Sam Whitaker

Sam Whitaker has been baking sourdough for over a decade from a home kitchen in the Pacific Northwest. Sam's four-year-old starter, Harold, is the foundation for every recipe and troubleshooting guide on Sourdough Rising — no commercial ovens or professional training, just real bread tested over and over until it works.

Bread Flour vs All-Purpose vs Whole Wheat: Which Flour Makes the Best Sourdough

· December 30, 2025
Bread Flour vs All-Purpose vs Whole Wheat: Which Flour Makes the Best Sourdough

Almost every home baker assumes flour is flour — that any white bag sitting on the pantry shelf will behave the same way once it meets a bubbling starter. I believed exactly that until one Tuesday evening when my starter was doing its thing on the counter and I grabbed the closest bag on hand, … Read more

Bench Scrapers, Dough Whisk, and Mixing Bowls: The Everyday Tools That Make Sourdough Easier

· December 29, 2025
Bench Scrapers, Dough Whisk, and Mixing Bowls: The Everyday Tools That Make Sourdough Easier

There’s a particular strip of marble counter just past my stove — chipped at one corner from a dropped Dutch oven lid — and that’s exactly where I attempted my first hands-only transfer of a fully proofed loaf into the pot. No bench scraper, no dough whisk, just my palms and a stubborn confidence that … Read more

Digital Scales for Baking: Why Weight Matters More Than Cups and What to Buy

· December 27, 2025
Digital Scales for Baking: Why Weight Matters More Than Cups and What to Buy

Don’t trust your cup measurements — they’re quietly wrecking your sourdough. I learned this the hard way one afternoon when a loaf that should’ve turned out gorgeous came out of the oven dense and heavy, more like a brick than bread. The culprit? I’d jammed flour into the measuring cup while rushing, packing it down … Read more

Bread Lames and Scoring Tools: How the Right Blade Transforms Your Crust

· December 26, 2025
Bread Lames and Scoring Tools: How the Right Blade Transforms Your Crust

Pull up any early photo from my baking days and you’ll spot the same disaster every time: a crust split wide open along one side, a jagged blowout that has nothing to do with deliberate scoring. That picture is proof of exactly what happens when you try to score dough with a plain kitchen knife … Read more

Banneton Proofing Baskets: How to Use, Clean, and Choose the Right Size

· December 25, 2025
Banneton Proofing Baskets: How to Use, Clean, and Choose the Right Size

“Can’t you just use a bowl and a dish towel instead of buying some fancy basket?” That’s what my brother-in-law asked me years back, right before I proved myself spectacularly wrong. I’d shaped a loaf, nestled it into a flour-dusted towel sitting inside a mixing bowl, and gone to bed feeling smug about my setup. … Read more

Long Cold Fermentation: How Refrigerating Your Starter Changes Everything About Flavor

· December 22, 2025
Long Cold Fermentation: How Refrigerating Your Starter Changes Everything About Flavor

Here’s a claim that trips up most people new to sourdough: refrigeration doesn’t pause fermentation, it just changes what kind of fermentation you’re getting. I used to believe the fridge was basically a “hold” button — a place to park dough when life got in the way of baking on schedule. Then one Tuesday night, … Read more

Sourdough Discard: 10 Delicious Ways to Use It Instead of Throwing It Away

· December 21, 2025
Sourdough Discard: 10 Delicious Ways to Use It Instead of Throwing It Away

Two tablespoons of flour and two tablespoons of water, mixed into a jar and left to sit for eight hours ��� that’s roughly what one single feeding of starter produces in leftover, unfed discard, and multiply that across a week of feedings and you’re staring at a genuinely surprising pile of “waste” building up in … Read more