Sam Whitaker Sam Whitaker · January 12, 2026
I still remember the afternoon I finally admitted the truth to myself — standing over the sink, bloated and uncomfortable after eating what I thought was a healthy homemade loaf. I had used good flour, filtered water, even a pinch…
Sam Whitaker · January 11, 2026
My bench knife is already dragging across the top of the dough, laying down that one confident slash, and steam is still curling off the crust as I ease the loaf out of the Dutch oven — ears standing up proud, crackle audible under my fingers. This was bake number three that particular Tuesday, and … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 10, 2026
Here’s something that trips up almost every new sourdough baker: a flat, dense loaf with a sour bite usually has nothing to do with a weak starter — it’s almost always a proofing timing issue. I learned this the hard way years ago, pulling a loaf off my baking stone that had spread out like … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 8, 2026
205 to 210°F — that’s the internal temperature a properly baked sourdough loaf needs to clear before the crumb can actually set. The first time I measured a loaf that had turned out gummy on me, mine had barely cracked 185°F, and the interior showed it: pale, wet, and clinging to my bread knife like … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 7, 2026
Why does a loaf that got every bit of your attention still come out of the banneton looking like a deflated pancake? That’s the question I get asked more than any other, and here’s the direct answer: it’s almost never bad luck, and it’s almost always traceable to one of three places. I’ve pulled back … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 6, 2026
Somewhere around year two of this whole sourdough obsession, on a lazy Sunday afternoon that should have ended in triumph, I pulled a loaf from the oven, let it cool exactly as long as my patience allowed, and cut into what turned out to be a pale, gummy slab instead of bread. If you’ve landed … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 4, 2026
Ask five different bakers when you’re supposed to fold seeds or nuts into sourdough, and you’ll hear five different answers — but two of those answers flatly contradict each other, and only one of them actually holds up under a rolling pin. Some corners of the internet will tell you timing barely matters, that you … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 3, 2026
A brutal August heat wave turned my kitchen into a proofing box that summer, and the loaf I pulled out afterward had a dense, gummy crumb that clung to the knife like wet clay. I’d followed the recipe exactly, or so I assumed — but I’d nudged the water up without grasping what that change … Read more
Sam Whitaker · January 2, 2026
Most printed recipes will tell you to add 2% salt and move on, but none of them explain what actually goes wrong if you skip it — I found that out the hard way. I was half-listening to a podcast during a bake, running on autopilot, and the salt jar never got opened. Through bulk … Read more
Sam Whitaker · December 31, 2025
The jar looked wrong before it smelled wrong — foam crowding up against the underside of the lid, the surface pocked with bubbles bigger than any starter of mine had ever thrown. I’d grabbed the flour tin on autopilot that morning, scooped, fed, and walked away, and it wasn’t until I came back an hour … Read more
