Victoria Redhead Miller is a fermentation nerd. She's already written a book called Craft Distilling, and now she's written this fantastic cookbook, From No-knead to Sourdough: A Simpler Approach to Making Bread, about the way flour, salt, yeast, and water can interplay to create a loaf of bread. And she knows all the ins and outs.
Miller starts with the basics, talking about exactly what you need to make good bread. She talks about the different kinds of flours, about mixing by hand versus using a machine, about weighing versus measuring, and all the other decisions you make before starting your bread. There are super-simple recipes, of course, to get you started and to help you find your comfort zones. And from there you can go to more complicated recipes, like bagels and English muffins, coffee cake, kneaded breads, seeded breads, pizza, pita, scones, breads from starters, and even gluten-free breads and pizzas.
From No-knead to Sourdough includes a bunch of what Miller calls "Sexy Science Talk," sidebars filled with the science of fermentation and bread-making. She goes into detail about what exactly happens when you bake bread, what gluten is and why it's important, bread alternatives for those who are gluten-free, and so much more. Reading this book is like getting a degree in advanced bread-making techniques, so you end up with a lot of knowledge that will come in handy for baking anything you choose to. She even talks about how and why she decided to make her own wood-fired oven and the difference that made in her breads.
After teaching these techniques across the country, Miller knows the questions that come up and has all the answers ready. As a homesteader, she relies on these recipes to help provide homemade breads for her family, so these recipes are tried and tested. From making your first simple sourdough bread to creating a gluten-free sourdough starter that you can bake breads from for years to come, From No-knead to Sourdough will take your bread-baking game as far as you want it to. More than a cookbook, this book can make you a genuine expert in sourdough and make your family very happy.
Galleys for From No-knead to Sourdough were provided by New Society Publishers through Edelweiss, with many thanks.