Best Bread Ever? Quite Possibly

OK, so our son and his wife gave me a book for Christmas. "Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I'd been following Zoe on Twitter for awhile and the book sounded good.

HOLY COW, people! This book is INCREDIBLE!

We followed the instructions to the letter. Made our first batch Sunday, December 28, 2008. Baked our first loaf tonight, Dec. 30, 2008. And it was .... Well, it was exactly how the book described it. Best bread I ever ate? Maybe. Here's the deal...

I grew up in Seattle eating the cheapest white bread my folks could buy. But I loved it. Ate it "raw" mostly. That's just plain ol' bread, with the inside squished into a little dough ball, then the crust. But my folks exposed me to enough good bread over the years that I became a true bread junkie at a very early age and am still one today.

Over the years I scarfed down Crystal Mountain loafs from the famous Black Diamond Bakery, and later learned to love my wife's luscious homemade bread she baked in coffee cans. Of course, all those years of eating bread added way too much girth to my otherwise boyish figure, so I tried to fight my craving. But after tonight, I'm a bread-aholic again.

I now want to perfect this simple loaf. It won't take much. Our biggest mistake was cutting into the loaf too soon. Should have waited another half hour. Otherwise, it was excellent. But after a few more of these I'd like to try some of the other variations.

But this simple loaf, this wonderful little ball of goodness was sublime. On the darkest, most painful day, this would salve the deepest wounds. Would heal the troubled soul. It IS that good.

So, if you love bread, if you enjoy messing about in the kitchen, I urge you to buy this book and try it. It's simply wonderful.