Dark-baked sourdough batard, crust blistered and scored

Palma de Mallorca · Sourdough & Viennoiserie · 11 años de oficio

I don't bake bread. I engineer fermentation.

Head baker. 9 years of UK production discipline, 2 years of Polish soul, now fermenting under the Mallorca sun. This is the craft, measured.

Scroll · desplázate

Flour, water, salt — and paciencia. Everything else is physics you can learn to control.

— The Freak Manifesto

Capítulo I — La Ciencia

Baker's gloved hand holding a sourdough loaf with a wild oven-spring ear
Fig. 01 — La corteza, fresh out 250°C horno
01 / Hydration

The crumb doesn't lie

An open, glossy alveolar structure isn't luck. It's water dosed to the flour's absorption, gluten developed to windowpane, and gas retained through a controlled proof. Read the crumb and it tells you every decision you made 26 hours earlier.

W 320 HARINA78% AGUA2% SAL
02 / Temperature

26.5°C is a decision

Fermentation is enzyme kinetics. Half a degree shifts the balance between lactic sweetness and acetic bite. I run the masa madre like a lab culture — fed by ratio, tracked by pH, never by guesswork.

T° MASA 26.5°CpH 4.1 → 3.81:5:5 FEED
03 / Time

Cold retard, deep flavour

Sixteen hours at 4°C is where bread stops being dough and starts being character. Proteolysis unlocks amino acids; the Maillard reaction spends them at 250°C. That mahogany crust — la corteza — is chemistry cashing in.

16H @ 4°C250°C HORNOMAILLARD

Capítulo II — Laminación

The physics of butter layers

A croissant is a heat engine. Steam from 84°C butter lifts each lamina; the honeycomb you see in the cut is pressure, made edible. Precision beats poetry — and then becomes it.

27capas de mantequilla · 3×3×3
Two croissant halves stacked, honeycomb lamination in full detail
Stacked pains au chocolat, golden lamination in cross-light
Raw laminated croissant, butter layers spiralling before the bake

“Butter at 12°C. Dough at 4°C. The window is twenty minutes — el margen del panadero.

Lock-in, three letter folds, full cold rests between each. Rush the rest and the butter fractures; the layers fuse; the honeycomb collapses. Viennoiserie punishes impatience faster than any other discipline in the bakery — which is exactly why I love it.

Proceso — 26 horas en tiempo real

Gloved hand stretching dough into a translucent windowpane — the gluten test
Windowpane — el gluten no miente 02:30
00:00

Autolyse

Flour meets water. No salt, no levain, no interference. One hour for the enzymes to begin gluten development on their own — the quietest, most underrated step in bread.

01:00

Levain in — la masa madre

20% ripe starter, salt, and the clock starts. From here every minute and every degree is logged.

02:30

Folds, not force

Four coil folds over three hours. Strength is built, never beaten in. The dough tells you when it's done — it stops tearing and starts shining.

06:00

Shape & retard

Pre-shape, bench rest, final shape with a tight skin. Then into the cold at 4°C — sixteen hours where flavour is earned, not added.

22:00

Score

One confident blade angle decides the ear. Hesitate and the loaf shows it. The lame is a signature — firma del panadero.

22:05

250°C, full steam

Oven spring in the first twelve minutes; then vent, and let Maillard paint the crust to mahogany. Crackle on cooling — the bread sings. El pan canta.

26:00

The reading

Cut, backlight, read the crumb. Every alveolus is feedback for tomorrow's dough. The process never actually ends — that's the point.

Baguette torn in two against the Mediterranean, the lighthouse behind

Capítulo III — Mallorca

Northern discipline, fermented under el sol del Mediterráneo.

Capítulo IV — El Panadero

Kamil Bentkowski, head baker, in the bakery
Kamil Bentkowski Head Baker

Eleven years. Three countries. One obsession.

I've run high-volume artisan production in the UK, built bakery concepts from bare walls in Poland, and now lead teams in Mallorca's premium market. The craft is the constant — the context is what taught me business.

2015–2024

United Kingdom — 9 years

High-efficiency artisan production at scale. International standards, relentless consistency, leading teams through 4 AM starts.

2024–2026

Poland — the soul years

Building artisan concepts from the ground up. Deep quality over volume; the bread of my childhood, re-engineered.

2026 —

Mallorca — the fusion

Deputy Bakery Manager, Palma. Technical mastery meets the Mediterranean premium market — and the next chapter of Fermentation Freak.

Trabaja conmigo — Work with me

Two doors into the method

For bakers · B2C — E-book in progress

Sourdough in the Mediterranean Heat

The e-book I'm writing right now, dough by dough, in Palma. Every classic sourdough method assumes a cold northern kitchen — this one is engineered for 30°C summers, warm flour and a starter that never sleeps.

  • Dough temperature control without a retarder
  • Hydration & feeding ratios recalibrated for heat
  • Warm-climate schedules: from Palma, tested daily
Follow the writing — @fermentationfreak
Coming soon · Próximamente For founders · B2B

The Bakery Blueprint

Opening a bakery? Skip the €50,000 mistakes. A complete consultancy package built on 11 years of production leadership across three markets.

  • Equipment & layout that maximise ROI
  • Recipes, schedules & food-cost engineering
  • Hiring, training & leading a professional team
Join the waitlist
Boules scored with a wheat-ear pattern, dusted with flour

Precision is the craft. Patience is the ingredient.