Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook
by Ed Wood
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ed WoodEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-11-30
ISBN: 1580083447
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Book Reviews of Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook
Book Review: Straightforward, Simple, Successful Sourdough Bread
Summary: 5 Stars
Since learning to bake bread 5 or 6 years ago I've always held sourdough to be the ultimate achievement in bread baking. In that time I perfected my pizza dough recipe (using instant yeast), and could use the same dough to make a pretty good loaf of white bread. My preferred method is to mix the dough and leave it for a long, long proof in a cold fridge. Fermenting dough before baking, however, is really just an attempt to partake of a bit of the sourdough process without adopting it completely.
Part of the problem with the whole topic of sourdough is the name. The bread baked from a "sourdough" starter doesn't have to be sour. Peter Reinhart prefers to call it "wild yeast" to be more exact. For thousands of years bakers had to rely on the single-celled fungi that are in the air, in the flour, even on our skin, to leaven dough. But this process was (and remains) as much an art as a science. Some bakers learned how to cut corners by borrowing the foam from beer brewers for its yeast. In the 1860s the Fleischmanns figured out how to cultivate and dry "brewers yeast" and revolutionized the baking industry.
But, convenient as commercial yeast makes baking, it's not the same animal (ok, plant) as wild yeast, and there are purists out there who claim this shift was the beginning of the decline of bread. There are studies to suggest that they have a point: one indicates people with Celiac disease can safely eat wild-yeast bread, and another suggests that because of the increase of lactic acid and the reduction of simple carbohydrates produced by the sourdough process,wild-yeast bread could be of benefit to diabetics. Accomplished bakers like Ed Wood, a scientist living in Idaho, recommend using wild yeast exclusively and avoiding "contaminating" your bread with commercial yeast. Dr. Wood worked with National Geographic on a project concerning a bakery on the building site of the pyramids in Egypt. He successfully captured the still-abundant yeasts from the site, and they are among the international cultures you can buy from his company, Sourdoughs International. His book, Classic Sourdoughs, is a classic of its own for its straightforward and sensible approach to this seemingly complicated field.
A few weeks ago I was bitten by the sourdough bug again, and borrowed every book available through my library system on the topic. There's plenty of contradictory advice from writers on just about every step in the process, from starting the culture and keeping it active, to making the dough. Everybody has their own opinion concerning the proper method of capturing wild yeast for your own culture, with some authors complicating the process with grapes or pineapple juice. I don't doubt these procedures work, but I followed the method that had worked for me before. I simply combined a little flour and water into a ball of dough the size of a golf ball, put it into a jar, covered it with plastic wrap and left it on my counter for a few days. After "feeding" it with a little more flour and water and leaving it for a few more days I could tell from the air bubbles that my yeast colony was active. Come to find that was pretty much the same simple method Dr. Wood teaches in Classic Sourdoughs.
From there I had to find out how much starter I needed to have in order to make a loaf of bread. Some bakers use only a tablespoon or two and build it up from there, others use as much as two cups. Again, I don't doubt this or that recipe, but I just needed an easy template to work from. Classic Sourdoughs seemed to have the easiest: every recipe starts off with wild-yeast culture in liquid or sponge form (thinner or thicker consistency, respectively), to which you add a little flour and water and let it proof for 12 hours. You "build" it up again with more flour and water, and let it proof for 8 more hours. Then you add the rest of the ingredients (salt, other flours, sometimes oil or eggs), form your loaves and let them rise for another 1 - 4 hours until fully proofed. Bake, cool and eat. There is nothing difficult about any step in the process, but it takes a bit of planning ahead.
With small alterations, this is the formula for everything from San Francisco sourdough and rye bread to sourdough pancakes and cinnamon rolls. All the breads I've made from this book have come out fine. I've made the San Francisco recipe (great, but not sour), pizza dough (the crust came out nice and soft, but my wife thought it was bland compared to my usual recipe), and Middle Eastern pitas (I used whole wheat flour - delicious with a little tang). From his batter recipe I've made the cornbread (very good and not too "corny") and banana bread (awesome and moist). The only disappointment so far were the sourdough pancakes, which were rubbery, but that could be from creating gluten by mixing the starter too vigorously. Wood's method doesn't require thrice-daily feedings like some authors, making me think some people don't trust their starters to get the job done. I would only add to his method what I learned from Peter Reinhart: the finished dough can be put in the refrigerator to build more flavor or simply to wait until you're ready to bake it! I did this with the wild-yeast pizza dough and it worked fine. Now I'm looking forward to trying his rye recipes, too.
Summary of Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook
Bread lovers and baking enthusiasts who covet the mouthwatering aroma and tantalizing taste of the most esteemed of breads, sourdough, will delight in CLASSIC SOURDOUGHS, an updated version of our essential baker'¬?s companion, WORLD SOURDOUGHS FROM ANTIQUITY. Author and sourdough aficionado Ed Wood describes the basics of preparing a sourdough culture, and then moves on to building, shaping, and baking these storied loaves from the ground up. En route, Wood mixes hard science with a profound respect for baking traditions, emphasizing the importance of ingredient selection and paying homage to the baking techniques practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Baking, history, chemistry, cultural anthropology-this is truly a sourdough magnum opus, an engaging, authoritative volume that, most importantly, will show you how to prepare these scrumptious breads in your own kitchen.?ΔΆ Includes over 90 delicious recipes and an up-to-date chapter on baking authentic sourdoughs in bread machines.?ΔΆ New information on Dr. Wood's latest discovery-a culture considered to be the authentic San Francisco sourdough-that will allow you to re-create the world-famous taste of San Francisco bread in your own home.Bread Books
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