Saving Bread

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How do you actually know when bulk fermentation is finished? What makes a sourdough starter strong and healthy? And how can understanding the science of fermentation help you become a more intuitive baker?

This week on Saving Bread, Allison White talks with Tom Cucuzza, creator of The Sourdough Journey, about his years of experimentation with sourdough bread, starter health and bulk fermentation.

Tom has built an enormous body of educational work around understanding what is actually happening inside our starters and doughs. In this episode, we get into the details.

We talk about:

• Sourdough starter strength and accumulated acidity
• Why repeatedly underfeeding a starter can create problems over time
• Tom’s peak-to-peak feeding method
• How to recognize when your sourdough starter has reached peak
• How to judge the end of bulk fermentation
• Dough temperature and percentage rise
• Why fermentation does not stop when bulk fermentation ends
• Gluten development and using the windowpane test throughout fermentation
• Pre-shaping, bench rest, shaping and cold retard
• Refrigerator temperature and continued fermentation
• Using pH as one tool rather than a hard-and-fast fermentation endpoint
• How changing one variable at a time can help you learn faster
• Developing baker’s intuition through observation and experimentation
• The relationship between science, precision and creativity in bread baking

Tom describes himself as both analytical and artistic. For him, understanding the science is not the final goal. It gives him more opportunities to create the bread he wants to make.

We also talk about why sourdough should not feel like an exclusive hobby and Tom’s belief that everyone should be able to learn how to make bread.

LEARN MORE FROM TOM CUCZZA + THE SOURDOUGH JOURNEY

The Sourdough Journey website
https://thesourdoughjourney.com/

Instagram: @the_sourdough_journey
https://www.instagram.com/the_sourdough_journey/

The Sourdough Journey on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@thesourdoughjourney

Sourdough videos and Mastering Bulk Fermentation resources
https://thesourdoughjourney.com/videos/

SAVING BREAD

Instagram: @savingbreadpodcast
https://www.instagram.com/savingbreadpodcast/

Saving Bread is a podcast about sourdough, bread baking, whole grains, fermentation and the people working to preserve and move bread culture forward. Hosted by Allison White.

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This week on Saving Bread, Allison talks with Parker Cook, baker, educator and content creator behind Basil & Bloom.

Parker has built a large online community teaching sourdough bread baking, fermentation, starter maintenance, whole grains, freshly milled flour and microbakery production. But there is already a lot of information online about how Parker makes bread.

This conversation looks more at the person behind that information.

Parker shares how he went from learning to cook while living in Italy to working as a research and development chef, and how that analytical background shaped the way he approaches sourdough today.

They talk about how Parker actually learns a new technique, why he tests ideas repeatedly and side by side, the importance of building experience through repetition, and why becoming a better baker may be as much about becoming a better observer as it is about collecting more information.

Parker and Allison also get into what makes an online educator trustworthy. Parker talks about creating content from real questions within his community, simplifying complicated baking concepts without losing the useful information, and the responsibility that comes with recommending products to a large audience.

The conversation also covers beginner sourdough mistakes, bulk fermentation, sourdough starter maintenance, stiff starters, freshly milled flour, whole grain baking, microbakery systems, content creation, entrepreneurship and building Basil & Bloom alongside Parker's wife and business partner, Camille.

They finish by talking about being open to different approaches to bread and Parker's belief that there are no strict rules in sourdough, only techniques that help you make the bread you want to make.

FOLLOW AND SUPPORT PARKER

Basil & Bloom
Basil & Bloom website

Instagram
Follow @eatbasilandbloom on Instagram

School of Sourdough and online baking courses
Explore Parker's sourdough courses

Whole grain, freshly milled flour and additional courses
Basil & Bloom course library

Parker's Picks and affiliate links
Shop Parker's recommended baking tools and products

If you enjoy Parker's free educational content and purchase a product he recommends, using his affiliate links is one way to directly support Basil & Bloom.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow Saving Bread, leave a rating or review and share the episode with another baker.

Long live real bread.

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This week on Saving Bread, Allison talks with Martin Sorge, self taught baker, writer, winner of The Great American Baking Show and author of the new cookbook Great Bakes: Modern Classic Recipes from the Midwest.

Martin has spent more than a decade baking with local flour, whole grains and unique grain varieties, and his approach makes experimenting with unfamiliar ingredients feel surprisingly approachable.

In this conversation, Martin and Allison talk about why flour deserves the same attention we give local produce, cheese and other regional foods, and how getting to know the grain itself can completely change the way we bake.

Martin shares one of his favorite ways to test a flour he has never used before: make a very simple shortbread and let the flavor of the grain speak for itself.

