Sourdough Brioche at 25% Butter: Adding Fat After the Bulk, Not Before

This loaf exists to answer one question: can you swap 30% whole wheat into the baseline schedule without changing anything else? The answer is yes, with two small adjustments — 1% less water and a 25-minute steam instead of 20 — and the result is a loaf you can bake on a Tuesday after work without thinking about it.

Cream scones are the laziest good thing you can make with discard: no butter to cut in, no rolling, no resting, one bowl and one bench scraper. Heavy cream provides both the fat and the liquid, and because it is cold, the fat stays in droplets that steam apart in the oven and leave the scone short rather than bready.

Baguettes are the only bread in this ledger where the shaping matters more than the fermentation. A 62% dough is easy to ferment and easy to score; the difficulty is rolling three even batons and getting them onto the stone without losing the tension. Get the rolling right and the rest follows.