Sam Whitaker · July 28, 2026
Back when I first started making these, I’d set an alarm for 5am on Christmas morning just to babysit a proof, because I hadn’t yet cracked the trick of letting the fridge do the heavy lifting overnight. These days the dough gets mixed after supper, the rolls get shaped before I turn in, and the … Read more
Mei Lin Koh · July 27, 2026
A note from Sam: every fermentation experiment I’ve ever run has stayed firmly inside Pacific Northwest weather, so when longtime reader Mei Lin Koh offered up her own wild-yeast terroir project from Singapore, I said yes before she’d even finished the sentence — tropical fermentation runs on a clock I’ve simply never had to learn. … Read more
Sam Whitaker · July 27, 2026
A loaf that rises beautifully at sea level can turn into a collapsed puddle at 6,000 feet with the exact same recipe. Altitude changes fermentation in ways that catch a lot of transplanted bakers off guard. Understanding Why High Altitude Affects Sourdough Lower atmospheric pressure at elevation means gas bubbles in your dough expand faster … Read more
Sam Whitaker · July 24, 2026
No recipe card has ever warned you about this: what happens to your starter jar sitting on the counter while you’re on a plane, in a rental car, or three time zones away from your kitchen. My own introduction to this gap in the instructions came on a two-week trip early on, when I came … Read more
Sam Whitaker · July 24, 2026
I can still picture the crumb shot from my very first tray of sourdough English muffins — golden and even on the outside, but when I tore one open, it was tight, pale, and almost bready inside, with nothing resembling a hole for butter to soak into. What that flat, close crumb told me was … Read more
Sam Whitaker · July 15, 2026
Most home bakers assume a sourdough bagel is basically your everyday loaf dough, pinched into a ring and dunked in hot water for good measure — and that assumption is exactly what sank my earliest attempts. My first pot of boiled dough came out looking the part, then baked up into dense little rolls with … Read more
Sam Whitaker · July 15, 2026
Freezer-burned sourdough with a crust like cardboard is almost always a wrapping problem, not a freezing problem. Fix the wrapping and the bread comes back nearly as good as day one. When to Freeze for Best Results Freeze bread the same day you bake it, once it’s fully cooled — at least 2 hours after … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 28, 2026
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
Sam Whitaker · June 27, 2026
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
Sam Whitaker · June 26, 2026
“Why do you have six different jars for the same starter?” My sister asked me that over Thanksgiving a couple years back, watching me dig through my cabinet like I was searching for a specific wrench in a toolbox. The honest answer traces back to a Tuesday morning when my sourdough starter container ended up … Read more
