February marked the first full month for the Sourdough Improvement Skool community. We started the month at 13 members and are now at 25! As I wrote back on Feb. 1, you all continue to be positive, generous, kind, and encouraging which is the best thing about our community. Keep it up! Show up for one another, share your baking successes and struggles, and help shape this community into a unique and valuable 'home' for sourdough bakers! ✅ You've requested 40 BreadScore analysis reports, up from a dozen at the start of February. ✅ We routinely see 100+ daily activities in the community! Even 200+ a couple of times! ✅ The classroom is being built out with recipes, guides, and the Sourdough Identity Quest (try it!). ✅ You've embraced the daily themes and are using those to share regularly with each other. Everything here is free, unlimited, and for your benefit. Take advantage of that. If you know others who would be a great fit and find this community valuable, please consider inviting them to join. (You can use the Invite People link on the right side of the Community page.) Please let me know what you would like to see here! My only goal for this group is to make it great for all of you. And if you're part of this community and haven't checked in for a while, just take a few minutes to look around, explore, and see what we've been up to. One last thing...our member of the month is DENISE VERDIECK! @Denise Verdieck has been an indispensable presence here almost from day 1. Her commitment to constant improvement in her baking is inspirational, and her dedication to engaging with others in this community makes this a much better place than it would be without her. Congratulations, Denise!

Funny fails, lessons learned, and botched bakes. Sharing those challenging experiences is a good thing. It is how we learn from and support each other.

Japanese Milk Bread, croissants, cinnamon sugar babka, & a loaf with Asiago, Parmesan, & aglio e olio seasoning. All sourdough 😊

Finally back from vacation and got my starter out from the fridge 3 days before this bake. It doubled in size in 4 hours day of with a stiffer feed. For this loaf, I did 75g starter, 350g water, 500g bread flour, 10g salt. I mixed my starter, water, and flour first and let it rest for an hour before mixing in my salt. I also let that rest for an hour before doing 2 sets of stretch and folds and 1 set of coil folds. I let it bulk ferment for about 6 hours total at around 74 degrees. I did shaping, let it rest, final shaping, and threw into banneton for overnight cold proof. Baked at 475 for 25 minutes lid on and 15 minutes at 450 lid off. I waited an hour and a half before cutting into it. This is one of my highest rising loaves yet but I can’t seem to get rid of the big holes, I’m going for a tighter crumb. Thank you!

Here's your chance to help another baker out. 👉 Nothing fancy, just pick one thing you've learned about baking and share it with the group. 🫱 Or ask a question and let someone teach you. 🫲 And a question for all of you: ✴️What kind of baking learner are you?✴️