Product Description

Lahey’s “breathtaking, miraculous, no-work, no-knead bread” (Vogue) has revolutionized the food world. When he wrote about Jim Lahey’s bread in the New York Times, Mark Bittman’s excitement was palpable: “The loaf is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I’ve used, and it will blow your mind.” Here, thanks to Jim Lahey, New York’s premier baker, is a way to make bread at home that doesn’t rely on a fancy bread machine or complicated kneading techniques. Witnessing the excitement that Bittman’s initial piece unleashed worldwide among bakers experienced and beginner alike, Jim grew convinced that home cooks were eager for a no-fuss way to make bread, and so now, in this eagerly anticipated collection of recipes, Jim shares his one-of-a-kind method for baking rustic, deep-flavored bread in your own oven.

The secret to Jim Lahey’s bread is slow-rise fermentation. As Jim shows in My Bread, with step-by-step instructions followed by step-by-step pictures, the amount of labor you put in amounts to 5 minutes: mix water, flour, yeast, and salt, and then let time work its magic—no kneading necessary. Wait 12 to 18 hours for the bread to rise, developing structure and flavor; then, after another short rise, briefly bake the bread in a covered cast-iron pot.

The process couldn’t be more simple, or the results more inspiring. My Bread devotes chapters to Jim’s variations on the basic loaf, including an olive loaf, pecorino cheese bread, pancetta rolls, the classic Italian baguette (stirato), and the stunning bread stick studded with tomatoes, olives, or garlic (stecca). He gets even more creative with loaves like Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread, others that use juice instead of water, and his Irish Brown Bread, which calls for Guinness stout. For any leftover loaves, Jim includes what to do with old bread (try bread soup or a chocolate torte) and how to make truly special sandwiches.

And no book by Jim Lahey would be complete without his Sullivan Street Bakery signature, pizza Bianca—light, crispy flatbread with olive oil and rosemary that Jim has made even better than that of Italy’s finest bakeries. Other pizza recipes, like a pomodoro (tomato), only require you to spread the risen dough across a baking sheet and add toppings before baking.

Here—finally—Jim Lahey gives us a cookbook that enables us to fit quality bread into our lives at home. color photos throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #152 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393066302
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The founder of New York's Sullivan Street Bakery, Lahey started a revolution in 2006 with his no-knead dough technique, in which flour, yeast, salt and water are mixed together quickly, left alone for 12 hours, then baked in a Dutch oven. The baking-averse found themselves suddenly capable of bread-making with a minimum of skill and fuss, opening a world of possibilities. In this wonderful compilation, Lahey elaborates on that method, explaining not only the science behind his approach but, through liberal use of photos, the technique as well. Once readers have mastered his basic dough (which won't take long), they're on their way to crafting homemade pizza, ciabatta, foccacia and rye as well as more playful variations such as peanut butter and jelly bread. While waiting for dough to rise, readers can pick from suggested sandwiches, such as Lahey's Cuban, made with Citrus Roast Porkand homemade pickles. Lahey's passion for bread-making and feeding people carries the book; his plainspoken advice and patient tutelage provide novices with a sure, steady hand to hold; and his methods will surely be adopted by chefs and bakers of all stripes.

Review
Starred Review. The founder of New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery, Lahey started a revolution in 2006 with his no-knead dough technique, in which flour, yeast, salt and water are mixed together quickly, left alone for 12 hours, then baked in a Dutch oven. The baking-averse found themselves suddenly capable of bread-making with a minimum of skill and fuss, opening a world of possibilities. In this wonderful compilation, Lahey elaborates on that method, explaining not only the science behind his approach but, through liberal use of photos, the technique as well. Once readers have mastered his basic dough (which won’t take long), they’re on their way to crafting homemade pizza, ciabatta, foccacia and rye as well as more playful variations such as peanut butter and jelly bread. While waiting for dough to rise, readers can pick from suggested sandwiches, such as Lahey’s Cuban, made with Citrus Roast Porkand homemade pickles. Lahey’s passion for bread-making and feeding people carries the book; his plainspoken advice and patient tutelage provide novices with a sure, steady hand to hold; and his methods will surely be adopted by chefs and bakers of all stripes. (Publishers Weekly )

From the Back Cover
Praise for Jim Lahey and the Sullivan Street Bakery:

“Mr. Lahey’s method is creative and smart. . . . What makes Mr. Lahey’s process revolutionary is the resulting combination of great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor—long fermentation gives you that—and an enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros. . . . With just a little patience, you will be rewarded with the best no-work bread you have ever made.”—Mark Bittman, New York Times

“The secret to baking a foolproof, nearly labor-free loaf that tastes as delicious as anything from a baker. . . . [Jim Lahey is] the most intuitive bread baker I have ever met.”—Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue

“Jim Lahey . . . opened the Sullivan St Bakery in 1994 selling breads no one in the city had made before. . . . Sullivan St became the name to look and ask for, and . . . became . . . the place to go for the incredibly airy, oil-brushed, lightly salted pizza Bianca, which is even better than that of the bakery in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori, Lahey’s model and mentor.”—Corby Kummer, The Atlantic

