Interviews E10 Anujay Krishna - High Hydration Sourdough, Open Crumb and Reading the Dough

What's in this episode

Send us a question or voice memo! What does it take to build an incredibly open, delicate sourdough crumb when you are working with different flour, a different climate, and different equipment than the bakers who originally inspired you? This week on Saving Bread, I am joined by Anujay Krishna, a baker in Lucknow, India, whose beautifully open, lacy country loaves have made him one of the most requested guests on the podcast. Anujay did not grow up eating this style of bread. His early relationship with bread came through the rotis and parathas made in his family kitchen. He discovered sourdough years later online, built his own starter, and began learning through videos, baking communities, feedback, experimentation, and a lot of repetition. That process eventually became a bread style that is unmistakably his. We talk about what it means to learn sourdough when the flour, temperature, humidity, equipment, and ingredients available to you are different from the conditions behind the formulas you are studying. Then we get into the dough. Anujay shares how he evaluates a new flour before committing to a hydration, including a small flour and water test at several hydration levels.