If you have an oven, a heavy pot, and the patience to let fermenting yeast do the hard work for you, artisanal baker Jim Lahey has a foolproof way to make delicious bread.
by Charles Coxe
It’s rare to hear a chef say you’re working too hard, but that’s the message Jim Lahey preaches about breadmaking. For Lahey, inspired by rustic loaves of Italy, the laborious kneading process is bread’s undoing. In his new book, My Bread, the founder of New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery shares his method of no-knead baking, from using a cast-iron pot as an “oven within an oven” to choosing the right bread flour (anything but southern; for wheat use a 25-75 wheat-to-bread flour ratio) to practicing restraint: “The ‘singing’ sound bread makes as it cools is the last phase of cooking,” Lahey says. “Always let bread cool before slicing it.” His basic loaf:
Step 1
Mix 3 cups bread flour, 1-1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp dry yeast, and 1-1/2 cups water for 30 seconds until sticky. (Add 2 tbsp water if necessary.)
Step 2
Cover the bowl of dough with a tea towel and let it sit for 12–18 hours. The rise is done when the dough is doubled and dotted with air bubbles.
Step 3
Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and push it into a ball. Dust the towel with flour, place the dough on top, and fold the towel over. 
Step 4
After 1–2 hours (the dough should hold an indentation when poked), invert dough into a 4- to 5-quart pot, preheated in a 475˚ oven.
Step 5
Using potholders, carefully place the lid on the pot (remove any rubber parts) and return to the oven. Bake at 475˚ for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for 15–30 minutes more, until dark brown. Place the loaf on a cooling rack and somehow resist tearing into it until it’s fully cooled, about an hour.
Buttering Up
Want better bread? Try boosting your butter. A simple mix-in of garlic and fresh herbs flatters any loaf, or you can go gourmet with these options from Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Cooking and creator of 101cookbooks.com.
Raw Serrano Butter
“It has a little heat and a lot of flavor,” says Swanson. “You can scale up or down on the chile scale depending on your tastes.”
4 tbsp unsalted butter
2 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped1/4 tsp sea salt
Best for: Cornbread, crepes, pasta
Smoked Paprika Butter
“Fragrant, delicious, and a stunning rusty orange color. Alittle of this butter goes the distance,” she says.
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 to 1-1/2 tsp smoked paprika1/4 tsp fine-grain sea salt
Best for: Brown rice, sandwiches, corn soup, breads
Dry Desert Lime Butter
“I’ll grind up tea leaves with a mortar and pestle and use it like pepper,” Swanson explains.
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 or 2 Numi Dry Desert Lime tea bags, opened and ground in a mortar
1/4 tsp sea salt
Best for: Sandwiches, grilled corn
Strawberry Butter
“Dehydrated strawberries are on the tart side of sweet,” Swanson says, “so Isweeten it with sugar.”
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp cane sugar
1/3 cup dehydrated strawberries, minced
Best for: Pancakes, toast, muffins
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September 29th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Strawberry butter man that sounds good. My mom use to buy honey butter which was real good too.
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October 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Very interesting article about bread.
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January 25th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Liking the looks of this bread recipe, I tried it. Luckily I have a bit of experience baking bread. Your printed measurement for the amount of yeast is incorrect. You printed 1/4 tsp. It should be either 1/4 oz or 1/4 TBS.
With that change in the recipe, the bread came out perfectly. I made 2 loaves. Delish.
[Reply]
James Caldwell Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Seems that on the Sullivan Street Bakery page, Lahey also says to use 1/4 tsp. http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes
We have been making this bread with this recipe for months now, it’s great. We usually let it rise for more like 18-24 hours though.
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