Hey Crust & Crumb bakers, Rachel Parker is back with a new episode of Breaking Bread — and this time, she's taking us somewhere we didn't expect to go. Salem, Massachusetts. 1692. You know the story. The fits. The accusations. The trials. The executions. One of the darkest chapters in American history. But what if the answer wasn't witchcraft, mass hysteria, or village politics? What if it was the bread? 🎙️ Episode 2: The Fungus That Cursed a Village — Bread, Madness, and the Salem Witch Trials In this episode, Rachel digs into the genuinely unsettling theory that a fungus called ergot — growing silently on contaminated rye crops — may have triggered the hallucinations, convulsions, and visions that started the whole terrifying chain of events. A fungus so chemically similar to LSD that the symptoms of eating it read almost word for word like the testimony of the afflicted girls in Salem. A cold, wet winter. Marshy rye fields. A village with no idea what was in their flour. And then — when the grain ran out — the devil disappeared. This episode covers: 🌾 What ergot is and how it gets into your bread without anyone knowing 😱 The symptoms of ergot poisoning — and why they match the Salem testimony so closely 🗺️ The geography of the outbreak and what it tells us ⚖️ Why not everyone agrees with the theory — and why that makes it even more interesting 🍞 What it means for us as bakers who love and trust our rye This is the kind of story that makes you look at your rye flour a little differently. Give it a listen and come back here with your thoughts. Do you think the ergot theory holds up? Have you ever felt like there's something wild and ancient in rye that the other grains don't quite have? Drop it in the comments. This one is going to spark a conversation. 👉 Listen now — link in the comments below. — Henry

One of our members reached out to me about a project she's working on. She's part of a program teaching kids in her school system how to cook real food from scratch. Not box food. Not microwave food. Real food. She told me the kids made Mac and Cheese from scratch for the first time and their faces said everything. They couldn't believe that's what it was supposed to taste like. Now the kids want pizza. And she needed help figuring out a recipe that works without scales, without mixers, without any fancy equipment. Just cups, spoons, a bowl, and their hands. I was happy to help. Actually, I was more than happy. It hit me hard enough that I went ahead and built a full recipe for it. Kids Can Bake: Personal Pan Pizza https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/kids-can-bake-personal-pan-pizza?variant=yeasted Every kid makes their own dough in their own bowl. No sharing, no dividing. The recipe uses basic volume measurements, common ingredients, and zero equipment most kitchens don't already have. It walks them through the science of what yeast is doing and why dough rises, because kids are curious and they deserve real answers. This inspired something bigger. I'm building out a "Kids Can Bake" section in the Recipe Pantry. Recipes designed for children, parents baking with their kids, scout troops, after-school programs, summer camps, whoever wants to put real food in front of young people and teach them something valuable. If you've got a recipe idea that would work well for kids, or know of a project we as a community can get behind, drop it in the comments. I want to hear what you'd bake with your children or grandchildren. More kid-friendly recipes coming soon. Perfection is not required. But teaching a kid to make their own pizza from scratch? That's progress that lasts a lifetime.

Tomorrow we’re baking Japanese Milk Bread together in the Saturday Bake-Along, and I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been walking around today looking for excuses to make a sandwich. Toast. Anything. You see that crumb? Those layers? That’s what tangzhong does, and once you know how to make it, there’s no going back. The recipe is live in the Recipe Pantry right now. https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread?variant=yeasted Get your ingredients together tonight so you’re ready to bake with us in the morning. Are you baking with us tomorrow? 👇 Dropw your answer below:

Old school bakers called it punching down. Modern bakers call it degassing. I’m somewhere in between, and in this video I’m showing you both, starting with the poke test to confirm the dough is ready, then working through the degassing process before shaping. Here’s what’s actually happening when you degas: Those big, uneven gas bubbles that built up during bulk fermentation? Some of them need to go. Not all of them, but the large irregular ones create problems in the final crumb. Degassing redistributes the yeast, the sugars, and the acids more evenly throughout the dough. That means a more consistent crumb, better flavor distribution, and a loaf that rises more predictably in the oven. The poke test tells you where you stand before you touch it. Poke the dough with a floured finger. If it springs back slowly but not completely, you’re in the window. Springs back fast, it needs more time. Barely moves at all, you’ve gone too far. For yeasted breads, degassing between the first and second rise is standard practice. For sourdough, we’re more gentle, because you’ve spent hours building that fermentation and you don’t want to destroy it, just reorganize it. One thing I want you to notice in the video: I’m not throwing a punch. It’s controlled pressure, working the dough, not beating it into submission. Perfection isn’t required. Understanding what you’re doing and why always is. Drop a question below if you want to talk through where this fits in your process. What bread are you working on right now?

Here's the thing. Most of us started baking by following recipes. Somebody says "5 cups flour, 2 cups water" and we just... do it. But what happens when the dough's too sticky? Or the bread tastes bland? Or you want to double the recipe and suddenly nothing works right? You're stuck, because you were following instructions without understanding the architecture behind them. That's what Baker's Percentage fixes. It's not complicated math — if you can divide and multiply, you're already fluent. But it changes everything about how you read recipes, how you scale them, how you troubleshoot, and how you communicate with other bakers. In this lesson I break down: 👉 The one formula you need — and why flour is always 100% 👉 What hydration percentage actually tells you about how your dough will feel before you touch it 👉 The salt sweet spot (and why bland bread is almost always a math problem) 👉 How to control your timeline using yeast and starter percentages 👉 Scaling from 1 loaf to 100 without ever guessing 👉 How to decode any online recipe in about 60 seconds 👉 A troubleshooting guide that uses the numbers to diagnose exactly what went wrong This is the lesson that turns recipe followers into real bakers. 🎥 Watch the full lesson Drop a 🔥 in the comments if you've ever looked at a recipe and thought "I have no idea if this is going to work." After this lesson, you will. And if you've already been using Baker's Percentage — share your favorite formula below. Let's see what ratios this community is working with.