Trust us when we say that great bread makes everything better. How did American chef James Beard put it? “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”
But purchasing good bread is one thing—making a loaf yourself is a whole other ballpark. Cookbook author and bread enthusiast, Alexandra Stafford, will teach you how it’s done from beginning to end. Her cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs, offers recipes for no-knead loaves and meals to savor every slice: a perfect guide for bakers wanting to explore the world of possibilities for making their own loaves.
According to Stafford, her passion for bread is tied to her childhood, and more specifically her mother. “I can’t imagine growing up without bread rising on the counter all the time, and eating it at every meal,” she relayed in an interview with A Way to Garden. “I didn’t really think it was anything special growing up because it was what was always around, because my mother was always baking bread.”
Following in her mother’s footsteps, Stafford grew up with a passion for cooking, and more specifically bread. Having launched her own food blog, Alexandra’s Kitchen, in 2006 she soon learned that her love for food could reach a growing audience. Her blog has since been recognized by The New York Times, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, and Goop.
“I love bread,” she writes on her website. “I love eating bread. I love making bread. I love teaching people how to bake bread. I wrote a cookbook all about bread and how to use every last crumb to its full potential.”
According to Stafford, when she gets down to half a loaf of bread or a quarter of a loaf of bread, she usually stashes all those heels in the freezer, for when she’s ready to make crumbs. “When I am ready to make crumbs, I will thaw them, puree them in the food processor, spread them on a sheet pan, and then I like to dry them in the oven slowly,” she notes.
