Baking on Flavor & Fork

Homemade Pizza Dough — The Only Recipe You'll Ever Need

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I spent an embarrassing amount of money on delivery pizza before I realized I could make better homemade pizza dough at home with five ingredients and ten minutes of effort. Not “pretty good for homemade” dough — genuinely better than most pizzerias in my neighborhood.

The turning point was understanding that great pizza dough isn’t about technique or fancy equipment. It’s about time. The best doughs ferment slowly, developing flavor and texture that no amount of kneading can replicate. My recipe takes 10 minutes of hands-on work, then the fridge does the rest overnight. You wake up to dough that’s bubbly, extensible, and ready to become the best pizza you’ve ever made at home.

Why Homemade Beats Store-Bought

Store-bought pizza dough — the kind in tubes or plastic bags at the grocery store — is designed for shelf stability, not flavor. It’s made with dough conditioners, preservatives, and usually too much sugar. It works in a pinch, but it tastes like what it is: a compromise.

Homemade dough has exactly five ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast, and olive oil. That’s it. The flavor comes from fermentation — the slow process of yeast eating sugars and producing carbon dioxide (for bubbles) and organic acids (for flavor). Serious Eats’ pizza lab goes deep on the science, but the short version is: more time = more flavor.

The Recipe

This makes enough dough for three 12-inch pizzas. I usually make the full batch and freeze what I don’t use.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour (all-purpose works, but bread flour gives you more chew)
325g lukewarm water (65% hydration — this is the sweet spot for home ovens)
10g salt
3g instant yeast (about 1 teaspoon)
15g olive oil (about 1 tablespoon)

A note on flour: bread flour has higher protein content than all-purpose (12-14% vs 10-12%), which means more gluten development, which means a chewier, more structured crust. If you only have all-purpose, it’ll still make good pizza — just slightly more tender and less chewy.

And on yeast: I use instant yeast because you can mix it directly into the flour without activating it in water first. King Arthur Baking’s yeast guide explains the differences between yeast types, but for this recipe, instant or active dry both work. If using active dry, dissolve it in the water first and wait 5 minutes until it foams.

Step 1: Mix (5 minutes)

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water and olive oil. Stir with a wooden spoon or your hand until a shaggy dough forms — no dry flour should remain, but it doesn’t need to be smooth. It’ll look rough and messy. That’s fine.

That’s the entire mixing process. No kneading required. Time and hydration will develop the gluten for you.

Step 2: Bulk Rise (1-2 hours at room temperature)

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let it sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours. During this time, do two sets of stretch and folds — one at the 30-minute mark and one at the 60-minute mark.

For each set: wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Four folds per set. This builds structure without kneading and takes about 30 seconds.

After the second set of folds, the dough should feel noticeably smoother and more elastic. It won’t have doubled in size yet, and that’s okay — the real magic happens in the fridge.

After bulk rise and folding — smooth, elastic, and ready for the fridge. Image credit: Unsplash

Step 3: Divide and Cold Ferment (Overnight to 72 hours)

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into three equal pieces (about 280g each). Shape each piece into a tight ball by tucking the edges underneath and rotating it on the counter with cupped hands.

Place each ball in a lightly oiled container or on a lightly oiled sheet pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

Here’s where patience pays off. The dough is usable after 24 hours, good after 48, and exceptional after 72. The cold slows the yeast down but doesn’t stop it — the dough continues to ferment slowly, developing complex flavors that a quick-rise dough simply can’t match. After 48-72 hours, you’ll notice the dough has a slightly tangy, almost sourdough-like quality.

Step 4: Shape

Pull a dough ball from the fridge 1-2 hours before you want to bake. Let it come to room temperature — cold dough is stiff and tears easily.

On a lightly floured surface, press the dough flat with your fingertips, leaving a half-inch border around the edge (that’s your crust). Pick it up and drape it over your fists, letting gravity stretch it. Rotate slowly, letting the weight of the dough do the work. If it springs back, set it down and let it rest for 5 minutes — the gluten needs to relax.

