Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More

by Sarah Owens, Ngoc Minh Ngo (photographer)

101 recipes for baking with whole and sprouted grains, making the most of the seasonal harvest, and healing the body through naturally fermented food

Sarah Owens spent years baking conventional baked goods, only to slowly realize she had developed a crippling inability to digest or tolerate their ingredients. Unable to enjoy many of her most favorite foods, she knew she must find a health-sustaining alternative. Thus Sarah started experimenting with sourdough leavening, which almost immediately began to heal her gut and inspire her anew in the kitchen. Soon after, her artisan small-batch bakery, BK17, was launched, and with that, a new way to savor and share nutritious sourdough breads and treats with her Brooklyn community.
    
Sourdough and other fermented foods are making a comeback because of their rich depth of flavor and proven health benefits. In Sourdough, Sarah demystifies keeping a sourdough culture, which is an extended fermentation process that allows for maximum flavor and easy digestion, showing us just how simple it can be to create a healthy starter from scratch. Moreover, Sarah uses home-grown sourdough starter in dozens of baked goods, including cookies, cakes, scones, flatbreads, tarts, and more--well beyond bread. Sarah is a botanist and gardener as well as a baker--her original recipes are accented with brief natural history notes of the highlighted plants and ingredients used therein. Anecdotes from the garden will delight naturalists and baked-goods lovers among us. Laced with botanical and cultural notes on grains, fruits and vegetables, herbs, and even weeds, Sourdough Baking celebrates seasonal abundance alongside the timeless craft of artisan baking.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference

296 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2015

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update May 25, 2020:

I used the buckwheat pancake recipe with some light changes and tweaks and liked it.

Right now I used another pancake recipe, for oven-baked pancakes with a fruit filling. It reminded me strongly of Clafoutis. My fruit of choice was rhubarb (which is actually a vegetable, I think) and it was very tasty!



Bread next...

————
May 9, 2020:

The Good:
Beautifully made book with pretty photographs. I like that it is sorted by yearly seasons.

The Not-so-Good:
Complicated recipes with many steps, not for beginners.
Many unusual ingredients.
Very time-intensive recipes.
A very complicated starter recipe.
Explanations are very wordy. With lots of text. I prefer clearer instructions.

And the Critical-No-Go for me:
All the recipes for making bread result in two loaves. I am single and have no freezer. What am I to do with two loaves?

So this book is pretty to look at, but mostly not usable for me. I will probably make some of the slightly simpler recipes in this at some point and then revisit my rating. Maybe I will even make one of the breads, giving one of the loaves away to friends as a present. But this will not become my go-to-book for bread making.

Luckily I found a much easier starter recipe online and now ordered that author‘s sourdough baking book. Review of that one to come!

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Checked this out from the library as a trial and every recipe i made, all 20+, came out amazing. One changes, I reduced the salt in each to my normal use, which is on the skimpy side.

As i eat a plant based diet, at first i thought this book would have limited offerings for me. I was wrong. All of the basic substitutions work with great results throughout the recipes. Aquafaba for eggs and coconut oil for lard / duck fat.

Our favorites were the Jalapeno and Cheese Bread, Beet Bread and Cornmeal Casserole. This has sadly gone back to the library, but i will be picking up a copy! Hardbacked books are so perfect in the kitchen.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures and great information, but the recipes are too adventurous. No practical recipes for every day breads.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who can resist a book with a chapter entitled Sourdough Primer that begins with a quote from the inimitable Julia Child:

How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?

[- Julia Child, from "How to Avoid TV Dinners While Watching TV" by Joan Barthel, The New York Times Magazine, p. 34, August 7, 1966.]

The book is set up in two parts: Part One: The Sourdough, and Part Two: The Recipes.

Most of Part One is filled with detailed and useful explanations for kitchen essentials, sourdough baking, as well as a few handy gardening tips.

Owens does take a few missteps though. She is to be applauded for recommending that people measure their ingredients by weight. But she should stick to her guns and insist that all ingredients, especially salt, be measured by weight. Salt comes in so many different sizes of crystals!

Because most scales do not accurately measure ingredients such as spices or salt lighter than 10 grams, these are dictated in volume amounts. [1 | Kitchen Notes . An Artisan's Toolbox: Digital Scale]

Sarah Owens' starter recipe is also on the eccentric side. She calls for adding raisins, sugar, and raw honey, as well as the expected flour and water!

