If you’ve been doing fermentolyse with me, you’ve probably had this moment. You add the salt. You start working it in. And suddenly the dough looks like it’s coming apart. Tearing. Going lumpy. Falling away in pieces in your hands. A lot of bakers panic right there. Some grab more flour. Some start over. Some assume they ruined the bake. Don’t. This is normal. And here’s why it happens. Salt tightens gluten. That’s its job. But when you sprinkle salt across the top of a dough and start pinching it in, the salt doesn’t hit the dough evenly. There’s more salt in some spots than others. The gluten where the salt is concentrated tightens fast. The gluten where there’s no salt yet stays slack. Tight gluten next to slack gluten means the dough literally pulls apart. You’re watching two different doughs in the same bowl, briefly, while the salt finds its way through. Keep working it. Pinch and fold. Wet hands. Two to three minutes of patient incorporation. The salt distributes, the gluten evens out, and the dough comes back together stronger than it was before. Then rest for 45 minutes before your first coil fold. That’s when you’ll really see the structure show up. This is the kind of thing you only learn by watching the dough through the moment instead of bailing on it. Trust the process. Saturday’s poppy seed bake is going to give a lot of you this exact moment. Now you know what to do when it shows up. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

🌾 Small but important update on the poppy seed loaf in the Recipe Pantry. The original version called for T55 French wheat flour, and I'll be straight with you, that was a miss on my part. Most of us don't have T55 sitting on the shelf, and we shouldn't have to chase down specialty flour just to bake a poppy seed loaf at home. So I pulled it back and rewrote it. ✅ What Changed Both versions, yeasted and sourdough, now call for bread flour as the primary flour. If you've got AP on hand, that works too. If you happen to have T55, use it. The recipe works with any of the three. But the default is now whatever's already in your pantry. 🍞 Yeasted Version https://skoo.ly/yeasted-poppy-seed 🥖 Sourdough Version https://skoo.ly/sourdough-poppy-seed 📝 Quick Note on Flour Swaps 🔹 Bread flour gives you slightly more structure and a bit more chew. That's what I'd reach for first. 🔹 All-purpose flour gives you a softer, more tender crumb, which honestly suits a poppy seed loaf just as well. If you use AP, drop your water by about 5 to 10 grams because AP absorbs a touch less. 🔹 T55, if you have it, sits right in the middle around 11% protein. Use it the same way you'd use AP. That's it. No other changes to the recipe. Same hydration, same timing, same method. 👋 Your Turn If you've baked the old version, tell me how it went. If you're baking it this week, post your loaf in the thread. I want to see them. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

We’re staying on the road we’ve been building together. Baguettes. Pretzel bread. The Foolproof Sourdough Loaf. And this Saturday, we’re going somewhere beautiful. ✨ Poppy seed bread. ✨ Two versions. ✨ One bake-along. 📌 Why two versions? Some of you are deep into sourdough and ready to push hydration. Some of you are still building your starter, or just want to bake bread this weekend without a multi-day commitment. This Saturday, both of you get to bake the same loaf alongside everyone else. 🥖 The Sourdough Version T55 French flour and a touch of wholemeal at 80% hydration. The poppy seeds get folded in during the first coil, which laminates them through the crumb instead of mixing them away. The result is what you see in the photo: ✨ Open ✨ Airy ✨ Flecked with seed ✨ That nutty crunch you only get when the seeds keep their integrity This one teaches you: 🌾 How to handle higher hydration 🌾 How to time bulk fermentation in a warmer kitchen 🌾 Why we use 3.5 sets of coils instead of 4 (Hint: 80% hydration with wholemeal doesn’t want a fourth set. It tightens the crumb.) 📖 Full sourdough recipe in the Recipe Pantry: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/poppy-seed-sourdough-loaf 🍞 The Yeasted Version Same flavor. Same beautiful crumb. Simpler timeline. ✅ Same-day bake ✅ No starter required We’ll use the same poppy seed lamination technique with a commercial yeast dough, so you still get that gorgeous seeded crumb without the multi-day fermentation. If you’ve been wanting to bake along but felt like sourdough was a barrier, this is your week. 📌 I’ll have the yeasted version uploaded to the Recipe Pantry by end of day today. Watch for the post. 🛒 What you need to know now: 🌾 Pick up poppy seeds this weekMost grocery stores carry them in the spice aisle. 🌾 If you can find T55 flour, grab it.If not, a strong all-purpose around 11–12% protein works beautifully.(King Arthur AP is the closest match.)