On the Rise.

Bread. Over the holiday season, my lovely lady bought us a really great book called My Bread, by Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York. I had heard of the guy before, but now I have a little bit of a temporary man crush on him. In his book, Lahey lays out his "no-knead" method to baking. After years of studying the art of baking, Lahey has concluded that this is the easiest and best way to make a bread. The idea is to let the yeast and other elements in the dough do their thang, and to not disrupt the natural processes that occur. The method is INSANELY simple. It takes a few minutes to make the dough, a little patience for the rising, and just over an hour in the oven. Check it out. Try it out. Here is an article in the Times giving the recipe for a plain-ass loaf.

The lady and I have been making the whole wheat loaves (as seen above) which probably costs less than a buck to make, which tastes, feels, and smells just as good, if not better, than anything we could buy. We also have tried a few specialty loaves that Lahey recommends in the book that are all super easy and amazing. I especially like that the last chapter of the book is dedicated to meals that can be made with stale bread. We haven't had a chance to get around to those, yet.