The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook

by Jim Lahey, Jim Lahey

Founded in 1994, Sullivan Street Bakery is renowned for its outstanding bread, which graces the tables of New York’s most celebrated restaurants. The bread at Sullivan Street Bakery, crackling brown on the outside and light and aromatic on the inside, is inspired by the dark, crusty loaves that James Beard Award–winning baker Jim Lahey discovered in Rome.


Jim builds on the revolutionary no-knead recipe he developed for his first book, My Bread, to outline his no-fuss system for making sourdough at home. Applying his Italian-inspired method to his repertoire of pizzas, pastries, egg dishes, and café classics, The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook delivers the flavors of a bakery Ruth Reichl once called “a church of bread.”

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2017

About the author

Jim Lahey, the owner of Sullivan St Bakery, originally planned to spend his life as a sculptor. His passion for art and natural beauty took him to Italy, where he found a new medium for that sculptor's urge: bread. Inspired by the bakers of Tuscany and Rome, he returned to New York City determined that the "peasant" bread of the Italian countryside could find a home in America.

In 1994, he started Sullivan St Bakery in Soho, with little more than the wild yeast he cultivated by hand in Italy, and a passion for bringing the exquisite, handcrafted breads of Italy to the American table.

In October 2000, the new headquarters for Sullivan St Bakery was opened on West 47th Street in Hell's Kitchen. As its reputation spread, the bakery grew into a destination for not just bread but also savory Roman-style pizzas, rustic Italian pastries and cookies..

Today, over 340 of New York's finest restaurants and markets, such as Jean Georges, The Four Seasons, Gramercy Tavern, Marea, Zabar's and WholeFoods are showcases for the bakery's remarkable bread. Visitors to the bakery's new home in Hell's Kitchen come from everywhere to try Jim Lahey's latest creations, including multigrain breads, seasonal tarts and pastries, and mouthwatering sandwiches.

Jim Lahey's simple, rustic bread has hit on something important: Bread is more than bread. It reaches all the way from the belly to the soul. In November of 2006, Lahey's no-knead method drew the attention of "The Minimalist" columnist Mark Bittman. His articles about it in the New York Times sparked a worldwide home baking revolution.

Several times a year Lahey invites the public to his "Master Classes for the Home Baker." The incredible success of these hands-on courses about pizza, focaccia and the "perfect loaf" soon led to the formation of The University of Bread at Sullivan St Bakery where he mentors apprentice bakers who hope to open their own bakeries around the world.

The past year has been eventful for Jim. His book, MY BREAD - inspired by those Bittman articles- has been published to great reviews, and he has opened up his first restaurant, Co. (230 9th Avenue at 24th Street in Manhattan). The name is short for Company, a word whose Latin roots refer to the phrase "with bread," of course.

Reviews

[Alisa Kester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love LOVE the writing. Working on growing my biga now, and can't wait to try his bread!

[Clwseattle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been using Jim Lahey's 'no knead' style of bread baking since I read his My Bread.
The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook is a good addition to his first book. Some of the recipes seem a bit complicated and long, but once you try one or two you will get the hang of what he's explaining. I always use a scale for baking so I'm very appreciative that he gives ingredients in weights. Grams are so much more accurate for consistency than ounces. This is not just a bread book, but a more comprehensive book with some interesting recipes from his bakery. I'm excited to try the Pizza Bianca Alla Romano.

4 stars, B+ for The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am experimenting with sourdough more and more, so this book was helpful and inspiring. I used the author’s instructions and pictures to begin my own sourdough starter.

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and detailed instructions on the various stages and process of a recipe with good photography.

Cornetti - sourdough croissant
Torta D'olio D'oliva
Tramezzini Di Pollo- chicken club
Panini Di Petto
Ossi di Morti
Panettone

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cookbook has interesting stories and recipes. I am fairly good at bread making, however I found the recipes to be a bit challenging, for a more advanced baker than I am.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lahey's method of natural levaining looked promising and in practice, indeed proved (no pun intended) to be so.

Truccio Sare (one of the bakery's signature breads) is the first recipe I tried from Lahey's book. He writes, "The flavors that result are out of this world—a sweet, chewy tangle of wheat, coffee, dark chocolate, and caramel." How could anyone resist a "chewy tangle of wheat, coffee, dark chocolate, and caramel"? Happily, Truccio Sare is easily as good as Lahey promises. Sure, it takes time. But it manages so much of that time on its own. Little babysitting is required.

And the results are stellar. I'm not sure I will ever go back to using commercial yeast!

There are a number of great looking, clearly laid out recipes - some bread, some accompaniments for bread.

