Sourdough - How to Make Artisan Fermented Bread , Rustic Pizza Recipes and Homemade Yeast

By Mary Lo Caso

A Simple Loaf of Bread Can Create Many Small Pleasures 
 

Imagine thick, luscious dough clinging to your hands while you press and knead it with your fingers. Imagine the aroma of fresh-baked bread drifting throughout your kitchen, making your mouth water as you wait for the dough to rise. Best of all, imagine biting into the crisp crust and soft inside still steaming hot from the oven. 

In our hectic modern world of instant gratification, baking sourdough has become popular as a way to slow down and enjoy the moment. While it may seem easier to go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, this 5,000-year-old art brings rewards far greater than anything you can buy. While sourdough requires more effort than yeast bread, it also provides a tangy, robust, full-bodied flavor and a greater sense of achievement. 

Sourdough is a great resource with all the basics you'll need to know to get started on your baking journey. This book contains 20-plus delicious recipes specifically chosen for their short fermentation and rising periods. Sourdough allows you to not only bake this ancient bread but also to appreciate it as well. 

In Sourdough, you'll discover: 

• The history of sourdough, dating back to a Swiss fossil from 3,700 BCE. 
• Sourdough is experiencing a comeback today, partially due to its rise in popularity on social media. 
• How sourdough can be used in unexpected recipes such as pizzas, cakes, muffins, and pies. 
• The nutritional benefits of sourdough, including a high protein content, low glycemic index, low phytate content, and high lactic acid bacteria. 
• How the fermentation process used in sourdough lowers the pH of the bread, leading to better digestive health and disease prevention. 
• What type of sourdough starters you can use and how to ferment them easily at home. 
• How to maintain and feed your starter so you can bake it fresh at any time.  
• Recipes for French bread, brioche, beer bread, and baguettes, including a gluten-free option. 
• Sourdough breadsticks, buns, biscuits, and crackers to impress everyone at your next dinner party. 
• Sweet treats like sourdough banana bread, blueberry muffins, pancakes, and waffles. 
• The key terminology you need to know to bake sourdough, from activation to leavening to starter cultures. 

And much more! 
 

Sourdough is a delicious hobby that could become your next passion. Not only is it simple and inexpensive, it is also perfect for developing mindfulness or even to bake with your kids. Sourdough is the only reference you'll need to get started. With recipes for any level from beginners to advanced bakers, this book has something for every kind of baker. 

So grab some flour and water and start baking homemade bread. Scroll up and one-click on Sourdough now! 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Lo Caso
• Release date: Jun 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201622145

Book preview

Sourdough

How to Make Artisan Fermented Bread, Rustic Pizza Recipes, and Homemade Yeast

Mary Lo Caso

© Copyright 2021 - All rights reserved.

The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated, or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book, either directly or indirectly.

Legal Notice:

This book is copyright protected. It is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote, or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.

Disclaimer Notice:

Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up-to-date, reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaged in the rendering of legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, that are incurred as a result of the use of the information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: All About Sourdough

Sourdough Throughout History

The Popularity of Sourdough Today

Sourdough Bread vs. Yeast Bread

Time Factor in Rising

Rising Results

The Flavor of the Bread

Benefits of Sourdough in Food

Nutrition

Blood Sugar Control

Nutrients

Metabolism

Muscle Mass

Disease Prevention

Digestive Health

Sourdough Terminology

Activation/Starter

Autolyze

Bulk Ferment/Bulk Rise

Couche

Crumb

Dough

Elasticity

Enriched Dough

Feeding

Flour

Fresh Starter

Gluten

Hooch

Hybrid/Spiked Dough

Hydration

Kneading

Lactobacilli

Leaven/Levain

Long Fermentation

Maintaining a Starter

Mother Culture

Oven Spring

Pastry Flour

Poolish

Pre-Ferment

Proofing/Second Rise

Quick Bread

Resting

Retarding

Scoring/Slashing

Short Fermentation

Starter/Starter Culture/Sourdough Starter

Stretch-and-Fold

Chapter 2: Sourdough Starters

All-Purpose Flour Starter

Whole Wheat and All-Purpose Flour Starter

Gluten-Free Starter

Maintaining and Feeding a Starter

Maintaining a Starter at Room Temperature

Maintaining a Starter in the Refrigerator

Tips for Sourdough Baking and Starters

Temperature

Water

Don’t Overthink

Non-Reactive Containers

Make Plastic Your Go-To

Mold

Establish a Feeding Schedule

Kitchen Essentials

Chapter 3: Sourdough Bread for Every Taste

No-Knead Basic White Bread

Sandwich Bread

Soft French Bread

Brioche (No-Knead)

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Beer Bread

Baguettes

Focaccia

Milk and Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Cracked Wheat Bread

Cheese Batter Bread

Soda Bread (Discard)

