Easter Sale Starts Tomorrow! (And It's Kinda Personal) 🌸🐣
Happy Good Friday! I hope you're finding a little time to relax, maybe bake something chocolatey, and enjoy the long weekend.
This year’s extra special in our house—my daughter’s birthday lands on Easter Sunday, so it’ll be cake, chaos, and probably a sugar crash by 3 pm 😂
To celebrate the season (and her birthday!), I’m also running a little something just for you:
The Easter Weekend Sale kicks off tomorrow (Saturday) and runs through Monday, April 21.
You’ll find:
🍞 Simplifying Sourdough – For levelling up your loaves
🎂 Simplifying Panettone – Back by popular demand
📊 36 Best Recipes Workbook (Excel) – Scale and customize like a pro
🍕 Simplifying Pizza – For naturally leavened pies in any oven
🌾 Simplifying Rye Bread – For the whole grain lover who wants bold flavour and better nutrition
PLUS… a surprise for anyone who’s ever thought: “I kinda want everything” 👀
How to Stencil Sourdough Bread (Book Edition!)
This week I dropped a new video that shows you how to stencil your sourdough bread for a professional finish—and yes, I used a stencil of my Bread Etc. book cover because of course, I did. Gotta spread the word the only way I know how: through bread. 😅
Stencilling is one of those small, simple techniques that instantly levels up your loaf. Whether you’re baking for friends, markets, or just for fun, it’s an easy way to make your sourdough look like it came out of a wood-fired bakery in the French countryside.
🖌️ In this video, I walk you through:
- How to position your stencil for a clean design
- What kind of flour to use (and how much)
- The best timing for stencilling during your bread process
- A few tricks to keep it crisp and bold
And if you’re wondering what that beautiful stencil design was all about—Bread Etc. is my first cookbook and it’s officially available for pre-order now!
🛒 Pre-order Bread Etc. here
📘 Bread Etc: The Ultimate Guide to Baking Bread at Home is packed with 100+ recipes for sourdough, yeasted bread, pizza, and more—plus step-by-step techniques, schedules, and all my best tips.
Cheesy Sourdough Pull-Apart Bread 🧄🧀
If you've ever found yourself staring at a leftover loaf of sourdough wondering what to do with it… this is the move. This Cheesy Sourdough Pull Apart Bread is one of my go-to party tricks—and one of the tastiest ways to breathe new life into a stale loaf of sourdough.
Garlicky. Buttery. Absolutely loaded with cheese. It's the kind of thing you pull out of the oven and everyone suddenly hovers around the kitchen like sharks.
I started making it during recipe testing weeks when I had extra loaves lying around, and now it’s something I always make when friends come over (or I just want a snack that’s over the top in the best way).
✨ A few highlights:
- Uses up leftover sourdough (but bakery loaves work too)
- Customizable with bacon, herbs, jalapeños, etc.
- Perfect for game day, movie night, or honestly… breakfast?
- Kid-approved. Cheese-pull certified.
I even drizzle mine with ranch dressing and serve it with extra on the side. No regrets.
🔥 Want the recipe? It’s live on the blog now:
Sourdough Carrot Cake (aka Juniper’s Fave) 🎂
This weekend is extra special—it’s my daughter Juniper’s birthday, and to celebrate, we created something just for her (and, let’s be honest, for you too): this brand-new sourdough carrot cake.
It’s moist, perfectly spiced, and loaded with texture—grated carrot, crushed pineapple, toasted pecans—and topped with rich cream cheese frosting. Made with sourdough discard, it stays tender for days (if it lasts that long).
This one has quickly become a family favourite, and I’m so excited to finally share it with you.
Flourless Chocolate Cake (Perfect for Passover—or Anytime) 🍫
I normally bake with flour. A lot of it. But every once in a while, a flourless recipe comes along that absolutely earns a spot in the rotation.
This is one of those cakes.
I first started making it years ago when I was a private chef for a billionaire (true story). It quickly became one of my boss’s favourite desserts—and I’ve been baking it ever since. It’s dense, rich, and deeply chocolatey, but still somehow feels light. Serve it with a dollop of maple chantilly cream, and you’ve got something special.
Whether you're celebrating Passover or just need a go-to gluten-free dessert, this one delivers.
Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe:
Serves: 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 stick (4 oz / 115 g) unsalted butter
- 8 oz (225 g) bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 5 eggs
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease an 8-inch (23 cm) round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment too.
