There is just something about homemade yeast bread. The earthy, slightly sweet smell eminating from a lump of dough, as it gradually warms and rises on your kitchen counter, there is nothing homier. For all of my waxing poetic about the miraculous discoveries of yeast products, let me put out the disclaimer that I am not a baker. Far from it in fact.

Baking was always too fussy for me. It was all about timing, chemistry, and temperature; I favored the freedom of cooking. And I still do– I just realized that at a certain point, I would no longer be fulfilled being either one or the other– a cook, or a baker. A good bourgie would have to be, at the very least, proficient at both. Slowly I have begun to bake more, and I actually love the sweet treats bounding from my kitchen. But yeast, with all of its temperants, is the final frontier.

So I bought a book, and I’m schoolin’ myself. Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads is a massive compendium of bread products, from the regional, to the hearty, to the rich and sublime, even the non-yeast varieties, this book has a recipe for whatever type of bread you desire to make. For my inaugural baking, I selected a yeasted, Portuguese corn bread called Broa. With pulverized corn meal, as well as wheat flour, this bread sounded unusually delightful. And it was!

I would definitely classify this bread as a corn bread, not a traditional wheat flour one. Hearty and substantial, with a coarse crumb, this bread was lovely eaten still-warm, fresh from the oven, slathered with more than a bit, of sweet cream butter. Flavored with little else than salt and corn meal, the bread had ample opportunity to let the true corn flavor shine through.

There were so many other recipes that looked tempting in this book, and the directions were so clear and concise– very user friendly, I am sure to use this book over and over again. Atkins dieters beware, bread is making a comeback in the bourgie kitchen.