The Bakery
Every bake since July 2025 — proofs, crumbs, and the failures.
So much of it comes down to a balance I'm still learning to feel — dough strength against fermentation against hydration — and I write down what I notice after every bake. The side effect of all that practice: my friends are getting fed a lot of bread. Probably too much, at this point.
One-Day Sourdough
~1 day · medium
Shokupan (Tangzhong Milk Bread)
same day · medium
Sweet Bread
~2–3 hrs · easy
Semi-Sourdough
~24h · medium
Plantain Doughnuts
~3 hrs · medium
Three-Day Sourdough (soon…)
72h / 3 days · hard
Yeast or sourdough?
How I decide what to bake.
Soft & quick
A pillowy sandwich loaf, same day — yeast, a consistent rise.
Shokupan →
No starter
Sourdough character from a long, slow proof and a pinch of yeast.
Semi-Sourdough →
Sourdough in a day
A real wild-culture loaf, quick — using a store-bought dry starter.
One-Day Sourdough →
The full ritual
Deepest flavour and crumb — the three-day method, no shortcuts.
Three-Day Sourdough →
From the bench
A year of bakes since July 2025 — soft buns and milk bread, scones, and a three-day sourdough I'm still working at. Loving it!
Baking notes
What I've worked out at the bench — and the odd story behind a bake.
Why your crust goes hard (and how I fix it)
I kept getting complaints about leathery, knife-resistant crusts — mostly on low-yeast and sourdough loaves. These are the running notes — the factors I watch and the fixes that actually work.
Tiramisu — Old Monk instead of Marsala
There's no single "classic" booze in tiramisu — the coffee is espresso, and the traditional spirit is Marsala, not a coffee brandy. I reached for Old Monk, and it more than holds its own.
Kajjaya — the Deepawali sweet I grew up on
A Kannada sweet my mum fries every Deepawali — crunchy outside the way she makes it, soft and gooey the way my grandpa liked it, with mashed banana. The (tricky) method is coming.
Why autolyse is better in Bangalore (most of the time)
In a warm kitchen, autolyse buys you control over timing, stronger dough, and safer long rests. A note on why I lean autolyse here.