She also advocates removing large parts of the starter whenever it is being fed. Even though she refers to this as "discarding", she does not really advocated throwing it away, or composting it. Almost every recipe included in the book calls for some sourdough starter, whether it is to be built up to become leavener, or added to quickbread.

Strangely, a few of the recipes call for oiling the rising bowl. This is only for pizza and bialys recipes, and she does not explain why it is necessary. Perhaps it is simply following someone else's convention.

The other somewhat disturbing instruction is to cover rising dough bowls or shaped bread with plastic. For a book written by an organic gardener in 2015, this seems inexcusable, considering what the excess of plastic is doing to the planet. Happily, she does offer the alternative of using a damp cloth but wouldn't it be much better if she had explained how to release ourselves from our over-dependency on plastic? She could so easily have said to cover rising bowls with a plate, rising bread with damp cloth, and strong suggested to her readers to stop buying single use plastic wrap at all.

Because Owens is a gardener, the recipes in her book are set up by season, beginning with autumn.

The crunch of decay underfoot and the sharp odor of gingko berries signal to the gardener that, finally, once can breathe deep the signs of change. The days are shortening, and it is time to reap the rewards of the season. [...] Along comes autumn with its permission to feast and relax — ripe with sweet root vegetables, inspiring leaf patterns, and just enough chill to seek a little snuggling. [...] This is the season of reflection and an opportunity to return to the kitchen. [4 | Autumn Harvest]
~ ~ ~ ~
Other than the shuffle of our boots and the occasional call of our loyal raptor population, there was little life pushing forth in late February. [...] This is when I discovered the joy of bringing forth life myself, in the kitchen through sprouting. [...] There might be a blizzard blowing just outside my window, but I could witness the miracle of life on my countertop! [...] Wheat becomes grassier, buckwheat nuttier, rye earthier. Breads baked with sprouted grains have a toothsome quality they've never possessed before, and pastries acquire a subtle freshness unlocked by the development of natural sugars. Because what is the point of eating healthy if it doesn't taste absolutely delicious? [5 | Winter Dormancy]
~ ~ ~ ~
Spring resurrects the spirit from quiet dormancy with a flurry of life, which gains momentum with the lengthening of daylight. Trees sport a fresh green that glows neon frm the tips of their branches, braving lingering flurries and winter's reluctance to pass. [...] The senses that have awakened to the pleasing smell of wet earth, sprouting seedlings, and blossoming trees sharpen witht eh aroma of a robust, naturally leavened loaf emerging from the oven. [6 | Spring Rebirth]
~ ~ ~ ~
Breezy dresses, elderflower-laced cocktails, laughter at dusk from a blanket while fireflies dance under the trees…these are the activities celebrated under the spell of luminosity. [7 | Summer Sun Worship]

Almost every recipe includes using sourdough starter, whether it has been built up to become a leavener, or simply to use up extra starter.

Most of these summer recipes accommodate a menu requiring little time in the kitchen. I am wary about keeping the stove lit for too long, as there is no need to compete with rising outside temperatures. Utilizing the grill or nothing at all to make the rest of the meal is my pref,adorning a crusty slice of bread with prosciutto to accompany a hearty salad or quickly sautéed greens. [7 | Summer Sun Worship]

Alas, Owens does not talk about how to bake bread on the barbecue, not even flatbreads like focaccia, pizza, and naan.


Favourite excerpts:

If you want to retard your loaves for an extended period (more than 8 hours), keep your refrigerator temperature hovering around 37°F or 38°F, especially during summer. You may find that a fridge kept at the typical 41°F may be too warm.
[1 | Kitchen Notes . Terminology: retardation]

Aha This explains why overnight in fridge doesn't necessarily work for us. Our fridge may be too warm!

