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
“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 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)
“Jim Lahey's My Bread expands on his no-knead, bread-in-a-pot method, a revolutionary development that allows even once-hopeless bakers like me to produce wonderful loaves of thick-crusted goodness. In the professional arena, Jim is the acknowledged master of bread, dough, and crust. Chefs, foodies, and food nerds flock to his bakery and to his pizza joint. He is to bread what the Dalai Lama is to Buddhism.” (Anthony Bourdain)
“Rustic. Simple. Italian. Divine. I was hooked on Jim's bread from the very first taste of my first Sullivan Street loaf. He is truly the zen-master of bread baking.” (Mario Batali)
“The secret to making a foolproof, nearly labor-free loaf that tastes as delicious as anything from a baker..... [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 that 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.” (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)
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