In one of Anthony Bourdain’s memoirs of his time in professional kitchens, he tells a story about his favorite bread baker. The man was incredibly unreliable, but Bourdain loved the bread he baked, so he kept the man around anyway. But sometimes, instead of showing up, he’d just call up Bourdain and yell into the phone, “Feed the beast!” Bourdain knew that he meant for the chef to feed the sourdough starter the baker used to make the wonderful, magical, flavorful that made everything worth it.
You may not want to make all the bread for a Michelin starred restaurant. You may just want to start baking your own bread in your home kitchen. But where do you start? You can start with the Sourdough Cookbook for Beginners, and get step-by-step instructions for making your own sourdough started, keeping it alive, and using it to make a wide array of breads, pastries, and pizzas.
Authors Eric Rusch and Melissa Johnson know their sourdough stuff. Rusch grew in San Francisco, known for its sourdough, and when he went to college, he became the guy who made the sourdough waffles (and, I’m guessing, made lots of friends). He took his passion for sourdough and started a website with recipes and tutorials, Breadtopia. Johnson was interested in dietary health, particularly in the benefits to gut health that came from fermented foods. Naturally, that brought her to sourdough and to Breadtopia, and now she’s a part of the website, developing recipes and answering questions from others trying to build their sourdough style.
The first part of the book teaches how to make your own sourdough started, from listing what equipment you’ll need to walking you through it with detailed instructions to troubleshooting things that can go wrong during that first week. It takes 6-10 days to build a starter, and those first days take patience and consistency, but this cookbook has a feature that I really love: it gives you a 6-day logbook with a quick summary of what you need to do each day, a place to write daily observations, and (my favorite part) daily photos of what you can expect your started to look like.
After you’ve got your starter to a good place, then they take you through the process of baking, so you can know what to expect in the recipes. They walk you through measuring the ingredients by weight instead of volume, the proofing process, shaping, baking, storage, and even troubleshooting tips for issues that could come up when you bake your breads.
And then, it’s on to the recipes. First, there are the artisan breads, like the Basic No-Knead, Classic Artisan, 100% Whole Grain, Cranberry Walnut, and Cheddar Thyme. From there, it’s on to Pan Loaves, that you can use for sandwiches or toast or just to grab and eat. Pan Loaves include Sandwich Bread, Multiseed Light Wheat Pan Bread, New York Deli Rye Pan Bread, Turmeric Fennel Pan Bread, and Flaxseed Pan Bread.
Then the journey continues on to Pastry, Pizza, and Specialty Breads, where the recipes include Brioche, Dinner Rolls, Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns, Cinnamon Rolls, Pizza, Baguettes, and Pretzels. And then there are the delicious suggestions for your leftover starter, like Fluffy Pancakes and Waffles, Crepes, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Whole Wheat Banana Bread, Crackers, Tortillas, Biscuits, and Pasta. So if you thought sourdough was just bread, these authors have clearly proven you wrong.
Each of these recipes (and the many ones I haven’t listed) include tips to help you get creative, active prep time, time to completion, bake times, equipment needed, sourdough methods, and the suggested sourdough starter, so you have all the information you need to succeed right there at your fingertips.
The Sourdough Cookbook for Beginners is exactly that—step-by-step instructions and all the information you need to get started in sourdough baking, from creating your own starter to baking your own breads to using your leftover started to create a wide variety of baked treats that your family and friends will love. Between the delicious flavor, the health benefits, and the lovely comfort of sourdough bread, there is no bad time to get started in sourdough, and this resource can take you right into the heart of the beast.
Egalleys for the Sourdough Cookbook for Beginners were provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.