Sourdough leavening can make some traditionally light and fluffy recipes a bit heavier. [6 | Spring Rebirth . Dandelion and Chive Popovers]

Finally, and explanation for why it hasn't always worked when we have included our sourdough starter in biscuits

Always bring your ingredients to room temperature, unless otherwise noted. This will assist in incorporating them into the batter without overmixing.
      Attempting to mix cold ingredients, especially starter, will result in a frustrated baker, a streaky batter, and uneven baking. I also recommend using a fork to break and disperse the starter into the batter instead of stirring with a spoon. Avoid using a hand mixer, which encourages gluten development in the starter, undesirable for the [1 | Kitchen Notes . Techniques: Mixing Batters and Pastry that Include Starter]
~ ~ ~ ~
Salt also regulates fermentation, which can be helpful in warm weather or when using a high percentage of whole grains. It also acts as a preservative, lengthening the life of the bread. Finally, it also influences the coloring of bread crust as well as brightens the flavor of fruit. [2 | Stocking the Pantry . Salt]
~ ~ ~ ~
If weeds constantly overrun your garden rows, ask yourself what those are and why they are growing there. Put down the hoe long enough to consider what the weeds are telling you. [...] Learning what weeds thrive where will also give you clues to your soil's profile. For example, the tasty plantain will often appear when soil is compacted, possibly leading you to plant a crop that would aerate the soil. [1 | Kitchen Notes . Bringing the Garden into the kitchen

~ ~ ~ ~
When using, serve only the petals, discarding the sepals, pistils, and stamens, which may taste bitter. [...] Flowers coming from a florist or nursery are often treated with harmful chemicals. [Edible flowers]
Included are largish lists of common (and slightly less common) flowers that are edible. (I had no idea that lilacs, fava beans flowers, and European columbine were edible! Even though we used to steal the nectar from Mum's columbines that were growing as a border in her garden....)

To engage in baking with something unpredictable that responds to every slight difference in temperature, humidity, and—dare I say—even our mood requires some awareness. To become a better baker is to be fully present in the process from start to finish. This is an involved endeavor and one that requires you to slow down and listen. You will become quite intimate with the more poetic elements of sourdough over time, engaging all your senses. Get used to sniffing your starter before and after a feed. Does it smell fruity or sour? Use your hands not only to guide the dough but also to measure its development. [3 | Sourdough Primer . Inspired Living]
~ ~ ~ ~
[I]f a recipe calls for a quick leavening agent such as baking soda or powder, these will be weakened after 3 to 4 hours in a mixed batter. [3 | Sourdough Primer . Scheduling Sourdough in the Kitchen
~ ~ ~ ~
Compost tea can be used as a foliar application to liven up summer-weary plants or as a drench to balance the fungal and bacterial activity of soil. [Sourdough Primer . Primordial Parallels and the Soil Food Web]

What a shame there is no recipe or reference recommendation for how to make compost tea!

The stalls of the mercado were grouped by similar vendors, partitioned off from other kinds. The meats were separate from the fish, which were separate from the vegetables, grains, various exotic fruits, and so on. Up the hill and off to the side was a little enclave of women and their children making flatbreads over hot coals. I watched as they stuffed what seemed like a coarse whole-grain, unleavened dough with queso fresco, the cheese that is ubiquitous in Ecuador. Curious, I tried a warm sample. Its surprisingly sweet and nutty barley flavor was strong, and it was obviously made from freshly ground flour. I had never tasted barley this fresh and alive; it made all the difference in the flavor of this bread. [5 | Winter Dormancy . Saraguro Cheese Bread]
~ ~ ~ ~
My Momma sighs every time I call to ask for her biscuit recipe. Patiently, she reminds me of the wise words my great grandmother — a Rubenesque, big-boned mountain woman — said to her when asked the same. Mamaw insisted that if you made biscuits often enough, you would learn the recipe. Well, fine. But I can't really publish that as a recipe, now can I?! Ambiguity is one thing, intuitive execution is another, but Momma wouldn't even reveal an estimated cup measurement. After half a dozen phone conversations with few hints other than "crumbled texture," "work fast," and "hot oven," I consulted a few more of my Southern resources. [6 | Spring Rebirth . Buttermilk Biscuits]

Many of the recipes contain extras and look perfect for people who want flavoured breads.

Owens also calls for using unconventional things like south Indian chutney in place of onion jam for her bialys, and "Delice des Cremiers with Truffles" in the topping for her Fiddlehead Pizza, saying it is "a decadent choice" Whoa. Decadent indeed. Do we really want to melt this spectacularly creamy (and pricey) cheese? It seems like a waste.

Still, the book is well worth the time and the recipes seem perfect for anyone who has a starter going. And, of course, it's entirely possible that Sarah Owens' raisin/sugar/honey/flour sourdough starter is completely viable. The photos of her breads certainly indicate as much. Speaking of photos, throughout are stunningly beautiful photographs taken by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Wow.