- In a heatproof bowl set over a small pot of gently simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate with the salt and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl (or stand mixer), whip the eggs and sugar on medium-high until pale yellow, thickened, and doubled in volume—about 5–6 minutes.
- Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until the edges are just set and the center jiggles slightly.
- Cool completely. The cake will sink slightly—totally normal. Dust with icing sugar or serve with maple chantilly (see below!).
🍁 Maple Chantilly Cream (Highly Recommend)
This is our favourite way to serve the cake—and if I’m honest, it ends up on pancakes, waffles, and spoonfuls straight from the bowl too.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (240 ml) cold heavy cream
- 2–3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions:
Whip the cream until it starts to thicken, then add maple syrup and vanilla. Continue whipping until soft peaks form. Chill until ready to use.
Storage:
Keeps well in the fridge for 4–5 days. Tastes even better on day two (if it lasts that long).
Adapted from a classic I’ve made for years—this one’s a keeper.
Sourdough Mini Egg Cookies (A New Easter Favourite) 🐣
This sourdough discard cookie recipe is everything you'd want in an Easter bake—crispy on the edges, soft in the middle, and loaded with melty chocolate and crushed Mini Eggs. Perfect for spring gatherings, or just a solid excuse to buy that extra bag of candy.
Yield: 24 cookies (about 70g each)
Oven Temp: 175°C (350°F)
Ingredients (in grams):
- 226g all-purpose flour
- 226g spelt flour
- 6g baking soda
- 7g salt
- 90g sourdough discard
- 271g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 181g granulated sugar
- 153g brown sugar
- 135g eggs (about 2 large)
- 7g vanilla extract (optional)
- 135g dark chocolate chips
- 248g Mini Eggs, chopped
- Extra whole Mini Eggs for topping
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
- In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, baking soda, and salt.
- In another bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs until fully combined.
- Add the sourdough discard and mix until just incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped Mini Eggs.
- Portion into 70g cookie dough balls (you should get 24). Chill the dough balls in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Bake for 11 minutes. Remove from oven, gently press a few whole Mini Eggs on top, and return to the oven for 3–4 more minutes.
- Let cool on a rack—or don’t. Just don’t burn your mouth. 😉
Duck Confit Pizza (Recipe!) 🍕🦆
Made this one for our micro bakery pizza drop—42 pies in total—and this duck confit pizza stole the show. It’s rich, savoury, a little fancy, but easy to pull off if you’ve got some duck confit in the fridge (last week’s recipe!).
Here’s how to build it:
📝 Duck Confit Pizza with Balsamic & Crispy Skin
Ingredients:
- 1 sourdough pizza dough (from Simplifying Sourdough Pizza, or your favourite)
- Tomato sauce (3-4 oz)
- Low-moisture mozzarella, shredded (about 1/3 cup)
- 1 duck leg confit, meat shredded and skin reserved (recipe in last weeks newsletter)
- ½ red onion, sliced
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Balsamic vinegar (for roasting + reduction)
- Optional: balsamic glaze or reduction for finishing
Topping prep:
- Roast the onions: Toss sliced red onion with olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a splash of balsamic. Roast at 375°F (190°C) for ~25 minutes until softened and lightly caramelized.
- Crisp the duck skin: Carefully remove the skin from the confit leg. Air fry or pan-fry it until crispy, then chop it into little shards. Set aside.
- Shred the duck meat and set aside.
Build your pizza:
- Stretch your dough to ~10–12" round.
- Add tomato sauce, mozzarella, shredded duck, and roasted onions.
- Bake in your home oven or pizza oven until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbling.
- Top with crispy duck skin and drizzle with balsamic glaze.
💥 Bonus variation: Swap the tomato base for pesto, and add chunks of herb & garlic Boursin with the duck and onions. This one’s ultra-rich—perfect for a special occasion (or just anyday lol).
📣 And don’t forget—Simplifying Sourdough Pizza (plus a ton of other goodies) is part of the Easter Sale starting tomorrow. It’s the perfect time to level up your pizza game and bake pies that wow.
👆 That beauty above? That’s Whitney’s very first pizza after going through Simplifying Sourdough Pizza. She absolutely crushed it—look at that crust, that cheese, that basil! She cooked that in her home oven and it looks straight out of a wood-fired pizzeria. 💥
So yeah… if she can do it, you can do it too.
Happy Baking,
MJD
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P.S. Want to learn more from me? Check out my online video resources 👇
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