Sam Whitaker · April 29, 2026
For months, I baked sourdough in a hand-me-down enameled Dutch oven. The results were fine — decent ear, decent crust — but I kept seeing stunning open crumb shots online. People credited their baking vessel. That sent me deep into…
Sam Whitaker · April 27, 2026
For years, I grabbed whatever salt was closest on my pantry shelf when baking sourdough. Diamond Crystal kosher salt was my default — it was cheap, familiar, and always available. But after a few months of reading about Celtic sea…
Sam Whitaker · April 26, 2026
Six months into my sourdough journey, I was still getting flat, dense loaves with no structure. My dough kept spreading sideways during the final proof instead of building upward. A friend suggested I needed a proper banneton basket, so I…
Sam Whitaker · April 25, 2026
For months, my malted barley flour sourdough bread attempts were producing loaves that tasted great but looked embarrassingly pale. The crust had no color, no crackle, and zero of that deep amber shine I kept seeing in bakery photos. Every…
Sam Whitaker · April 24, 2026
Two years ago, my sourdough loaves were a mess. Every single bake felt like a gamble. I was using measuring cups, eyeballing flour, and wondering why my results were so wildly inconsistent. Then a baker in my local bread group…
Sam Whitaker · April 22, 2026
My sourdough loaves were stuck in a rut. Every weekend I’d pull a boule out of the Dutch oven, and every weekend the ear was either nonexistent or completely blown out on the wrong side. My old single-blade lame —…
Sam Whitaker · April 21, 2026
For the longest time, I baked sourdough by feel. I knocked on the bottom of the loaf, listened for that hollow thump, and hoped for the best. Sometimes it worked. Often, I sliced into a loaf that looked perfect on…
Sam Whitaker · April 20, 2026
I had killed three sourdough starters in two months. Three. Each time, I followed guides, watched videos, and still ended up with a sad, flat jar of flour and water that smelled more like nail polish remover than bread. So…