Bookmarked:
• Candied Bacon Cornbread
• Bleu Cheese and Walnut Crackers
• Chocolate Ganache (for crepes or Walnut Pâte Brisée tarts)
• Drunken Fig Bread "serve it with a strong soft cheese and a bottle of quality red wine."
• Saraguro Cheese Bread
• Walnut and Bleu Cheese Fougasse
• Smoky Chili Bread (with ground up morita chiles!)
• Pane di farro (apparently, there are 3 kinds of farro: 1. farro piccolo or einkorn 2. farro medio or emmer 3. farro grande or spelt. Owens calls for using emmer for this bread)
• Bialy dough (and perhaps the chutney but not together)
• Cornbread Biscuit Topping (includes "Chili Citrus Butter")
• Sun-Dried Tomato Shortbreads
• Lemon curd tart (Nice idea to add rosemary to the crust)
• Apricot and Pistachio Swirls (Babka)
• Nettle and ale bread (but, as much as we love nettles, just omit them from the bread and use them to stuff ravioli instead....)
Pork and rhubarb pot pie
• Burdock burgers
• Buttermilk biscuits (her Granny Owens used lard, but Sarah Owens calls for "pure, unadulterated butter for a flaky texture" and that if "you can source cultured raw butter, these will perhaps come close to [her] family's mystery recipe" but will "never be better than Momma's".)
• Chive Blossom Butter (Why not use chopped chives instead of basil for the green part? Basil is so strong and might overpower the delicate flavour of the chive blossoms.)
• Chili Citrus Butter
• Saffron Buns
• Le Pain du Soleil
• Lebany (Amazing that Owens doesn't say how to use the whey created when making leban!)
• Parchment Crackers
• Lahmacun

Bookmarked for the Garden:
• Buckwheat
• European Columbine
• Golden Fennel
• Nigella
• Salsify
• Wild Ginger

(It's tempting to plant garlic mustard as well, but it is listed as an invasive species in Ontario, so I will refrain.)

[Joey Liu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the format of this recipe book in that:
-it's separated by the seasons as sourdough starters adapt to the temperatures surrounding it,
-it provides a lot of the scientific rationale on why you have to do certain things (using a sourdough starter in the first place, why you need to autolyze)
-it provides recommendations on kitchen supplies e.g. scales (recommendation is to measure out bread by weight in grams vs measuring cups), bench scrapers, bannetons, scoring lames, etc. I bought all of these based off of this books recommendations

What I didn't like was:
-it's not beginner friendly.
-the recipes are all a little eccentric, that I think I would only use for very specials occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving,
-some ingredients are also very random and difficult to source.

Of all the recipes included I think the only one I would make that is quick and easy to understand, and includes ingredients that are easy to source, is the Brooklyn sourdough. Everything else I probably wouldn't ever make.

If you know of a good, daily sourdough recipe book with some fun, practical variations, let me know!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this is a gorgeous book. It's filled with a variety of recipes for baking and cooking with sourdough leaven. This isn't a how to bake sourdough bread guide though there are several recipes and tips throughout. The recipes seem to be written with great detail as well as an organized layout. I personally love that the recipes are written by weight so if you don't have a kitchen scale-get one! All of the recipes correspond to a season so if you enjoy foraging or gardening and finding new ways to use 'old' foods (dandelion/nettle/etc) this will be a fun read.

[Aja Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm in love with this book. so up my alley. lots of whole grain breads and other fun recipes all using a simple and straightforward non-yeast based starter. the author is a gardener/botanist and has lots of interesting ingredients and perspectives. might have to buy this one, but will try out her starter recipe and bake a bread or two and see how it goes!

[Amy Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures are stunning and I love the story of the author healing her digestive issues with sourdough. I am a hobby baker and the recipes are very complex with ingredients not super available. If I come across some exotic flours, I will come back to this. The designs on the breads are works of art.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice recipe ideas but they were poorly written and kind of confusing and tbh I don't need to be any more confused when baking bread because bread making is already difficult enough

[Anya]

made my best sourdough yet after using tips from this book :*

[Emily Piszczek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy how it is written for seasonal recipes! And all the information in the first 4 chapters is helpful background knowledge.

