Our local store sells a Rosemary and Olive sourdough loaf for $7.99 or £4.56 or $6.58 US, I bought one this morning in fact* But twenty one quid? I suppose. For a one off.One key ingredient makes Tom Herbert's bread so exclusive - at £21 a loaf, you need plenty of dough to afford it.
£21 = $30.31 US or $36,77 AU
But a growing revolt against mass-produced supermarket fare is making this lovingly baked product a favourite of the discerning wallet.
Probably the best thing since sliced bread, in fact.
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Slice of heaven: Baker Tom Herbert with the £21 Shepherd's Loaf, which is created using a secret 55-year-old sourdough recipe
The Shepherd's Loaf - by far the most expensive in Britain - takes two days to make and can last up to two weeks.
It might look a little like a giant cow-pat and require both hands to lift - but when the baker describes it as 'a work of art', you can assume it's not your average split tin.
Yesterday I sampled the bread that counts actress Liz Hurley, footballer Tony Adams and artist Damien Hirst among its fans. To say it is a loaf fit for a king is no exaggeration.
Gloucestershire-based Hobbs House Bakery, which makes the loaf from a recipe that has been in the family for more than half a century - delivers a weekly order to Prince Charles's Highgrove estate.
But the story of the Shepherd's Loaf turns the clock back much further than the time when the first of five generations of Herberts began to bake commercially.
The flour is made from locally grown organic spelt. The sea salt used has been harvested in the far west of Cornwall since the Iron Age.
Artist Damien Hirst, left, and actress Liz Hurley are regular customers of the £21 Shepherd's Loaf, says baker Tom Herbert
Even the sourdough mixture that makes the bread rise has been glub-glubbing away in a 100-gallon tank for the past 55 years.
'We call it The Monster,' said Tom Herbert, 33. 'It's the mother of all breads because it gives life to our loaves.
'We feed it every day with flour and water to replace the sourdough that we take out.'
That process has been going on continuously since just after the war.
The Shepherd, as it is known, was created in what Mr Herbert describes as 'the search for the perfect loaf'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0qJcYJJK2
*I've just made some roast mushroom pate to have on it
