An ode to ciambella (and a few other things) This past weekend, I made my sourdough discard Italian lemon cake: ciambella. It's a fiercely lemon-y cake that's beautifully golden, a little thick like pound cake, and, with the added sourdough starter, just a very (very!) subtle hint of sourness that really plays nicely with the lemon. Check out this incredibly not glitzy, fancy, or staged photo of the golden cake: And that's kind of the point with this one. It's a back-pocket recipe you can...

Adjusting sourness in your loaf I've been baking sourdough bread for a long while, and for most of that time, I was adjusting the sourness of my bread instinctively without fully understanding why certain things worked. Now I've put it all together in one guide. It covers the science (accessible, I promise), the practical levers you can pull at every stage, and the approach I use in my own kitchen to get exactly the flavor I'm after. If you've ever wished your bread were more or less sour,...

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns Ever since I developed a Hot Cross Bun (or HxB, for the cool kids) recipe for my cookbook, I've made these each year around this time. Now, HxBs are certainly not something I grew up eating out here, but once you have one of these soft, sweet, and gently spiced rolls with a thick slather of salted butter—well, you can't stop thinking about them. I've taken my cookbook recipe and adapted it for even more softness and a touch more tenderness. If you loved those buns,...