Bread
What hydration actually changes in a dough, from 60 to 85 per cent
Hydration is not a difficulty rating. It is a set of trade-offs between handling, crumb structure and how much oven spring you can…
Bread
Dough, fermentation, shaping and the loaf you can repeat on a Tuesday.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Bread
Dough temperature is the dial most home bakers never touch
Two loaves from one recipe can behave nothing alike because one finished mixing at 22C and the other at 27C.
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Bread
Bulk fermentation ends when the dough says so, not when the timer does
Almost every dense loaf and every collapsed one traces back to the same decision, made by a clock that knew nothing about your…
Bread
The windowpane test measures one thing, and it can still mislead you
A dough can pass the windowpane and still bake dense, because gluten development and gas retention are related but not the same…
Bread
Shaping a loaf is about surface tension and very little else
Every shaping method, however it is described, is doing one job: building a taut outer skin that holds the gas in and directs the…
Bread
Sixteen hours at 4C: what a cold retard does to a loaf
The fridge is not just a pause button. It changes which organisms are working, what they produce and how the dough handles the next…
Bread
Steam in the first ten minutes decides how high the loaf can go
A dry oven sets the crust within four or five minutes and locks the loaf at whatever size it happened to be. Steam delays that by…
Bread
Scoring a loaf is a controlled failure, and the angle does the work
The blade is not decoration. It chooses where the loaf will burst so the expansion goes where you want it rather than where the…
Bread
A sourdough starter is a stable ecosystem, not a temperamental pet
Once established, a starter is a competitive environment that keeps itself safe. Most of the anxiety around it comes from treating…
Bread
Two per cent salt: why bread recipes keep landing on the same number
Salt in dough is a structural ingredient with a narrow useful range, and both ends of that range are obvious in the finished loaf.
Bread
Enriched dough behaves differently because fat gets between the strands
Butter, eggs and sugar do not simply make bread richer. Each one interferes with gluten and yeast in a specific way that changes…
Bread
Bake bread to an internal temperature, not to a shade of brown
Crust colour tells you what the surface did. A probe in the centre tells you whether the starch has set and the crumb will slice.