Ciabatta (Spiked Dough)

Cornbread

Cinnamon Raisin Bread (Discard, Spiked Dough)

Chapter 4: Pizza, Pies, Tortillas, and Pitas

Pizza Crust

Pizza Crust (Discard)

Pie Crusts for Pies and Tarts

Flaky Pie Crust (Discard)

All-Purpose Flour Tortillas (Discard)

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

Pita Bread

Chapter 5: Breadsticks, Buns, Biscuits, and Crackers

Soft Breadsticks

Grissini (Italian Breadsticks)

Soft Burger Buns

Dinner Rolls

Cinnamon Buns (Spiked Dough)

Crackers With Rosemary (Discard)

Cheese and Chives Biscuits (Discard)

Chapter 6: Quick Bread and Muffins

Walnut and Maple Loaf (Discard)

Nutty Banana Bread

Pumpkin Spice Loaf (Discard)

Blueberry Muffins

Cranberry, Nut and Date Muffins (Discard)

Chapter 7: Sweet Treats

Brownies (Discard)

Banana Pancakes

Waffles

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Discard)

Lemon Cake (Discard)

Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting (Discard)

Conclusion

References

Introduction

We live in a world of instant gratification where we are used to picking up the phone and ordering what we want. Everything and anything can be bought by pressing a few buttons and having it delivered to your doorstep. It’s also just as easy to go to your nearest store and purchase whatever type of sourdough bread, pastry, cake, or whatever baked goods you would like to have.

So, why would anyone go against this easy and fuss-free lifestyle? This is an important question that you will have to answer numerous times as you start and progress on your journey into the world of baking with sourdough. People will ask you and be puzzled that you want to spend so much of your valuable time in creating something as simple as a loaf of bread when the shops are stocked with every possible type of bread.

Mastering sourdough baking is so much more than just a loaf of bread. It is a skill you learn that has been around for a very long time, at least 5,000 years. This, in itself, is the answer, because if people did not like doing this type of baking and natural fermenting, it would simply have disappeared.

Sourdough baking has numerous benefits for our health, but as you become proficient in baking, you will experience the benefits that are not so clear at first glance. Your sense of achievement as you see, smell, and taste the many things you can make with sourdough. You learn patience and determination, as sourdough starters are alive and as such do not always conform to what you may expect. Often you will have to practice until you get it just right. Making artisan loaves gives you much-needed ‘you’ time where you can step away from the insane pace of modern life and be in your zone to enjoy something just because you want to and not because you have to.

The internet is a wonderful place with so much information, it can often be overwhelming and also contradictory as people give information from their opinions and not simply facts. This book brings you all the basics you need to know to get you started with great recipes. The recipes chosen for this book have short fermentation and rising periods where at all possible to help you get into the enjoyment of creating great-tasting food using sourdough.

Chapter 1: All About Sourdough

Sourdough bread and the use of sourdough starters to bake have come a very long way and are widely used in many cultures around the world. The one thing that has never changed is what is used to start the whole process of making a sourdough sponge for baking. The same ingredients are still used today as it was a few thousand years ago. It can be said that sourdough has truly stood the test of time.

Sourdough Throughout History

Bread, as a food source, is ancient. It predates the written word, the Bronze Age, metal tools and weapons. Ancient bread was an unleavened form of flatbread. The first recordings of making leavened bread were done by the Egyptians some 5,000 years ago, although nobody knows if leavening was discovered accidentally or through experimenting. During the same period, different cultures were experimenting with brewing as well, so there could be a link there, but it was never recorded. Egyptian paintings and murals show that the people had started using sourdough and brewing beer at the same time. The oldest fossil of sourdough bread was found in Switzerland during an archaeological excavation and dated to 3700 BCE. This gives us a fair idea of how leavened bread with sourdough spread across the globe.

All bread was made with sourdough starters until the 19th century, when chemists in Austria started to mass-produce a form of yeast that was grown in vats of fermenting alcohol, skimmed off, and compressed into yeast cakes. At the start of World War II, the need arose for dehydrated yeast that would allow the bread to be baked on battlefields. Then, after the war, commercial dry yeast was introduced to the general public and was a huge success, as it cut down drastically on the time it took to bake bread.

In many countries, sourdough baking faded into the background, but it is kept alive through artisan baking, specialty bakers and 100% rye bread. In many European countries, sourdough bread never went out of style, because those cultures preferred tasty bread over the commercialized but quicker bread. The rise in popularity of sourdough baking started during the 1980s, as more people became interested in rustic and artisan

Reviews for Sourdough - How to Make Artisan Fermented Bread , Rustic Pizza Recipes and Homemade Yeast

[Yuki · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book. You should have this as a secret recipe.