🍞 THIS SATURDAY: Rustic Italian Ciabatta After babka week nearly broke the comment counter and marbling bread had everyone turning dough into art, we're going back to basics. Sort of. This Saturday we're baking a proper Rustic Italian Ciabatta. Lean dough, 80% hydration, built on an overnight poolish. No shaping. No scoring. Just a wet, bubbly dough that gets poured onto a floured counter, cut in half, and baked into two crackly-crusted slippers with the kind of open, honeycomb crumb that makes olive oil sing. Here's why this one matters: It teaches hydration confidence. If 80% hydration makes you nervous, this is exactly the dough you need to bake. You can't hurt it by treating it gently. You can only hurt it by over-handling. It teaches preferments. The poolish is 5 minutes of work Friday night and it does 80% of the flavor work while you sleep. Once you understand what a poolish does for ciabatta, you'll start using them in other breads too. It teaches minimal intervention. Every week we've been talking about building tension, scoring, shaping, stretching. Ciabatta is the counterpoint. Sometimes the best shaping is no shaping at all. Three paths to pick from: (check the toggle in the recipe) 🥖 Yeasted with Poolish (classic, beginner-friendly) 🌾 Sourdough with Levain (for my starter folks) 🧀 Inclusions welcome (olives, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, rosemary, whatever you've got) Recipe is in the Recipe Pantry now. Friday night we mix the poolish. Saturday morning we bake. https://skoo.ly/rustic-ciabatta I'll be in the kitchen and in the thread all day. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Just dropped. Come watch with me. I'll be in the chat answering questions in real time. This one takes the fear out of the number on the recipe card. If you've ever stared at an 80% hydration dough and wondered what you got yourself into, this is for you. See you in the chat. ~ Henry ⭐🔥

A lot of you came from Facebook. I run Baking Great Bread at Home over there, 40,000+ members, and I love that community. But I want to be honest about something. On Facebook, you often get one of two things: criticism without substance or compliments without critique. Someone posts a loaf and the comments are either "Beautiful!" when there's clearly something going on, or unhelpful jabs that don't teach you anything. People mean well. They're trying to be kind. But kindness without honesty doesn't make you a better baker. This is a different place. Crust & Crumb Academy is exactly that: an academy. This is where you come to hone your skills and get better. That means when you ask for feedback, you're going to get it. Real feedback. Specific feedback. The kind that actually helps you improve. I'll always be kind. I'll always be encouraging. But you're not going to get empty platitudes from me. If I see something in your crumb, your shaping, your scoring, I'm going to tell you what it is and how to fix it. That's what coaches do. And I want you to do the same for each other. When someone posts a bake and asks for critique, give them something useful. Tell them what you see. Ask questions. Share what's worked for you. That's how we all get better. This is a teaching environment. We're not here to collect compliments. We're here to make better bakers. Perfection is not required. But growth is the goal. Let's get to work. ~Henry