I ran across this photo today–one I took several years ago–and thought it was worth sharing.

Most of the bread my husband bakes is utilitarian. It’s beautiful but, since he bakes two dozen loaves at a time, he necessarily can’t take a lot of time on each loaf. So he sticks with the tried-and-true bread shapes that are quick to form, and take advantage of the different stages of heat in our wood-fired bread oven.

But now and again, he makes different shapes. This one is simple and clever to form. The dough is rolled out into a long, flat shape, then slashed through at regular intervals down one side, leaving just a small edge uncut on the opposite side. Flip every other ‘flap’ created by the slashes to the opposite side, and when the bread is baked, the loaf resembles a stalk of wheat.

Simple and beautiful. The bread is perfect for parties, because it’s easy to tear off individual ‘grains’ from the stalk–it’s practically pre-sliced.