Don’t use a rolling pin. Rolling pins compress the gas bubbles that give pizza crust its characteristic airy, bubbly texture. Your hands are gentler and preserve those bubbles.

Aim for about 12 inches in diameter. It doesn’t need to be a perfect circle — rustic shapes are part of the charm.

Step 5: Top and Bake

For a home oven, preheat to the highest temperature it’ll go — usually 500-550°F (260-290°C). If you have a pizza stone or steel, put it in the oven during preheating. A pizza steel is the single best investment I’ve made for home pizza — it transfers heat faster than stone and produces a crispier bottom crust.

No pizza stone? A preheated upside-down sheet pan works surprisingly well.

My go-to margherita:

Thin layer of crushed San Marzano tomatoes (straight from the can, seasoned with salt)
Fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces
A drizzle of olive oil
Fresh basil (added after baking)

Less is more with pizza toppings. Overloading makes the center soggy and prevents the crust from crisping. Two or three toppings, applied with restraint, is the sweet spot.

Slide the pizza onto the hot stone/steel and bake for 7-10 minutes. You’re looking for a deeply golden, slightly charred crust with bubbles, melted and spotty cheese, and a bottom that’s crisp when you tap it.

Margherita: the ultimate test of good dough. When the crust is this good, you don’t need much on top. Image credit: Unsplash

Five Topping Combinations Worth Trying

Once you’ve nailed the basic margherita, branch out:

White Pizza: Ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, olive oil, and fresh arugula added after baking. No tomato sauce. The ricotta gets creamy and slightly browned in spots.

Pepperoni and Hot Honey: Classic pepperoni (the small, cup-and-char kind if you can find it) with mozzarella, finished with a drizzle of hot honey. Sweet, spicy, salty, cheesy — it hits every note.

Mushroom and Truffle: Sautéed mixed mushrooms, fontina cheese, and a drizzle of truffle oil after baking. This one tastes like it costs $25 at a restaurant.

Fig and Prosciutto: Fig jam as the base instead of tomato sauce, mozzarella, and prosciutto added after baking so it stays silky. A handful of arugula and a drizzle of balsamic glaze on top.

BBQ Chicken: BBQ sauce base, shredded rotisserie chicken, red onion, mozzarella, and cilantro. This is the one my kids request every Friday.

Freezing Dough for Future Pizza Nights

After dividing and shaping into balls, you can freeze dough instead of refrigerating it. Wrap each ball tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer bag. It keeps for up to 3 months.

To use: move a frozen dough ball to the fridge the night before. By the next evening, it’ll be thawed and ready to shape. The texture is nearly identical to fresh — I honestly can’t tell the difference most of the time.

This is why I always make the full three-ball batch even when I only need one pizza. Future me always appreciates having dough in the freezer for spontaneous pizza nights.

Troubleshooting

Dough tears when stretching: It’s either too cold (let it warm up longer) or the gluten is too tight (let it rest for 5-10 minutes and try again). Never force it — patience is the fix.

Soggy center: Too many toppings, or your oven isn’t hot enough. Crank the heat as high as it goes and use fewer, drier toppings. Pre-cook watery vegetables like mushrooms or peppers before putting them on the pizza.

Crust isn’t crispy on the bottom: You need more heat from below. A pizza steel or stone makes a huge difference. If using a sheet pan, preheat it in the oven first.

Bland flavor: Your dough didn’t ferment long enough. Try the full 72-hour cold ferment — the difference between 24 and 72 hours is dramatic.

Dough is too sticky to handle: More flour on your hands and work surface. A bench scraper helps too. Some stickiness is normal with higher-hydration doughs — it’s a sign of good things to come.

Friday Night Pizza: A Ritual Worth Starting

In our house, Friday is pizza night. I pull dough from the fridge, everyone picks their toppings, and we make individual pizzas. The kids love it because they get to build their own. I love it because it takes 20 minutes from fridge to table and costs a fraction of delivery.

