!
I’ve often wondered if this actually worked, I’ve seen it on Pinterest multiple times. I will have to give it a try!
I can attest – it does work! And it’s yummy!!