Something happens when bakers find their people. The questions get better. The bakes get bolder. The fails become lessons instead of reasons to quit. That's what this community is built for. And it just got a whole lot bigger. We've had an incredible wave of new members join Crust & Crumb Academy over the past few weeks, and I want to make sure every one of you knows you landed in the right place. Whether you've been baking for years or you just burned your first loaf last week, you belong here. Here's how to get started and make the most of what's in front of you: The Recipe Pantry is the first thing you'll see when you walk into the Classroom. It's at pantry.bakinggreatbread.com and it's your home base. Every recipe in there has the science explained, both metric and volume measurements, and troubleshooting built right in. Browse it, bookmark it, use it. That's what it's there for. Check the green checkmark in the top right corner of every module you complete. That little checkmark does two things. It levels up that number next to your name, which puts you on the leaderboard. And it tells me and everyone else in this community that you're serious. You're not just here to scroll. You're here to get better. Check it off. Let us see your progress. Show up on Saturdays. Every Saturday we run a community bake-along. I open the thread at 8 AM ET and we bake together in real time. Post your progress, your problems, your final crumb shot. It's the fastest way to improve and the best way to feel at home here fast. Now here's what we're doing this week and for the next three weeks — and new members, you are walking in at exactly the right time. We just launched a 3-week community curriculum arc called Road to Sourdough. Every week builds on the last. Every skill carries forward. Here's the map: Week 1 — Three Ways to Leaven. Anchor Bake: Naan Bread. We bake naan three ways this week: self-rising (30 minutes), yeasted (1.5 hours), and sourdough with an active levain. This isn't just a flatbread bake. It's a hands-on lesson in how leavening actually works. You'll feel the difference between chemical lift, yeast activity, and wild fermentation — in the same week, with the same dough. Monday night we also launch Start Your Starter. If you've been wanting to begin a sourdough culture from scratch, this is your moment. Your starter begins this week so it's 21 days old and fully ready by the time we need it.

Here's the thing. Most of us started baking by following recipes. Somebody says "5 cups flour, 2 cups water" and we just... do it. But what happens when the dough's too sticky? Or the bread tastes bland? Or you want to double the recipe and suddenly nothing works right? You're stuck, because you were following instructions without understanding the architecture behind them. That's what Baker's Percentage fixes. It's not complicated math — if you can divide and multiply, you're already fluent. But it changes everything about how you read recipes, how you scale them, how you troubleshoot, and how you communicate with other bakers. In this lesson I break down: 👉 The one formula you need — and why flour is always 100% 👉 What hydration percentage actually tells you about how your dough will feel before you touch it 👉 The salt sweet spot (and why bland bread is almost always a math problem) 👉 How to control your timeline using yeast and starter percentages 👉 Scaling from 1 loaf to 100 without ever guessing 👉 How to decode any online recipe in about 60 seconds 👉 A troubleshooting guide that uses the numbers to diagnose exactly what went wrong This is the lesson that turns recipe followers into real bakers. 🎥 Watch the full lesson Drop a 🔥 in the comments if you've ever looked at a recipe and thought "I have no idea if this is going to work." After this lesson, you will. And if you've already been using Baker's Percentage — share your favorite formula below. Let's see what ratios this community is working with.