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188 of 192 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book from a great baker, September 19, 2009
This review is from: My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method (Hardcover)
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.
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105 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Time, September 20, 2009
This review is from: My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method (Hardcover)
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.
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54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In which Jim Lahey answers the question, "What now?", October 28, 2009
This review is from: My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method (Hardcover)
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.
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