In my years of solitude before meeting my fiancé, I spent a lot of time perfecting my bread recipe.

It reminded me of all those books, TV shows and movies I consumed as a girl that were full of women from days past baking, eating and living their lives. One is “Little Women,” hence my reasoning for this pairing.

This gluten-free, vegan bread recipe yields two small, or “little,” loaves, approximately 18 slices in total.

Ingredients
2 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose gluten-free baking flour
2 teaspoons salt
2-3 tablespoons vegan butter, softened

Instructions
Drop the sugar and yeast into your lukewarm water. Let it sit for a couple minutes, until it gets foamy.

In a bowl or stand mixer, whisk together the flour, salt and foamy yeast-sugar-water mixture.

Once a dough is formed, cover your bowl with a towel and let it rise for an hour.

After your dough has risen, preheat the oven to 425°F and grease two oven-safe bowls with the softened vegan butter. I used two glass bowls, one 1 L and the other 1.5 L.

Uncover your dough and punch it down using a couple forks. Use the forks to divide the dough in two and quickly transfer the dough to the two bowls.

Keep the bowls in a warm place and let the dough rise for 30 more minutes, uncovered. It should rise to the top of the bowls.

Bake the bread for 15 minutes at 425°F then lower the oven to 375°F and bake for 15 more minutes.

When it is golden brown, take it out and the loaves should easily flip onto cooling racks. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing into it.

Serve up a slice on its own, or with your accompaniments of choice. With the two loaves pictured here, we made panzanella, grilled cheese sandwiches and had warm slices for dipping in soup.

The Easy Route
For an easier at-home option, you could get a take and bake loaf from a store or bakery, or you could make your bread from a boxed mix.

Of course, the easiest option is to get a loaf of freshly baked bread from your favorite bakery or store.

The Pairing
I adore Winona Ryder and the 1994 version of “Little Women” was a childhood classic that came out around the same time I read the book.

So needless to say, I was a little skeptical of the 2019 version before I saw it, even though I love the actors and filmmaker who were bringing it to life.

I am happy to report my skepticism was misplaced. Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet and Emma Watson are four of the best young actors working today, and they all flourished under filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s direction.

The movie follows the four March sisters as they grow up and become young women in 1800s Massachusetts.

Like I said before, the entire cast blew me away. If you want to see great performers like the younger ones I listed and seasoned veterans, including Laura Dern, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, playing off each other, watch “Little Women” ASAP.

Pugh absolutely gives one of the best performances of her already impressive career as Amy. The monologue she delivers to Chalamet’s Laurie is just one example of this.

Chalamet also holds his own in his scenes alongside Pugh and Ronan, who plays the film’s lead, Jo. Ronan has been absolutely impressive since her claim to fame in “Atonement” a decade prior, and that streak continues here.

Greta Gerwig already won me over as an actress in “Frances Ha,” “20th Century Women” and more, but her work as a filmmaker is truly wonderful. After “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” I cannot wait for her take on “Barbie” this summer.

If you decide to bake bread and/or watch “Little Women,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes