Hey Crust & Crumb bakers, Rachel Parker is back with a new episode of Breaking Bread — and this time, she's taking us somewhere we didn't expect to go. Salem, Massachusetts. 1692. You know the story. The fits. The accusations. The trials. The executions. One of the darkest chapters in American history. But what if the answer wasn't witchcraft, mass hysteria, or village politics? What if it was the bread? 🎙️ Episode 2: The Fungus That Cursed a Village — Bread, Madness, and the Salem Witch Trials In this episode, Rachel digs into the genuinely unsettling theory that a fungus called ergot — growing silently on contaminated rye crops — may have triggered the hallucinations, convulsions, and visions that started the whole terrifying chain of events. A fungus so chemically similar to LSD that the symptoms of eating it read almost word for word like the testimony of the afflicted girls in Salem. A cold, wet winter. Marshy rye fields. A village with no idea what was in their flour. And then — when the grain ran out — the devil disappeared. This episode covers: 🌾 What ergot is and how it gets into your bread without anyone knowing 😱 The symptoms of ergot poisoning — and why they match the Salem testimony so closely 🗺️ The geography of the outbreak and what it tells us ⚖️ Why not everyone agrees with the theory — and why that makes it even more interesting 🍞 What it means for us as bakers who love and trust our rye This is the kind of story that makes you look at your rye flour a little differently. Give it a listen and come back here with your thoughts. Do you think the ergot theory holds up? Have you ever felt like there's something wild and ancient in rye that the other grains don't quite have? Drop it in the comments. This one is going to spark a conversation. 👉 Listen now — link in the comments below. — Henry

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.

I've got something new dropping inside the Academy, and I think you're going to love it. Meet Rachel Parker — your new favorite storyteller, and the host of our brand new podcast series: Breaking Bread with Rachel Parker. So what IS this? Breaking Bread is a short-form storytelling podcast — each episode is just 5 to 8 minutes long — built for bakers who want to go deeper than recipes and techniques. Rachel is going to take you on a journey through the hidden history, myths, superstitions, and legends that live inside every loaf of bread you've ever baked. Think of it as sitting around a fire with someone who knows all the good stories — except the stories are all about bread. What kind of stories are we talking about? Things like: 🍞 Why placing a baguette upside-down on your table was once considered a death omen — and what the executioner had to do with it ✝️ The quiet blessing that European bakers traced over every loaf before cutting it — and why it went way beyond religion 🪙 The Christmas bread with a coin baked inside — and what happened to the family who found it ⚔️ The role bread played in revolutions, famines, and wars 🌙 Bread spirits, haunted loaves, miracle ovens, and kitchen magic from cultures all over the world Every episode is a single story — tight, vivid, and told with warmth and a little whimsy. Perfect for a commute, a rest between folds, or whenever you want to feel connected to the long, beautiful history of bakers before us. Why bread stories? Because bread isn't just food. It never was. It's been currency, prayer, punishment, protection, and community. It's been placed in tombs, baked for gods, marked for the condemned, and broken over tables to seal a peace. Every culture on earth has a bread story. And most of us who bake — really bake — already feel that. There's something alive in this craft. Rachel is here to put words to that feeling. Where do I find it? New episodes will drop right here in the Academy, and also on our YouTube channel. Each episode will come with a discussion prompt because honestly, some of these stories are going to make you want to talk — and this is the place to do it.

Today I got to attend a bay shower celebrating a beautiful blessing about to arrive soon! I made a garlic butter focaccia and it was quite challenging. The theme was vintage Winnie the Pooh. It was so fun to make and so cool to try out this design. I’ve made focaccia bread before, but allowing myself to be creative made it such a fun experience. Aside from Pooh Bear missing an eyebrow after baking (seriously where’d it go? 😜), I am proud of my art work 😅 it tasted amazing! I brushed it with garlic butter before and after baking and drizzled honey on it! Delicious! Have you ever created art on your focaccia?

I don't write these recaps because I like looking at numbers. I write them because the numbers tell a story about the people behind them. This week, our Saturday working thread crossed 1,095 comments. But that's not even the real number. When you count every like on every comment inside that thread, every bit of encouragement, every "your crumb looks amazing," every "try checking internal temp instead of going by color," the total interactions in that single thread topped 4,200. Across the full week, 25 posts generated over 5,243 interactions. In a community that's two months old. Here's how the Saturday threads have grown: Focaccia: ~521 comments Cinnamon Rolls: ~840 comments Japanese Milk Bread: 1,095+ comments That's not a fluke. That's a pattern. But the numbers aren't what make this community different. The people are. Tracy slept through her bulk fermentation alarm, shaped the dough anyway, then laminated brown sugar and cardamom into a second batch because why not. Ehsan ran three simultaneous experiments: standard, long fermentation, and poolish. Linda catalogued the protein content of every flour in her pantry. Kim asked about glass pans and Tracy researched it before I could even start typing. Kathee swapped her sourdough starter into the yeasted recipe just to see what would happen. Cheryl fought wet dough, overproofed, popped bubbles, and pulled a loaf that smelled like espresso. Deborah's loaf collapsed on one side and she posted the photo anyway. That's the culture. Not perfection. Progress. Not cheerleading. Coaching. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of all of this, that little yellow star showed up next to our name. Top 1% of all 191,000 communities on Skool. #1 on ProveWorth across the entire platform. Not just bread. Not just food. All of it. That star belongs to every single person who showed up this week. The full recap is attached. Every post, every baker, every number, verified from the feed. Give it a read. Find your name. You earned it.