iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 25/09/2026

Wow, it has been 17ish months since I stopped baking. Time really flies. And now, it's time to bring back Bubbles. :) #breadsky

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 25/04/2025

Made some rye sourdough bread in order to make a Reuben sandwich. My first Reuben. Woot! I didn't have nearly enough meat, haha. Rye is also hard to not make a condensed loaf. I'll keep working on it. :) #breadsky 🍽️

Sliced open Reuben sandwich, showing off all the inside goodness.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 13/04/2025

Grape jelly on pink sourdough bread, haha. I probably could use a lot more dragon fruit powder to get a deeper color. Either way, tasted the same, which means it tasted great. :) #breadsky

Crumb shot of a sourdough loaf made with dragon fruit powder.

Concord grape jelly on pink sourdough bread.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 11/04/2025

Made jalapeño and cheddar sourdough bread. It's kind of a pain trying to keep all the things inside the dough, but it makes for the best grilled cheese sandwiches! Fresh jalapeños. Next time, I'll try picked jalapeños. :) #breadsky 🍽️

Jalapeño and cheddar sourdough bread, using large cubes of fresh jalapeños.

In-the-pan shot of a grilled cheese sandwich using jalapeño a cheddar bread.

Close up of the grilled cheese sandwich. Oooo, it was so good. Light crunch on the outside, fresh, chewy bread, and a gooey delight in the middle. Topped it off with a bit of garlic salt.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 10/04/2025

I've been making sourdough bread every day for months now. This is my latest. :) I don't have anything amazing to post, so I've mostly just stopped posting. But maybe I don't need to post "amazing" things. I'm just sharing what I've baked. That's good enough. Hope you're baking awesome things!

Sourdough batard on a metal cooling rack.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 23/03/2025

Jalapeno and cheese sourdough bread makes AMAZING grilled cheese sandwiches. As such, 8 of my loaves this week will be jalapeno and cheese. :) #breadsky

Grilled cheese sandwich made from jalapeno and cheese sourdough bread.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 23/03/2025

Used purple sweet potato powder in my sourdough bread. I have no idea how it'll taste, but it's kind of cool looking. ;)

Sourdough bread made with purple sweet potato powder.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 20/03/2025

Playing with food dye in sourdough, haha. Sadly, the color didn't turn out that great in the crumb. I'll keep playing until I have something worthy of sharing. ;) #breadsky

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 18/03/2025

My first sourdough experiment with cheese and jalapeno inclusions. It smelled great this morning, haha. I like the crust a lot, but I think I need to use more ingredients next time. :) #breadsky

Cheese and jalapeño sourdough bread, cooling on a metal rack. Two loaves.

Close up view of the melted cheese on the sourdough crust.

Crumb shot. Definitely could have used more cheese and jalapeños. But it's still delicious.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 16/03/2025

Two different updates! First image is showing my progress as a sourdough baker. I'm mostly experiming with shaping and timing, but all loaves are turning out good. Second image is my first attempt at including cheddar and jalapenos! I'll be baking this tomorrow. :) #breadsky

A loaf of sourdough bread, cooling on a metal rack.

Sourdough with cheddar and jalapenos. Needs two more stretch and folds before shaping.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 08/03/2025

After weeks of baking bad sourdough bread—experimenting to the extreme—I think I've officially leveled up. This is master-level quality: light, airy, chewy, delicious. It's perfect to pull apart and dip into some cheesy soup. :) Also, I've now baked over 150 loaves! #breadsky 🍽️

A slice of sourdough bread next to a bowl of cheesy broccoli soup.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 24/02/2025

Made six pizzas last night... While cleaning everything hours later, I found my sourdough in a bowl, proofing about five hours too long. >< Whoops! It looks like it turned out pretty decent, though. I'll report on the crumb once it has cooled. :) #breadsky

Three-fourth view of a sourdough boule on a metal cooling rack.

Top-down view of a sourdough boule. It has a center scoring line that opened up nicely despite being a bit over proofed.

