The baker at the top of our leaderboard walked into pretzel week saying she'd never made one and was scared of the shape. Then she opened the room, welcomed Johannesburg, talked a wet-dough panic off the ledge, and finished number one. When the coach lets herself be a beginner, the whole room shows up. This one's a good one. Full recap is live: https://ancient-sequin-6pja.here.now/ This week we featured: @Sandy Chong @Melissa Molaison @Mauvette Bailey @Stacey Avraham @Candy Barnes @Deborah Karaban @Candi Brown-McGriff @Ehsan Omara @Jill Hart @Tamsin Boshoff @Judy Lyle @Colleen Vergara @Ann Snow @Michele Nilson @Linda Glantz @Angela Sides-McKay @Lisa D @Jana Hassett @Barb Kratzmann @Mary Nunaley @Julian Wren @Linda Gregory @Cheryl Odden @Betsy Carey @Jen Dolan @Donna Angelo @Pat Van Schalkwyk @Sue Peterson @Maureen Kilbride @Ruby Dack @Terri Pevsner Pretzels wait. Grandbabies don't. See you next Saturday. Henry ⭐🔥

Do you need more rice flour for dusting your loaves?? No worries, no store runs needed and no online shopping required. Just open a bag of rice and pull out your coffee grinder!!! Make sure your grinder is completely cled from its last use so that you don't contaminate your rice flour with whatever you last ground. Pour the rice into the grinder, use short quick bursts so you don't burn out the motor. Sift it. Run it through the grinder one more time and you're all ready to use! Why It Works Perfectly for: Sourdough Prevents Sticking: Rice flour does not contain gluten, so it will not bond with your wet sourdough dough. Superior Dusting: It is ideal for coating your proofing baskets (bannetons) or a linen cloth to ensure the dough releases cleanly. Beautiful Contrast: It stays bright white during baking, creating a sharp, high-contrast visual effect against the dark crust when you score your loaf. Texture Advantage: The slightly grainier texture from your coffee grinder creates a better physical barrier between the sticky dough and the basket fibers than microscopic store-bought flour. Tips for Using It Mix with regular flour: You can mix it 50/50 with rice flour and regular flour for dusting, though 100% rice flour offers the best non-stick insurance. Apply generously: Rub it deeply into the grooves of your banneton, especially if the basket is brand new. Do not use inside the dough: Only use this for dusting the outside; adding it directly into your sourdough recipe will disrupt gluten development and make the bread dense.

Mine was bulk fermentation. I kept cutting it short because the dough looked right to me. Turns out I was going by the clock instead of the dough, and I was pulling it way too early every single time. The loaves were fine. But they weren’t what they could’ve been. Once I stopped watching the clock and started watching the dough, everything changed. So tell me yours. What’s the thing you kept getting wrong before it finally clicked? No judgment here. This kitchen runs on honesty and progress, not perfection. Drop it below. 👇 Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

It’s late, the house is quiet, and I’m talking to myself again while I mix. This one’s a 10% whole wheat with toasted sesame and black sesame folded in. Just a little whole grain for backbone and flavor, not enough to fight you on the rise. Right now I’m working the salt in using the Rubaud method. Scoop from underneath, lift, let the dough fall back on itself. No slapping, no tearing. It builds strength slow and gentle, and it gives the salt time to find its way through every part of the dough. You can almost feel the dough wake up under your hand. The sesame is the part I’m excited about. Toasting it first pulls out this deep, nutty thing that you just don’t get from raw seeds. The black sesame brings a little drama too, those dark flecks all through the crumb once it bakes. I’m dialing in the recipe as I go, and it’ll be up in the Recipe Pantry soon. So if you want to bake along with me, keep an eye out. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

This week's bake-along is brioche, and if there's one thing I want you to take away from the entire process, it's this: Don't rush the butter. Get gluten development first. Before you add a single piece of butter, you should be able to pull a windowpane. The dough should already be smooth, elastic, and showing signs of strength. Why? Because butter makes gluten development harder, not easier. Once that butter starts going in, it's much more difficult for the dough to build the structure it needs to support all that richness. If you start adding butter too early, you can end up with a soupy, greasy mess that seems like it will never come together. Trust the process. Build strength first. Then add softened butter a little at a time, letting each addition fully incorporate before adding the next. The second thing to watch is temperature. Brioche dough should stay cool. If the dough gets too warm, the butter begins to soften and smear into the dough instead of creating the rich, silky structure we're after. But if I had to choose the most important lesson this week? It's gluten development before butter. Get your windowpane first. Everything else gets easier after that. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