Bittman Bread: No-Knead Whole Grain Baking for Every Day

“Unless you live near a bakery owned by people who really care, you are not going to find a way to get better bread into your life,” writes James Beard Award winner Bittman (Animal, Vegetable, Junk) in this splendid guide to creating what he deems the perfect whole-grain loaf. While he gives his predecessors, such as Jim Lahey—whose famed no-knead, Dutch oven method yielded “the best white bread”—their due, he argues that the naturally fermented whole-grain bread he devoted six years to developing is much healthier than white loaves, and just as easy to make. Chapters progress from the production of a versatile “indestructible” starter to the “jumpstarter” (a combination of starter, flour, and water) to finished loaves with numerous flavor variations. The starter is used to make baguettes, weeknight deep-dish pizza, and scallion pancakes, and even works for “doughnutty things,” such as drop beignets and cinnamon rolls—which call for less sugar than their white-flour counterparts due to whole wheat’s natural sweetness. Interspersed throughout is an entertaining dialogue between Bittman and his wing-baker, Conan, that addresses common baking questions—including how to ascertain which water-to-flour ratios work best. This hits the spot. Agent: Danielle Svetcov, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (Nov.)