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Celebrating a New Bread-Year

Hey, everyone! Maurizio here from The Perfect Loaf.

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I wanted to take this week's newsletter to reflect on the incredible amount of baking, writing, and events completed this year, but also to look ahead at what's in store for The Perfect Loaf.

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This past year was a busy one.

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Many recipes, guides, videos, and more were posted on the site to inspire and to hopefully help you become a better baker. As you might imagine, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about fermentation, flour, processes, and everything sourdough baking. The output? To translate this into approachable and helpful material for those wishing to learn, whether you're just starting or you've been around the bench a while.

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Regarding publishing, 2024 was a focused return to recipe development, with wide-ranging breads from a hearty rye to my Hop Miche beer bread to soft milk bread hamburger buns to Detroit pizza, and more.

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Usually, it takes multiple iterations to finally achieve what I'm after with each of these, but as you probably can guess, I only like to publish what I'm delighted with—and perhaps more importantly, what I think you'll be delighted with.

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And I couldn't be happier with the new collection of recipes developed and published this year. But gosh, so many "to-bake" items were still on the list!

👋🏼 As a reminder, this is The Perfect Loaf's newsletter by Maurizio Leo. It's wonderful to have you. You subscribed for sourdough recipes, guides, and more. You can always unsubscribe instantly (though I hope you don't!).

Just a few of the recipes! Scones photo by Rebecca Firkser.

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I also finished work on my levain ingredient calculator, a guide to getting a thin crust, keeping a starter cache in the fridge, and the best way to store it for vacation.

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And, perhaps near the top of my accomplishments, my lengthy Beginner's Guide to Sourdough that details each of the eight steps to making sourdough. (If you're new and don't know where to begin, bookmark this page!)

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In addition to all these posts, I was fortunate enough to attend and lead a few in-person baking workshops and travel events where I met many of you I'd be speaking to online for quite a while. Personally, this was highly gratifying.

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Yes, it's terrific talking via email—sometimes video—and in comments, it's an entirely different thing mixing, dividing, shaping, and baking dough together. It reminded me of what was missing in the past few years with less travel.

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Finally, I had the opportunity to work with the incredible bakers, authors, and editors Rebecca Firkser, Eric Pallant, Graison Gill, Andrew Janjigian, Jennifer Latham, and Ashley Meyer on articles for the site. The baking community is full of so much talent and diversity, collaborating on guest posts is my way of bringing this to the site.

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So what's the focus for 2025, you ask?

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More of the same, just as I've been doing for the past decade!

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Continued development on recipes (I have some great ones already in testing), helpful baking guides, useful tools, and informative videos—the things you've already come to expect if you've been a reader here.

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But also:

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• Not one, but two bread/pizza/panettone trips to Italy, similar to Puglia 2024, but one more of a workshop and the other more touristic (but still with hands-on dough time). Keep an eye on the Travel page for more.
• At least two bread workshops in the USA.
• A focus on recipes, specifically with a return to more whole grains and freshly milled flour.
• I'll continue building the membership (see below) with more perks, videos, and virtual meetups.
• More guides and tools to help you be a better sourdough baker.
• Two larger projects, yet to be announced 🙂

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It will be a busy year for me and baking, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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The Baker's Corner Update

​The Baker's Corner is the membership program here at The Perfect Loaf, and if you can believe it, it's just now entering its 6th (!!!) year. This membership provides the core support for all the recipes I create, photos I take, and videos I produce.

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In 2024, the membership grew to over 2,000 strong, and it goes without saying, thank you to everyone new and those who've been around for years. This membership enables me to do my best work while keeping the whole "bakery" running.

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So, to sum it up, thank you.

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DISCOVER THE MEMBERSHIP

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From top left: TPL x TASTE trip to Puglia; Graison and I teaching at Wayfarer in San Diego; the friselle workshop in Puglia; Don Guerra and I at the Tucson Festival of Books; Franco Pepe and I at Pepe in Grani in Naples, Italy; Margherita Sbagliata at Pepe in Grani.

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I'll close by saying I'd love to hear from you. Any recipe/guide/event suggestions for the new year? Or generally, something I'm not doing that I should or doing something that I shouldn't?

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Or heck, just to say hi 🙂

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With much thanks and Happy New Year,

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Maurizio Leo

P.S. I just had to bake these more-whole-grain baguettes for New Year's. Yum.