Good morning, bakers. Today's the day. Two tracks, same destination: Yeasted with Poolish — if you started your poolish last night, you're on the dinner-ready timeline. Sourdough — longer build, deeper flavor. Worth the wait. Both recipes finish with the alkaline bath, that mahogany crust, and the snap that makes a pretzel loaf a pretzel loaf. Drop in the thread: - Where you are in the process - Photos as you go (poolish, dough, shaped, boiled, baked, sliced) - Questions, anytime. No question is too small. - Wins. Fails. Everything in between. Quick reminders: - Bread sling or parchment makes the boil-to-oven transfer way easier - Everything topping goes on right after the boil while the surface is wet, not after the bake - 4.7L water, 120g baking soda, rolling boil before you dunk - Watch the crust color, you want deep mahogany, not just brown Adjust to fit your kitchen: If the alkaline bath feels like a lot, or your pot's not big enough, or you're juggling one Dutch oven and trying to make it all work, split the dough into two smaller loaves. Smaller loaves are easier to handle in the bath, easier to bake, and just as tasty. Bake time will come down a bit, so watch the color and the internal temp. Adjust to the situation you're in. The recipe works for you, not the other way around. Both recipes are in the Recipe Pantry. Full video walk-through is on YouTube if you need a refresher. Let's bake. Perfection is not required. Progress is. ~ Henry ⭐🔥

Hey bakers. Henry here. Today we are tackling the alkaline bath. This is the most dangerous part of the bake, but it's also the exact step that makes this loaf a pretzel. If you've never done a pretzel bath before, I'm walking you through exactly how to execute it safely in our newest video. I'll cover the essential rules, including why you must add your baking soda slowly from the edge of the pot to prevent a volcano-like eruption, the importance of leaving a 2 to 3-inch safety buffer in your pot, and why you need to match your loaf size to your pot. Watch the video before you start, and don't forget to save and print the Alkaline Bath cheat sheet pinned at the top of the bake-along thread so you have it ready on your counter for Saturday morning. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Come bake with us! ~Henry ⭐🔥

Started a new YouTube series this week, and I want you to be the first to see it. 🔥 It’s called Baking Through the Seasons, and it’s built around something I see every single year in our community. 🥖 Same flour. 🥖 Same starter. 🥖 Same recipe. Different bread. ☀️ When the kitchen warms up in spring, your starter rises faster.⏱️ Bulk fermentation finishes earlier.🫓 The dough feels softer, stickier, more relaxed than it did a month ago. And most bakers blame the recipe… when really, the room changed. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌱 The first video is live. The Spring Baking Protocol covers the seven adjustments that take you from frustrated to in control when your kitchen starts heating up. I also put together a one-page cheat sheet you can print out and keep next to your scale. It’s the quick-reference version of the whole series. No email opt-in. No signup. Just yours. 📄 Grab the cheat sheet here: https://skoo.ly/spring-baking 🎥 Watch the first video here: https://youtu.be/E5E2sNhgSXE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☀️ Spring Baking Protocol 🔥 Summer Baking Protocol 🍂 Fall Baking Protocol ❄️ Winter Baking Protocol By the end of the year, you’ll have a full year-round playbook for every kitchen condition you’ll ever face. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👇 Drop a comment below and tell me which season has given you the most trouble. That’s how I know what to dig deeper on next. ⭐ Perfection is not required. Progress is. Come bake with us. Henry ⭐🔥