Some words before we begin

If you're doing it right, you're probably still sleeping at four each morning. At eight, you get up, mumbling something about how early it is, and stumble into your kitchen to make some a fresh pot of coffee and toast some bread. If you're really lucky, you're toasting some brioche. You get dressed, and that is that.
During that window, between four and eight, the bread you toasted and slathered with jam is being kneaded and let to rise, baked and cooled. When everyone else is turning in for the night, the bread bakers are headed to work, making baguettes and steak rolls and ciabatta and sourdough.

(above: a baker at Honey Bee Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi)