The Next Level: Tips for Making Better Versions of 15 Favorite Dishes The Kitchn's Best of 2012

How To Make Better Granola: 5 Helpful Tips

Want to make the ultimate granola? The cheesecake your friends can't stop raving about? This year we shared a ton of tips for making better versions of 15 favorite foods to help you take your cooking to the next level. From coffee to quiche, we've gathered what you need to master the daily basics and some special occasion treats.

TOP ROW
1 How To Make Better Granola: 5 Helpful Tips
2 Make Better Quiche: 3 Easy Tips
3 The Perfect Cheesecake: 5 Tips and Tricks
4 The Secrets to Making a Spectacular Cup of Coffee: The Best Barista Reveals All!
5 5 Tips for Making Better Sandwich Bread

MIDDLE ROW
6 Make Better Latkes: 3 Indispensable Tips
7 3 Tips to Help You Make Perfect Oatmeal
8 Baking Tip: The Secret to Taller, Flakier and More Stately Scones
9 How To Make Better Guacamole: Tips From Two Food Writers
10 Jim Lahey's Tips for Perfect Grilled Pizza

BOTTOM ROW
11 How To Make Better Pesto
12 Bored With Lunch? 3 Tips for Making World-Class Sandwiches
13 Make Meaner Chili: 10 Flavor-Boosting Add-Ins For Incredible Chili
14 Why Constant Flipping Is the Key to Perfectly Grilled Meat: And Other Tips!
15 5 Tips That Will Help You Make a Perfect Souffl Every Time

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Welcome to The Kitchn's Best of 2012 roundup! From December 17 through January 1 we are rounding up some of our favorite (and your favorite) posts from the past year.

(Images: See linked posts for full image credits)

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The Best Cookbooks of 2012: What Were Your Favorite Finds This Year?

It's the time again, when we look back at the year and share our favorite finds. But first, we want to know: what do you think were the best cookbooks of 2012?

Renee Schettler Rossi from Leite's Culinaria offered an eclectic roundup of cookbook favorites, including Michael Ruhlman's Salumi (an authoritative guide for any "hardcore salumerist"), Jim Lahey's My Pizza ("you'll find nothing here but crisp crusts so thin as to seemingly defy every law of physics"), Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer's Canal House Cooks Every Day ("a book that can instantly transport you from your mundane reality...to a life in which lunch is lingered over each day") and Jesse Griffiths' Afield ("lots of straightforward, non-emasculating advice on everything from roasting a whole hog to making a venison burger").

We at The Kitchn will offer our own 2012 picks in the coming weeks, but we're curious: what cookbooks really inspired you this year?

Read more: Best Cookbooks of 2012 at Leite's Culinaria

Related: Our Readers' Top 5 Cookbooks for 2011

(Images: book covers as linked)

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My Pizza by Jim Lahey New Cookbook

Jim Lahey's no-knead bread recipe launched a phenomenon when Mark Bittman first wrote about it in the The New York Times in 2006. It only makes sense then that Lahey would turn his bread-baking skills to pizza, specifically to Roman and Naples-style pizzathose thin and crispy disc-shaped pies, slightly charred at the edges, and topped with incredibly simple, delicious ingredients. His latest book shows that it's possible (and in fact, easy!) to make this kind of pizza at home. And, of course, it all starts with a no-knead pizza crust.

Quick Facts

Who wrote it: Jim Lahey

Who published it: Clarkson Potter

Number of recipes: 76 total, including 15 red sauce pizzas, 15 white sauce pizzas, 10 no-sauce pizzas, 6 toppings, 24 toasts, soups, and salads, and 6 desserts

Recipes for right now: All of them! But especially the Spicy Eggplant Pie, Leek and Sausage Pie, Flamb Pie, Brussels Sprouts and Chestnut Pie, Popeye Pie, Squash with Pumpkin Seeds Pie, Kale and Brown Rice Vinegar Salad, and Salt-Crusted Beet Salad with Lemon Dressing.

Other highlights: This book is all about teaching you how to recreate the thin, crispy pies that are "so seductive hot and fresh from the oven," as Lahey writes. In the same way Lahey demystified bread baking with his no-fuss no-knead technique, he aims to do the same with pizza.

The book begins with a primer on pizza preparation, including equipment needed (a pizza stone, pizza peel, and pizza wheel, all of which are easily available and inexpensive) and a "simple yet impeccable ingredients" list. In short, basic all-purpose flour is totally fine, but he advises you not to skimp on olive oil or the essential cheeses. (And don't ever use out-of-season tomatoes; go for canned tomatoes from Italy instead.) The two pages devoted to oven temperature and adjusting for oven type are also particularly helpful for home cooks.

No pizza cookbook would be complete without a recipe for pizza dough, and Lahey's version is (unsurprisingly) no-knead as well. He even includes modifications to make it whole wheat.

