I gave up on this bread 3 or 4 times! But it was meant to be baked... Levain mixed Fri night. Saturday morning I thought it didn't rise enough so I went out to an appointment. Hot back mixed everything in my bowl and last minute decided on a float test. It failed! Sunk to the bottom. So... Tossed everything I had put together in my bowl, about to quit on it and focus on the yeast version. 11am Saturday decided to feed the levain and try again. But .... It barely moved all day!! Went to bed thinking... It's a lost cause. 7:30am Sunday the levain had doubled overnight! Float test passed!! Mixed .... Rest... Mix... Butter... Mix mix mix and it wasn't coming together. Very, very sticky!! Rest... Mix some more and then moved it to bulk ferment despite the crazy stickiness. Again thought... It's a lost cause! Added some flour after a few hours of bulk and let it sit.... 3pm Sunday shaped and put in the pan. Resting again on my proofing mat but by 11pm, still an inch or so under the lip of the pan. Popped in the fridge. Once again... Lost cause.... 7am Monday it hadn't moved much overnight but I pulled it back out to the proofing mat. By 11am it was up to the top of the pan, and by noon.... It was finally ready to bake!!! And it's good! I'm amazed! Definitely has a sour tang compared to the yeast version but soft and pillowy. Morale.... Trust the process. Don't give up!!!

Last week you made Japanese Milk Bread. The week before that, cinnamon rolls. Both of those bakes taught you something specific: how to handle enriched dough. How butter, eggs, and milk change everything about how dough feels, how it ferments, and how it bakes. This week, we’re putting all of that to work. We’re making Star Bread. If you’ve never seen one, picture this: a soft, buttery, filled bread shaped into a beautiful twisted star pattern that looks like it came out of a professional bakery. It’s the kind of bread people set in the center of a table and just stare at before they tear into it. Here’s the thing. It looks complicated. It’s not. If you made milk bread last week, you already have the hands for this. The dough is familiar. The technique is new, but I’ll walk you through every fold, every cut, every twist. Here’s how the week breaks down: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/henrys-savory-star-bread?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share Tuesday - We talk about laminating fillings into enriched dough. What works, what doesn’t, and why your filling choice matters more than you think. Wednesday - The geometry of star bread. I’ll break down the shaping method so it makes sense before you ever touch dough. Circles, stacking, cutting, twisting. We’ll cover it all. Thursday - Filling options and flavor combinations. Sweet, savory, and a few you haven’t thought of yet. Friday - Prep day. Get your dough made, your filling ready, and your workspace set. We go live Saturday morning. Saturday - Bake-along. You know the drill. I’m here all day. Yeasted and sourdough versions will both be available on the Recipe Pantry. A few weeks ago, some of you had never made enriched dough. Now you’ve done cinnamon rolls and milk bread. Star bread is the next step, and it’s the one that’s going to make people ask “you made that?” when they see it on your counter.

Every time I said “I’ll do it when I get around to it” he’d reach in his pocket and hand me one of these. A round toit. Took me years to stop laughing and actually get the lesson. But I talk to bakers every single day who are sitting on “when I get around to it.” “I’ll learn sourdough when I have more time.” “I’ll start a starter when life settles down.” “I’ll try bread baking when I’m not so busy.” Here’s the truth nobody tells you. Life doesn’t settle down. The starter doesn’t start itself. And the only difference between a baker and someone who wants to bake is that one of them actually started. Your starter doesn’t need perfect conditions. It needs you to begin. Your first loaf doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to exist. So tell me. What’s on YOUR “when I get around to it” list? Drop it in the comments. I want to know what’s been sitting on the back burner. 👇 I’ll learn sourdough when _______.

This is it. We're making Japanese Milk Bread today. If you've never worked with tangzhong before, today's the day you learn why this technique changes everything. We cook a small portion of flour and milk into a paste before it goes into the dough. That paste traps moisture and keeps this bread impossibly soft for days. It's the reason Japanese bakery bread feels like a cloud and your regular sandwich loaf doesn't. This dough is enriched: butter, eggs, milk, sugar. It's going to feel different from lean doughs. Softer. Stickier. Richer. Don't panic and don't add extra flour. Trust the process. The stand mixer does the heavy lifting here, and the dough will come together. 📱 Recipe Pantry Tip: At the top of every recipe page, look for the little chef's hat icon on the right side of the nav bar. Click it. That keeps your screen awake so you're not tapping your phone with floury elbows. The crescent moon next to it toggles dark mode if your kitchen is bright. 🔗 The Recipe: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread?variant=yeasted Before you start: - Take your butter, eggs, and milk out of the fridge NOW. Room temperature ingredients matter today. - Make your tangzhong first. It needs to cool before it goes into the dough. If you made it last night, even better. - Clear your counter. You'll need space for shaping. Post your questions, your progress photos, your tangzhong shots, your shaped loaves, your finished bread. Everything goes here so we can all learn from each other. I'm here all day, start to finish. Whether you're mixing right now or pulling your loaf out tonight, this thread stays open. Let's see those milk breads. 👇

We just spent the week breaking down Japanese Milk Bread, from the tangzhong to the final pull-apart. Now let's see what stuck. I put together a quick quiz to test your knowledge. No grades, no judgment. Just a fun way to see how much you picked up and maybe learn something you missed. Take the quiz here: https://bread-quiz-master.lovable.app/quiz/japanese-milk-bread- Drop your score in the comments. No shame in getting a few wrong. That's how we learn. Perfection is not required. Progress is. 🍞