Anyone New Yorker who eats bread is likely to have tried some of the delicious food made by Jim Lahey produced at Sullivan Street Bakery or at Sullivan Street Pizza (formerly named Co.).
Through a thorough investigation into science, I believe I’ve found the secret to baking bread as great as Lahey’s on a consistent. First step: find Jim Lahey to make it.
Ok, ok. It’s not the most practical approach, and my test of the pool below was a sample. However, when Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey released their dough-free bread recipe to the globe in 2006 via just a short Youtube video, they accomplished more to enhance home baking than any other ever. I’m sure that I’ve not thought about it since. (See my explanation of the scientific method on this page).
The first book by Lahey, My Bread, was about no-knead methods. How do you make it? Mix flour, salt, and yeast, then add water, mix the mixture, and put it in a covered bowl for about eight to nine hours. During this lengthy fermentation, enzymes break up large proteins in flour into smaller pieces that can then be cross-linked to form a stretchy sheet of gluten. The result is an elastic dough that can stretch when perfectly formed without the oxidation associated with actual kneading.
The result? Perfectly textured bread that requires almost no effort.
The book by Lahey, My Pizza, promises to make pizza the same thing that The book My Bread was for bread. It’s primarily based on the dough he didn’t knead and included numerous recipes for toppings that are white sauce-based, tomato-based, and sauce-free— makes most pie recipes Sullivan Street Pizza makes most pie recipes within its pages.
If there’s a thing that every pizza maker at home can say, there’s no way to achieve the same crisp, bubbly, and charring you can get from a genuine wood-fired Neapolitan pizza maker. Watch the video below to see how Jim Lahey shows us that it’s possible and pretty simple to make.
Directions
in a large bowl, mix thoroughly flour with yeast, salt and. Add water. Using the help of a wooden spoon or hands, thoroughly combine.
Cover the bowl using a plastic wrap kitchen towel and let it increase to room temperature (about 72 deg F/22 deg C) for at least 18 months or until it’s doubled. It’ll be slower in cold spaces but less in hot ones.
Use a floured work surface to scrape the dough. Divide it into four equal portions and form them into four equal parts: for each piece, begin on the right-hand side of the dough, and push it towards the middle Then do the same for the left, followed by the top, and then the bottom. (The order isn’t crucial. The goal is fourfold.) Make each one into a circle, then turn with the seam facing down—form dough into a neat, circular mound. The mounds shouldn’t be sticky. If there is, then dust them with more flour.
If you do not plan to use the dough immediately, wrap each in plastic and chill for up to three days. Please return them to room temperature by laying them at the table, surrounded by a damp, soiled cloth for 2 to 3 hrs before use.