Hi everyone! I'm Henry Hunter, founder of Crust & Crumb Academy, and I'd love to invite you to join us for something special. Every Saturday, our Academy comes together for a community Bake-Along. We tackle breads that many home bakers might not attempt on their own, share techniques, answer questions, and learn from one another. 🎄 This Saturday, we're baking Norwegian Julekake! It's a beautiful traditional Christmas bread, soft, buttery, and filled with raisins, candied citrus, and fragrant cardamom. Think of it as panettone's cozy Nordic cousin. We've got both sourdough and traditional yeasted versions, and I'll be around throughout the afternoon to help. Our Academy is built around one simple idea. You shouldn't have to figure everything out by yourself, and you certainly don't have to be an expert to belong. Whether you're brand new to bread baking or you've been at it for years, you're welcome at our table. 👨‍🍳 Join us inside Crust & Crumb Academy: https://skoo.ly/crust-crumb-academy 📖 Get the Julekake recipe: https://recipepantry.app/recipes/julekaka I'd love to meet you and bake some great bread together. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry⭐🔥 Founder, Crust & Crumb Academy

Yesterday, we held our weekly bake-along inside Crust & Crumb Academy, and this week's challenge was Holiday Star Bread. And folks, just look at what these bakers created! These beautiful breads came from home kitchens around the world. Different skill levels, different experiences, different fillings, but one thing in common. A love of baking and a willingness to try something new. I spend a lot of time teaching people that you don't have to be a professional baker to make something extraordinary. Perfection isn't required. Just a little guidance, some encouragement, and the confidence to give it a try. And yesterday, my bakers proved that point better than I ever could. I'm incredibly proud of this community we've built. Not just because of the beautiful bread, but because of the way these folks encourage one another, share what they've learned, laugh at their mistakes, and celebrate each other's successes. I know I've already shared in here today, but I couldn't keep these pictures to myself. Sometimes you just have to celebrate the people who make what you do so worthwhile. Take a look at what my bakers made yesterday. Every one of these came out of a home kitchen! ❤️🍞

🎅If you bake for the holidays, here's the one thing that saves most people: plan backward. The fruit for fruitcake and stollen wants to soak for weeks. A starter strong enough for panettone takes time to build. Rolls and enriched doughs freeze beautifully, so a lot of December's baking can happen in November. 🤶I put all of that into a free guide called The Holiday Bake. It has 35 tested holiday bread recipes, a make-ahead calendar so you know what to start when, and a Kids Can Bake section for families who want to bake together. Thanksgiving rolls, stollen, panettone, challah, cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. It's all in there. 👉 https://brave-sierra-59ge.here.now/ 🌲I'm Henry Hunter. I run Crust & Crumb Academy, the number one bread baking community on Skool. We bake together every Saturday through the end of December: star bread, panettone, Thanksgiving dinner rolls, and stollen are all coming up this month. 🎶If this sounds like a community you could be a part of, come find us inside Crust & Crumb Academy. Come bake with us. https://skoo.ly/crust-crumb-academy Henry ⭐🔥

Every week we hold a bake-along inside Crust & Crumb Academy. This week it was star bread, to get our bakers ready for what they might bake over the holidays. 🍞⭐ One thread, one day, more than 1,200 comments and 4,000+ interactions. That tells you something about this community. We bake together, we help each other, and we turn out beautiful, delicious bread. Today, kitchens around the world smelled like fresh bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. If that sounds like a community you'd like to be part of, come find us inside Crust & Crumb Academy, the number one bread baking community on Skool. Come bake with us 👉 https://skoo.ly/crust-crumb-academy Henry⭐️🔥

I got a head start today on our Saturday Star Bread Bake-Along inside Crust & Crumb Academy, and I thought I’d share a few photos of the process! Here’s a little tip: When spreading butter on your dough, work from the center outward. It keeps the dough from pulling back on you, especially when you’re layering it over cinnamon sugar. And when transferring those big circles of dough, let your rolling pin do the heavy lifting! We’ve got four different Star Bread recipes in our Recipe Pantry, with sweet and savory options. 🥖 Find the recipes here: https://recipepantry.app/?search=Star ❤️ If you love baking bread, I think you’d enjoy baking with us! We’re getting together tomorrow inside Crust & Crumb Academy to make Star Bread, share tips, and have a little fun in the kitchen. Come bake with us! https://skoo.ly/s/crust-crumb-academy Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry⭐️🔥