52 Loaves by William Alexander

So, you want to bake some bread. I mean, you want to go a bit more from scratch than popping open a can of Grand's biscuits or buying a loaf of bread at Kroger's and warming it up in the oven. Well, that's exactly what William Alexander wanted to do, except he wanted to re-create the perfect loaf of bread from scratch. And he decided to do so by baking one loaf per week for an entire year.

So, with a book advance in hand no doubt, Alexander took his quest to his kitchen, to an outdoor oven he constructed, to other states, to Morocco and even to a French monastery where he set up camp for a few weeks and gained a new respect for faith. Did I mention Alexander was a self-professed atheist? Did I mention that he agreed to teach the monks how to bake bread even though his only credential was a second-place baking prize in a fair contest?

Now, this would-be bread baker takes his task quite seriously. No Biscquick, no frozen loaves for this man. Why, he even tries to grow his own wheat! Granted, the wheat crop produces enough only for about one loaf of bread. And on a recent NPR program, he suggested most folks might not want to get quite that down to basics.

Alexander is also the author of the $64 Tomato. Both books take a self-effacing, humorous approach to his current project, whether it's growing Brandywine tomatoes or baking the perfect loaf of bread. He's a good writer and by now no doubt a good baker. He offers the reader a couple bread recipes, but be prepared to convert from the metric system.