What’s it on about?
This book is, fairly obviously, about Bread. More specifically it is about Sourdough bread. It has an excellent sourdough starter recipe that I have adapted and used on my blog (see the sourdough chronicles for that recipe). Kayser has an excellent introduction and he really focus’ on the science of baking, hedelves in detail into how bread works and what factors cause change in the making/baking process. He has an excellent page on diagnosing the issue when you bake bad bread, which let’s be honest we all do! He does however consistently refer to the flour he uses as plain flour, I investigated this to make sure, he actually means strong white bread flour for us in the UK. If you were unaware of this fact your bread would be coming out all wrong and the frustration levels would be high! What about the recipes?
The recipes in the book all revolve around sourdough. He also uses fresh yeast, however he does provide instruction on how to change it for dried yeast (which I do). The recipes are easy to follow and always come with a selection of photos. They are however, fairly similar and focus on the changes in resting, proving shaping rather than the quantity of ingredients. What the recipes show is how the small details in bread making really affect the dough and subsequent loaf. There are of course other recipes to your basic sourdough, with cheese and bacon rolls to breadsticks, it is a true bread book and with it you can become an excellent baker.
Should I buy it?
If you want to know about how to make bread, how small changes affect your loaf and what you can do to make excellent sourdough then YES. If you are happy knowing the basic mix, knead and leave and don’t bake bread frequently then it is not the book for you. Other books will suffice whilst offering great recipes in other areas of baking. Liam
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