Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.

“I had started baking bread at home about a dozen years ago—like everyone in the mid-aughts, I’d read about Jim Lahey’s “no-knead” loaves requiring nearly no work and promising nearly professional results and thought, “Even I can do that.” Relying on a miniscule amount of yeast, a long, slow ferment and a moisture-trapping bake inside a blazingly hot covered Dutch oven, the process couldn’t have been easier. And it worked, producing a white “artisan-style” loaf with a nice crust and pleasant crumb—it wasn’t perfect, but it did the trick, especially warm from the oven and spread with soft butter.”

“Please note: I have never made bread from scratch. But I have eaten more than my share of the good stuff so I feel like this is a significant point in my relationship with bread. [...] This is the hardest step!! Cool on wrack for 15 minutes before cutting into it. I don’t know why exactly. I think it’s because as soon as you cut into a freshly made loaf of bread you will shove a massive piece in your mouth and risk burning yourself. [...] I feel like this changed my life. It was amazing. Freshly baked bread is everything. I kinda want this to be my new thing but I feel like hot bread is meant to be eaten right away and I’ll end up eating half of it right away every time.”

“Since making my first French loaves, I’ve been on something of a baking whirlwind. I made sourdough loaves using a starter from a friend [...] The sourdough loaves unfortunately came out like bricks. My friend had warned me that the dough would be very wet, but I was thoroughly unprepared for just how difficult it would be to mix and proof. I spent ages kneading the dough by hand, and instead of retaining a round shape during the final proofing, the loaves sort of oozed into puddles. They didn’t taste bad—in fact, the flavour was complex and slightly tangy from the starter—but the texture was much too dense and chewy.”