She’s looking pretty! Now the hardest part (for me) waiting and judging when BF is over 🤣😩

Here's a quick reference video of me shaping my Pain au Levain Thursday night. I didn't pop any bubbles or try to degas at all. You can see in the crumb shot that there were a couple voids in the crumb as a result, but I'm ok with that.

Today is best spent with family and friends, and I hope you all have had a great one! Just a reminder that we will kick off our Bake Like a Boulanger masterclass in earnest tomorrow! We'll have our first word of the day and drop the Pain au Levain recipe. This is for everyone however you choose to participate. Even if you don't decide to try your hand at any of the breads, I hope that over the next month you'll take advantage of the opportunity to learn about traditional French baking. Here's a bonus video to enjoy! I've also added this to the course in the classroom.

As mentioned a few days ago, Tom's released three new videos on sourdough bulk fermentation that I highly recommend. Since they total about 3 hours of viewing time, I used by AI friend, NotebookLM, to create a summary presentation on bulk fermentation diagnostics. Reviewing the presentation alone won't fix all your bulk fermentation challenges, but it provides a pretty decent overview to help you understand the process and better determine underproofing, overproofing, and ideal fermentation.

➡️ WELCOME! - Let's start by welcoming 8 new members to the community who have joined in the past week! We're so glad you're here! We look forward to getting to know you better! @Deborah Karaban @Melanie Miracle @Rhonda Talamo @Toni Vicidomine @Debbie Piette @Jen Dolan @Diane Defelice @Judy Lyle ➡️ MEMBER OF THE MONTH! - Our member of the month for April is @Colleen Vergara ! If you've posted here, made a comment, or contributed in any way then you've experienced Colleen's encouraging responses and enthusiastic support. Many thanks to her for all she does to make this a fantastic community! ➡️ APRIL MASTERCLASS - I'm so excited to launch our first monthly theme and masterclass! Bake Like a Boulanger AKA Avril Levain is going to be a deep dive in traditional French baking traditions and a chance to bake French-style bread. I'm really looking forward to this, and I hope you all are as well. The first modules will open up later today with more being added in the coming week. ➡️ COMMUNITY - In less than 3 months we've grown from a community of 1 (me!) to 46 members! And that is a testament to all of you who engage here every day, support one another, and demonstrate your commitment to improving your sourdough baking! I didn't have any group or social media following before this community, so this is truly special to see what we've created here together. And it is only going to get better! Three weeks ago I posted how excited I was that we had reached 4,000 activities here in the first two months and how that seemed miraculous to me. Well, yesterday we topped 8,000 activities since this community began! Thanks to each of you for your likes, comments, and posts. YOU are making this a vibrant community that demonstrates care and support for each other. I'm so proud of you!