William Alexander - 52 Loaves: A Half-Baked Adventure

Praise for 52 Loaves

Alexander writes aromatic crumbs of baking wisdom, trailing them on his dogged quest for the perfect loaf. He tucks in his experiences with a meditation and a final revelation in a French monastery. The end is what they call an oven rise, where the dough magically doubles in size and pleasure.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

I love a man who has real passion and William Alexander has it in spades Whether you think hes genius or just plain insane you will be awed by his relentless pursuit Whats even better is that in this book he shares every single lesson that hes learned, so you too can make that perfect loaf.

Project Foodie

Serious, irreverent, funny, and informative at the same time, 52 Loaves reflects precisely the frustrating and infuriatingif not impossibleprocess of creating the perfect bread.

Jacques Ppin

Laugh out loud funny Alexander definitely doesnt hold back, whether its confessing to tending a loaf of bread over an afternoon tryst with his wife or describing the looks of pity he received after unwittingly asking a stupid question at a lecture A great book, simultaneously funny and thoughtful.

TheKitchn.com

Nitpicking obsessiveness was never so appetizing A.

Entertainment Weekly

As Alexander takes readers along on his quest for the perfect loaf, he also invites us into his lifeand, thanks to his honesty and his sense of humor, hes somebody youll want to know.

American Way

An engaging and instructive read with great rhythm, and if youve been on your own quest for good home-baked bread, I think youll find it as engrossing as I did. It is the book I was reading in Japan and well, I blame William Alexander for making me miss Mount Fuji while riding the bullet train.

Clotilde Dusoulier, Chocolate & Zucchini

Alexanders breathless, witty memoir is a joy to read. Its equal parts fact and fun Alexander is wildly entertaining on the page, dropping clever one-liners in the form of footnotes and parenthetical afterthoughts throughout.

The Boston Globe

Anyone who has baked breador yearns towill recognize William Alexanders 52 Loaves as a quest book. The quest? To re-create the perfect loaf of peasant bread he tasted at a restaurant. Once. Many years ago The funny, often self-deprecating style he used in The $64 Tomato transfers well to 52 Loaves.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

A warm, laugh-out-loud [memoir] Alexander writes about the ups (few), the downs (numerous) and a lively history of bread itself, all recounted in a self-effacing but often irreverent voice There is much to savor here, and Alexander entertainingly unravels many of the staff of lifes deep mysteries for the uninitiated.

The Oregonian

Engaging and enjoyable.

Gastronomica

The world would be a less interesting place without the William Alexanders who walk among usthe people who pursue all sorts of Holy Grails and latch like ticks onto particular passions, yet who have the good grace to tell us all about their exploits with humor, rather than with pomposity Alexanders pursuit may be bread, but anyone in pursuit of an ideal will probably recognize his musings on whether its possible to re-create a memory, much less seek perfection. When those around him question his obsession, you find yourself agreeing with themwhile also wondering how exhilarating it might feel to be so passionate about something.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

[A] funny, informative book.

Birmingham magazine

A clever weekend baker learns some life lessons, loaf by loaf His bright writing highlights a pleasing variety of comical misadventures Entertaining and educative.

Kirkus Reviews

Alexander gives a funny, week-by-week account of his year-long quest to bake a perfect loaf.

New Haven Advocate

Whether one sees this as an obsession or an odyssey, the result is a book that is more memoir than cookbook and is rife with reflection, peppered with science and punctuated with humor.

Poughkeepsie Journal

In his outrageously witty book 52 Loaves, William Alexander covers a myriad of fascinating and informative historical and culinary material.

The Rocky Mount Telegram

52 Loaves describes [William Alexanders] entertaining and more-than-slightly obsessive quest to bake the perfect loaf.

New Haven Register

This humorous memoir is recommended for anyone who has ever tried to bake a loaf.

Library Journal

What Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for, well, motorcycles, William Alexanders 52 Loaves will do for bread and bakers of bread. That is, his story takes you so deeply into the literal reality of the staff of life that you effortlessly pop out into the mystic. I can think of no higher praise than that!

Peter Reinhart, author of Peter Reinharts Artisan Breads Every Day

A HALF-BAKED ADVENTURE

William Alexander

ALSO BY WILLIAM ALEXANDER

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

2010 by William Alexander.
All rights reserved.
First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, October 2011.
Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2010.
Published simultaneously in Canada by
Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Descriptions of the seven Divine Offices used with permission from the Abbey of the Genesee.

Leeuwenhoeks sketches of yeast cells The Royal Society.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition
of this books as follows:
Alexander, William, [date]
52 loaves: one mans relentless pursuit of truth, meaning,
and a perfect crust / William Alexander.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-56512-583-4 (alk. paper) (HC)
1. Bread. 2. BreadAnecdotes.
3. Alexander, William, [date]. I. Title.
TX769.A4858 2010

641.815dc22 2009049656

eISBN 9781616200626

I am going to learn to make bread tomorrow. So if you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you dont know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch.

Emily Dickinson

They say bread is life. And I bake bread, bread, bread. And I sweat and shovel this stinkin dough in and out of this hot hole in the wall, and I should be so happy! Huh, sweetie?

Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck

Next!

My heart was pounding so hard at the airport security checkpoint, I was certain the TSA agent would see it thrusting through my jacket.

Laptop, I blurted out for no apparent reason, my voice cracking like a teenagers on a first date as I placed my computer into the plastic tray.

Liquids. The TSA inspector held up my regulation Baggie stuffed with three-ounce bottles and nodded approvingly.

I reached into my backpack and casually pulled out a half-gallon plastic container filled with a bubbling, foul-smelling substance. Sourdough. I might just as well have said, Gun!