Whole Wheat Sourdough Pita Last year, I co-taught a baking class at Chimacum Valley Grainery in Washington. On the menu: a whole-grain sourdough pita that I haven't stopped thinking about since. This week's recipe is my take on that pita—100% whole-wheat, same-day, naturally leavened, with a soft texture and a puff that delivers every time. It's an incredibly simple dough to make, and the flavor is a great reminder of why we bake. I think you're going to love it. Read on! In this week's...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Crusty loaves and fruit galettes I've been busy over the past few weeks testing (and retesting) a new 100% whole-wheat sourdough pita recipe. I have a recipe in my first cookbook which is fabulous (light, airy, super puffy!), but it's mostly white flour, and I wanted something quick yet nourishing with an outsized flavor profile. These really fit the bill (and then some). Stay tuned for the recipe next week! Until then, read on for some of my fav loaves to bake this time of year: crusty,...
20 days ago • 3 min read
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...
27 days ago • 2 min read
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,...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
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,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
A dough temperature wake-up call Was it seriously 90F in my kitchen the other day? Yes, yes, it was. And I really hope it was an outlier of a day. But that first truly warm day of Spring is always a wake-up call for me to stop warming the mixing water and start cooling it instead. In fact, I divided my latest batch of bread dough a little earlier (2hr 50m), and it had a much better structure, making for easy-peasy dividing and shaping. (If you're curious, this is my Rustico—pg 195—from my...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Soft Rolls, Pizza, & More Thanks, everyone, for your enthusiasm and support for my announcement last week! Now you know why I've been working so hard on pizza the past couple of years 🙂 If you're into sourdough pizza (which you definitely should be), you'll love my new book coming out later this year. BUT, let's talk about rolls, a hearty bread, banana bread, baguettes, and a few other things. Read on for some weekend baking inspo! In this week's newsletter: Recipes: Soft rolls, buckwheat...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
I wrote a pizza book I've been working on something for a long time, and I'm ready to share it with you. My second book, The Perfect Pizza: The Craft and Science of Homemade Pizza, Focaccia, Flatbreads, and More, is available for pre-order. This book picks up where The Perfect Loaf left off. Every recipe is naturally leavened with a sourdough starter, no commercial yeast. I wrote it for home ovens first (though I cover other setups too), with recipes that range from a go-to weeknight pizza...
2 months ago • 1 min read
My spring baking reset If your baking has felt heavy and slow all winter, this is your reset. Three recipes this week, all built for speed and simplicity—but also recipes I find myself drawn to in the spring (apricots, herbs!). My pain de mie is sandwich bread that quietly outperforms everything else in your bread box. Soft, fine-crumbed, and engineered for slicing. The sourdough discard lemon cake that leans into spring without trying too hard, IMO. It's bright, tender, and a perfect way to...
2 months ago • 2 min read