Back a couple of years ago I was lucky to pick up a copy of the The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart which is an extraordinary book on not just recipes but about the multiple processes that take place when baking bread from scratch. Somewhere along the way, I had stopped baking bread but I have recently started again, with this book as a guide and I am enjoying it immensely. There is nothing more satisfying than creating artisan bread with nothing but simple ingredients and your bare hands.

Now I know I have blogged recently about my concerns over people taking pictures of their meals and displaying them as a Smörgåsbord on Facebook here for others to laud about but my picture of bread here represents art, yes, and I guess food. I’m sure many of you might see this as the same thing, which is fair.

Regardless, I urge anyone with a love for cooking, or creating, or art, to pick up this book and try a few recipes. He even has three simple recipes for creating white bread. The breads range from the simple, to the more complicated artisan breads, to even the sourdough varieties which requires diligence to keep the yeast starter alive, essentially forever, in your fridge. At one point I kept the starter alive for roughly two months. Going on vacation was not favorable for it, and the smell was not a nice welcome home (it smells almost as bad on day one).

So here, I present my picture of Potato Rosemary Bread (made with the optional garlic). It is delicious.