An ode to tomatoes, pizza, and more I've been checking on my tomato plants just about daily, waiting for that first one to finally turn ripe. It's been hot here, maybe a little too hot, but the plants are laden with fruit, and I can't wait any longer. Our tomato plants a little earlier in the season. My plan for friselle, calzone, and pizza is already set, with weeks of dough planned out and ready for baking. I'm not sure there's any better season during the year, and it makes prepping the...
8 days ago • 3 min read
What's the best way to mix bread dough? Is mixing bread dough simply combining the ingredients in a bowl? Well, yes and no, there's a bit more to the story. And often, the mixing step, along with the common misconceptions about it, is often overlooked. We think we're just combining the ingredients and mixing a bit until they smooth out, then move to bulk fermentation. But there's more happening here than just combining. Most importantly, the dough is gaining strength as the gluten develops....
15 days ago • 1 min read
My trip to Italy—eating all the pizza, bread, and gelato! A slightly different newsletter today, and off schedule—it's all about my recent trip to Italy 🇮🇹 Warning: lots of details and photos! Sitting down and writing about traveling to Italy before lunch is so hard. As you probably guessed, every other photo is food—I'm a bread baker and pizza maker, after all—and just one look at pizza, gelato, or bread sends me spiraling into reminiscing about all the aromas, flavors, and overindulgence....
18 days ago • 12 min read
The best July 4th holiday bakes If I'm being honest, the real draw for me during the nation's birthday has always been a flag cake, an ice cream sundae, or even better, a red-white-and-blue berry trifle. I know. It's like I was destined to work with food when I got older or something. But this year, I thought my kids would have fun picking out some fireworks, so I snagged my youngest and we headed to the temporary white tent in the parking lot plastered with TNT 🧨 all over it. As we entered...
29 days ago • 3 min read
The quest for the perfect loaf. And summer focaccia! Apparently, I did not have enough focaccia in Italy. Though, can one ever really have too much focaccia? I daresay not. This week, I've been playing with grain in the kitchen with my sourdough focaccia dough, swapping in a hefty portion of blue beard durum, adjusting the hydration, and loving the results. I used my mini focaccia pans to divide my focaccia into four and played with various toppings on each: Sliced tomato, oregano, salt...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
New Milk Bread Hamburger Buns! Hey Reader— What are you baking this week? I just returned from a multi-week trip to Italy to visit family (photos and details coming soon to this very newsletter), and... Gosh, I'm craving a hamburger. A few weeks of eating copious pizza and pasta will do that to ya. I'm not complaining about it, and I know you're not feeling sorry for this overindulgence one bit. Given my recent work on panettone and shokupan with my pasta madre (a sourdough starter maintained...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
New sourdough brownies and Memorial Day go-to’s! This weekend's Memorial Day holiday is typically the point when we all emerge from indoors and enjoy grilling outside, and if you're like me, trying to catch up on getting the garden going. This week's newsletter includes a new recipe for sourdough starter discard brownies which are fudgy, rich, and quite easy to throw together. They'd be perfect to bring to your next potluck! But there's also a log of other inspiration for you to get to...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Store your starter for vacation, hamburger buns & more! Fellow dough enthusiast— With the summer travel season upon us, I'm here to share my go-to approach for storing—and then reviving—my starter from the fridge when I go on vacation. Unfortunately, due to life being what it is, I can't take vacations longer than three weeks at a time. But the good news is that this method for storing a starter works perfectly for that amount of time (or less)! And it really couldn't be easier. With just a...
2 months ago • 2 min read
100% Whole wheat recipe, Italy trip, and hiking For the past three days, I've been off-grid in the mountains hiking, canoeing, and doing a bit of archery with my son's school class. Gosh, we had fun, I mean, look at this view: My son and his classmate "rowing" while I did the actual rowing. Can't beat that view, though. But while we had a fantastic time, I came home craving freshly baked bread of any kind. It's me, so of course that was the case. Thankfully, I recently refreshed and updated...
3 months ago • 3 min read