About Maurizio Leo and The Perfect Loaf
Hello there, I’m Maurizio Leo, the James Beard Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Loaf and The Perfect Pizza, and the creator of this site. Since 2012, The Perfect Loaf has been the leading independent resource for baking sourdough bread and pizza at home.
But long before any of that, I was a kid in my dad’s pizzeria in Albuquerque, watching him work dough.
The Restaurant (as we called it), along with my mom’s gnocchi at home, taught me early on that good food made by hand takes time. Summers in Italy, with their long family meals and fresh bread hunts, only cemented it.
I took the long way back to dough: a master’s degree in computer science and years spent writing software before I founded The Perfect Loaf in 2012 (and along the way, the site picked up a couple of Saveur Blog Awards and a Webby nomination). The engineering never really left me, though. It’s why every recipe here leans on temperatures, iteration, and written-down results rather than feel alone. But at some point the measuring ends and baker’s intuition takes over. Great bread isn’t complicated technique—it’s simple technique done with attention and flavor given time to develop.
I’m still learning and still experimenting, and if I’m not baking sourdough, I’m probably thinking about it.
He strives for perfection, for the perfect loaf, secretly hoping never to attain it — for where would he go from there?
Jeffrey Hamelman
Every Sourdough Recipe Is Tested. Repeatedly.
Before I publish any recipe, it’s baked repeatedly in my home kitchen using the same ovens, same tools, and same ambient temperature chaos you’re working with. I log dough temperatures, fermentation times, and results for every test bake (the same baking notes worksheet I share here).
One thing that surprises readers is that recipes here continue to evolve after I publish them: I’m constantly learning and improving as a baker, and reader comments and questions regularly send me back to the kitchen to retest, clarify, or fix. If a recipe here says 20 minutes, it’s because that’s what worked across many bakes, not once.
My Cookbooks
The Perfect Pizza
Sourdough pizza, focaccia, and more than forty regional styles from New York to tavern to al taglio to Sicilian, with every dough built to use a sourdough starter and tested in home ovens, pizza ovens, and everything in between.
The Perfect Loaf
A New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2023 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Bread and the 2023 IACP Cookbook Award. The craft and science of sourdough, from starters to breads to sweets.
Go Deeper
Join the Baker's Corner Membership
Baking is better with other bakers. Members get exclusive recipes and guides, and a place in our community where questions get answered daily (often by me, always by someone who’s had the same dough problem).
Travel and Bake With Me
A few times a year I host small group bread trips to visit cities, farms, mills, and bakeries in search of incredible bread and the food that goes along with it. Or, join me in my next baking workshop!
Have a Baking Question?
If you have a burning baking question, I usually hang out with many like-minded—and very helpful!—bakers on The Perfect Loaf’s Discord, where you can post questions, comments, and photos. Come join the community and ask a question.
Or, email Maurizio directly. I’m here to help.
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501 Comments
It is so heartwarming to read the story of how you arrived to this point in your life Maurizeo. However I have felt lost since the renewing of my membership in July. And I am only now searching for you because the emails stopped coming.
Lorna
Hey Lorna, thanks so much and it’s great to have you here. You should still be receiving emails, I send them just about every Friday! I would check your spam box (sometimes they go in there), and if there arent any, please do sign back up here:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/newsletter/
I just made two delicious loaves of your “simple sourdough “! The book plus the videos were so helpful. I used bread flour, 11.5% protein. My previous sourdough baking were with Einkorn, following different recipes & methods. I much prefer yours. Do I need to make any adjustments to your technique (especially the stretch & fold) when using Einkorn flour?
Glad the simple sourdough worked out for you! Einkorn is a very different animal from bread flour. Its gluten is weak and extensible, so the dough won’t build strength the way you’re used to. Keep the stretch and folds gentle, don’t expect the dough to tighten up much, and lower the hydration since einkorn absorbs less water. Expect a shorter, flatter loaf; that’s just the nature of the grain. I have a full recipe for 100% einkorn sourdough that walks through all the adjustments. Enjoy!
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/einkorn-sourdough-bread/
My bottom crust is so crusty that I find it difficult to slice the bread. What should I do to make the bottom crust more sliceable?
A hard bottom crust usually comes from too much direct heat from below, or a bake that runs too long. A few fixes: move your Dutch oven or stone up a rack, slide an empty sheet pan onto the rack below to shield the bottom, and try baking hotter for a shorter total time. Covering longer and uncovering for less time also helps. I go into all of this in my post on baking sourdough with a thin crust. Let me know how it goes!
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-bake-sourdough-bread-with-a-thin-crust/
What is the difference between scoring bread with a straight or a curved razor blade?
A curved blade is for getting a pronounced “ear.” Hold it at a shallow angle (around 30 degrees) and the curve creates a flap that peels back as the loaf springs. A straight blade is held perpendicular to the dough and is better for decorative cuts, multiple slashes, or a cleaner, wider opening. I use a curved blade for my single-slash batards and a straight blade for boules and patterns. More on scoring in my guide to baking bread dough.
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/the-ultimate-guide-to-baking-bread-dough/
How long should i wait after adding in the ripe levain and salt to the autolysed dough before beginning the sets of stretch and folds?
After mixing in the levain and salt, let the dough rest about 30 minutes before the first set of stretch and folds, then space the remaining sets 30 minutes apart. That initial rest gives the gluten a chance to relax and hydrate, which makes the first set much more effective. See my guide to stretching and folding for the full rundown. Have fun!
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-stretch-and-fold-sourdough-bread-dough/
Question about my sourdough starter
I’m making a sourdough starter using whole wheat flour. At the end of the first day, I noticed that some liquid had collected underneath the starter. On the second day, liquid had collected on top of the starter, and it hasn’t risen much.
Is this normal during the first few days of creating a sourdough starter, or does it indicate that something is wrong? Could the amount of water or the use of whole wheat flour be causing this?
What should I do at this point? Should I continue with the feeding schedule as usual, or should I change the flour-to-water ratio?
Thank you!
Very common, Sara. Just keep following my procedure, following each step. You can stir in that liquid right before you discard.
Search function is not working
David—give the page a hard refresh! Sorry, sometimes it fails to load. I’m looking into it!