We’re closing out our first season with a complex, fascinating, and all-around delicious baked good: biscuits!

Historian and food anthropologist Deb Freeman is here to teach us about biscuits’ riveting history, discussing their early role in American baking and the way Black bakers’ skill and knowledge have contributed to where biscuits are today. Then, Jessica and David answer your biscuit baking questions in Ask the Bakers, covering everything from the best flour to use for biscuits (with a cameo from our Reasearch & Development kitchen!) and how to pick the right butter. Our producer Rossi Anastopoulo joins the show to share the surprising link between biscuits and basketball in North Carolina, and David and Jessica close out the episode with a Jess-opinion all about biscuits at breakfast and the best recipes they’re baking this week.

Follow Deb on Instagram and watch her PBS series, Finding Edna Lewis
Read Deb’s piece The rise: a history of American biscuits
Read Vonnie Williams’ piece Erika Council’s tips for better biscuits
Find our new Buttermilk Biscuit Flour Blend
Buttermilk Biscuits recipe
What David’s baking this week: Braided Challah recipe
What Jessica’s baking the week: Old-Fashioned Cake Doughnuts recipe
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here!

It’s finally time. Today, we’re discussing a topic that produces a lot of confusion, passion, and toast: sourdough.

King Arthur’s very own Director of Baking Education Amber Eisler is here to share her considerable expertise. Amber baked in our bakery for five years and has taught at the Baking School for over 15 years, so needless to say, she knows her stuff. First, she and David chat about some of the biggest unexpected pain points bakers run into while making sourdough and how to solve them. Then, Amber sticks around to join Jessica and David for Ask the Bakers, answering your burning sourdough questions. We also have a special treat, a dispatch from our audience sharing the names of their sourdough starters. And, as always, Jessica and David finish up with a spicy (or in this case, sour) Jess-opinion and the recipes they’re baking this week.

More on Amber’s Sourdough for Beginners On-Demand Class and the Baking School
Visit our Sourdough Savvy shop page for our favorite tools and ingredients
Learn more about the Big Book of Bread
Amber’s Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe
Super Fudgy Sourdough Brownies recipe
What David’s baking this week: English Digestive Biscuits recipe
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here!

Today it’s everybody’s birthday, because we’re talking about birthday cakes with two Southern baking superstars.

We’re thrilled to have both Cheryl Day, award-winning cookbook author and former owner of Savannah’s famed Back in the Day Bakery, and Bronwen Wyatt, of Bayou Saint Cakes in New Orleans, join to share their top cake secrets and best tips for beginner birthday cake bakers. In Ask the Bakers, Jessica and David dig into your urgent cake questions, from demystifying the reverse-creaming method to what to do if your cakes keep sinking in the oven. And as always, they close out the episode with a big birthday cake hot take (featuring Jessica’s opiniated protege, our producer Rossi) and the best recipes they’re baking this week.

Find Cheryl’s most recent book here: Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking
Follow Cheryl on Instagram
Follow Bronwen on Instagram and Substack
Visit our Cake Made Easy shop page for our favorite tools and ingredients
King Arthur’s 2019 Recipe of the Year: Classic Birthday Cake
Try the reverse-creaming method with Vanilla Birthday Cake and Tender White Cake
Bake Cheryl Day’s Southern Caramel Cake and Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake
Find Rossi’s pie book, Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies
What David’s baking this week: Big and Bubbly Cinnamon Roll Focaccia recipe
What Jessica’s baking this week: Mini Pizzas (aka Snacking Pizzas) recipe
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here!