bread baking

General bread baking techniques and methods

From Roman Gauls to Parisian Boulangeries: The Enduring French History of Sourdough

· November 28, 2025
From Roman Gauls to Parisian Boulangeries: The Enduring French History of Sourdough

Eight hours. Sometimes twenty-four. That’s the fermentation window a properly made French sourdough loaf sits through before it ever sees an oven—a stretch of time that would strike most modern shoppers as absurd for something as ordinary as bread. Yet that patience is exactly why the crust shatters the way it does, why the crumb … Read more

Taste the World: A Baker’s Guide to Unique Sourdough Starters

· November 23, 2025
Taste the World: A Baker's Guide to Unique Sourdough Starters

Introduction: A Jar of Flour and Water Carries More Than Bubbles We went through a stretch last February where the furnace was running nonstop and the air in my kitchen dropped to something like 20% humidity. My usual starter, the one I’ve fed for over a decade, barely blinked. But a rye culture a reader … Read more

Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Beginner Sourdough Bakers (Because You’re Going to Need Them)

· November 21, 2025
Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Beginner Sourdough Bakers (Because You're Going to Need Them)

The smell hit me before I even saw the jar — something sharp and almost boozy, way past the pleasant tang I’d gotten used to. When I finally looked, the starter had climbed clean over the rim, dried into crusty ridges down the outside of the glass, and left a sticky trail creeping across my … Read more

There’s Something About The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

· November 15, 2025
There's Something About The Bread Baker's Apprentice

There’s a photo sitting on my counter right now: a crumb shot from a recent bake next to a flatter, tighter loaf from years back, and side by side they tell the whole story of how far eleven years behind a mixing bowl (plus three years running a small home bakery) have actually taken me. … Read more

There’s Something About Tartine Bread

· November 14, 2025
There's Something About Tartine Bread

Tartine Bread isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a philosophy that quietly rewires how you think about fermentation, hydration, and what “done” actually means. Chad Robertson’s masterpiece landed on my counter eleven years ago when I was still treating sourdough like a finicky science experiment. What struck me wasn’t the gorgeous photographs or the detailed hydration … Read more

There’s Something About Starter Sourdough

· November 13, 2025
There's Something About Starter Sourdough

Most sourdough bakers overthink their starter. They fret over ratios, stare at fermentation windows, and obsess over every bubble. What they’re missing is simpler: your starter doesn’t need perfection. It needs consistency. After 11 years of baking and three years running a home microbakery, I’ve learned that starter sourdough—bread made with your own cultivated culture—teaches … Read more

There’s Something About Flour Water Salt Yeast

· November 11, 2025
There's Something About Flour Water Salt Yeast

68% hydration used to intimidate me — that’s the number attached to my first real attempt at an open-crumb loaf, and it’s what pushed me past guesswork into actual technique over the years that followed. I’ve spent that time hunting through cookbooks, testing methods in my own kitchen with whatever gear I owned, and chasing … Read more