Give Your Oven A Break And Make A Loaf Of Bread In Your Slow Cooker

Used correctly, slow cookers are kind of magical. A combination of robust insulation and low, steady temperatures keeps dishes like spicy slow cooker beef chili simmering for hours, meaning you can essentially make dinner first thing in the morning and come home to a deliciously savory and filling dinner as soon as you get home. The same goes for breakfast — apple cinnamon slow cooker steel cut oats stew to creamy perfection overnight so you can wake up to a warm, hearty breakfast full of fiber, vitamins, and delicious flavors.

Slow cookers are also unexpectedly perfect for baking soft, spongy, moist loaves of bread. This may not be a surprise to anyone who's used a slow cooker to make the perfect loaf of cornbread, but for novice bakers or those new to slow cookers, this revelation may be truly life-changing. While baking bread in a slow cooker takes longer than oven-baked bread (about two hours, set on high), you can basically set it and forget it during that time. This frees up more time to prep other parts of a holiday meal or plan dinners for the week.

The best part of making bread in your slow cooker is that you can simply mix up your dough, plop it into the parchment-lined insert, flip the slow cooker on, and let things bake. There's no need to let it rise, as the baking time is long enough to allow the bread's lift to develop as it bakes, rather than letting it proof.

Possibly the most important thing to remember when baking bread this way is that you must line the ceramic insert with parchment paper. Cooking spray won't be as effective because the reaction between the heat and oil will very likely scorch the outside of your bread. Using parchment paper, on the other hand, keeps your bread from sticking and doesn't transfer enough heat to burn the crust. If you don't mind a rustic loaf with "wrinkled" sides, simply push a big square of parchment paper down into the insert, pressing it firmly into the bottom edge to form a crease.

If you'd prefer to have more uniform bread, you can find specially made parchment paper slow cooker and air fryer liners — or you can line a loaf pan with parchment paper and plop your dough inside for a more traditionally shaped loaf. When using a loaf pan, slip it inside the slow cooker to make sure it fits easily. It's okay if the corners touch the insert, but you shouldn't have to force it in, as this could scratch the ceramic liner or cause the loaf pan to get stuck and ruin your slow cooker.

Something else to think about is that slow cooker bread doesn't have quite the same texture and shape as oven-baked versions. Though slow cookers make incredibly fluffy pancakes, bread baked in them will produce a short, round loaf perfect for pairing with soups and stews.