The ones who see the Saturday bake-along threads blowing up with 400 comments and think, "I'm not there yet." You belong here just as much as anyone. You don't need to understand baker's percentages to bake great bread. You don't need to know what autolyse means before your first loaf. You don't need to participate in every bake-along. Some of the best bakers I know started by just following a recipe exactly as written, not understanding why anything worked, and doing it again the next week. Understanding comes from repetition, not from studying. If you're quietly lurking and learning, that counts. If you tried something and it flopped and you didn't post it, that's fine too. Progress isn't always visible. What I'd love to hear from you: What's one thing you've been wanting to try but haven't yet? Drop it below. No judgment. Just conversation.

I’ve tried to put the classroom in some type of order. As we were getting started here in the Academy, lessons and courses got jumbled up in there as they were created. Now that we have some momentum and a sense of direction, I think this order serves us better, especially new bakers. If you find that there is subject matter we’re missing or we need to cover, don’t hesitate to raise your hand, I’ll get to it. If you haven’t been through the classroom lately, please go have a look around check off the ones you have watched to level up the number next to your name. That will come in handy soon and it makes us stronger as a community. Don’t have me start assigning homework.

One night I needed to make fried chicken and I was running low on all-purpose flour. No big deal. I seasoned what I had left right in the bag, salt, pepper, rosemary, the usual suspects, and I was all set to shake my chicken up in it. Then I got a phone call.☎️ Got distracted so I decided to bake the chicken instead. Fast forward a couple of days. I’m making dinner rolls, mixing along, and something feels off. The dough smells different. Has a little something extra going on. I’m thinking, huh, maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the flour, maybe I’m just tired. 🥱 I taste it. Y’all. I had mixed my fried chicken seasoning flour straight into my dinner roll dough. Now here’s where I want to tell you I made a discovery. That I leaned into it, pulled it out of the oven, and created something magical. A savory, herb-forward pull-apart that changed my life. It was absolutely disgusting. I don’t know what I was expecting. Rosemary dinner rolls hit different when they also taste like a drumstick. Into the trash it went. So let’s hear it. What’s your funniest or most chaotic kitchen moment? Drop it in the comments. Nothing is too embarrassing here.

Saturday's cinnamon rolls. What's going on top? Tomorrow morning I'm breaking down why cream cheese frosting matters more than most people think. But I'm curious where everybody stands first.

Leigh asked a great question that I know a lot of you are wondering about, especially with all those beeswax bag ads popping up in your feeds. So let's break this down with some actual information instead of marketing hype. What makes bread go stale? It's not drying out. Not exactly. It's a process called starch retrogradation, where the starch molecules in your bread recrystallize after baking. That's what makes bread firm and crumbly. Moisture plays a role, but it's really about managing the environment around your loaf. What you actually want in bread storage: You need something that holds in just enough moisture to slow retrogradation without trapping so much that your crust goes soft or, worse, you get mold. That's the balance. Too airtight and your crust is gone in hours. Too open and you're looking at a brick by day two. Let's talk options: Paper bags work fine for same-day or next-day bread. They let the crust breathe but your bread will dry out fast. Good for baguettes you're eating that evening. Not great for a loaf you want to last three or four days. Linen bags are a step up. Linen is naturally moisture-wicking, so it pulls excess humidity away from the surface while still allowing some airflow. If you're going this route, straight linen is your best bet. I'd skip the beeswax infusion, Leigh. Beeswax creates a barrier that traps moisture against the crust, which is exactly what you don't want. Your beautiful linen does the job better on its own. Beeswax wraps and bags look great in ads, but they're designed more for cheese, produce, and leftovers. For bread specifically, they tend to make the crust go leathery and can speed up mold in warmer kitchens. They're not bad products, just not ideal for artisan bread. Bread boxes with vents can work well. They create a microclimate that balances airflow and humidity. The key is making sure it's not sealed tight. A good bread box with some ventilation will keep a loaf solid for two to three days. What I actually use: