In The Kitchen with @doughordie.sourdough

Some people come to sourdough slowly. Taylor came to it in a single bite.

A rosemary and potato loaf picked up at the Adelaide Central Market in April 2024, purchased during a trip to see her favourite band while simultaneously buying her first home, was all it took. One bite, and she was gone. Two years later, Taylor runs her own branding and web development business from North Queensland, bakes through a playlist of Bring Me The Horizon and Sleep Token, and has just developed something truly special: a Cherry Ripe sourdough made in honour of her mum, baked to life in the Crumble Lavender Bread Oven.

We sat down with Taylor, aka @doughordie.sourdough, to talk starters, tropical humidity, unhinged apple pie experiments, and why sourdough is, despite everything, actually not that hard.

Okay, first things first. Who are you and how did sourdough take over your life?

I'm a 29-year-old brand designer and website developer from North Queensland. By day I'm behind a computer screen, by night I'm a metalhead, and somewhere in between I became completely sourdough obsessed.

It started in Adelaide in April 2024. We were there to see Bring Me The Horizon while simultaneously buying our first home, funds were tight, so instead of eating out every day we wandered down to the Adelaide Central Market to grab some staples for the week. I picked up a loaf of rosemary and potato sourdough and it was love at first bite. I've been obsessed ever since.

Okay we have to ask, does the playlist actually influence the bake?

Some people think metal is angry and full-on, so it doesn't match the cute, cottage-core vibe of sourdough baking. I beg to differ. It's the kind of music that lets my mind completely relax and release all the tension while I work. Bring Me The Horizon, Deftones, Sleep Token, System of a Down. The heavier the riff, the calmer I am.

You're running a full-time business on top of all this. How did sourdough become your way to switch off?

It requires me to slow down, move with intention and trust the process. It keeps my hands busy without having to be perfect. It can be messy, experimental, absolutely anything I want it to be, and I can easily fit it in during the day since I work from home. The dough is just quietly doing its thing while I'm designing someone's brand identity.

Has baking actually taught you anything about yourself?

I already knew I was a little impatient. Sourdough has taught me a lot about letting go of the need to control every detail and trusting that things will work out, and 99% of the time, they do.

Now, the Cherry Ripe sourdough. We need the full story.

Cherry Ripe has been a family favourite for generations. It was my grandmother's favourite, my mum's, and it's always been mine. It's decadent without being overly sweet. I'm also a bit of a nerd when it comes to history, and the fact that it's Australia's oldest chocolate bar, over 100 years old, means it must be pretty special to a lot of other Aussies too. With Mother's Day coming up, turning it into a sourdough just felt right.

We have to know about the most unhinged bake experiment you've ever attempted.

Apple Pie Sourdough. The thought of it still gives me shivers.

I was only on my third loaf when I decided I'd attempt an inclusion loaf, which is basically just a fancy name for a loaf with things baked into it. No recipe. No idea. Just hopes and dreams.

Those hopes and dreams turned into a bit of a puddle. I had no idea that too much cinnamon inhibits fermentation, that wet apple pieces would create a soggy interior, or that too much brown sugar would essentially delaminate the entire loaf. It was technically edible, but more like a warm pudding than a sourdough. Lessons were learned.

Paint us a picture of a typical baking day. From the very beginning.

A baking day actually starts the night before. I take my tiny starter, she lives in a small jar and is usually only around 30g, and give her a big feed. By morning she's tripled in size and ready to go.

I wake up at 5am, walk 5km with my partner and our Australian Shepherd, come home, make coffee, and sit in the garden with the chickens and the cats. Then it's time to work.

Most of my baking happens during the week alongside client work. I'll start mixing around 8am, do stretch and folds every half hour or so in between designing logos and building websites, then shape around lunchtime. The loaf goes into the fridge for a long cold rest and gets baked the next morning.

On a particularly hectic week I turn to my 'Lazy Girl Loaf', everything into the stand mixer for three minutes, rest on the bench for three hours, bake the same day. No stretch and folds, no interruptions. Done by dinner time.

Baking in North Queensland sounds like a whole different challenge. What's it actually like?

The heat and humidity can be a real spanner in the works, especially for beginners. Most online recipes suggest high starter and high hydration, which down south might take hours to ferment, up here, it can happen in as little as two to three hours. So those recipes just don't translate.

My go-to recipe uses lower hydration (around 68%) and only 80g of starter to slow down fermentation and produce a dough that's far easier to handle and shape. It's actually a great recipe for beginners anywhere, not just in the tropics.

Tell us about choosing the Crumble Lavender Bread Oven for this bake.

Cast iron is a bit of a secret weapon for sourdough. It holds heat evenly with no hot spots, and the heavy lid traps steam perfectly during the first half of the bake. That steam creates massive oven spring, a beautiful blistered crust, and an open crumb.

The Crumble Lavender Bread Oven takes it even further, the domed lid maximises steam circulation and the low-profile base creates even browning throughout. And honestly? It looks gorgeous in my kitchen.

For the Cherry Ripe sourdough specifically, the extra weight from the chocolate, coconut and cherries needed reliable, even heat. The result was a tall, bakery-worthy loaf with a crunchy crust and a soft, tender crumb. Once you go cast iron, there's no going back.

Last one. What do you wish someone had told you when you were just starting out?

I wish someone had told me it doesn't have to be perfect.

There are a thousand rules online, but you don't need to follow all of them. Start with a low-hydration recipe, get the feel for the dough first, then play. Most of all, just have fun with it. It's genuinely not as hard as it seems, and even the disasters are usually still edible.

Taylor's Cherry Ripe Sourdough recipe is below, dot pointed and beginner-friendly, just like she'd want it. Bake it for Mother's Day, bake it for yourself, bake it on a Tuesday with Sleep Token on in the background. However you do it, do it with a cast iron and a little patience.

Follow Taylor at @doughordie.sourdough and shop the Crumble Lavender Bread Oven at crumble.co.