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.

Sourdough Bread Internal Temperature: The Number That Finally Fixed My Gummy Loaves

· June 28, 2026
Sourdough Bread Internal Temperature: The Number That Finally Fixed My Gummy Loaves

Warning: a beautiful crust tells you nothing about what’s happening inside your loaf. I learned that the hard way on a Tuesday morning, slicing into a loaf I was sure was my best yet, and watching the knife drag through a dense, gummy crumb instead of clean, open slices. Eleven years into this hobby—including a … Read more

Overnight Bulk Fermentation Sourdough: My Cold Kitchen Schedule (and Why It Makes Better Bread)

· June 27, 2026
Overnight Bulk Fermentation Sourdough: My Cold Kitchen Schedule (and Why It Makes Better Bread)

Pull up a photo I could show you this second: a torn-open sourdough boule with a wildly irregular, glassy crumb, sitting right beside an older shot of a flat, deflated slab spreading across the edges of my proofing bowl at five in the morning. That second photo is proof of exactly how badly things can … Read more

Beginner-Friendly Sourdough Boule: A Lower-Hydration Recipe That’s Easier to Handle

· June 24, 2026
Boule Bread: How I Bake the Classic Round Sourdough Loaf (My Go-To Recipe)

Lower hydration doesn’t mean lower quality — it means a dough that actually behaves the way a beginner needs it to while you’re still learning to read fermentation by feel. Why Start With Lower Hydration? High-hydration dough is sticky, hard to shape, and unforgiving of small mistakes. A 65% hydration dough, by contrast, holds its … Read more

Sourdough Bread and Gut Health: What the Research Actually Shows (From a Baker Who Read It)

· June 23, 2026
Sourdough Bread and Gut Health: What the Research Actually Shows (From a Baker Who Read It)

Sourdough bread does not hand your gut a dose of living probiotics — the oven wipes out nearly all of that bacterial activity before the crust even cools. I know that runs against everything the wellness corners of the internet love to repeat, and I believed it too, right up until my sister-in-law casually mentioned … Read more

10 Sourdough Tips for Beginners: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me on Day One

· June 22, 2026
10 Sourdough Tips for Beginners: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me on Day One

Your starter is bubbly. Your kitchen smells incredible. You’ve shaped your first boule at 2 a.m. and you’re genuinely convinced you’ve nailed it. Then you open your Dutch oven at 450°F and find… a pancake. Eleven years later, I’ve learned that flat loaves aren’t a failure—they’re feedback. Over three years running my home microbakery, I … Read more

Best Proofing Baskets for Sourdough: Bannetons I’ve Actually Used (Honest Comparison)

· June 20, 2026
Best Proofing Baskets for Sourdough: Bannetons I've Actually Used (Honest Comparison)

Ever pulled a gorgeous, fully-risen sourdough round out of bulk fermentation only to find it flat-out refuses to fit inside your banneton? That exact nightmare hit me at 11 PM on a Friday night, standing in my kitchen wondering how I’d let this happen. What I bake with: Two baskets so you’re never waiting between … Read more

Best Dutch Oven for Sourdough Bread: I Tested 5 and One Clearly Won

· June 19, 2026
Best Dutch Oven for Sourdough Bread: I Tested 5 and One Clearly Won

Nine years back, on a flat gray Tuesday morning, I hauled a sourdough boule out of the oven and watched it sink into something closer to a hockey puck than a proper loaf. What I bake with: The Dutch oven that bakes consistent crusts without scorching or guessing — AIVIKI 5QT Enameled Dutch Oven on … Read more