There’s something deeply satisfying about making pizza from scratch — watching raw dough transform into something bubbly and golden and delicious. It’s one of those skills that feels impressive but is actually simple once you understand the basics.

Start with the margherita. Master the dough. Then make it your own.

For more baking projects, our sourdough bread guide uses similar fermentation principles. And if you want to round out pizza night with a quick appetizer, our air fryer recipes include some great options. This pizza recipe is also a perfect fit for budget-friendly family dinners — homemade pizza costs a fraction of delivery. And for a sweet baking project to follow up, try our perfect banana bread.

Friday pizza night — better than delivery, and everyone gets exactly what they want. Image credit: Unsplash

How to Make Perfect Banana Bread Every Time

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every family has a banana bread recipe. Mine came from my grandmother, scrawled on a stained index card in handwriting I could barely read. For years I followed it faithfully and got… fine banana bread. Not bad. Not memorable. Just fine.

Then I started tinkering. A little more banana here, brown butter there, an extra egg yolk for richness. Three years and probably a hundred loaves later, I landed on the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever tasted — one that makes people stop mid-bite and ask for the recipe. It’s moist without being gummy, sweet without being cloying, and has a banana flavor so deep it tastes like the platonic ideal of what banana bread should be.

Here’s everything I’ve learned about turning overripe bananas into something genuinely special.

The Bananas Matter More Than Anything

Let’s start with the most important ingredient. You want bananas that are almost embarrassingly ripe — covered in brown spots, soft to the touch, maybe even starting to turn black. The kind you’d never eat on their own.

This isn’t just about sweetness, though riper bananas are sweeter. As bananas ripen, their starches convert to sugars and their cell walls break down, releasing more moisture and more of those volatile aromatic compounds that give banana bread its distinctive flavor. A banana with a few brown spots will give you a pleasant loaf. A banana that looks like it belongs in the compost will give you an extraordinary one.

If your bananas aren’t ripe enough, here’s a trick: put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 300°F for 15-20 minutes until the skins are completely black and the bananas are soft. Let them cool, then use them as normal. It’s not quite as good as naturally ripened bananas, but it’s close.

This is what you’re looking for. The uglier the banana, the better the bread. Image credit: Unsplash

The Recipe

This makes one standard loaf (9x5 inch pan). I’ve scaled it up to two loaves for holidays and it works perfectly — just use two pans.

Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas (about 1.5 cups mashed)
1/3 cup butter (melted and browned — more on this below)
3/4 cup brown sugar (dark, not light)
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or chocolate chips

A few notes on these choices before we get to the method.

Brown butter instead of regular melted butter. This is the single biggest upgrade I’ve made to my grandmother’s recipe. Browning the butter takes about five extra minutes and adds a nutty, toasty depth that regular butter can’t match. The milk solids caramelize and create these incredible flavor compounds that complement the banana perfectly.

Dark brown sugar instead of white. The molasses in brown sugar adds moisture and a caramel-like richness. Dark brown has more molasses than light, so I always reach for it here.

An extra egg yolk. The whole egg provides structure. The extra yolk adds richness and fat without making the bread eggy. It’s the difference between good banana bread and “how is this so moist” banana bread.

Baking soda, not baking powder. King Arthur Baking explains that baking soda reacts with the acid in the bananas, creating lift while also promoting browning. Baking powder would work, but you’d need more of it and you’d miss out on that deep golden crust.

The Method

Step 1: Brown the Butter

Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. (Light-colored so you can see the color change.) It’ll foam up, then the foam will subside. Watch the bottom of the pan — you’ll see little brown specks forming. That’s the milk solids caramelizing. Swirl the pan occasionally. When it smells nutty and the specks are golden-brown (not black), pull it off the heat immediately. The whole process takes about 5 minutes.

Pour it into a large mixing bowl and let it cool for a few minutes. You don’t want it hot enough to cook the eggs.

Step 2: Mash and Mix the Wet Ingredients

Add the bananas to the brown butter and mash with a fork. I leave some small chunks — they create pockets of intense banana flavor in the finished bread. If you prefer a more uniform texture, mash until smooth.