They also get into rye bread and some of the misconceptions surrounding it. Martin explains why the flavor many Americans associate with rye is actually caraway, how rye dough behaves differently from wheat dough, why acidity and sourdough are so important in high percentage rye breads and why some traditional rye loaves are actually better when you wait until the next day to cut into them.

The conversation also covers buckwheat, spelt, black emmer, soft honey emmer dinner rolls, local grain from Janie’s Mill, German bread culture and Martin’s experience baking with Arnd Erbel in his centuries old bakery in Dachsbach, Germany.

Martin also shares what competing on The Great American Baking Show taught him about trusting simple flavors and his own point of view, why failed bakes are an important part of becoming a better baker and why he believes bread deserves to be brought back to the center of the table.

Great Bakes: Modern Classic Recipes from the Midwest is available now and includes more than 100 sweet and savory recipes inspired by the ingredients, people and baking traditions of the Midwest.

Follow Martin on Instagram: @martinsorge

Martin Sorge:
martinbakes.com

Great Bakes:
martinbakes.com/books

Martin’s upcoming cookbook events and classes:
martinbakes.com/events

Janie’s Mill:
janiesmill.com

Arnd Erbel and Bäckerei Erbel in Dachsbach, Germany:
arnderbel.de

If you enjoyed this episode, follow Saving Bread and share it with another baker. Ratings, reviews and sharing the podcast are some of the best ways to help more people find these conversations.

Long live real bread.

Send us a question or voice memo!

What changes when flour stops being the background of a loaf and becomes the whole party?

In this episode of Saving Bread, Allison talks with baker and miller Baylin Speidel, head baker at Chimacum Valley Grainery in Chimacum, Washington.

Chimacum Valley Grainery brings farming, stone milling, baking, malting, and brewing together on one property. Baylin shares how working this closely with grain transformed the way she understands flour, flavor, fermentation, and bread.

Baylin walks us through what happens when a wheat berry passes through a stone mill and explains the meaning of extraction rate, high extraction flour, and one hundred percent whole grain flour. She also shares a practical and encouraging path for bakers who want to begin using more local and freshly milled grain without changing everything at once.

You can begin with a familiar bread formula, replace five or twenty percent of the flour, observe what changes, and slowly build your confidence from there.

For bakers ready to use larger percentages of whole grain flour, Baylin offers guidance on choosing a flour blend, increasing hydration, shortening mixing time, using an autolyse and bassinage, managing levain percentage, and paying attention to fermentation.

She explains why whole grain dough often needs more water than expected, why fresh flour benefits from a gentler approach, and why the way a dough feels is often more important than the hydration number written on the formula.

This conversation is also about the relationships behind a loaf of bread. Baylin and Allison discuss the importance of connecting bakers with farmers, millers, grain breeders, and other bakers. They explore how curiosity, communication, and community can help create a stronger and more resilient local grain economy.

Whether you are curious about stone milled flour, beginning to experiment with whole grains, or already baking with one hundred percent extraction flour, this episode offers practical guidance and plenty of encouragement to keep learning.

IN THIS EPISODE

How stone milling works

Stone milled flour compared with roller milled flour

What extraction rate means

High extraction flour and whole grain flour

How to begin using local flour

Starting with five or twenty percent whole grain

Choosing strong and supporting grains for a flour blend

Hydration for whole grain sourdough

Autolyse and bassinage

Mixing fresh milled flour with a gentler touch

Using levain percentage to manage fermentation

How dough temperature and dough mass affect fermentation

Building relationships with local farmers and millers

The farming, milling, baking, malting, and brewing model at Chimacum Valley Grainery

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Chimacum Valley Grainery

https://chimacumgrain.com

Order stone milled flour and Grainery goods

https://chimacumgrain.com/store

Chimacum Valley Grainery workshops

https://chimacumgrain.com/workshops

Follow Chimacum Valley Grainery on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/chimacumgrain

Follow Baylin on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/thedustedstone

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In Lessons Episode 4, we take the country dough formula we created in our Baker’s Math episode and finally turn it into a loaf of bread.

I’ll walk you through the entire process, beginning with the night-before levain build and continuing through the autolyse, mixing, gluten development, bulk fermentation, folds, pre-shaping, final shaping, basket proof, cold retard, scoring, baking, cooling, and evaluating the finished loaf.

Along the way, we’ll cover:

•  How to recognize when your levain is ripe and ready 
•  What an autolyse does—and when it may be helpful 
•  Mechanical mixing and the windowpane test 
•  How to reach a Desired Dough Temperature of 78°F 
•  Stretch and folds versus coil folds 
•  How to measure percent rise during bulk fermentation 
•  The signs of under-fermented, properly fermented, and over-fermented dough 
•  Pre-shaping, bench rest, and final shaping 
•  Choosing the right banneton 
•  The room-temperature basket rise before refrigeration 
•  Covering your dough during an overnight cold retard 
•  Scoring and baking in a Dutch oven 
•  How to evaluate the crust and crumb after baking 

Most importantly, we spend time answering one of the most difficult questions in bread baking: How do I know when bulk fermentation is finished?

