About

Hi! I'm Laurie, the baker behind Bready or Not, a small home-based bakery in Buena Park, California.

I've always loved baking. I even had a bread machine a gazillion years ago, but my real bread-making journey started at the challah baking station at my kids' summer camp.

Every Friday, I'd help make challah for Shabbat, and somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the process. There's something special about bread. Across cultures and generations, breaking bread has always been a way to bring people together. I loved being able to gift someone a freshly baked challah, knowing it would end up on a table shared with family or friends.

From there, my bread adventures expanded. A fellow homeschooling dad used to bring freshly baked bread to our weekly park days (making the rest of us look bad, naturally). He introduced me to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and I was hooked. I started experimenting with different recipes and techniques, and my bread-making skills grew from there.

Then came 2020, when the entire world apparently decided to bake sourdough. I'd tried it before, but when someone gifted me an active starter, things really took off. What started as a hobby became a full-blown fascination with fermentation, hydration, gluten development, and the tiny microorganisms that somehow turn flour and water into something magical.

Yes, I'm one of those people who gets excited about watching dough rise. I love the science of sourdough, and I'm constantly experimenting, tweaking recipes, and trying new things. My family has gotten used to hearing, "Wait! Don't cut that yet! I need to see the crumb!"

Over time, my baking expanded to bagels, cookies, crackers, and all sorts of other goodies. I was constantly experimenting and sharing my creations with anyone willing to be a taste tester (it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it).

Then, at an event where I'd brought cheesecake bites topped with my homemade pomegranate jelly, a fellow theater mom enthusiastically declared, "YOU SHOULD SELL THIS!"

And that was the little push I needed. After years of baking for family and friends, I finally decided to make it official. Bready or Not was born!

But the best part hasn't changed: I genuinely love baking for people. Whether it's sourdough for your dinner table, challah for a special occasion, or a cookie you absolutely didn't need but definitely deserve, I hope everything that comes out of my oven brings a little joy to your day.