First up, some videos

Adam Atkins goes over how to do the Neapolitan slap & bake on YouTube:

For about the last 7 years the Napoli slap method has been my go to for quick and consistent opening of bases. It takes a while to get the hang of it but it's definitely worth the effort.

I've never been able to use this method. I probably need to actually practice it though.

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I found this "Amazing Japanese bakery in the mountains" video pretty relaxing:

A bakery that lives in harmony with nature. Almost no electricity is used, and the bread dough is hand-kneaded and allowed to ferment naturally. And the bread is baked in a homemade wood-fired oven. Koki Ota, a baker, travels to France to learn the way of life of a "Paysin Boulanger" (a farmer's bakery). He returned to Japan and now runs a one-of-a-kind bakery with his wife in an old folk house deep in the mountains.

There's a whole series of Japanese bakery tour videos up on YouTube. Try not to get sucked in.

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Geodesic loaves, via Andrew Janjigian:

Just this week I discovered the incredible YouTube and TikTok videos of Sage the Bad Naturalist. Sage is a hilarious and anything-but-bad naturalist, sharing concise, rapid-fire explainers of all sorts of natural phenomena. The above video uses sourdough bread to help illustrate how geodes form.

Bread only takes up around 10 seconds this video, but you should watch it anyway because it's great.

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And finally, a video with the title of "Amazing baker working SOLO from 1:00am! A day in the life of a TRADITIONAL Spanish Bakery" which I geuss sums it up. I found the amount of sugar that goes into these baked goods mind boggling.

Maurizio Leo stuff

The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo is currently on sale for 40% of on Amazon. I love this book.

Maurizio Leo has also recently collaborated with Brod & Taylor on a new product — The Brod & Taylor Baking Shell.

It's a cover that you put over your bread while it's baking to keep in the steam, which helps bread expand. It's basically an upside down pot with a handle on the front:

With the Baking Shell, you get the same results as traditional pre-heated and heavy cast iron vessels, without the stress of lugging around a searing hot and heavy pot.

It's a nice design, but they claim it's patent pending? People have been using this technique for decades, maybe even centuries. I'm not sure what there is to patent here.

Gozney Stuff:

Gozney has a how to video for making a Korean Fried Chicken Focaccia Sandwich with the Dome.

Also Gozney and Business & Pleasure Co are teaming up to for a Gozney Arc XL and 2k gift card giveaway. I'm pretty sure this is one of those schemes where you'll be unsubscribing from 3rd party emails over the next 10 years, so maybe use a throwaway email address.