Close up shot of a sourdough scoring line that opened nicely.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 23/02/2025

This week's new topping to try on my sourdough bread is creamy honey! I spent the last week experimenting... lots of failures. Back to my hand-mixed awesome bread for a few days. :) #breadsky

A photo of Creamy Honey (Miller's) next to a sourdough boule.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 11/02/2025

Woot! My first sourdough batard (which means bastard in French, haha) turned out perfectly. In fact, it almost looks like a boule based on how much it opened up. The loaf in the back is a boule. These were machine-mixed. :) Win win win win. ;) #breadsky 🍽️

A sourdough batard fresh out of the oven, sitting on a cast-iron Challenger pan.

Sourdough batard score shot, revealing how much the bread opened during the bake.

Both of today's loaves are cooling on a metal rack. The front loaf is a batard, the back loaf is a boule.

Crumb shot of the sourdough batard. Nice open and fluffy interior with a thin crust.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 09/02/2025

Just a quick share of my new Challenger pan. This was my first time using it. The top (bowl) lid is sitting on my counter, still quite hot, haha. This thing can seriously retain heat. Showing a hand-mixed sourdough boule. Tomorrow's bread will be machine-mixed. #breadsky

A sourdough boule sitting on the bottom half of a Challenger pan.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 05/02/2025

Despite my lack of posting, I've been doing a lot of sourdough testing, mostly with using a stand mixer. Lots of failed attempts, haha. But I'm learning. First image: upped hydration and yeah... flat. The other loaf is what I baked today using my hand-mixed method. Lots more tests to do. #breadsky

An image of a sourdough boule's crumb and loaf. 72% hydration. I struggled with shaping. Could have done more strengthening and shaping. But it was still good bread.

Side shot of two loaves of sourdough. The front loaf was machine-mixed with a higher hydration level than normal. The loaf in the back was hand-mixed.

Two loaves of sourdough on a metal cooling rack.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 28/01/2025

Had friends over for board games and made them all sourdough loaves (Give the gift of bread!). Sadly, this left me without a banneton for my loaf this morning. But a smooth crust is kind of cool. :) #breadsky 🍽️

Side view of a sourdough boule. It has a smooth crust since it didn't sit in a typical floured banneton.

Top-down view of a sourdough boule with a center scoring line.

A photo of the sourdough ear. The cut was quite shallow and at a 40-degree angle. It opened up nicely, baked at 450 degrees.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 26/01/2025

Pfft. Sourdough experiment #... something. 500°F pre-heat for 45 minutes. Lowered temperature to 450° when I put the bread in. 35 min with lid on. Lowered to 425° and baked 7 minutes with the lid off. Barely hit 200°. Much darker than my ideal. Less ear development. :( #breadsky

Sourdough on a metal cooling rack. It has a deep brown crust with flour rings from the banneton.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 25/01/2025

Reading The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg: "Leavening is the difference between a bread and a brick." Haha

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 24/01/2025

Another sourdough bread test! The left image shows a double-deep scoring line across the bread. I cut twice. The second bread had a shallow scoring line. (I, ummm, also forgot to set a timer for the second one. Then I forgot to lower the heat while browning, haha...) #breadsky

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 24/01/2025

Sourdough crumb shots. The first image shows machine-mixed dough (gentle stir for two minutes). The second is hand-mixed dough. Everything else was the same. Machine-mixed was fuller/denser, needing to chew a lot more. This was only one experiment. I'll do more. :) #breadsky

Crumb shot of a machine-mixed sourdough. The crumb was much fuller and denser than my hand-mixed sourdough. I initially liked it but later found it to be a bit too much bread.

Crumb shot of hand-mixed sourdough. This is my normal bread. It's quite light and airy.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 22/01/2025

Decided to try mixing sourdough with a mixer. The result? Even with a short and gentle stir, the crumb was much fuller and denser. Could be good for sandwiches, but I think I prefer my hand mixed sourdough bread instead. Maybe there's a middle ground? #breadsky

Sourdough starter next to a KitchenAid mixing bowl.

KitchenAid mixer stirring the ingredients on the lowest setting for about two minutes.

The dough was thoroughly mixed, which made it much easier and cleaner to do stretch and folds.