[Fred Baerkircher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much hipster, not enough sourdough.

[Fernleaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I haven't had a chance to cook through this book yet, I just gave it a through once-over. Read the introductory bits and browsed through the recipes. The book itself is gorgeous, a glorious hardcover with stunning photography. The recipes are broad, ranging from bread to donuts, cookies, and savory concoctions. This does not seem to be a book for the faint of heart. The recommended baking gear isn't out of this world, it's pretty basic compared to some books, the most important piece being a good kitchen scale for weighing ingredients. The author also isn't a huge fan of stand mixers and recommends (at least at the beginning) doing it all by hand to learn the feel of the bread. I've seen some reviews calling out the use of a dutch oven or bread stone as well, being a cast iron convert that part doesn't fuss me so much.

The real challenge comes from the sourdough itself, being a live culture it must be cared for, worked around, and handled differently. Many of the recipes aren't something that can be just slapped together at the last minute (although really what bread is?) and take some forethought to make. At a glance a lot of the recipes have pretty particular ingredients, but I'm sure a great many of them can be substituted for something less exotic at need. I'm excited to start using this book, but will have to hold off until I can get a kitchen scale and generate some starter (great walk-through on how to do that in the beginning!)

So not a book for the faint of heart, maybe not the best choice for me (two small kids) but I'm excited to give it a whirl and learn something new.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost every recipe in this book uses sourdough starter. I have an active starter and I'm learning how to bake with it. I'm not sure how useful this book is going to be for me, because as usual, I'm reviewing it as a book after reading it, but not after cooking with it. The author is a botanist and an artist as well as a baker. She has what she calls a microbakery. That means, as she admits, that she's baking in her house for a small group of subscribers. The recipes have a lot of ingredients that require gardening or foraging, but also some that you might get in a CSA box or a farmer's market. The combination of expensive or hard-to-get ingredients with foraged ingredients can be a little weird and off-putting. Like, I can definitely get fiddlehead ferns at the farmer's market and they aren't too expensive anymore, or garlic scapes, but it feels strange to have a pizza with a truffled cream cheese that you can get from a cheesemonger (or she just says, a monger!) and pesto made from an invasive weed. There's a photo of the weed so you can identify it. It's very Brooklyn, is what I'm saying. Obviously there have to be breads made with beets and squash for the same reason. The book is pretty and the ideas are interesting--not a bad cookbook to browse through at all.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I most loved about this book is that it is predominantly recipes for things to make that include sourdough starter but that are not sourdough bread. Brilliant! (Don't get me wrong, I've become something of a quarantine cliche and taken up sourdough baking since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I refuse to become a slave to my sourdough.) With these sorts of recipes in hand, and the constant reminder that I'm the sentient one, I am ready to make all sorts of crackers, root vegetable casseroles, galettes, trifles, and other things I would not have thought to incorporate sourdough starter into (okay, the crackers were a bit obvs, but the others far less so). On the downside, many items are measured in grams and those recipes would be more readily implemented if converted by the author instead of by the reader. (Or offered side by side, perhaps.) That detail aside, the book is beautifully illustrated, is super high quality paper, and will make a welcome addition to any baker and home cook's bookshelves.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful recipes and I very much like the layout by seasons, but most recipes/ingredients do not seem particularly accessible. I would eat them in a heartbeat if presented with the opportunity, but being on the flip side of making them I hesitate to say I'll attempt more than a handful of these, if that. Also the book has a lot less to do with sourdough than I thought it would - I know, rookie mistake for not reading further into it before buying, but with a name like 'Sourdough' I expected this to be more of a bread baking book, which it is not. So - it is beautiful, the recipes are imaginative and niche and definitely deserve a high rating if that's what you're going for, but if you're looking for a book with a bunch of basic sourdough recipes, this is very much not that.

[Clwseattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More is a stunningly beautiful book. However, it is less a how-to learn to make and use sourdough and much more a seasonal cornucopia of beautiful, intimidating recipes. I agree with others that outside of large metropolitan coastal cities, it would be difficult to source many of the ingredients and probably expensive to do so.

This is not sourdough from wild yeast but one of fermentation. I've been struggling with my wild yeast starter and am not averse to trying this one.

I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More from my library. It would make a lovely gift for a very resolute baker.