Add the brown sugar and stir until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until everything is incorporated. It’ll look a bit lumpy and unappetizing. That’s normal.

Step 3: Add the Dry Ingredients (Gently)

Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the wet mixture and stir briefly. Add the flour and fold it in with a spatula or wooden spoon. Here’s the critical part: stop mixing as soon as you don’t see dry flour anymore.

King Arthur Baking notes that overmixing develops gluten, which makes the bread tough and dense instead of tender. A few small lumps in the batter are fine — they’ll disappear during baking. If you’re adding walnuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now with just a couple of strokes.

Step 4: Bake

Pour the batter into a greased or parchment-lined 9x5 inch loaf pan. Smooth the top gently.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 55-65 minutes. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs — not wet batter, but not bone dry either. The top should be deeply golden and slightly cracked down the middle. That crack is a sign of good oven spring, not a mistake.

Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack. I know it’s tempting to cut into it immediately, but give it at least 20 minutes. The texture firms up as it cools, and the flavors meld together.

Don’t overmix — lumpy batter makes tender bread. Image credit: Unsplash

Variations I Actually Make

Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of banana bread variations. Most are gimmicky. These three are the ones I keep coming back to.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread: Add 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. The chocolate melts into gooey pockets throughout the bread. Use a mix of chips and roughly chopped chocolate bar for variety in texture.

Peanut Butter Swirl: Drop tablespoons of creamy peanut butter on top of the batter in the pan, then use a knife to swirl it through. The peanut butter creates these rich, salty ribbons that contrast beautifully with the sweet banana.

Brown Butter Streusel Top: Mix 3 tablespoons cold butter with 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a pinch of cinnamon until crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter before baking. It creates a crunchy, buttery crust that shatters when you slice through it.

Troubleshooting

Dense, heavy bread: You probably overmixed the batter, or your baking soda is old. Baking soda loses potency over time — if yours has been open for more than six months, replace it. Test by dropping a pinch into vinegar; it should fizz vigorously.

Raw in the middle: Your oven might run hot, causing the outside to brown before the inside cooks through. Try lowering the temperature to 325°F and baking longer. Also, make sure you’re using the right size pan — too small and the batter is too deep to cook evenly.

Dry and crumbly: You either overbaked it or didn’t use enough banana. Four ripe bananas is the sweet spot for a standard loaf. And pull it from the oven when the toothpick has moist crumbs, not when it comes out clean — clean means overdone.

Gummy texture: This usually means too much moisture. Make sure you’re not adding extra liquid (some recipes call for milk or yogurt — mine doesn’t need it). Also, let the bread cool completely before wrapping it. Trapping steam makes the texture gummy.

Storage and Freezing

Banana bread keeps at room temperature for about 3 days, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or in an airtight container. After that, the texture starts to decline.

For longer storage, slice the loaf and freeze individual slices in a zip-top bag with parchment between them. They thaw in about 20 minutes at room temperature, or you can toast a frozen slice directly — it gets crispy on the outside and warm and soft inside. I always make a double batch and freeze half for exactly this reason.

The batter itself doesn’t freeze well (the leavening loses its punch), but mashed ripe bananas freeze beautifully. When you have bananas going brown faster than you can bake, peel them, mash them, and freeze in 1.5-cup portions. Label the bag with the date and you’ve got banana bread starter ready to go whenever the craving hits.

Why This Recipe Works

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why this particular combination produces better results than the dozens of other banana bread recipes I’ve tried. It comes down to three things:

The brown butter adds a flavor dimension that regular butter simply can’t. The extra egg yolk provides richness and moisture without making the crumb cakey. And using four bananas instead of the typical three gives you a bread that actually tastes like bananas, not just “something vaguely sweet with banana in the name.”

Good banana bread shouldn’t be complicated. It’s a mixing bowl, a loaf pan, and an hour of patience. But the details — the ripeness of the bananas, the browning of the butter, the restraint in mixing — are what separate forgettable from unforgettable.

