Bread you should make if you've never made bread

If you follow me on Twitter you may have been taunted a month or two back when I was baking loaf after loaf of bread. Well, I'm finally ready to do a bread post!

In this photo is a delicious loaf of English Muffin toasting bread (recipe from King Arthur Flour). It's really easy, really quick and ridiculous delicious. Now, mine didn't turn out esthetically great because I used the wrong size loaf pan, but it was a hell of a lot better than when I tried to make the Joy of Cooking's White Bread...

That was the second, slightly better loaf after an utter failure the first time. The problem was that I was short a whole cup of water. At that time I was using a copy of Joy from the library, and it was an earlier version of the 2006 edition, where they misprinted the recipe for White Bread.

I've baked the English Muffin Toasting Bread four or five times now and it's been wonderful every time, both when I've used milk in the recipe and when I substituted soy milk. The best part is that it is so very quick to make compared to the more complicated multiple-day recipes I was making before discovering this delight.

I guess this is something of a review/gush-fest, as opposed to a "this is how you cook this" post. But seriously, bake this bread. It crisps up perfectly and the cornmeal on the side makes for an extra delightful crunch.

Mmm... If it wasn't 10:30 I would be getting up to bake this right now. Actually I am rather weighed down with baking project for gifting and holiday snacking, which would be just wonderful if I didn't also have an exam to study for. But I'm balancing alright, and it will all be worth it when I get tucked into my food coma on the night of Dec. 25.

Squat and flat, but we still love it.