Last week I baked the most enormous loaf of bread I’ve ever seen. It looked like the tire of a Smart Car. I kept trying to take a picture of the bread that would truly capture its incredible size, but, for some reason, every picture I took made the bread look simply normal-sized. So then I thought that if I placed regular kitchen items next to the bread and took a photo, maybe the juxtaposition of the bread next to the commonly-sized item would accurately portray its largess.
First I tried putting the bread next to an apple:
The bread still looked pretty normal, so I tried something else. Behold, bread with Cholula:
That didn’t work at all–somehow the bread came out looking even smaller, which was weird. So then I moved on to what I was sure would be a surefire winner, bread with an egg:
Still not working. Bread with a dinosaur?
Still no good.
And then it hit me. Maybe the trick to really showcasing the bread’s hugeness was to place the bread next to something animate that could truly–with emotion–display just how large the loaf of bread really was. So then there was this:
Now do you see what I mean? Huge. That bread is huge.
Bread recipe can be found here.
Savory Salty Sweet 
You succeeded in the last picture – that’s a big loaf! And you achieved a great rise – beautiful!
In Virginia, Katie
That bread is awesomely huge, and look delicious. What kind of bread is it? I am intrigued. p.s. on my Christmas list I have “bread baking lessons”…just sayin’.
The bread is a super delicious black bread from Heidi Swanson’s (of 101 Cookbooks fame) great repertoire. Her version turned out a lot denser and darker than mine, though. That said, the bread is absolutely delicious, and the flavor only gets better over time. I swear it was even more flavorful on day 3 than it was on day 1.
Elizabeth, I love sitting down to lunch and reading one of your posts!! And this one was just like having a nice visit over lunch with you and the man. And the bread really did look regular sized until O held it.!!??
You know it’s big bread if you still had some 3 days later!
So true!
You had my husband and I guffawing over this one. 🙂 And that cauliflower gratin up there – so making that!
The gratin made a good dent in the bread, I tell you.
Awesome series of photos! I love it. 🙂
I so need to make this. The biggest loaf of bread I’ve seen to date is the one we always bring back to our Seattle neighbors from Ken’s (in Portland)–and I had the exact same problem trying to photograph it. I think you captured it, though. 🙂
“breadzilla”!
That’s hilarious!
That’s one big loaf of bread! Thanks for the recipe link!!
All your recipes sound and look so good!! Can’t wait to make this gigantic bread loaf!!
I haven’t baked bread in a while but your recipe inspired me.