“It’s bread above all that [Lahey] knows and loves. . . . The man can do wonders with flour and water, massaged or not. . . . He can do fluffy, crunchy, supple, dense. He can do pizza Bianca—man, oh man, can he do pizza Bianca—those salty squares of almost entirely naked crust.”—Frank Bruni, New York Times

Customer Reviews

Great book from a great baker
I prefer bread books written by practicing bakers. I find that they usually reflect author's approach to bread-baking, his philosophy, and in my opinion such books are more complete and entertaining than the ones written by professional food writers, although there are some notable exception. So from that point of view a book by Jim Lahey, owner and founder of New York Sullivan Street Bakery is an obvious choice. There is another reason altogether though - arguably it was Mr. Lahey's recipe for no-knead-bread and publication by Mark Bittman in NY Times that started the resurgence of amateur bread baking. It was his recipe that transformed me from occasional to everyday baker. Therefore for me buying this book was a no brainer.
My first impression is very positive (I don't expect it to change). The book is printed in convenient 10x8" format on a high-quality glossy paper. Most but not all recipes are accompanied by photos, which make the process very clear. The recipes are given in cups and in metric units, a good thing in my opinion, but if you're used to ounces, you're a bit out luck, although quite a few recipes start with 280 g. of flour which is pretty much 10 oz. The layout is very clear, typeface makes it easy to read, there are no gaudy colors, and every recipe can be found in the table of contents.
There are six chapters. First comes highly personal, rather entertaining and mercifully short explanation of how Mr. Lahey became a baker and what bread represents to him. Second chapter is theory, it explains what the ingredients are, and how the process works. Third chapter is where the recipes begin, there's no-knead-bread itself and about dozen of breads based on it as well as some breads based on liquids other than water. Fourth chapter is pizza and focaccia. Brace yourself, you won't find much tomato sauce there and even less cheese. Fifth chapter is called "The Art of the Sandwich" and describes about a score of paninis and gives recipes for most ingredients that go into them - roasts, spreads, marinated vegetables, dressings, they are all there. The last chapter deals with the things you can do with the stale bread.
Sadly there're no sourdough recipes, and many Sullivan Street Bakery staple breads are not in the book, but then again it is not called "Sullivan Street Bakery Bread Book", so I can't fault the author for not including them, no matter how much I'd like them to be there.
So all in all it's an excellent book and highly recommend it. Seasoned baker or beginner, no matter, you will find something there that will make it worth the purchase. And mark my word, in a couple of months everyone and his uncle will have blogged about stecca.

First Time
I have done the bread machine and other quick methods of making bread for years. This is the first time ever that a loaf of bread has come out of my oven, that the taste and texture made me pinch myself. Could not believe that the slice of bread that I was eating came out of my oven. By the way this is also the first time that I have reviewed a cookbook, even though i have bought at least a hundred of them. This book does not have tons of recipes, but focuses on the technique. The descriptions and photos were very helpful. Can't wait to try the couple dozen varieties included within.

In which Jim Lahey answers the question, "What now?"
Three years ago, Jim Lahey's "No Knead Bread" recipe, written up by NYTimes food writer Mark Bittman (he of How to Cook Everything fame, ripped through the culinary blogosphere as one of the first really famous viral recipes. Though perhaps not very original, Lahey's bread technique, compatible as it is with a culture that relies heavily on convenience cooking and crockpots, became a flashpoint for a resurgence in home bread baking that helped pick up where the bread machine market had fallen off. Knockoffs, refinements, and alternate takes appeared, and even well-known instructors like Peter Reinhart brought their own skills to the party. But there's still nothing like a book from the man who started the ball rolling, and Lahey and coauthor Rick Flaste managed to put together an entirely worthwhile book not only on the bread, but on the many possible uses for it -- after all, a loaf of fresh bread is always good, but what do you do with it after it comes out of the oven, and how does the recipe work to begin with?

Hype is unavoidable, but so, too often, is letdown. "My Bread", despite the hyperbolic subtitle, avoids this by doing what smart inventors have been doing at least since Thomas Edison -- not just the invention itself, but an end-to-end framework; in fact, add a section on pastries and this could easily have been the "Sullivan St. Bakery Cookbook". Lahey begins with a brief biography of how his bakery came to be, then proceeds into a fairly thorough discussion (with some help from Harold McGee) of how the recipe actually works, with moisture and enzyme action doing the work overnight that would usually be done with muscle or motor power. He then follows with several examples of variations done with the same technique (including an Italian-style whole wheat bread and a pb&j loaf for kids), followed with a chapter on his bakery-style pizza and foccacia. At this point, the subject of the book has seemingly run out of gas, so he turns his attention to the most obvious use for his bread -- sandwiches. Starting with roast beef and pork and an assortment of condiments and vegetable preparations, he devotes a chapter to specialty sandwiches, before wrapping up the book with some soups, desserts, and other effective ways to use leftovers. The layout is clean and readable, with appetizing pictures and (woohoo!) metric weight measurements for every recipe.

It's far too easy to take a subject like this and slap it together with a pile of shovelware, so it's very refreshing to find someone who took what could have been a quick-and-dirty bid for money and take the project seriously. Lahey and Flaste's book was a long time coming, but when you consider the slapdash mess it could have been, it was worth it. For bread fans and kitchen geeks, this is one to go on the shelf next to Cookwise, Nancy Silverton, and The Bread Builders.