By Stephanie Lam
It is 2am on a Thursday, and instead of sleeping like the rest of her family, Los Gatos resident Jessica Youngblood is hustling around in her home kitchen.
All around her are pale blobs of sourdough: resting in small bowls, plopped out on a floured counter or laid out on baking trays. Once baked in her oven, however, the dough will transform into luscious bread: brown and crusted on the outside and soft and sour on the inside. Nearby, Youngblood’s phone is propped up and turned on, recording the entire process.
Youngblood is the owner and baker of Doughbauchery, an organic sourdough and baked goods business in Los Gatos. Every week, the 32-year-old prepares dozens of breads—often in the dead of night, while her two young kids sleep—which are then sold on Fridays at the Mountain Farmer’s Market on Summit Road in Los Gatos. Locals can also place custom bread orders through the Doughbauchery website and pick them up at a pre-arranged time and date.
The business has become so popular that Youngblood has plans to open a brick-and-mortar shop in Saratoga.
Youngblood isn’t just a well-known local baker: she’s a social media sensation in the sourdough bread community. Under an Instagram account of her business name, Youngblood frequently posts behind-the-scenes footage photos and videos of her sourdough making process. Her account boasts more than 21,000 followers.
“It’s a beautiful thing, but it’s just weird,” Youngblood says with a laugh. “I’m grateful so many people are enjoying it. I do give my whole heart in each video.”
Youngblood’s customers also favor her chocolate chip cookies, which have sourdough scraps swirled into the traditional batter. And they indulge in her famous Cinnamon Raisin and White Cheddar Jalapeño sourdough breads. In July, Youngblood even won second place for her seeded loaf at a sourdough bake-off competition in Santa Cruz.
Sourdough bread is made from basic ingredients: water, flour and a starter which is a live culture made from both ingredients that contains yeast and bacteria. Unlike other breads, sourdough has a fermentation process that requires mixing and resting the dough for long periods of time. The end result creates the iconic and tangy flavor. Home bakers have been perfecting sourdough bread for ages, but the activity saw a surge in popularity during the Covid pandemic.
“It’s so rewarding,” Youngblood says. “Once people jump into it, they’re hooked.”
Youngblood was a bit late to the trend. The Fremont native stumbled into sourdough making in 2023 at her father’s encouragement. The two experimented with making a starter from scratch using fresh Hawaiian pineapple juice instead of water. “As soon as I got that good loaf, a month and a half in, I was hooked,” Youngblood said.
Soon Youngblood began gifting loaves to neighbors, who then offered to pay for goods. Inspired by the feedback, Youngblood decided to launch Doughbauchery in 2024 alongside its now-famous Instagram page.
These days, running a business and taking care of her family has Youngblood working around the clock. By day, she takes care of her children and other household chores. By night, however, she’s folding the dough to move along the fermentation process, shaping them into circles and baking them for the weekly market and other pick-up times. Later, she’ll spend time editing and uploading the video footage for her virtual sourdough enthusiasts to see.
The schedule can be tiring, but Youngblood said working with sourdough brings her a sense of inner peace.
“It’s something natural and something beautiful,” she said. “I’m giving (people) something healing through and through. Working with the dough is a peaceful moment and helps you slow down. It’s therapy.”
