✦ This Week's Hyperfocus
Sourdough, but make it a personality
I have been baking the same loaf for three weeks. I have read seventeen articles about hydration ratios. I have opinions about Dutch ovens that I did not ask for. This is fine.
Week of September 22, 2026
How it started
It started, as most things do, with a YouTube video I did not mean to watch. Forty-five minutes later I had a sourdough starter named Gerald and a very specific plan to reorganize my entire kitchen around bread-making.
I should tell you that I do not particularly like bread. I mean, I like bread. Everyone likes bread. But I have never thought about bread the way I now think about bread, which is: constantly, and with the intensity of someone who has just discovered that bread is actually a living thing and you are responsible for keeping it alive.
Gerald is doing well, by the way. He smells like a brewery and I am unreasonably proud of him.
obsession log
Watched the YouTube video. Named the starter. Told no one.
Fed Gerald. Read about autolyse. Googled 'what is autolyse.' Read about autolyse again.
First bake. Dense. Gummy. Ate the whole thing anyway. Took notes.
Ordered a bench scraper, a proofing basket, and a lame. Did not know what a lame was on Monday.
Second bake. Better crust. Still gummy inside. Gerald seems unbothered.
Third bake. Actual ear on the loaf. Took seventeen photos. Sent them to people who did not ask.
Researched the history of sourdough. Apparently humans have been doing this for 14,000 years. I have been doing it for six days. I feel a kinship.
current obsessions
intensity: High
Bulk fermentation timing
intensity: Medium
The windowpane test
intensity: Extremely high
Whether Gerald is happy
intensity: Aesthetic emergency
Scoring patterns
rabbit holes
Tartine Bakery's basic country loaf. 45 minutes. Life-altering.
A German engineer who treats bread like a science experiment. My people.
Maurizio Leo's beginner guide. Extremely thorough. Extremely.
* This hyperfocus will probably be replaced by something entirely different next week. Gerald will survive regardless.
Previous hyperfocuses: vintage typewriters (3 weeks), the history of punctuation (2 weeks), competitive dog grooming (4 days).