Last week I secured a new domain for the Recipe Pantry, much easier to remember and find: www.recipepantry.app You’ll also notice an orange bar at the top of the Recipe Pantry that lets you save a thumbnail to your desktop or phone, just like any other app. Always with you, no more hunting. Whenever I make changes or add a recipe, a banner will appear on your screen after a few moments letting you know there’s an update. Just click it and the app updates. Bob’s your uncle. You can also refresh your screen to do the same thing. Let me know if you run into any problems or spot anything I need to fix. ~ Henry ⭐🔥

So this was my first loaf. I know it’s gummy and clearly not a successful loaf. I’m open to helpful comments, but here’s what I know. It’s a bit long but I want to explain as much as I can to get the most accurate advice. My starter (50% whole wheat) is over 4 weeks old, and when I mixed the dough, I was doubtful if the starter was peaked and I was a bit worried that it seemed not peaked yet. (But used it anyway) After every stretch&folds and coil&folds (twice each), the dough became smoother so I was hopeful (third picture). Small bubbles were appearing on the surface as soon as I let it rest. Bulk fermentation was for 10hrs at around 24C. When I was shaping, it was holding the shape much better than I was expecting. Cold proofing was done for around 5hrs. Then I scored and baked. Things to note about my baking setup is I dont have a Dutch oven so I use an oven-safe clay pot and I dont pre-heat it to avoid damage since package said to not use empty. Oven is a microwave with an oven function with a max temp of 200C. So I preheat just my oven, then put dough in pot covered in oven for 45 mins then uncovered for 40 mins. I think mainly my starter was the issue thus bulk fermentation should have taken longer. Help! Will try again next week, with hopes of improvement.

Thanks to all the advice that I have gotten from here, my starter is now consistently doubling within 8-9hrs! Picture says 10hrs cos it was growing overnight and I just checked at 10hrs. Starter composition is 50/50 whole wheat and bread flour. Still letting it build more strength before I make my first loaf, but so excited!! ☺️

Hi everyone! It’s been a while but I’m back with an update for my starter. I stayed consistent with the last starter that I had when I posted last month, but it just wouldn’t rise despite having plenty of tiny bubbles. I decided last week to try and start a new one in parallel to it (just in case). The new one is now on Day 10 and it’s consistently rising everyday but it’s still taking it 24 hrs to fully peak and it’s not yet really rising to twice its size. So this new starter is now on a 1:1:1 ratio with a 50/50 whole wheat/bread flour feed everyday. How much do I expect this starter to rise to consider it as strong and active enough to make bread? Would appreciate any help! Thanks in advance! :) Picture is at 10hrs now after feeding. Also, the old one never rose so I threw it away already.

That’s what we just did together. Naan. Market Day White. And today… your first real sourdough loaf. I’ve watched so many of you step up and do the work. You showed up. You asked the hard questions. You shared your bakes, the wins and the ones that fought you. That’s what this place is built on. 👊 I couldn’t be more proud of you. So I want to give something back. I wrote Sourdough for the Rest of Us a while back and I'm happy to say, that it has helped hundreds of bakers and I want you to have it. It’s not the hardback, it’s a PDF and a flipbook, but it’s everything you need to keep going. Starter care. Fermentation. The Foolproof Loaf. Troubleshooting. Real schedules for real life. It’s yours. Free. As many of you as want it. Bread belongs to everybody. Always has. 🙌 Grab it here: https://skoo.ly/sourdough-book I personally love the flipbook version. Just saying. Now go check on your loaves. 👀🔥 Henry ⭐🔥