Sam Whitaker Sam Whitaker · May 22, 2026
For the first two years of my sourdough journey, my loaves were flat. Not pancake-flat, but definitely not the dramatic, ear-splitting, Instagram-worthy loaves I kept seeing everywhere. I had decent flour, a healthy starter, and a solid scoring technique. Yet…
Sam Whitaker · May 21, 2026
For the longest time, my sourdough loaves looked embarrassing on top. The crumb was decent. The flavor was there. But every time I scored the dough, the blade dragged, the cuts blew out sideways, and my carefully shaped boule ended…
Sam Whitaker · May 20, 2026
For months, my sourdough loaves were coming out flat, sticky, and weirdly misshapen. I knew my starter was healthy. My scoring technique had improved. Yet something was still going wrong during the final proof. After some research, I realized I…
Sam Whitaker · May 19, 2026
For the first two years of my sourdough journey, I was baking directly on a pizza stone and covering my loaves with a roasting pan lid. The results were fine — edible, even enjoyable — but the crust never had…
Sam Whitaker · May 17, 2026
For three years, I baked every sourdough loaf in a 5-quart Dutch oven. It worked. The crust was decent, the crumb was open enough, and I told myself I had nothing to complain about. Then I started noticing something frustrating:…
Sam Whitaker · May 16, 2026
My Sourdough Loaves Were Bland — Until I Tried This…
Sam Whitaker · May 15, 2026
For the longest time, I was doing everything by hand. Every stretch-and-fold, every windowpane test, every sticky, flour-dusted counter session — all manual. My sourdough loaves were decent, but my arms were tired. So when I finally decided to invest…
Sam Whitaker · May 13, 2026
If you’ve been baking sourdough for any length of time, you already know the cooling rack struggle. I spent months wrestling with racks that were too small, too flimsy, or just plain wrong for the job. That frustration is exactly…
Sam Whitaker · May 12, 2026
If you’ve ever destroyed a freshly baked sourdough loaf with the wrong knife, you know the specific kind of heartbreak I’m talking about. After months of perfecting my starter and nailing my fermentation timing, I was still ending up with…
Sam Whitaker · May 11, 2026
If you have ever baked sourdough in a Dutch oven, you know the moment of dread I am talking about. Your beautifully proofed loaf is ready. The Dutch oven is screaming hot. And somehow you have to transfer that wobbly,…
