Men's Journal

Photo credit: Bread courtesy Squire Fox/My Bread by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste/W.W. Norton and Company, INC.

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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