Well, here we are. Bake day. And it landed on the Fourth of July, so let’s make something beautiful today. 🇺🇸 Most of you have your dough or your butter blocks resting in the fridge right now, which means the hard part is behind you. Today’s the payoff. We shape, we proof, we bake. Here’s the game plan: 🥐 Pull your dough, roll it out long, cut your triangles, and shape ⏳ Proof until puffy and jiggly. This is the make-or-break step, so don’t rush it. French folks, you’re looking at a couple hours. Sourdough, yours runs longer, 3 to 5, so be patient with it. 🔥 Egg wash, then bake to a deep mahogany. Pale is underbaked. Let that color build. Now, two things about the heat. 🎇 First, the real one. This heat wave across the country is dangerous, not just uncomfortable. Drink your water, stay cool, and check on the older folks and neighbors around you. Your bread can wait. You come first. Take care of yourselves out there. 🇺🇸 Second, that same heat is sitting in your kitchen. Your final proof has to stay under 78F or the butter melts and weeps out before the croissants ever hit the oven. Find the coolest room in the house. If your kitchen’s running warm, the fridge is still your friend, use it to hold the proof steady. Keep a close eye today, because in this heat they can over-proof faster than you’d think. This thread is home base all day. 🎆 Post your progress right here. Your shaped croissants, your proof, your first tray out of the oven, your crumb shots when you cut in. And if you hit a snag, butter leaking, dough fighting you, proof looking off, drop it in the comments and I’ll walk you through it. I’m around all day. Let’s bake, everybody. 🇺🇸🥐 Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥🇺🇸

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4th of July weekend edition Croissants tomorrow, and I won’t sugarcoat it. A big chunk of the country is sitting under a heat advisory right now, so this bake starts on hard mode before we even touch butter. Lamination is a cold-weather craft, and your kitchen is working against you. That’s fine. We plan around it. ❄️ Here’s the rule for tomorrow: Cold butter. Cold dough. Cold hands. Heat is the enemy of every layer you’re trying to build. A few things that will save your bake: 🧊 Clear a shelf in the fridge tonight Don’t wait until your dough is warming on the counter to go shuffling jars around. Make the space now so when it’s time to chill, you just slide it in and walk away. 🧈 Learn the bend test Your butter block should bend, not break. Pull it from the fridge a few minutes early and press it. If it cracks and shatters, it’s too cold and will tear right through your dough. If it’s greasy and soft, it’s too warm and will squeeze out the sides. You want it pliable and cool, like cold modeling clay. ⚠️ Watch for the warning signs If the butter starts to grease out, if it tears through the dough, if the layers smear instead of staying distinct, or if the dough goes slack and sticky, stop. That’s your dough telling you it’s too warm. Wrap it, chill everything 20 minutes, and come back. You are laminating, not fighting. 🥶 The fridge is your friend. The freezer is not. I know the instinct in this heat is to slam everything in the freezer to catch up fast. Don’t. The freezer chills the outside hard while the center stays soft, so you get uneven dough that behaves worse, not better. The refrigerator cools it evenly all the way through. Slower is the whole point. ⏱️ Plan your rests Build extra chill breaks into your day tomorrow. In this weather you’ll need more of them, and that’s not a failure. That’s smart baking. Keep your folds square, keep your rolling even, and don’t chase perfection on your first batch. We’re all learning this one together. 📸 Drop your questions below and I’ll answer through the morning.

With every changing season we need to pivot with it to ensure the best care for our starters. In the summer months it’s not the humidity that affects our starters, it’s the temperature! Yes, the humidity affects the hydration of our dough by increasing it but that’s not true for the starter. For those of us keeping our starters on the counter, paying closer attention to the ambient temperature can mean the difference between a yeast forward starter or a lactobacillus bacteria forward one which will affect the taste and performance of your starter. If your starter is negatively affected by warmer temperatures that are causing peaks to happen faster and in turn ending up hungry ( thin & watery) before your normal feed time then your breads will tell the story. When this happens you’re creating more lactobacillus bacteria, more acidity, losing wild yeast and threatening the overall health of your starter. Every great loaf begins with the health of your starter. If the temperatures are fluctuating or are now warmer than before then your peak times are varying and can be unpredictable. So my advice to protect the health of your starter, regulate peak times and control the temperature of and around your starter, invest in either a proofing box that has a temperature range as low as 70*f or a sourdough home or a cozy starter jar warmer. OR if you have a space somewhere, anywhere in your home where the temperature constantly stays between 72-80*f, keep it there at all times 0.7cu ft Foldable Dough Proofing Box Heater 100W, Sourdough Starter Warmer with PID Temperature Control & NTC Sensor, 34–122°F Range &1 Min –96 Hrs Timer, Fermentation Box for Sourdough, Yogurt, Natto https://a.co/d/084AHflb Brod & Taylor Sourdough Home https://a.co/d/04ZrzCw0 Cozy Bread® Starter Jar Warmer - Round Warming Mat & Insulation Cylinder | Perfect for Fermenting Sourdough Starter | USA Brand https://a.co/d/0j3TPH0j

The Lord hears our cry and NEVER fails to answer! Today I made two batches of yeasted cinnamon rolls and I used the stand mixer that I had in reserve. I have 3 stand mixers, one is a 5 quart Rubbermaid, a 9 quart CookLee and a 9.5 quart CookLee. Well today I pulled out the shiny red 9.5 quart thinking that well it’s barely been used, it has a big bowl and the other CookLee has lasted me for 5 years without issue until lately. Neither of these 3 mixers can mix a double batch of cinnamon rolls. The shiny red one got sooo hot trying to mix the dough that it shut itself off and it wouldn’t come back on until it felt like it was cool enough and ready. Well, by then I was rolling out dough because the show must go on! So I pondered for weeks what mixer to get… I love the Ooni but it’s too heavy just like its price point! That was an instant no. So I was left with the Ank, Bosh, and Joydeem. The Joydeem price is great but sometimes I need to make several batches at one time and I don’t need an issue down tge foreseeable road. The Ankursam mixer is nice but at $800 it too was out of my budget. So I chose the Bosh Universal Plus with a the bakers bundle to make it a real treat🤣🤣🤣. It arrived today!!! A little too late for making cinnamon rolls but at least it’s here and I am HAPPY!!!!!