There is no single bubble, jiggle, percentage, or number on the clock that can answer that question by itself. Instead, we’ll learn how to look for several signals that begin telling the same story: the dough has developed enough gas to feel light and alive, while retaining enough strength to be shaped into a loaf.

This is not intended to be a strict bake-along. Listen through the episode once before beginning, then return to individual sections as you work through your own loaf. Your dough may move faster or slower than mine. The goal is not to force it to follow my schedule, it is to understand what you are trying to accomplish during every stage.

If sourdough starter maintenance, levain building, or baker’s math still feels unfamiliar, begin with Lessons Episodes 1–3 and then return to this episode.

Next time, we’ll use what we learn from this bake to begin troubleshooting under-proofing, over-proofing, weak dough, dense crumb, scoring problems, dark bottoms, and more.

Happy baking, and long live real bread.

Formula for the Show Notes

Levain Build

•  10 g ripe starter 
•  25 g bread flour 
•  25 g whole wheat flour 
•  50 g water 

Total levain: 110 g
Use 100 g in the final dough.

Final Dough

•  375 g bread flour 
•  75 g whole wheat flour 
•  325 g water 
•  100 g ripe levain 
•  10 g salt 

Approximate total dough weight: 885 g

Total Formula

•  500 g total flour 
•  20% whole wheat flour 
•  75% hydration 
•  10% pre-fermented flour 
•  2% salt 

Links and Mentions

Follow Saving Bread on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/savingbreadpodcast/

Listen to or review Saving Bread on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saving-bread/id1896790106 

The Perfect Loaf: Complete Bread-Shaping Guide
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/shaping-bread-dough/ 

The Perfect Loaf: How to Shape a Batard
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/shaping-a-batard/ 

Rosehill Sourdough: The BreadMat
https://rosehillsourdough.com/product/the-breadmat/ 

Rosehill Sourdough: Oven Gloves
https://rosehillsourdough.com/product/gloves/ 

Music by Joshua from DOPE

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Ally and Leah are back down the Rabbit Hole for a casual conversation about sourdough experiments, bakery field trips, and the stories we tell through bread.

Inspired by Sourdough Culture by Eric Pallant, Leah creates a sourdough starter from scratch for the first time—funky smells, mysterious liquid, daily feedings and all. Meanwhile, Ally compares a traditional flour-and-water starter with one made using pineapple juice. They discuss false rises, acidity, starter pH, unpleasant early-stage bacteria and whether the pineapple juice method actually makes creating a starter easier.

Then they recap their visit to Beloved’s Bakery & Café in Reno, Nevada, where they sampled sourdough bread, bialys, pretzels and an impressive assortment of laminated pastries.

Finally, they go deep on inclusions in bread. Are jalapeño cheddar and cranberry walnut loaves simply delicious products that customers love—or can inclusions become something more? Ally and Leah explore how local, seasonal and culturally meaningful ingredients can help bakers differentiate their work, celebrate their communities and turn a loaf of bread into a story.

This episode is an invitation to experiment, stay curious and consider not only what goes into your bread, but why it belongs there.

LINKS & MENTIONS

Sourdough Culture by Eric Pallant
https://www.ericpallant.com/book/sourdough-culture/

Debra Wink’s Pineapple Juice Solution — Part One
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1

Debra Wink’s Pineapple Juice Solution — Part Two
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2

Kathryn Shields — Amore Fermentum
Instagram: @amore_fermentum
https://www.instagram.com/amore_fermentum/

Laila — The Early Rise
Instagram: @theearlyrisebaker
https://www.instagram.com/theearlyrisebaker/

Alexandra Allen — Wild Woman Bakery
Instagram: @wildwomanbakery
https://www.instagram.com/wildwomanbakery/

Beloved’s Bakery & Café
299 E Plumb Lane, Suite 129
Reno, Nevada
https://www.belovedsbread.com/
Instagram: @belovedsbread
https://www.instagram.com/belovedsbread/

Love, Yvonne Cakes
Instagram: @love.yvonne
https://www.instagram.com/_love.yvonne_/

Graison Gill
Instagram: @graisongill
https://www.instagram.com/graisongill/

Sarah Owens
Instagram: @sarah_c_owens
https://www.instagram.com/sarah_c_owens/

Music by Joshua from DOPE.

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What began as Campbell McFarlane’s own obsession with sourdough eventually became RackMaster- an oven designed to give home, cottage, and small-scale bakers access to thoughtfully engineered equipment without requiring a traditional bakery.