A much fuller crumb than my hand-mixed sourdoughs. I initially liked this, but while eating it, it felt too much. I prefer my bread to be more elastic and open. I might need to experiment more with mixing techniques.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 21/01/2025

My breakfast normally consists of a high-protein yogurt, but since I've been baking a lot lately, I wanted to start making my breakfast. I didn't bake the bagel, but I'm interested in baking sourdough bagels. Sadly, this breakfast kills my energy, haha. Everything bagel + ham slices + egg. 🍽️

A breakfast bagel with ham slices and egg.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 21/01/2025

Tried to make focaccia. Not sure how well it turned out. I was expecting it to be more flat, so I'm confident I did something wrong. That said, it's pretty tasty. I could see it going well with a soup. :) #breadsky

Focaccia dough in the pan after I poked holes into it.

Focaccia cooling on a metal rack. It raised quite a bit more than I expected.

Up close shot of focaccia bread with oregano, thyme, basil, and salt for seasoning.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 20/01/2025

This week's "jam" is Apple Butter. It's interesting. Kind of has a cinnamony flavor or tastes a bit like how hot apple cider smells. It reminds me of winter or Thanksgiving. Not bad. :) #breadsky

A slice of sourdough with apple butter spread on it.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 19/01/2025

Sourdough temperature experiment. I actually hit 202°F, even if the lying probe is lying. Pfft. Heated the oven to 500°F, then put the dough into the Dutch oven. Lowered temp to 450°F for 35 minutes, lid off for 7 minutes at 425°F. Took a bit longer, but I'm happy with the results :) #breadsky

Checking sourdough bread temperature. 201.7°F.

Side view of today's sourdough boule. Still experimenting with different scoring cuts. I think the short cut led to an expansion on the bottom of the loaf.

Up close photo of the sourdough's ear. Not too developed compared to previous attempts. This might be due to the hotter temperature or some other variable.

Crumb shot. My ends tend to have more tunnels. The rest of dough had a decent consistency. Either way, still tasted great. Fresh bread, for the win!

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 18/01/2025

Sourdough crumb shot from my last bake. This is the center slice. At a lower temperature, you might find a thin line where the dough didn't quite get hot enough at the bottom. It looks pretty decent here, but the ends were quite holy (holey? 🙏) lol #breadsky

A slice of sourdough showing off its crumb. This slice turned out pretty nice, but the ends of the bread (not shown) had some large holes. My next boule has been slightly de-gassed to see how that affects it.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 17/01/2025

New sourdough temperature experiment. I put the dough in the Dutch oven as soon as the oven hit 450F. Turned the oven up to 500F for 35 minutes, then dropped it to 425F with the lid off for 7 minutes. This resulted in a darker crust but not a higher temperature. Alas, haha. #breadsky

Taking the temperature of the sourdough. 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd prefer 202 or higher, but 200 works.

Three-fourth view of a sourdough with a center scoring line. Not much of an ear on this loaf. This is likely due to how I scored it, using a different lame and tighter angle.

Side view of a sourdough boule with a center scoring line.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 17/01/2025

Tell people you're a millennial without telling them you're a millennial... ;) Slices of avocado on homemade sourdough bread, buttered and toasted, with a dash of garlic salt. #breadsky 🍽️

A slice of fresh, delicious homemade sourdough turned garlic bread with slices of avocado on top.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 16/01/2025

Turns out, 12.5oz Weck jars are not quite large enough for 120g of sourdough starter. But they are super cute, haha.

A small jar of sourdough starter, completely full up to the lid.

Sourdough starter stuck to the lid of a small jar.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 16/01/2025

Made pizza today with my sourdough and 00 flour. It was delicious! Much better than my last attempt, which wasn't bad. Image 1: Imagine this as pizza Image 2: Look at my lukewarm buns! Image 3: This took literally 5 seconds to shape; crazy Image 4: Butter and garlic on the crust = yum #breadsky 🍽️

Holding a slice of sourdough, destined to be made into a pizza. The recipe gives you four pieces like this that you then fold in onto itself over and over until you get a ball.

Two pizza dough balls sitting in the proofer for six hours. Despite there being water for steam, the dough developed a dry skin. Pfft! Next time, I'll also drape them with a damp towel. That said, having them dry made them much easier to work with.

