OK - Last night was the class I eagerly looked forward to: Double Exposure - Bread and Pizza - from Jim Lahey, of the now infamous No-Knead Bread fame. Jim owns the Sullivan St. Bakery and Co. a small pizza restaurant here in NYC. The bakery first came to public awareness when Mark Bittman of the NY TImes, wrote an article on Ji'm bread a about 3 years ago, I believe.

In these classes, we are seated at long tables- about 10 people per table, complete with individual place settings. they are demonstration classes but questions can be asked all along. We are served a meal, complete with wines, of the foods being demonstrated. Last night, we had - pizza- one small piece, but seconds were available if you wanted them. We also had a first course of soup, and a dessert. The menu follows in the next message - and I will be glad to leave recipes for anyone who wants them

While a lot of information came out of the class, I was generally disappointed in Jim. He is undoubtedly a "free-spirit" but I don't want to pay $80 to attend a 2.5 hr comedy session. He acted like an over-grown fraternity kid out of "Animal House." At times, I felt as if he were actually taking down to us - though I know this was most certainly not the case. That his clowning was disappointing and embarrassing to me and several others was evident in people around me.

Yet with all of this, he gave a lot of information about his breads - mainly from questions asked. His book, "My Bread gives detailed recipes and is complete with photos of the various stages and finished products. I have only glanced trough it so can't give a complete report.

In class he had the No-Knead bread in various stages- complete after the first (18 hr. or so) rise, formed into a loaf, etc. There was also a large basket of various breads on the counter where of the kitchen area and we were free to take home loaves at the end of the evening. Every student was also given a paper bag with a half loaf of bread.

Now- tips on the no-knead method:

The original fermentation can go from anywhere from 12 -18 hours or even longer. His dough that he brought to class was about 27 hours! By using a tiny amount of yeast, you are allowing the natural fermentation that happens with yeast, and flour to develop slowly and fully. The longer, the better

If you want to make a baguette or that style of bread, Fold or roll the dough into a log, after the final rise, put it on a stone and cover with a lid (which has been pre-heated with the stone) - say, a large pan. He recommends the bottom of a clay pot - a Rumperftop - and in his book gives a recipe for this . You can make a baguette out of the whole dough if you have a pan large enough to cover it - or, cut or pull the dough in half and make two loaves! He did this in class - using what looked like a large metal bread pan. I have never been happy with my baguettes from this dough and love the idea of making an "oven within the oven" this way!

While the original article said to let the dough rest, covered, about 15 min. after the long rise and before forming a loaf, Lahey says this is not necc. He said the whole concept of this method is to make it as easy and fun as possible to make the bread. In fact, you could even form the loaf immediately, let it rise for up to an hour or so - and then re-form the loaf and let it rise again if you want!!!

When asked about refrigerating the dough- Jim said go ahead if you want, but he doesn't really like the idea of this and feels the dough should be baked right away.

You can bake the bread at almost any temp. that works for you - from 450º (as given in the original article) - to 500º! A lot depends on your oven.

The basic recipe repeats that the dough should be moist and sticky. He gives measurements in grams and ounces but he prefers the former.

His book gives a detailed recipe for both the basic no-knead bread dough and a pizza dough, completel with many photos. While I haven't done more than glance at it, I can see that it is a serious book, well written with a lot of info and only a minimum of the science behind his method. As Jim says, he wants you to enjoy making bread.

Fabulous review for us.  Thank you for sharing.  It's a shame about the clowning to excess because that would be a  big disappointment for me too -- and I might have opened my mouth and said something. 

For my tastes, the menu sounded like something that would gag a maggot--definitely not for me, although the dessert sounded good!  The pizza crust sounded good!  But just like my 3 year old would say to cauliflower, "eeeeeeeeeeew, that's nasty!"  I have to agree with her.  As big a salad eater as I am, I don't like escarole -- I'd feed that to our tortoise!  Same with the kale -- although the bean soup might have been good if it doesn't have pork in it (like so many bean soups do).

No matter how many pictures are in a book, actually seeing the process in its different stages up close and personal makes a difference.  You can see what he means by sticky rather than guess from the picture.  You can see exactly how much the dough expanded and what it looks like.  It can be very helpful.

Again, I appreciate the review of your experience!

Actually, the pizza wasn't that bad - but I dont know why he chose to do that one. He said he wanted to demo a "regular" pizza crust that you can put directly on the stone (or if you prefer, a peel first, but he feels the stone is easier). He still could have done something else - especially when he told us the Pizza Margarita was his most popular one!!!

I found it particularly interesting that he had dough that was about 27 hours old! It certainly didn't look as if it was collapsing in any way.

Im sorry to say, I think many if not most of the people found his antics funny or shrugged them off.

I know you don't like your crust too dark.  If you put a layer of unprocessed wheat bran over the top before baking, it won't get as brown.  You have to be mindful of the crumbs when you take it out so you don't get them all over the kitchen.

Thanks for writing such an interesting review of the class.  I have his book but haven't baked from it yet.  I'm going to try the carrot bread first (had to buy fresh carrot juice because I don't have a juicer).  Did you taste any of the other breads from the book?

I use a big stainless steel salmon poacher that I got on eBay for the baguettes.  Works great.

I have wheat bran and use it from time to time - It's not one of my favorites

Nope, we only had the basic no-knead bread and the cauliflower pizza. As an "amuse-bouche" we were given a brusheta made with a white bean purée on a slice of the basic loaf.

And, as I said, every person got a half loaf to bring home and we could help ourselves to some of the breads that he brought for display on the counter. I took two what I call ciabatta rollsl - very light in color - and have them in the freezer as we really didnt need them right away

I think Im going to make my next loaf a bit darker and see how it affects the crust.

A salmon poacher would be great!