Classic Sourdoughs, Revised

My first and forever guide to make sourdough from sctrach for an Indian guy like me who has never tasted a sourdough bread from outside. Great recipes.

As promised. All good.

Very nice book.

Dit boek beschrijft zuurdesem klaar en duidelijk. En er zijn ook handige recepten om brood te bakken.

I haven’t tried the recipes yet but there is so much information about sourdough baking. The recipes look really good too. Ones that I would actually like to make. I have bought several other books on sourdough in the past but this is the so much better. A great book for the new sourdough enthusiasts.

I was looking for something really specific in a breadmaking book - sourdough breads which work within a timescale that suits me. Most sourdough recipes which I'd already seen either took 36 hours to make (thus finish at awkward times), or suggest using refrigeration to retard the dough to a timescale that suits you (Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Everyday is classic for using refrigeration). I'm a student, living in halls with others, and have absolutely zero room in a refrigerator to retard dough. Which is why this book is great. The vast majority of breads in this book are designed to have an overnight (12 hour) rise, unrefridgerated. It is possible to play around with the timings further - warm water if you want it done in 10-11 hours - cold milk, cold eggs if you want the first proof to be finished in about 16 hours (unrefridgerated). Then shape and proof at room temperature for another 3-4 hours(ish)before baking. For me, this system is perfect. Due to the slow rising properties of sourdough, the worry that your dough will overproof if you take your eye off it for 15 minutes is practically non-existant - IMHO, you get about an hour's leeway as to when you have to stick it in the oven. Due the the long slow rising times, the doughs are amazing and flavourful (and the very wet ones are really extensible). In my opinion, the long slow rising process also allows for good gluten development without the need for a huge amount of kneading (I tend to do the Dan Lepard kneading method on all loaves, just because it's so much easier than doing a continuous 15-20 minute hand knead. I know purists frown upon this method, and there is some argument to suggest that thorough kneading is necessary in order to oxgenate the dough. But I've been getting pretty good results using this method, and the dough does windowpane after it's third knead). Downsides? IMHO, the cooking times given in this book are not long enough (but the oven I use is very unreliable, so it's probably just me. I've had a few loaves which appear perfectly cooked until you get to the middle, which was almost raw). The only abject failures I've had with this book was when I used a sourdough starter which had not been recently refreshed (i.e it was 2 days since it had been refreshed. With this book, it works best if your starter is really recently refreshed - 3-6 hours. Due to the slow rising, a recently refreshed starter is a must, since an old starter will result in a very acidic and gummy textured loaf.) Also, there's no pictures. So long as you have prior experience making sourdoughs, this book is great (this book doesn't really give any general breadmaking guidance, it's just recipes).

This is an excellent reference for home bakers who want to understand how to create authentic sourdough breads. It's not complicated and does not require any special equipment. The original edition of this book has long been one of my favorites, and I really like the updated information in the revised edition. One of the biggest improvements is the simplified directions in the chapter "Putting It All Together". In my opinion this is the heart of the book. In just a few pages it explains very clearly what is happening in your sourdough culture and how to handle it correctly. It made me a better baker, and I am having more fun experimenting with recipes and adapting them to my taste. Another great addition is the "No-Knead Sourdough" recipe section. I was intrigued by the simplicity of the basic recipe. It worked beautifully for me. And with a slight adjustment to the loaf proof (lower temperature, longer time) I can now easily fit baking fresh sourdough bread into my weekday work schedule. The recipe worked equally well for rye bread. My favorite recipe section in the book is probably also the most unique - the one on Middle Eastern breads. It's brought to life by the authors' personal experiences from living and traveling in the Middle East. I love making fresh "Khbuz Arabi" (pita bread) when we have guests. They bake in just 5 minutes, the guests love watching them puff up, and they are delicious hot out of the oven. For a perfectly authentic version, and extra food for conversation, you could use the author's "La Giza" culture, collected from an ethnic bakery in Egypt. At the end of the book is a small section that describes the sourdough cultures collected by the authors and available on their website (Sourdoughs International). It does not come across as a pitch but rather as sharing their passion for the history and variety of sourdough cultures. I grew up in Germany on excellent rye and whole grain sourdough breads. Many years ago when I moved to the US and experienced serious bread withdrawal, I got Ed Wood's "New Zealand Culture for rye" and have been baking with it ever since. It makes fantastic rustic rye breads, though I tend to omit the extra ingredients (molasses, milk, and butter) listed in the book's rye recipes. Now Ed Wood has a new Polish rye sourdough culture and I am tempted to try it.

Mais um grande livro sobre panificação.