My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home: A Cookbook

This is a great book! You'll get the perfect crust and delicious pizzas with Jim Lahey's 18-hour rise, pizza stone, and broiler method (see my added tips ahead). I've been making pizzas at home for 28 years now, and they tasted great but I was never satisfied with my crust. I tried many different recipes over the years. Some said use olive oil, others not. Some said add a little sugar, others not. Some said use an egg, others not. Even those that said just use flour, water, yeast, and salt, always said knead for 10 to 15 minutes and then let the dough rise until double in bulk (couple of hours). ALL WRONG! I kept searching for the right dough recipe, but the secret is just flour, water, salt and a very small amount of yeast, combined with an 18 to 36 hour rise at room temperature in a bowl tightly covered in plastic wrap. No kneading, unless you want to knead for one minute before putting it in the greased bowl, and two minutes when it comes out of the bowl (see why just ahead). You do need a 1/2 inch thick pizza stone and a broiler (thinner stones will break) because the secret is to get very high top heat, just like a pro wood-fired brick pizza oven.What's great about Jim's method is you can literally make the dough in 5 minutes, then let it rise at room temperature for at least 18 hours and it's ready. Takes time, yes, but very little work. Sometimes I throw it together before bed at night and it's ready by 4 pm the next day. I can remember watching Mario Batali on TV and he added sugar, olive oil, and white wine, and then he kneaded for 20 minutes with a rest or two. That's unnecessary, and the crust isn't as good. I watched many pizza makers on Martha Stewart doing similar things, but none worked as well as Jim's method. The most important things are the 18 to 36 hour rise at room temperature and using a pizza stone under a broiler. Just make the dough the day before and follow Jim's instructions. But I do recommend using King Arthur bread flour (blue bag) or a 50/50 blend of King Arthur and Antimo Caputo OO flour, the latter if you like a finer crust texture. Make sure you're not using old flour.I do deviate from Jim's instructions a bit because my wife and I like a slightly thicker crust. I do one minute of kneading before the bowl, two minutes of kneading once out of the bowl, and then I don't stretch it as thin when I shape it. I make sure to keep the rim fatter, and then I do a second rise for 1.5 to 2 hours prior to adding the toppings and baking/broiling in our electric oven on a preheated pizza stone (see the pictures I've posted here). Do keep on eye on it because, with the pizza just 4 inches from the electric broiler, it goes fast -- in about 5 minutes.Jim has a lot of good choices for recipes, but we have our own favorite: Sizzle up a little garlic and fresh chopped basil leaves in quality olive oil (careful not to burn) and use that for a sauce. Next, top the pizza dough with fresh mozzerella cheese and the best quality tomatoes you can get (but not too many pieces), add a good amount of fresh chopped basil leaves (more than you'd think), and then top everything with fresh goat cheese. I grate it on after it's been in the freezer for 40 minutes, but you can also just break off pieces of it. Finish with a little dry fine herbs or oregano flakes. Bake/broil. And when the pizza comes out of the oven, let cool for 4 or 5 minutes and then finish with drizzled olive oil and gourmet sea salt before serving. We have found this pizza unbeatable. And here's a tip: don't use too much cheese or too many tomato pieces. You can get away with more basil than you'd think, but the secret to great pizza flavor is to keep it balanced.NOTE: Some people add basil leaves when the pizza comes out of the oven, but it tastes much better with the chopped fresh basil leaves baked in. Also, if using an electric oven, the broiler will likely shut off after the oven reaches 500 degrees (not hot enough). But you can foil this feature by opening the door a few inches for 20 seconds, and then closing it again. The broiler will then go back on. Even though the oven heat drops, the stone will stay hot. I usually have to do this twice during the 5 minute baking period, and Jim explains this on page 18 of his book. In any case, get this book and you'll soon be making great pizzas. I told some friends about this book and they had never made pizza before. They achieved great success on their second try, and then successfully made calzones after that. It's really that easy!NOTE: I'm adding a photo of a slice, showing the 50/50 blend of bread flour and 00 flour, with a short prebake (to set the rise and get air in the crust), prior to adding toppings and the final baking under broiler. This is the result -- great crust that's slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.[...]

I STRONGLY encourage you to buy Jim Lahey's book "My Pizza". He includes his no-knead dough recipe which is super-easy and is *incredibly tasty* - similar to neapolitan, yet lighter, crispier, and bubblier.. You'll make the best tasting pizza you could imagine - and you'll blow away any local pizza joints, even top notch neapolitan ones, as longs as you have a good pizza stone and pizza peel. Book parts (1): The easy & magic dough and sauce (basically squish some san marzano tomatoes by hand) recipes; part (2) tomato sauce based recipes [traditional staples (neapolitan) and some very unique creations] part (3) white (béchamel) sauce based recipes [Leek and sausage pie, cauliflower pie, corn & cherry tomato pie, broccoli rabe pie]; part (4) NO SAUCE recipes: birds nest [shaved asparagus, quail egg, taleggio cheese], his 'Popeye' pie [gruyere, mozz, spinach, olive oil, ..], squash w/ pumpkin seeds pie, poached artichokes pie, etc.. ; part( 5) toppings to get more freaky with and even a 'bonus' section part (6) Toasts, soups, and salads that perfectly compliment this master baker/chef's pie creations... A MUST HAVE for any creative pizza lover. The only hard part is deciding which to make - You will want to make EVERY ONE of these pies at once.The only criticism I have is he seems to have left out a MAJOR (last step) to the dough preparation (the book is so great though, that I will not budge from 5 star rating). I noticed this because it differs from most online versions of his dough making process. His "Step 3" stops where the individual balls are formed. Then "Step 4" only talks about how to preserve the dough in the fridge and bringing it back to room temp when ready. For pizza making on the same day, the book neglects to tell you to proof the rounds in a plastic wrapped pan for an additional hour before using. This is an unfortunate CRITICAL oversight. The dough will NOT handle and stretch properly without the final proofing step. ( The book goes straight from flouring the rounds seam side down to either "preserving for 3 days in fridge", or to 'shaping the disk'... ) If you are making pizza on the same day, after page 26 "step 3", proof the dough for another hour at room temp (~75*F) for one more hour before moving to page 29 'shaping the disk'.

Jim recipes are simple to follow and the results are great. I'm making bread following his other recipes book (My Bread) since 2015 and never been disappointed

Ich liebe diese simplizität in den Rezepten!

Molto divertente, ottimo , Jim ha imparato in Italia

Pizza forever

It says several tricks and recipes to bake a pizza. i reommend you to buy it considering u.s.a one of the best places to eat pizza.