Salt in Bread Dough: The Smallest Number With the Biggest Job
Salt is only about 2% of your dough, yet it controls fermentation, gluten and flavor. And no, it doesn’t kill your yeast. Here’s what it actually does, and what happens when you forget it.
Sourdough Hydration: The Percentage Your Starter Is Hiding From You
I’ve read through a stack of professional bakers’ bread books while researching this — almost none of them explain the percentages behind a sourdough loaf. Here’s the part your starter is quietly hiding from you.
Baker’s Percentages: The One Baking “Rule” That Actually Makes Sense
Flour is always 100%. Everything else is a percentage of that. Here’s the one baking ‘rule’ that sounds harder than it is — and why it’s actually the easiest part of baking once it clicks.
When Should You Start That Dough? The Bake Planner Does the Fermentation Math for You
I once tried to work out, by hand, when to start dough for 24 pizzas so they’d be ready by 8pm. It took longer than the dough did. So I built a tool that does the math instead.
Scaling Recipes Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Ratios)
Doubling a recipe shouldn’t mean doing fraction math at 11pm. Here’s how baker’s percentages make scaling up — or down — almost embarrassingly simple.
Pizza Dough or Bread Dough? Why Your Flour Decides More Than Your Recipe Does
I kept my pizza dough at 67% hydration for years — until I discovered the same dough also makes excellent bread. The catch: it only works with a flour strong enough to carry it.
Flour Power: A World Tour of the Bag You Reach For Every Day
Flour isn’t flour isn’t flour. A world tour of how Italy, France, Germany, and the rest of us classify the bag you reach for every day — and why the numbers don’t mean what you think.
Hydration by Bread Type: A Quick Reference
The question I get asked more than any other — “what hydration should I use for X?” Here’s my go-to answer.
What My Pizzaiolo Training Taught Me About Dough Hydration
A few things I picked up during six months of theory and practice — and still think about every time I mix a batch.