I'm working a piece that will give you guys some latitude on what to include in your Starbread this weekend. The opportunities here are truly endless. Stay tuned

Last week you made Japanese Milk Bread. The week before that, cinnamon rolls. Both of those bakes taught you something specific: how to handle enriched dough. How butter, eggs, and milk change everything about how dough feels, how it ferments, and how it bakes. This week, we’re putting all of that to work. We’re making Star Bread. If you’ve never seen one, picture this: a soft, buttery, filled bread shaped into a beautiful twisted star pattern that looks like it came out of a professional bakery. It’s the kind of bread people set in the center of a table and just stare at before they tear into it. Here’s the thing. It looks complicated. It’s not. If you made milk bread last week, you already have the hands for this. The dough is familiar. The technique is new, but I’ll walk you through every fold, every cut, every twist. Here’s how the week breaks down: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/henrys-savory-star-bread?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share Tuesday - We talk about laminating fillings into enriched dough. What works, what doesn’t, and why your filling choice matters more than you think. Wednesday - The geometry of star bread. I’ll break down the shaping method so it makes sense before you ever touch dough. Circles, stacking, cutting, twisting. We’ll cover it all. Thursday - Filling options and flavor combinations. Sweet, savory, and a few you haven’t thought of yet. Friday - Prep day. Get your dough made, your filling ready, and your workspace set. We go live Saturday morning. Saturday - Bake-along. You know the drill. I’m here all day. Yeasted and sourdough versions will both be available on the Recipe Pantry. A few weeks ago, some of you had never made enriched dough. Now you’ve done cinnamon rolls and milk bread. Star bread is the next step, and it’s the one that’s going to make people ask “you made that?” when they see it on your counter.

I don't write these recaps because I like looking at numbers. I write them because the numbers tell a story about the people behind them. This week, our Saturday working thread crossed 1,095 comments. But that's not even the real number. When you count every like on every comment inside that thread, every bit of encouragement, every "your crumb looks amazing," every "try checking internal temp instead of going by color," the total interactions in that single thread topped 4,200. Across the full week, 25 posts generated over 5,243 interactions. In a community that's two months old. Here's how the Saturday threads have grown: Focaccia: ~521 comments Cinnamon Rolls: ~840 comments Japanese Milk Bread: 1,095+ comments That's not a fluke. That's a pattern. But the numbers aren't what make this community different. The people are. Tracy slept through her bulk fermentation alarm, shaped the dough anyway, then laminated brown sugar and cardamom into a second batch because why not. Ehsan ran three simultaneous experiments: standard, long fermentation, and poolish. Linda catalogued the protein content of every flour in her pantry. Kim asked about glass pans and Tracy researched it before I could even start typing. Kathee swapped her sourdough starter into the yeasted recipe just to see what would happen. Cheryl fought wet dough, overproofed, popped bubbles, and pulled a loaf that smelled like espresso. Deborah's loaf collapsed on one side and she posted the photo anyway. That's the culture. Not perfection. Progress. Not cheerleading. Coaching. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of all of this, that little yellow star showed up next to our name. Top 1% of all 191,000 communities on Skool. #1 on ProveWorth across the entire platform. Not just bread. Not just food. All of it. That star belongs to every single person who showed up this week. The full recap is attached. Every post, every baker, every number, verified from the feed. Give it a read. Find your name. You earned it.

Same dough. Same oven. Same technique. The wash is the one variable that changes everything, and most people pick one by accident and stick with it. I put together this visual guide to break it all down: whole egg, egg yolk, milk, butter after baking, heavy cream. Each one does something different to your crust, and once you understand why, you'll never guess again. Watch the video, then tell me: what wash have you been using, and what result are you getting? Drop it in the comments. I want to know. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry Crust & Crumb Academy

This is it. We're making Japanese Milk Bread today. If you've never worked with tangzhong before, today's the day you learn why this technique changes everything. We cook a small portion of flour and milk into a paste before it goes into the dough. That paste traps moisture and keeps this bread impossibly soft for days. It's the reason Japanese bakery bread feels like a cloud and your regular sandwich loaf doesn't. This dough is enriched: butter, eggs, milk, sugar. It's going to feel different from lean doughs. Softer. Stickier. Richer. Don't panic and don't add extra flour. Trust the process. The stand mixer does the heavy lifting here, and the dough will come together. 📱 Recipe Pantry Tip: At the top of every recipe page, look for the little chef's hat icon on the right side of the nav bar. Click it. That keeps your screen awake so you're not tapping your phone with floury elbows. The crescent moon next to it toggles dark mode if your kitchen is bright. 🔗 The Recipe: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread?variant=yeasted Before you start: - Take your butter, eggs, and milk out of the fridge NOW. Room temperature ingredients matter today. - Make your tangzhong first. It needs to cool before it goes into the dough. If you made it last night, even better. - Clear your counter. You'll need space for shaping. Post your questions, your progress photos, your tangzhong shots, your shaped loaves, your finished bread. Everything goes here so we can all learn from each other. I'm here all day, start to finish. Whether you're mixing right now or pulling your loaf out tonight, this thread stays open. Let's see those milk breads. 👇