🌙 Last night around midnight I went to feed my starters for a little experiment I've been wanting to run. Stiff starter, two jars, side by side. One fed with water, one fed with pineapple juice. Same flour, same ratios, same temperature, same everything except the liquid. Except my kitchen scale had other plans. ⚖️ Scale Trouble The display started flashing "unstable." Then the numbers just started running. 12g. 47g. 3g. 89g. Whether there was anything on the scale or not. I sat there for a few minutes trying to coax it back to life, recalibrate, reset, the whole routine. Nothing. So I did what bakers did before digital scales existed. I went by volume. A quarter cup of liquid in each jar (water in one, pineapple juice in the other), and a half cup of flour each. Stirred them stiff, capped them, and went to bed. 🔬 What I Found This Morning Nine and a half hours later, both jars had risen to about the same height. Domed caps, pulled away from the sides of the glass, looking active. From the front, they looked like twins. But from the top, the story changed. 🔹 The pineapple jar (left): glossy, slack surface. Bubbles broken open. Bigger, more open holes throughout the body when you look through the side of the glass. The structure had given way. 🔹 The water jar (right): tighter, drier surface. You could still see the swirl pattern from how I mixed it. Smaller, more uniform bubbles. The structure was still holding. 🧠 Why This Happens Pineapple juice brings two things plain water doesn't: sugar and acid. Sugar gives the wild yeast a faster food source, so fermentation accelerates. Acid drops the pH and starts breaking down the gluten structure. Together they push a starter past peak faster and degrade its structure even at stiff hydration. Same rise height. Completely different internal behavior. 📌 The Takeaway Pineapple juice is a great tool for waking up a brand new starter in the first few days. The acid suppresses the bad bacteria long enough for your wild yeast to get established. But once you have a healthy, mature starter, pineapple juice isn't doing you any favors. It just accelerates fermentation and breaks down the structure you've worked to build.

This week's bake-along is Babka, and before we even get to the recipe, we need to settle something. Chocolate or Cinnamon? Drop your answer below. No wrong answers. Just strong ones. (And yes, there will be a savory option for the rebels in the room.) Pick your path now so you're ready by Friday. Path A: Sourdough Chocolate Babka Path B: Holiday Chocolate Babka (yeasted) Path C: Roasted Garlic and Gruyère All are in the Recipe Pantry. But don't rely solely on me. Do your homework. See what's out there that might interest you beyond what I'm supplying. Let's have a conversation Bring what you find interesting and we'll talk about it. The full bake-along drops tomorrow. Get your loaf pans ready. Henry ⭐🔥

Mom and dad are very proud. It’s been a long day thank you guys for giving me the day off. Now it’s time to bake tomorrow.

A curious question here. One some of the recipes we add the butter in pieces and mix, not my favorite way, and in other we add it all together and mix. I have an idea why but Henry why?

Today, I was in my Happy Place. I tested out, Bim’s English Muffins and made them smaller 70g. I got 20 muffins altogether. I was experimenting today with my small oven. I normally pan fry them, but baked them in the oven at different temperatures. The first 3 were baked in oven rings. The last one, I pan fried without a ring. This is why it looked slightly wider and more puffy. Had one for lunch with cheese and tomato and it hit the spot.