Skip to main content

Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

By



I’ve recently taken an interest in baking. Specifically, baking bread. Bread is another staple that, until recently, we always bought at the store. My first foray into baking bread came a few weeks ago when we were having sloppy joes for dinner (Gabrielle should post about the sloppy joe recipe she has, it’s really great). I started the joes and then realized that we didn’t have any bread or hamburger buns. I was just about to head out to the store when I decided to see if there was a recipe for buns online that looked fast and easy. I found one on allrecipes.com. I gave it a try and had pretty decent buns in a little over an hour.
I was so encouraged by the results that a few days later we headed to the bookstore to look for bread books. I really had no idea where to start. Gabrielle had read about Jim Lahey’s “no knead method” and luckily Greenlight Books had a copy of his book.
The book, My Bread, is well written, informative, and loaded with simple recipes and amazing pictures. Mr. Lahey has developed a way to make rustic Italian style breads at home. Here’s how it works: the very simple dough is allowed to ferment and rise slowly. One simply mixes the ingredients (flour, water, a bit of salt and a little yeast) and then lets the dough sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours, no kneading required. After the rise, and a short 2nd rise, the bread is baked in a covered baking dish (ceramic, enamel or cast iron) at a very high temperature. The covered baking vessel simulates the conditions inside a brick oven. The method is straight forward and very easy to follow. Most importantly, the results are stunning. My first two loaves looked like they came from an artisan bakery.

The “no knead method” has received quite a bit of praise and attention thanks to Mark Bittman at the New York Times. Jim Lahey wanted his recipe and method to be accessible to everyone; he even has a basic recipe available on his bakery’s website. I highly recommend buying the book though. In the book, you will find more detailed instructions and many helpful hints. There are also several recipes for different styles of bread, sandwich fixings and those great photos I mentioned.
I have started moving beyond Lahey’s basic bread and have had great success with whole-wheat rolls:

and this:

Peanut Butter and Jelly roll!

We haven’t bought bread at the store since I started baking and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Planning Ahead Week of 2/12/12

By
Another busy week and another week of failing to follow our meal plan. It seems like I'm starting to get caught up in late hours at work and overextending myself again. It's time to review those resolutions I made and start taking better care of myself. So, with that in mind, below is what we plan on making this week. Meal 1 - Roasted Chicken, onions and potatoes Meal 2 - Stirfry with chinese broccoli and mushrooms Meal 3 - Roasted turnips, shredded carrots with tahini dressing, couscous Meal 4 - Veggie burgers, kohlrabi salad Meal 5 - Enchiladas!! We have some friends coming over for dinner on Thursday and Craig is making homemade enchiladas - complete with homemade tortillas and enchilada sauce. Hot damn! We have some posts planned for the week, so be sure to check back.
Post a Comment
Read more

Using What You Can (or Freeze) - Radish and Corn Salad

By
Radish and Corn Salad A couple of weeks ago , I went a little nuts buying radishes. Thinking that they wouldn't be at the greenmarket too much longer, I bought quite a few bundles. Usually, I snack on radishes throughout the week, but given the amount I bought this time, I knew I was going to actually have to make something. I started flipping through Carol Gelles 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes . When Craig and I first moved in together, he was still a vegetarian. I bought this book then, to familiarize myself with some of the more common vegetarian recipes. I've used this book for years, but I don't think I've ever made a recipe from it exactly as specified. It's a great book to use for inspiration, and it seems to make it through every one of my annual cookbook purges. So, flipping through the book and looking at the frozen summer corn in my freezer, we put the following salad together. Radish and Corn Salad adapted from Carol Gelles "Red Radish Salad" serves...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planning Ahead Week of 1/29/12

By
what a difference a week makes! This is the time of year that it's a serious challenge to eat locally. Even though last week's snow has melted, the sun was shining and the temperature was in the 50's yesterday, it is still winter. Which means slim pickings at the market. And with the damage caused by Hurricane Irene last fall, there are even less offerings than usual. There is one vendor at our local market that has a greenhouse, so they sell greens - they have lettuces, arugula, kale and more. But they are so expensive! The greens are $5 for 1/4 pound. I'll treat us for one meal a week, but it's too much to buy all our veggies from them. I also try to spread my dollars around and make sure that I buy something from each of the vendors. It seems even more important this year, seeing that every single farmer at our market suffered damage from the hurricane. So that means a lot of cabbage, onions and potatoes. To be honest, I'm having a hard time coming up wi...
Post a Comment
Read more