Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More Hardcover – Illustrated, November 3, 2015

I've only had the book for less than a month, but it's so fun and gorgeous. I read the reviews about the obscure ingredients, but I'm a good-enough cook that I figured I could find substitutes to work. I love how the book incorporates gardening, backyard and wild food foraging and info on interesting edible plants - it pairs perfectly with our learning and incorporating permaculture into our urban back yard. I've ordered the Nigella Sativa seeds and will be putting this lovely edible plant into my own cottage garden. I'm learning about wild plants I can forage and cook with in unusual ways, like burdock and her Pork & Rhubarb Pie. Yes, she has a recipe for Rough Puff Pastry made from sourdough! And one for Parsley Herb Donuts!Because of all that, the book is divided into seasons. Since I got mine in May, I started with the Spring section. Working with sourdough is such a new way of baking bread, there's a lot to learn and she gives plenty of details and recommended tools (again, though, I found things around my own house to use instead, like for proofing and shaping the dough). But so far each new recipe has been a delightful adventure, and even if it looked like it would fail, the resulting bread has turned out just fine. The Brooklyn Sourdough was delicious as was the Chive & Dandelion Popovers (I had fun foraging for young dandelions). I had too much starter which I needed to use, so I made the Rough Puff Pastry and froze it for later. The Turmeric Leeks Levain was also delicious as a savory bread (turmeric, leeks, shallots, poppyseed, flaxseed) - and a pretty, yellow color. From all this I found a foraging group on FB and gathered Spruce Tips from my own spruce tree which I made into Spruce Tips Shortbread Cookies (not in the Sourdough book). I'm putting some of the edible plants she suggests into my own gardens, and am learning how to forage new ones. The sourdough creations so far have all turned out absolutely delicious.Note: I just use white flour for her "bread flour" and with my Vitamix I grind my own whole wheat and rye flours. I've just used these for my flours, haven't yet searched out einkorn flour, or "high-extraction wheat flour" (whatever that is). I'll hold off on the Nigella (Love-in-the-Mist) and garlic stalks since I'm just putting those into my garden this year. I look forward to trying new recipes from her book each season as my sourdough adventures continue. I ordered Egyptian Sourdough Starter from Etsy and am having a wonderful time with it.

Bread, proper bread, in general, is not for the 9-5 guy that may not have time for some of the creative skills needed to bake some of the recipes in this book OR any bread cookbook for that matter. In baking bread for many years you get frustrated seeing the same old tired recipes that float all over the internet or in basic bread cookbooks. Is this a book for beginners? Hmmm... IT ABSOLUTELY SHOULD BE! If you want to bake exciting, tasty, PROPER bread - OUT OF THE GATE - this is the book for you! But, most importantly, if you want to develop the proper and correct skills in baking sourdough this is the book. Does it utilize obscure rare flours? YES! Only because as a society we have made these now obscure flours so rare and many of us have even more obscure and rare gut problems than ever before in history because as a society we only seem able to use unbleached white four specifically and genetically modified to produce levels of gluten not seen before.The ingredients used in these recipes are at times difficult to source, but, oh so worth while when used! Virtually all of the flours are available online either through Amazon or many other retailers. Every flour I've used thusfar was at my doorstep in 1-2 days. Some are considered ancient grains that have more flavor than the common tasteless flours used today. I have had to do without gluten for a year now and sourdough seems to be the only bread my digestive system can process. I've used other bread books that were simply lousy. It took my wife nearly 3 years to figure out the secrets to baking beautiful French baguettes before going gluten free. I was broken hearted! Now she uses those skills in sourdough bread making. The skills are no more difficult than baking regular bread, in fact, may be easier. Tired of endless periods of kneading? Bake sourdough - not required. More delicate methods are employed to bring a dough to its ready state. I find 36 hour fermentations work best for my health troubles. Oh, the utter joy of eating bread again!!Life can't be a simple series of effortless button pushing or easily prepared products that destroy our inner body. Take the plunge and enjoy this truly great book of bread baking recipes! Diverge from the rest of the herd and bake something really special! Don't let ingredients stifle your creativity, go into those specialty stores and ethnic shops and find more than your palette was ever expecting to find! Grow and indulge yourself in doing something new - and, yes - EXCITING!!