If you’re getting into baking, our sourdough bread guide is a great next challenge. And for a protein-packed way to enjoy banana bread for breakfast, pair a slice with one of our high-protein breakfast ideas. This banana bread recipe also pairs beautifully with a homemade pizza dough weekend — bake the bread Saturday, make pizza Sunday. And if you’re cooking on a budget, our budget-friendly family dinners prove that great food doesn’t have to be expensive.

Moist, tender, deeply banana-flavored. That’s the goal. Image credit: Unsplash

Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread — A Beginner's Complete Guide

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My first sourdough loaf looked like a frisbee. Flat, dense, and about as appetizing as a hockey puck. I almost gave up right there. But something about the process — the slow fermentation, the way the dough transforms overnight, the smell of it baking — kept pulling me back. Six months and probably thirty loaves later, I was turning out bread that rivaled the $8 loaves at the farmers market.

Sourdough has this reputation for being fussy and complicated. And sure, if you dive into the deep end of baking forums, you’ll find people debating hydration percentages and crumb structure like it’s a doctoral thesis. But the actual process? Flour, water, salt, time. That’s it. People have been making this bread for thousands of years without thermometers or kitchen scales.

Here’s my beginner-friendly sourdough bread recipe — no experience required.

First Things First: Your Sourdough Starter

Before you can bake, you need a starter. This is just a mixture of flour and water that captures wild yeast from the environment. It’s what makes sourdough rise without commercial yeast, and it’s what gives the bread its signature tang.

To build a starter from scratch:

Day 1: Mix 50g whole wheat flour with 50g lukewarm water in a clean jar. Stir well, cover loosely, and leave at room temperature.

Day 2-6: Every 24 hours, discard half the mixture and feed it with 50g all-purpose flour and 50g water. Stir, cover, repeat.

By day 5 or 6, you should see consistent bubbling and a pleasant sour smell. The mixture should roughly double in size within 4-8 hours of feeding. That’s when you know it’s ready.

A healthy, active starter full of bubbles. The rubber band marks where it was after feeding — you can see how much it’s risen. Image credit: Unsplash

A few things that tripped me up early on:

Temperature matters more than timing. In a warm kitchen (75-80°F), your starter will be active and bubbly within 4-6 hours of feeding. In a cold kitchen, it might take 10-12 hours. Neither is wrong — you’re just working on different schedules.

Whole wheat flour jumpstarts things. King Arthur Baking explains that whole wheat flour contains more wild yeast and bacteria than white flour, which is why I recommend starting with it. Once your starter is established, you can switch to all-purpose for maintenance.

Don’t panic if it smells weird. Around day 2-3, your starter might smell like nail polish remover or old cheese. That’s normal — bad bacteria are competing with the good stuff. Keep feeding it. The beneficial lactobacillus will win out by day 5 or so.

The Recipe: Your First Loaf

Once your starter is reliably doubling within 6-8 hours of feeding, you’re ready to bake. This recipe is deliberately simple — no fancy techniques, no special equipment beyond a Dutch oven.

Ingredients:

100g active sourdough starter (fed 4-6 hours before)
375g lukewarm water
500g bread flour (all-purpose works too, just slightly less chewy)
10g salt

That’s the whole ingredient list. Four things. The magic is in the process.

Step 1: Mix (10 minutes active, 30 minutes rest)

Pour the water into a large bowl. Add the starter and stir until it dissolves — it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. Add the flour and mix with your hands or a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. It’ll look shaggy and rough. That’s perfect.

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes. This is called autolyse, and it lets the flour fully hydrate. When you come back, the dough will already feel smoother and more cohesive. You haven’t done anything — the flour did the work for you.

Now sprinkle the salt over the dough and squeeze it in with your hands. Fold the dough over itself a few times until the salt is incorporated. It’ll feel a bit tighter and less sticky.

