The recipe starts with the Chocolate Sourdough Babka base, but incorporating coffee is easier than you might think. Here are three ways to do it depending on how bold you want that coffee flavor: 1. The simplest swap: Bloom your cocoa powder in hot strong coffee instead of hot water. Same amount of liquid, just a straight swap. It deepens the chocolate and adds a subtle coffee note without screaming “coffee.” 2. Want more punch? Add 1-2 teaspoons of espresso powder directly to the filling along with your cocoa and sugar. Or brush the finished babka with a quick coffee syrup right out of the oven. Equal parts strong coffee and sugar, simmered for a minute or two. 3. In the dough itself: You can substitute cooled strong brewed coffee for about 25-30% of the liquid in the dough. Keep it at that ratio so it doesn’t mess with fermentation. The filling is really where the coffee shines here. Think of it like a mocha. The chocolate carries it, the coffee amplifies it. You don’t need much to make a big difference. Start with the base recipe here and build from there: 👉 https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-chocolate-babka?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share Drop your questions below. I’d love to see what you come up with. ~ Henry ⭐🔥

One of our members, Abigail had a question about cinnamon rolls, which put me in mind of the ones I made over the holidays. You’re welcome. https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/henrys-blueberry-cinnamon-rolls

This is the science behind that deep golden crust and the smell that makes your whole house stop. Here's what's actually happening: when your loaf hits that hot oven, amino acids and reducing sugars collide under high heat and produce hundreds of new flavor compounds. That's not just browning. That's flavor, aroma, and color being created in real time. The sequence matters. Steam comes first, keeping the surface moist so your loaf can expand. Then the steam dissipates and the dry heat takes over, driving the Maillard reaction hard across the crust surface. No steam, and you get a crust that sets too early. No dry finish, and you get color without depth. Three things that control how much Maillard activity you get: 1. Oven temperature. High heat is the trigger. 450°F and above is where the real action starts. 2. Moisture timing. Steam early, open bake late. 3. Surface sugars. Enriched doughs and egg-washed loaves brown faster because they have more available sugars. If your loaves have been coming out pale or tasting flat, this is often the first place to look. What's your oven running when you bake? Drop it below. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

A Story About What’s Happening Inside Your Starter. Every sourdough loaf gets its flavor long before it ever becomes dough. Before shaping. Before proofing. Before baking. It happens in the jar. Most people chase flavor by changing recipes. Different flours. Different hydrations. Different techniques. But flavor isn’t hiding in the recipe. It’s already being decided inside your starter. Once you understand what’s happening there, flavor stops being a mystery and starts becoming a choice.

Easter and Passover Weekend -- Week 4 Sandy Chong posted a crumb shot this week. Open, airy, gorgeous. And then she cried. After a very rough few months, after nearly quitting baking, that loaf told her everything she needed to hear. That's what the Road to Sourdough has been building toward. The Week This wasn't a one-day bake. Easter and Passover don't fit neatly into a Saturday, so I opened the week up and gave everyone a choice: sculpt an Easter bunny, bake an enriched Easter loaf, make hot cross buns, try a babka or tsoureki, bring something to a Passover table, or bake whatever bread your family expects this time of year. The community took that wide-open invitation and ran with it. And I need to be honest about something. I wasn't in the kitchen for most of Saturday. I was in the bleachers at my son Ryan's track meet, watching him win his 3rd tournament championship Of the season and set school records in the 100m, 200m, 4x100 relay, and javelin. Cell service was spotty, it was cold, and you all held the kitchen down without me. That's what a real community does. @Colleen Vergara committed to baking both options, called it "weekend torture," and the community loved it. She shaped her bunny, prayed for oven spring ("she's not that large"), and came back with four photos of a rabbit loaf she admitted might be dense and underproofed, but it was a rabbit and it was hers. She was still shaping mini bunnies from enriched dough when the thread wound down. @Susie Kendall's bunny adventure started the night before when she dozed off during bulk fermentation and her husband had to remind her the dough was still going. She shaped it in the morning, cut the hind legs from the wrong direction, and ended up with what she called a "badonk-a-donk tail." Her daughter-in-law sent back a crumb shot: fluffy, soft, really good. @Leigh Skowronski posted a five-photo progression of a sculpted Easter bunny sourdough made with 50% freshly milled flour. Twelve likes. That's the most-liked comment I've seen in the thread in weeks. @Donna Angelo baked hot cross buns a day early and they were beautiful. @Tracy Havlik baked sourdough bunny loaves and espresso hot cross buns ahead of Saturday because she had a two-day vendor event, then showed up to the thread at 4 AM anyway. @Judy Lyle's hot cross buns had vanilla, cinnamon oil, and an apricot-orange marmalade glaze that sounded like something you'd pay good money for. @Sandra Jager changed her mind about skipping hot cross buns and baked them anyway. @Tammi Thurston's hot cross buns were so good I told her there was no way it was her first time. She said it wasn't, but it was the best she'd ever made.