This no-knead Instant Pot bread recipe is a great way to enjoy a hearty loaf of bread without baking it in the oven!

Instant Pot bread reminds me of one of my absolute favorite no-knead bread recipes: English muffin bread! It’s delicious warm or toasted, topped with butter and honey or jam.

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The Instant Pot really is a busy mom’s best friend. It seems like it can do practically everything!

Whether you’re making Instant Pot soups or easy yogurt or reheating leftovers, this simple appliance can really simplify life.

Perhaps one of the most surprising uses for this handy kitchen tool is that you can make bread in the Instant Pot!

I first started using my Instant Pot to help dough to rise for my favorite Instant Pot dinner rolls. In that case, the dough rises in the Instant Pot and then the rolls are baked in the oven. (Check out my full instructions for how to proof dough in the Instant Pot).

You can also use the Instant Pot proofing method with Instant Pot pizza dough, restaurant-style naan bread, this easy french bread, and my homemade soft pretzels!

But since I’d had success “baking” a bundt cake in the Instant Pot, I began to experiment with actually “baking” bread in the Instant Pot.

The result was even better than I expected!

How to Make Instant Pot Bread

In order to “bake” bread in the Instant Pot, it’s important to choose a bread variety that can bake in a dish that will fit in your Instant Pot.

Since the Instant Pot operates on steam, you have to have water in the insert pot.

Baking the dough in water clearly won’t work, so the dough has to be in a separate dish that sits above the water in the insert pot. This is known as the pot-in-pot method of cooking in the Instant Pot.

For ease of preparation and clean-up, a recipe that allows the dough to rise in the same dish it will bake in is a fabulous option. That’s how this no-knead Instant Pot bread recipe came to be!

In a mixing bowl, you’ll combine some water, yeast, salt, and sugar. Allow this to “proof” for a few minutes. This means you’ll wait a few minutes until the mixture starts to foam a bit–that is a good sign that your yeast is alive and well!

Add in the flour and stir to make the dough.

Form the dough into a rounded shape and transfer the dough to a greased heat-safe baking dish that will fit into your insert pot. I use this versatile Corningware baking dish, which fits perfectly in my 6-quart Instant Pot DUO60.

Related Article: The Best Pot-in-Pot Accessories for the Instant Pot

Add water to your insert pot and set the trivet into the insert pot. Next, lower the baking dish onto the trivet.

Use the Yogurt setting to allow the dough to rise for one hour. At this point, the dough had increased in volume to be at the top of my baking dish.

After the hour has passed, turn off the Yogurt setting by pressing Cancel. Loosely cover the dish of dough with a piece of foil to prevent condensation from dripping on it.

Next, select a 45 minute cook time at high pressure, followed by a natural release of pressure.

This part is totally optional, but after the pressure has released, you can remove the foil and transfer the baking dish to the oven to brown the top of the bread if desired.

I actually used my Mealthy CrispLid for this purpose (have you seen this thing yet? It turns your pressure cooker into an air fryer!).

I simply poured out the water from the insert pot and unplugged the Instant Pot, put the baking dish back in on top of the trivet, and used the CrispLid at 500F for about 4-5 minutes. This gave the top a lovely golden-brown color.

Using the Instant Pot to Make Bread

Making bread in the Instant Pot is different than baking it in the oven, primarily due to the fact that the Instant Pot is a moist environment and the oven is a dry environment. This does affect the consistency just a bit, particularly the outside crust.

I use foil to cover the bread during cooking, so that condensation doesn’t drip onto the top.

If you prefer to bake your bread in the oven, you can always use the Instant Pot to rise the dough, then transfer it to the oven for baking.

This version is VERY similar to English muffin bread in texture. It’s fabulous served warm or toasted, then topped with butter and honey, Instant Pot peach jam or strawberry jam, or Instant Pot apple butter.

How to Make Instant Pot Bread with No Yogurt Button

If your Instant Pot has a Yogurt setting, that’s what I recommend using, because it keeps the pot at a warm temperature that is perfect for yeast to thrive.

However, some Instant Pot models do not have a Yogurt button. This gets a little tricky, because the other settings (even Keep Warm) are a too hot for yeast.

In this case, my recommendation for this recipe is to pour the water into the insert pot. Turn on the Keep Warm function for just a few minutes to warm the water. Then, turn off the Keep Warm function, lower your dish of dough onto the trivet in the insert pot, and close the lid for an hour.

The residual heat in the water will help the dough rise without being too hot to kill the yeast.