Now for the recipes: 40 recipes are devoted to pizza, and while there are recipes for the basics (Tomato Pie, Margherita Pie), the book really shines when the toppings get a little more interesting: a Flamb pie pairs crme frache with sweet caramelized onions and bacon; the Charcuterie Pie calls for sauerkraut, sausage, and mustard, while another pie features spicy eggplant, cilantro, and ginger. There's nothing too crazy, though: each ingredient list is pretty basic, but highly flavorfula reiteration of his belief that you can have fewer ingredients if they're higher quality.

The book also offers recipes for unusual soups, salads, and desserts to round out the meal, most of them directly off the menu of Co., Lahey's New York restaurant: broccoli rabe and ricotta toast, for example, and a salt-crusted beet salad with lemon dressing. And for dessert, a basic (yet amazing) recipe for chocolate chip cookies. (Hint: to achieve the perfect balance of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the oven temperature is cranked up to 500 degrees!)

Who would enjoy this book? Pizza lovers who want to cook great pizza at home, without a lot of fuss; bread bakers and fans of Jim Lahey's no-knead technique. As Jim Lahey writes himself in the intro:

Don't be intimated; making pizza is not haute cuisine. It requires surprisingly little effortremember, we'll be relying on my simple no-knead bread recipe for the crustand, once the toppings have been prepared, just a few minutes of cooking. After you've mastered my home kitchen techniques...and experienced the excitement of a deeply flavored, often innovative pizza, let your own creativity take flight... I know I've done my job when you come to see pizza as healthy, artful, and so infinitely variable that you wouldn't mind eating a pizza pie just about every day, like I do!

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home (Clarkson Potter, 2012)

Visit Jim Lahey's website: The University of Bread

Related: No-Knead Revolution Continues! My Bread by Jim Lahey

(Images: Cambria Bold)

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My Bread by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste - 2fishygirl on Scribd ... My Bread by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste - Free download as PDF File (.pdf) or read online for free. The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method Inspired by the ancient ... Recipes From My Pizza by Jim Lahey and Rick Flaste Recipes From My Pizza by Jim Lahey and Rick Flaste - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), text file (.txt) or read online for free. Recipes included in this excerpt ... My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work,No-Knead Method: Jim Lahey ... The founder of New York's Sullivan Street Bakery, Lahey started a revolution in 2006 with his no-knead dough technique, in which flour, yeast, salt and water are ... No-Knead Pizza Dough Recipe by Jim Lahey from Co. Pizzeria in ... Everything about Jim Lahey's new Chelsea restaurant, Co. (short for "company"), is meant to challenge your notion of a pizzeria. In fact, the word "pizza" appears ... My Bread: Amazon.ca: Jim Lahey, Rick Flaste: Books The founder of New York 's Sullivan Street Bakery, Lahey started a revolution in 2006 with his no-knead dough technique, in which flour, yeast, salt and water are ... My Pizza by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste - Book - eBook - Random House Make homemade pizza that exceeds your wildest expectationsyet couldnt be simplerwith Jim Laheys groundbreaking no-knead dough and inventive toppings. The ... My Pizza My Friend, Jim Laheys New Book! - The Martha ... My friend Jim Lahey, baker extraordinaire, has just come out with another great book called My Pizza. Jim has become quite famous for his no-knead bread recipe, Really Easy Potato Pizza From Jim Lahey's "My Bread" ... Trust Me ... By Samuel Fromartz One of the challenges for a home baker is to try and figure out how to make a great bread once you've tasted it. Like encountering the Platonic ... Pizza recipes and tricks from Jim Lahey in his new cookbook ... Food, Wine, Cooking, Recipes and Restaurant Personalities. ... Jim Lahey isn't much for cookbooks. The famed baker has more of a free-form approach. My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home ... Jim Laheys book gives everyoneand I mean everyonethe tools to make incredible, crisp-crusted, crackling pizza at home. His recipes and instructions are ...

How Do I Keep No-Knead Pizza Dough From Sticking? Good Questions

Q: I love the no-knead bread technique and use it all the time for artisan bread, but I'm having trouble translating it to pizza. Because the dough is so wet, it is very tricky to shape, even into something as rustic as a pizza. It sticks like the dickens to my hands or rolling pin, no matter how much flour I use.

I'd consider myself a reasonably experienced baker, so I'm puzzled that I can't get this right. I use the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipes, but from what I've seen of other no-knead recipes this question would apply to them as well. Any tips?

Sent by Anna

Editor: Anna, I use Jim Lahey's no-knead recipe with no sticking problems, and Faith swears by Peter Reinhart's dough recipe, which rises overnight in the fridge. See if you have better luck with either of these recipes:

Peter Reinhart's Best Pizza Dough Ever
Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough at Bon Appetit

Readers, do you have any tips for handling no-knead pizza dough?

Next question?

Related: Bake Bread! 20 Tips, Tricks, & Ideas for No-Knead Bread

(Image: Faith Durand)

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