Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: A Beginner's Guide to Delicious Handcrafted Bread with Minimal Kneading Paperback – October 24, 2017

I am new to the world of sourdough baking and still in the early stages of getting my starter ready so I have not tried any of the recipes in this book yet. However, I am already praising the author for her more laid back approach than some I have read. I no longer feel like my starter is controlling my life and it’s not the end of the world if I feed the dough at a slightly different time of day or even skip a day. It’s all fixable it seems.In addition, the recipes in this book seem reasonable for even a newbie to make and the pictures look delicious. I am anxious for my starter to be ready so I can get baking!

This book was my top choice of six recent bread-making books—all of which I was able to evaluate by checking them out at our public library. The author combines the best of old and new techniques. She developed a method for making artisan breads that is used throughout the book and can be applied to recipes from other sources for better results. The taste, texture, density, and characteristic crackle crust of her breads are quite good and are on par with the best breads of bakeries in our area—if not better.Compared to other bread books, this book strikes a good balance between recipes that take too many shortcuts and those that are overly complicated. They are clearly presented with great illustrations and color photos. Many of the bread recipes call for the same amount of sourdough starter. This is an advantage because it means you can plan ahead and not make any more starter than you need.Readers should be aware that the steps for making sourdough bread are given after the first two recipes. I almost missed reading these steps because of their unusual placement in the book. The information is super important—especially if you have not made this kind of bread before—and it applies to many recipes in the book.A few recipes call for specialty flours/ingredients that were not available in my local stores. These can be purchased online, but flour is expensive to ship due to its weight. I would have preferred more multigrain recipes with fewer exotic contents.Having read many reviews for bread-baking books online, there seems to be a common misconception that beginning books for artisan breads will feature quick and easy recipes. That is hardly the case, and this book is no exception—despite some reviews that give the impression that it all happens by magic.Artisan breads are not rocket science, but they require time, effort, and the right equipment. One must be rather exacting with all the measurements and techniques. While the author gives weights in terms of measuring cups and spoons, for instance, these should only be used as a general reference. Use the provided weight in grams instead. It is important to have a digital scale if you want good and consistent results. You will also need a so-called Dutch oven or the equivalent. I purchased a ceramic cloche with a lid, and it works very well. In my view, the final product is worth the preparation and equipment. I’ve been making artisan breads every week since buying this book.

Great book! The information on sourdough is exceptional, especially for beginners, the recipes are wonderful, measurements are grams , weight and metrics, helpful hints and pictures are colorful and look delicious! Perfect!

WOWThis is my new Bible for sourdough.As a beginner this has so many helpful hintsVery easy to followGreat photosI am thinking I really can do this!!!🥂

This book is wonderful, especially for beginner Sourdough Bread bakers. It is easy to follow, most of the recipes use every day ingredient additions instead of uncommon, hard-to-find items. I have made numerous recipes so far from this book and it has a worn look already, which the best cookbooks have! Definitely purchase this for your sourdough journey!

Loafs. of information in this book. Easy to understand. Beautiful photos. There are little tricks to making good sourdough bread. Most people won’t tell you what they are.

I am not a novice baker though nor am I a professional. I have made a TON of recipes from this book and so far all but two turned out amazing- and the two that were just iffy I am actually going to give them a second try because I think it may have been a combo of user error and the recipe needing a little tweaking. The user error was possibly the grissini (good flavor but the twisting was a bit of a chore and mine turned out tough not crispy. The "tweak" is the soup in the back of the book- I feel it needed more flavor with some sausage or sliced kielbasa and a kick of some spice to liven it up, it was a little bland for my tastes.The sourdough starter I use have been The Bread Bible's starter recipe and all the recipes have excelled so far. My favorites are the rustic, the pumpkin cranberry, the rolls, the bagels, and the english muffins. Several of the others are also fantastic but these above are my top ones that I have been baking over and over againI love the simplicity of her recipes. They either start in the morning and have the bread made by the afternoon or (easiest for me) throw together the dough in the evening before bed and set out on counter for bulk rise to be made first thing in the morning. I have been making bread nearly every single day with the ease of these recipes.I have only two complaints so far for this book: first are her baking times, for me, have been just slightly off. I use a cast iron Dutch oven (or cloche) to bake my rustic bread in, and a large stoneware loaf pan for my loaves. She doesn't really instruct well the temps or times for using these. That is ok. I have adjusted to my tastes and have figured out better times and temps. It's only mild adjustments so not difficult to figure out. I live at altitude which hasn't really mattered much but just FYI. For dutch oven baking I preheat my oven and Dutch oven usually at 450-475 30-45min before baking while I allow my bread it's final rise. Then I slash my bread and lower into the hot dutch oven and close the lid. I bake about 10-15 min (usually closer to 10) with the lid on then remove the lid and bake another 15-25 min until the bread registers internally about 190-200 degrees depending on the type of bread I am baking. Then I place on wire rack to cool completely.The loaves in the pic are from the basic rustic loaf in her book: I had the lid on a little too long for my norm as it didn't develop quite as good of a dark outer crust due to a longer steam but this time was unique as I was actually desiring a lighter crust. They turned out perfectly.The second and biggest complaint is that her pictures and descriptions for how to fold and shape the bread or loaves are not great, especially if there is a novice baker trying to learn the skill. What would have been better would for her to provide a youtube link to SHOW the actual act of shaping or folding the dough in a slow methodical manner. That is how I learned over the years and had I not had those videos in my early years to learn from I would have been lost. Now I can shape dough like a pro and my rolls are gorgeous. That said, please go to youtube asap and check out videos on shaping boules, rolls, slashing techniques, and so forth. There is a plethora of fantastic techniques to assist you in making amazing loaves. San Diego Artisan Bread School does a great boule shaping video and Bake with Jack does a great demo on how to shape perfect rolls.All in all, this is a great book and I highly recommend it. I am blowing through the recipes in this book and anticipate having tried every single one by the end of next month:)

Great sour dough baking book