William Alexander once at the perfect loaf of bread – crispy, chewy, sweet and yeasty – and he vows to recreate it. The result is 52 Loaves, a yearlong experiment in baking, in which Alexander bakes the same loaf of bread week after week, tweaking his ingredients, techniques, cooking time, and so on. He grows and grinds his own wheat. He builds and earth oven in his backyard. He travels to France to bake his single loaf in the oven of an ancient monastery. And somewhere along the way he figures out, in the words of Voltaire, that perfect is the enemy of good. Funny, exasperating, and very entertaining!

Recommended by Anne