Next to try:
Pane di lino (golden flax bread), p63
Sesamo, p82
Multigrani, p.99
No-knead, naturally leavened brioche, p107
L'amico di Pollo (roasted Japanese turnips), p170
Punta di Petto di Te (brisket braised in black tea), p175

The breads I wanted to make were inspired by village bakeries in Italy [...] It was big, imperfect, crusty bread. It was not meant for slicing. It was messy and rough and meant to be ripped and dipped and respected and treasured. [...] it embodied thousands of years of agricultural traditions, baking practices, and table manners. I wanted to make bread like it: a dark crackling crust that split open to reveal a creamy white interior whose hot perfumes spilled out in a delirium of aromas.
-Introduction, p12
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Natural leavening—also known as sourdough—is responsible for the divine aromas and textures in the Roman breads I long ago fell in love with. Its purpose in bread dough is not to sour it but to leaven. It can take a few days to get the process up and running, but if you are looking for bread with incredible flavors and textures, it is well worth the extra steps. Many bakers are acquainted with a liquid sourdough starter—a slurry of water and flour that is allowed to sour as it fills with beneficial microes. I follow an older and easier method of making sourdough breads. I use "old," soured dough itself, rather than a liquid starter.
-Introduction, p16
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There is something to learn from every mistake. [...] I don't think there is any way to make great bread, every time, without making the occasional dud. [...] [A]n extra loaf can always be turned into breadcrumbs.
-A Baker's Reference, p35
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[A] healthy starter will smell sweet and yeasty, while a sourdough with a problematic community of bacteria will smell rather like extremely malodorous feet.
-Making a Starter, p44
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Why refresh a starter? Because you don't want the starter itself; you want the wonderful microbes that live in it—that particular colony of wild yeast and bacteria that you have adopted [...] The refreshed starter will be livelier than the first, and it will ferment much faster. It is important when transferring the starter to a new jar after it has been refreshed that the sides of the jar remain clean. Any starter on the wall of the jar may encourage the growth of surface molds.
-Making a Starter, p47
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I infinitely prefer using biga [stiff starter - a naturally fermented dough] to a liquid starter for three reasons: (1) it's what I learned as I traveled around Italy as an impressionable young man; (2) it's more stable than the liquid starter man people use, not to mention cleaner to work with; and (3) it's easier to keep around than a starter: you don't need to feed it, remember it, or stir it. At the bakery we wait at least 24 hours from the time it is mixed before using a new batch of biga, but you can often wait longer—a healthy biga that is tightly covered and stored in the refrigerator will stay ready to use for a week.
-"Jim's Biga", Making a Starter, p51
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There is a town outside of Rome called Lariano. It grows a special kind of wheat, known as Lariano wheat, and the bread made in this town uses whole wheat Lariano flour. [...] You can however, make [the bread] with ordinary whole wheat flour, and it will still have an awesome, complex, earthy flavor. [...] My absolute favorite part is the crust. At a very high temperature, when the crust browns so thoroughly that it is just beginning to blacken in places, the whole wheat begins to caramelize. The flavors that result are out of this world—a sweet, chewy tangle of wheat, coffee, dark chocolate, and caramel.
-Truccio Saré (whole wheat sourdough), p93

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Complete details and our take on the recipe for Truccio Sare at
blog from OUR kitchen: etherwork.net/blog/bbb-april-2018/

[Donna Siebold · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't much care for sourdough bread and I don't have the patience to deal with a starter, in general. However, there were two recipes in particular that I really enjoyed from this book.

The first was the milk bread recipe and the second the golden flax seed bread. Both of them were delicious and I really liked Mr. Lahey's no-knead approach to the bread.

I may have to reconsider my attitude towards biga and give some of the other recipes a go!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the description I got really excited about this book. I was even more excited when I found this in the library. Can I just say What a let down!!!! First of all, there were hardly any pictures. Second of all the measurements were in grams? Third?... the techniques all seemed to be for someone who went to baking school. I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped.

[Julie]

Delightful cookbook that I got for Christmas.
I learned about biga and I use it now instead of wet sourdough starter.
I, too, spent time in Italy so it was nice reading his recipes pay homage to his experiences and the cultural cooking.
I wish it had more pictures ideally pictures for every recipe including what he think are simple breads, like the white sourdough bread.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book barely makes it off of my counter top. Love his style, love his recipes, and love the stories behind how he has built his business.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't looked at all the recipes, but I've seen enough to say the approach looks very practical, and the bread looks very tasty. I'm returning it to the library now because I'm not quite at the point in my life where I'm ready to try keeping up with any sourdough starter, much less a whole new one different from what I've worked with before, but I have confirmed that I want to try this method once I have a bit more time and brain space for it. I may even bump up my rating a bit depending on how much we like the bread, once I actually make some!

[Joyce Seleska · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can smell the bread baking

Loved the description of how the bakery got started. Just reading the intro I can smell the bread baking in the big ovens in back. Can’t wait to cook something from my new book.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait to start my biga, bake and eat one of these gorgeous breads.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful clear recipes.

[Malani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tortino di Crusca was delicious and easy. Just watch the baking time.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed this book on my blog.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good bread book, by someone who lives bread. I learned a lot.

[Kelleah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous recipes!

[Joan Lisi]

Wow! All you can imagine to learn and execute fab sourdough bread from the best bakery east of the Mississippi, in my opinion.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely photos throughout this book. All sourdough recipes which currently aren't my main interest.

[Trista Ainsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent baking book! I learned to make a biga starter and the recipes are easy to follow.

[Alicia B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I haven’t made any of these recipes- I just read the book

A few weeks ago, for whatever reason I was dead set on reading a cookbook. After scouring goodreads for one, I found myself stressed over the negative reviews of all the books, saying recipes were inaccessible, not on theme, overall disappointing recipes, etc. etc.

I finally decided that none of those reasons really mattered to me because I just wanted to read.

On that note, I found the stories around each recipe compelling and interesting. With my basic knowledge of bread making, I learned a lot about biga, etc etc. I highly recommend this read for anyone who enjoys bread.

[Val]

Recommended at Mark Vetri cooking class