Hooch is not death. It's hunger. Your starter ate through its food and left you a little note that says "feed me." That's all it is. Here's a cheat sheet for you to save wherever you keep your sourdough starter knowledge. Print it, pin it to the fridge, drop it in a folder on your phone. Whatever works. Your starter is hard to kill. It wants to live in spite of you. Henry ⭐🔥

Watch Trevor Wilson’s hands on this 80% hydration dough. No stitching. No fighting it. Just a gentle, deliberate shape because the dough already did most of the work. That’s the part most bakers miss. The shape isn’t where you build structure. It’s where you reveal the structure you already built during bulk and folds. When the fermentation is right and the coil folds did their job, you don’t need to muscle the dough into submission. You just guide it. This weekend we’re working with 80% hydration. Same territory. Your job between now and then is to trust what your folds are building. Watch the dough. Feel the strength. When it’s ready, you’ll know, because shaping will feel like finishing a conversation instead of starting a fight. Big thanks to Trevor Wilson for the shaping wisdom. If you haven’t seen his work on dough structure and the why behind every method, find him. He teaches the way we teach here. Understand the why, and the how takes care of itself. See you Saturday. Henry ⭐🔥 Perfection is not required. Progress is.

@Matt Burns over at ProveWorth wrote a full piece on the Academy today. The headline: "Crust & Crumb Academy Is How You Should Learn Bread Baking." Here's what got me. He didn't just write about the community. He named members by name. @Priscilla Fuesting. @Tracy Havlik. @Michele Nilson. @Lindsey Christian Your words. Your stories. Your progress. That's what he used to make his case. He got the fermentolyse method right. He got the Recipe Pantry, the Glossary, the Yeast Converter. He got the "read your dough, not just the clock" philosophy. And he closed with the thing that matters most to me: this place exists to help you get better, not to sell you a dream. That 5.0 ProveWorth rating with 55 verified reviews? That's not me. That's you. Every one of you who showed up, shared a bake, asked a real question, or answered one. Read it when you get a minute: https://proveworth.com/blog/best-bread-baking-community And if your name shows up in there, stand up and take a bow. You earned it. Henry ⭐🔥

Trust the process.

🍞 THIS SATURDAY: Rustic Italian Ciabatta After babka week nearly broke the comment counter and marbling bread had everyone turning dough into art, we're going back to basics. Sort of. This Saturday we're baking a proper Rustic Italian Ciabatta. Lean dough, 80% hydration, built on an overnight poolish. No shaping. No scoring. Just a wet, bubbly dough that gets poured onto a floured counter, cut in half, and baked into two crackly-crusted slippers with the kind of open, honeycomb crumb that makes olive oil sing. Here's why this one matters: It teaches hydration confidence. If 80% hydration makes you nervous, this is exactly the dough you need to bake. You can't hurt it by treating it gently. You can only hurt it by over-handling. It teaches preferments. The poolish is 5 minutes of work Friday night and it does 80% of the flavor work while you sleep. Once you understand what a poolish does for ciabatta, you'll start using them in other breads too. It teaches minimal intervention. Every week we've been talking about building tension, scoring, shaping, stretching. Ciabatta is the counterpoint. Sometimes the best shaping is no shaping at all. Three paths to pick from: (check the toggle in the recipe) 🥖 Yeasted with Poolish (classic, beginner-friendly) 🌾 Sourdough with Levain (for my starter folks) 🧀 Inclusions welcome (olives, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, rosemary, whatever you've got) Recipe is in the Recipe Pantry now. Friday night we mix the poolish. Saturday morning we bake. https://skoo.ly/rustic-ciabatta I'll be in the kitchen and in the thread all day. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