Pizza dough stretched out, ready for its toppings. The last time I made pizza, my dough did not want to spread out at all. This dough, though, practically fell into this shape. I suspect this is due to using 00 flour instead of bread flour.

A photo of my homemade pizza on sourdough bread. Loved every bite of it. :)

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 15/01/2025

When it comes to bread, everyone has opinions, haha. And everyone is right! The best bread is the bread you like. I like my sourdough bread to be quite light and soft, not dark. I've gone back to not waiting 45+ minutes for the Dutch oven to heat. I think my bread is better for it. (Image notes)

Heat makes your crust form faster. By not waiting for the Dutch oven to heat fully, the lack of heat allows the dough to open more. That's my hypothesis anyway. All of my bakes with a 45+ minute hot Dutch oven had smaller ears/less expansion.

Close-up shot of a sourdough ear. I really like how the bread opens like this. I wasn't getting this result while baking with a 45+ minute heated Dutch oven. To compensate, I added 5 more minutes with the lid on, then I only baked with the lid off for 8 minutes. This is because I prefer my bread to be lighter.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 14/01/2025

Here's a quick post of my latest sourdough bake. I tried to do a double batch and kind of screwed everything up. Did you know the blisters on sourdough come from doing a cold ferment? (There are a few other reasons, too.) I just learned that, haha. Anyway, I'll be eating this later. :)

A sourdough boule with flour rings and a center scoring line. It's sitting on a metal rack, cooling.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 14/01/2025

First time making a levain. I usually just use the scraping method with my starter, feeding it only as much as needed for what I'm going to bake. This levain, though, uses 00 flour for pizza dough. I hope the jar isn't too small! #breadsky #sourdough

12.5 ounce Weck jar with a sourdough levain for pizza dough.

The 12.5oz jar fits perfectly on the lower shelf of my sourdough home. It'll be in there for 12 hours.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 13/01/2025

New week, new jam! Next week, I'm going to make my own jam. But this week, I picked up Sweet Honey Fig spread. Not sure how it will taste on my sourdough bread, or even if it's meant for bread, but I'm happy to give it a try. I'll report back once my bread has cooled enough to eat. :)

Side view shot of a sourdough boule, right out of the oven.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 12/01/2025

Growing up, my grandma would always serve toasted rye bread, adding melted butter after. I grew up loving that bread, so I wanted to try to make it. Result? Overwhelming success. This is what happiness tastes like. Added a pinch of salt to really bring out the flavor. :) #breadsky 🍽️

Sourdough rye boule sitting magnificently on its cooling rack. It has circular white rings from rice flour in the banneton.

Side view of the sourdough rye bread. Smaller than a typical sourdough loaf, but still has a decent oven spring.

Center scoring line on the sourdough rye loaf.

Two slices of sourdough rye bread with caraway seeds. The slices were toasted, then, while hot, copious amounts of butter were added and a pinch of salt. Absolutely delicious.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 12/01/2025

I'll make my "official" report post on how the sourdough rye bread with caraway seeds went. But for now, here's a short video. :)

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 12/01/2025

I have the rye sourdough baking right now, this is just a progression shot. I have no idea how well the bread will turn out, but I'm hopeful! The dough was much stronger and smaller, but it seems to have risen more in the fridge overnight. Rye likes the cold proof. Notes in the image alt tags. :)

First stretch and fold of rye sourdough. This is when I added lightly toasted caraway seeds. My normal bread is usually much more relaxed at this stage, but the rye four + bread flour seems to be stronger.

Three hours of warm proofing, and the dough is ready to shape.

The rye sourdough felt much more dry at this point. Shaping was very easy, but the resultant boule shape ended up being smaller than normal.

I read that rye loves acidity, which it gets during the cold proof. Sure enough, it seems to have risen to a normal size overnight. It's ready to bake!

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 11/01/2025

Alright, diving into rye bread. My goal is to reproduce the bread my grandma used to serve, toasted with melted butter. Instead of using a recipe, AI and I came up with something... We'll see how that goes, haha. The bake will happen tomorrow. :) #breadsky

Dry and wet ingredients for rye bread. 325g of bread flour, 150g of dark rye flour, 10g of salt, 325g of water, 100g of starter.

