Hit 100 loaves baked this morning - is that beginner or intermediate? I've seen people argue that hitting triple digits means you've mastered the basics, but others say you're still a rookie until you can nail a perfect crumb every time. Where do you draw the line?

3 comments

3 Comments

Honestly that 100 loaf mark is a solid beginner+ level but not intermediate. Like you've definitely figured out the whole not burning everything part and you probably have a go to recipe that works most of the time. But intermediate is when you start understanding why things happen not just what works. Hitting a perfect crumb every time is actually a really high bar because different breads have totally different crumb structures and thats okay. What matters more is if you can fix a dough that's gone wrong or adapt a recipe on the fly without panicking. Plus once you hit 200 loaves you'll look back and laugh at what you thought was good at 100 lol.

robertsmith10d ago

100 loaves is still amateur league.

the_jake10d ago

400 loaves is when you realize nobody actually cares about your crumb structure except other bread nerds. I've seen home bakers with 50 loaves under their belt turn out better bread than some bakery apprentices with 500. It's more about how you learned, not how many times. Plus, "fixing a dough that's gone wrong" is like, is everyone else having dough disasters? I've screwed up water temp, forgot salt, killed yeast with too hot water, and most of the time you can just roll with it and the bread still comes out fine. People way overthink this hobby.