Most people who have lived in an apartment know the joys of cooking and baking in a Barbie playhouse sized kitchen where it’s impossible to open the oven and the dishwasher at the same time. Many also know the pure terror which comes with the possibility of setting off the fire alarm every time you get a hankering for chocolate chip cookies or some fresh homemade bread. The grey clouds of steam (and sometimes smoke) that escape through the electric stove top of your tiny, rickety old oven every time you set it to ‘Bake’ is enough to make you cook with the windows wide open and every fan in the apartment turned on high even in the dead of winter.

Such was my experience when I created this beautiful and delicious loaf of bread. I spent the full half hour that it was in the oven wracking my brain for ways to apologize to my neighbors for accidentally ousting them all from their homes when the building was evacuated because some blond on the third floor fancied herself a home chef. It was a relief when my bread came out looking and smelling amazing and an explanation to the local authorities about what exactly I was trying to do when I burned down the building was rendered unnecessary.