Step 2: Bulk Fermentation (4-8 hours)

This is where patience comes in. Leave the dough covered at room temperature. Every 30-45 minutes for the first 2 hours, do a set of stretch and folds: wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Four folds per set.

These folds build strength in the dough without kneading. After 3-4 sets, you’ll notice the dough becoming smoother, more elastic, and holding its shape better.

After the folds, leave the dough alone. Depending on your kitchen temperature, bulk fermentation takes 4-8 hours total. You’re looking for the dough to increase in volume by about 50-75% — not quite doubled. It should feel airy and jiggly when you shake the bowl, with visible bubbles on the surface and sides.

Dough after bulk fermentation — notice the bubbles and domed surface. It should jiggle like a water balloon when you nudge the bowl. Image credit: Unsplash

Step 3: Shape and Cold Proof (Overnight)

Flour your counter generously. Gently turn the dough out — don’t punch it down or deflate it. Using a bench scraper or your hands, shape it into a round by tucking the edges underneath to create surface tension on top.

Let it rest for 20 minutes (this is called a bench rest), then shape it again: flip it smooth-side down, fold the edges into the center like an envelope, then flip it seam-side up into a floured bowl or banneton.

Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and put it in the fridge overnight — at least 8 hours, up to 24. This cold proof slows fermentation, develops flavor, and makes the dough much easier to score and handle before baking.

Step 4: Bake (45-50 minutes)

Place your Dutch oven (lid on) in the oven and preheat to 450°F (230°C). Let it heat for at least 30 minutes — you want that pot screaming hot.

Carefully take the pot out. Turn your dough onto a piece of parchment paper, score the top with a sharp knife or razor blade (a single slash down the center works great for your first loaf), and lower it into the pot using the parchment as a sling.

Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. The lid traps steam, which is what gives sourdough its signature crispy, blistered crust. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the crust is deep golden brown — darker than you think. A pale loaf is an underbaked loaf.

Pull it out and — this is the hardest part — let it cool for at least an hour before cutting. The bread is still cooking inside from residual heat. Cutting too early gives you a gummy interior. I know it’s torture. Put on a podcast. Go for a walk. The bread will be there when you get back.

Troubleshooting Your First Few Loaves

Dense, heavy crumb: Your starter probably wasn’t active enough, or you didn’t ferment long enough. Make sure your starter passes the float test (a spoonful floats in water) before using it.

Flat loaf that spreads sideways: This usually means over-fermentation. The dough used up all its gas before it hit the oven. Try a shorter bulk ferment or a cooler spot in your kitchen.

Gummy interior: You either cut it too soon (wait a full hour!) or underbaked it. Don’t be afraid of a dark crust — that’s flavor.

Bland taste: Longer cold proof = more tang. Try leaving it in the fridge for 18-24 hours instead of the minimum 8.

Maintaining Your Starter Long-Term

Once you’re baking regularly, your starter becomes part of the household. I keep mine in the fridge and feed it once a week. The night before I want to bake, I pull it out, feed it, and let it come to room temperature overnight. By morning, it’s bubbly and ready to go.

If you’re not baking for a while, your starter can survive weeks in the fridge without feeding. It might develop a dark liquid on top (called hooch) — that’s just alcohol from the fermentation. Stir it back in or pour it off, feed the starter, and it’ll bounce back within a day or two.

Sourdough baking is one of those skills that rewards repetition. Your fifth loaf of homemade bread will be noticeably better than your first. Your twentieth will be something you’re genuinely proud of. And somewhere along the way, the process stops feeling like a sourdough bread recipe you’re following and starts feeling like something you just know how to do.

If you’re looking for ways to use up sourdough discard, try incorporating it into our one-pot pasta recipes — a splash of tangy starter adds surprising depth to tomato-based sauces. Fresh sourdough also makes the perfect base for our high-protein breakfast ideas like cottage cheese toast, or serve it alongside 15-minute chicken breast recipes for a satisfying weeknight meal.

The open, irregular crumb of a well-fermented sourdough. Those holes mean the wild yeast did its job. Image credit: Unsplash