Everyone’s been talking about Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread recipe, which at first I thought was some kind of consolation bread for lazy people. No, no, no. Lahey’s the head of the Sullivan Street Bakery and I first fell in love with his yeastwork when I was living in New York while I worked on the walking tours book. I ate an amazing egg sandwich from El Beit on one of his rolls almost every day.
His book, My Bread, has just been published, but it turns out Mark Bittman championed this no-fuss process four years ago. It’s every bit as easy as the recipe says, and even more delicious then I imagined. The small inconvenience of planning ahead (start it at least 24 hours before you want to eat it) is all worth it for bread that turns out reliably firm yet chewy with a crisp, thick crust. When it comes to using any other bread recipe, there is simply no-knead.
