Today is Thinkin' About It Thursday. What are your baking plans, ambitions, goals? No matter how big or small, let us hear about it!

It is Messed Up Monday again, and we're celebrating our mistakes! Why? Because making mistakes can be a great way to improve when we learn from them. This weekend I overproofed a loaf of bread that had whole wheat and rye flour. I know that both flours can speed up fermentation times and that rye flour has high enzymatic activity that can degrade starch structure. But I had to really learn that lesson in practice. Mistakes and mess ups happen! The key is to use that as valuable feedback! Anyone else learn from a mess up this weekend?

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I had to post this because Dan Leader's bakery was one of the first real bread bakeries I visited back in the 90s, and his bread book was one of the first I purchased. The article is from That Sourdough Gal. It's worth reading! Click for article

Many of us are focused on getting our sourdough starters ready for a weekend of baking (more on that in a sec...) But Fermenting Fridays are for shout outs of any fermentation projects you have going. So whether you focused on bread-baking, yogurt-making, kombucha-brewing, or anything else--let us hear about it! Back to starters. For last several months I've tried to keep my starter unrefrigerated and fed twice a day. I know this isn't for everyone, and if you're satisfied with the results you're getting however you maintain your starter that's great and I'm happy for you. But since I've seen such an improvement with my own starter, thought I'd break down the numbers for you. The simple math is this: 5+5. Let me explain. Every morning I start with 1 gram of starter and add 10 grams of flour and 10 grams of water. I repeat that every evening. This takes me just 5 minutes a day and costs me about $0.05 for flour. So for 5 cents a day and 5 minutes of my time I've unlocked the strongest, healthiest starter I've had in years. And if needed, I can always pop into the refrigerator about an hour after feeding and pull it back out a couple days later. So 5+5=Better. For me at least. It's simple. Very little mess or waste. Easy to scale up when I need more for baking. I like it and plan to keep doing it.