3 stars

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming book that is lovely to look through - beautiful pictures. It's interesting to read as it has information on everything from suggested flours to suggested kitchen equipment. It contains information on how to create your own sourdough starter and has a variety of recipes. I hadn't realized that sourdough starters could be so versatile.

What it doesn't seem to contain is recipes for different sizes of loaf (i.e. small, medium, large) and it's 1kg of dry ingredients is too big for my purposes. It also doesn't contain information on how to use the starter in a breadmaker if you require that as an option.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been diving with gusto into sourdough bread baking, but this lovely book turned out to be more of a coffee-table book for me than one that sent me excitedly into the kitchen. For some reason, none of the recipes here felt like ones I just had to make. As others have said, there are relatively few bread baking recipes, so the title is a bit deceptive. Also, I'm a beginner baker and for now, I'm more focused on making delicious loaves of bread than gorgeous ones. Author Sarah Owens, on the other hand, was a ceramicist before she was a baker, and her pottery skills clearly translate into scoring bread into the most beautiful patterns. For me, that was intimidating!

[Yu-Jie Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cookbook that is not just full of recipes, but also stories.

The first part is the sourdough, but it has more than just sourdough. Notes about kitchen tools that you might need to make bread, explaining terms and techniques, even a note about gardening. Ingredients that you might want to stock in your pantry, and of course, the sourdough starter.

In those recipes, unlike most other cookbooks, you will also read some plants' botanic introductions, their Latin names, identification, tastes, etc.

Although I am only interested in the bread part, but some other recipes with those gorgeous photos do encourage me to try.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sourdough starter worked! The recipes included are ridiculous, though, with unnecessarily complicated directions (i.e., not finishing the full directions but instead referring readers back to previous sections of the book so you're flipping all around) and including ingredients that are hard to find. Also, they seemed overly concerned with seeming fancy at the expense of taste (who THE HELL wants to eat a parsley donut? That completely misses the point of the idea of a donut.) Also, ignore the "health" parts of the book -- they are very woo-woo with no actual scientific documentation, etc. But the starter instructions worked! So there's that.

[celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Owens is my HERO - this cookbook is gorgeous as a material object, but the recipes inside are some of the dreamiest I've ever come across. Easy to understand instructions, and introduced me to a number of new ingredients or ways to use ingredients I thought I was already familiar with.

I'm a huge fan of the way this cookbook is split up into seasons - it makes the changing of the season that much more delightful, to skim through the next section and dream up what I possibly might bake/cook in the weeks to come.

[Patricia D'Arcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Owens shares a bit of herself in this book beginning with her introduction. That makes it feel as if a good friend is sharing her sourdough expertise with the reader. The beginning of the book explains needed tools then gives explanations of sourdough terms and processes which leads to the majority of the book containing recipes for much more than your basic sourdough bread. I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to trying many of the recipes inside.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than just Sourdough recipes, from making sourdough culture to cookies, cakes, tarts, flatbreads and scones. There is more to the sourdough culture than bread. I'm a beginner at Sourdough bread making and I think most of the recipes in this book are a bit beyond my abilities at present but I'm looking forward to trying them when I get the hang of bread making.

[Jessica MacDougall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the ultimate sourdough cookbook. I like that it has meals, like the braised oxtail tacos in flour tortillas with kohlrabi slaw, and I like that it has seasonal recipes for gardeners. The sourdough whisperer is more of a book about starters with some recipes at the end to get you started, I think that's a good one to start with and then graduate to this cookbook.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to bread making. I don’t think I would try the sourdough starter option. I do think I will try a few recipes using my starter recipe. Very wholesome recipes, unusual flour ingredients, beautiful final product photos.

[Kendra Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting into sourdough and it was informative. A very garden-y, natural ingredients approach with sourdough. Lots of recipes where I would need to buy special flours that my regular grocery store wouldn’t carry. But a cookbook nonetheless, therefore, automatic 4 stars.

[Doris Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a must-have cookbook if you keep a sourdough alive in your fridge! Many recipes to do with extra starter.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many recipes for starters and leavens. As long as you keep your starter fed, you can attempt any of these the next day. I might have to buy this. (I borrowed it from the library.)

I am making the recipe for the Strawberry and Cardamom Dutch Baby but I am substituting apricots and vanilla.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

symphony-like true celebration of mother nature. The real way it should be