In this episode, Campbell shares how he moved from baking in Dutch ovens and a small deck oven to designing one of the most recognizable ovens in the cottage-baking world. We talk about the very real learning curve that comes with moving into open deck baking, why a great oven cannot disguise poorly fermented dough, and what bakers should expect when increasing their production.

We also explore the remarkable community that has grown around RackMaster. Campbell is known not only for making equipment, but for freely sharing his knowledge, answering questions at nearly any hour, delivering ovens to extraordinarily remote places, and helping bakers become the best they can be.

In this conversation:

•  How Campbell first became hooked on sourdough 
•  The experiences that inspired him to develop the RackMaster oven 
•  Why switching from Dutch ovens to deck baking requires bakers to reassess their dough 
•  Steam, oven loading, and learning to work with a new baking environment 
•  The many products bakers make in RackMaster ovens beyond bread 
•  How the ovens have helped cottage bakers increase production and build businesses 
•  Campbell’s belief in sharing knowledge without gatekeeping 
•  The worldwide community of bakers supporting one another 
•  Why Campbell considers himself available approximately “18/7” 

This is a conversation about ovens, but even more than that, it is about giving bakers the tools, encouragement, and access they need to keep the craft of real bread moving forward.

Find Campbell:
Instagram: @campbell2664
Outside North America: rackmaster.co.uk
North American availability: Pleasant Hill Grain

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Baker's math doesn't have to be intimidating.

In this episode, we're breaking down one of the most misunderstood topics in bread baking into something practical and approachable. We'll walk through baker's percentages, hydration, total formula, mixing-day formula, and pre-fermented flour (PFF)—without getting lost in complicated equations.

Together, we'll build a simple country bread formula step by step, learn how to account for the flour and water in your levain, and scale that recipe into a home-sized loaf you can bake right alongside future episodes.

Whether you've always been confused by percentages or you've been baking for years and want a stronger foundation, this episode will help you read formulas with confidence and understand the language professional bakers use every day.

In this episode we discuss:

•  What baker's percentages actually mean 
•  Why flour is always 100% 
•  Total hydration vs. mixing-day hydration 
•  Total formula vs. mixing-day formula 
•  How to account for the flour and water in your levain 
•  Understanding pre-fermented flour (PFF) 
•  Scaling a formula for home baking 
•  Answering listener questions on levain, inclusions, and dough weight

Baker's Math Resources: 

DOAP Calc - https://calc.getdoap.com/

The Perfect Loaf Membership - https://www.theperfectloaf.com/membership/?utm_source=tpl-internal&utm_content=site-header

Send us a question or voice memo!

What happens when you treat every ingredient like it matters?

In this episode of Saving Bread, I sit down with Alexandra Allen of Wildwoman Bakery to explore how freshly milled grains can completely transform sourdough baking—from cookies and pastries to naturally leavened breads.

We dive into how Alex thinks about flour selection, butter, vanilla, levain behavior, and ingredient quality to build flavor from the ground up. Whether you're curious about baking with fresh-milled flour or looking for new ways to bring creativity into your sourdough baking, this conversation is full of practical ideas and inspiration.

In this episode we discuss:

•  Baking sourdough cookies with freshly milled grains 
•  Choosing butter for flavor and texture 
•  Making homemade vanilla extract 
•  Understanding levain behavior 
•  Developing recipes with whole grains 
•  Building flavor through thoughtful ingredient choices 
•  Finding your own creative voice as a baker 

Alex's approach reminds us that great bread—and great baking—isn't just about following a formula. It's about understanding your ingredients and letting curiosity guide the process.

You can find Alexandra on Instagram @wildwomanbakery, and if you're in Arkansas, you can find her sourdough pastries and baked goods at the Fayetteville Farmers Market.

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Your sourdough starter is alive—and small changes in how you feed and maintain it can dramatically change how it behaves.

In this episode of Saving Bread, we explore the four biggest variables that influence a sourdough starter: hydration, temperature, flour choice, and inoculation (seed percentage). Understanding how each of these factors affects fermentation will help you troubleshoot sluggish starters, adapt to seasonal changes, and build a starter that performs consistently.

Whether you're just getting started or you've been baking sourdough for years, this episode will give you a framework for understanding why your starter behaves the way it does instead of simply following a feeding schedule.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  How hydration affects fermentation speed 
•  Why temperature changes everything 
•  How different flours influence starter activity 
•  What seed percentage (inoculation) actually does 
•  How to adjust your starter as the seasons change 
•  How to make confident decisions instead of guessing 

If you've ever wondered why your sourdough starter behaves differently from one bake to the next, this episode will help you understand the science behind it.

Topics: sourdough starter, sourdough fermentation, feeding a sourdough starter, sourdough hydration, starter temperature, artisan bread, naturally leavened bread, whole grain baking, bread science