Hand-mixed rye sourdough, left to autolyse.

The real secret to the rye bread I want! Caraway seeds.

10g of caraway seeds. I will lightly toast them in a pan for 2-3 minutes before adding them to the stretch and fold sessions.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 10/01/2025

New jars! I'm going to use these for experimental sourdough starters/levains, cool new butters, and homemade jams. :)

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 09/01/2025

My client (I'm a website developer) has been hearing me talk about baking for the last month and decided to send me 50 pounds of 00 pizza flour, haha. He said he heard it's good for sourdough, so I'm going to start experimenting with it. :) (After rye bread! Too many things to try!)

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 09/01/2025

I finally decided to make fancy garlic butter for my sourdough bread. It looks awesome! But I think I prefer garlic salt... lol. #breadsky 🍽️

Slicing sourdough bread to make garlic bread.

A mixture of butter, parmesan, garlic, parsley, oregano, and salt.

Crumb shot of my sourdough loaf today. Happy with the shape. Very soft and chewy.

A picture of way too much garlic bread for one person. I should have just made one...

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 09/01/2025

This isn't a repost! This looks very similar to my last sourdough loaf, which is great. I've achieved a level of consistency to be proud of. The main difference is that this loaf is a bit taller with a better ear. Got that by shortening my scoring cut to be across the top, not the sides. :)

Sourdough boule, three-fourth view. You can see the rice flour rings made by the banneton without a towel.

Sourdough boule side view. A shorter, deeper cut across the top yield a taller bread. The slices are more circular than oblong.

Sourdough ear shot. It opened up more than my last loaf. I believe this is because I made my scoring cut deeper.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 08/01/2025

Was going to attempt baking a sourdough rye loaf today but decided I might need a bit of study before I dive in. So, here's the book I'm reading (I have a lot of books...). So far, the information is great. :)

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 08/01/2025

Sourdough temp experiment #2! I brought the oven to 450F, which took about 20 minutes. I waited another 25 minutes before putting my dough in. The result was a 2 degree difference. The crust is noticeably darker. Total bake time: 42 minutes. All and all, I think it turned out well! #breadsky

Sourdough temperature reached 202 degrees in 42 minutes.

The sourdough crust is noticeably darker.

Sourdough boule with a score line down the center.

Sourdough crumb shot. Quite soft, airy, and spongey.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 07/01/2025

I study bread baking every morning. This is from Modernist Bread (crazy expensive, but crazy cool books!). You'll likely be shocked to find that whole grains are not inherently more nutritious. (Book 1, Page 260) That said, you can make some delicious breads with whole grains. :)

A photo of a page from Modernist Bread, Book 1, Page 260 that shares some of the key points as to why whole grains are not inherently more nutritious than refined flours.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 06/01/2025

First sourdough temperature experiment. Increased the temp to 455F. 30 minutes with the lid on, then 12 minutes with the lid off at 425F. No difference. This makes me think I'm not letting the Dutch oven heat up long enough. That'll be tomorrow's test. :)

Testing a sourdough's temperature. 200.1F degrees.

Golden brown sourdough on a metal rack. Good form, decent ear.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 03/01/2025

Decided to go back to the back to the basics. No rice flour, no fancy design, just a nice sourdough ear. You can see where my vampire tried to eat it... I need to work on my temperature. This barely hit 200 degrees. Going to make a loaf every day to keep practicing. :) #breadsky

Sourdough boule with one long scoring cut down the center.

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Dustin Tigner (Lvl1Baker) @lvl1baker.com · 02/01/2025

Happy New Year! This is my first loaf of sourdough bread and my third attempt at getting these trees to look decent. I cut vents into the sides to help control the bread's expansion. Worked quite well, I think. :) #breadsky 🍽️

Sourdough boule with a pine tree design.

I gave the sourdough boule four vents near the bottom to prevent the top from opening too much. Worked well!

Top-down view of a sourdough boule with pine tree design.

Here's what the sourdough looked like before it was baked. Showing off the deep vent scoring to control how the bread expanded.

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