The Sourdough School: The Ground-Breaking Guide To Making Gut-Friendly Bread

This is an excellent book which explains the process of bread making clearly and concisely - this is the only bread book I have read from cover to cover - twice!!!So, if you're already a bread maker, why should you buy this book over any of the alternatives?I have several other books, but Vanessa's is one of the only books I've seen that talks about the terroir of your flour, roller versus stone ground flour, which talks about the types of LAB, how to change your environment to encourage the LAB you prefer, making your sourdough more or less sour etc. There are also very useful ideas about what to do with your leftover starter (blackcurrant and fennel, parmesan garlic and rosemary, mint powders etc - great idea!)There is a very comprehensive section on digestibility and nutrition, as well as details of suppliers, and interesting bakers to follow.The method itself is similar to the Tartine one, except I've now adopted Vanessa's autolyse and leaven techniques, and this has improved the structure of my bread. I've always found the Dutch oven method very tricky, because of the weight of the pot, particularly the inverted Lodge one, and especially when it's at 250ºC - nightmare. However I can thoroughly recommend the cloche that Vanessa developed with the Netherton Foundry - it's light, and excellent to use.Additionally, the recipes Vanessa has included develop in skill, and are definitely not those you find in other bread books. As well as the classic sourdough combinations, there are also recipes for:Blackberry, poppy seed and pea flower water breadWild garlic boulesJalapeño and cheese loafOlive and pickled lemon butter breadScandinavian buttermilk sourdoughTomato and herb breadSweet berry bread with rosewaterChocolate and roast hazelnut breadRosinbrødBeetroot, black pepper and feta batardsEarl Grey, fig and kamut loafSmoked kibbled rye & while cherry sourdoughMiso and sesameSoy, ginger and rice sourdough boulesPumpkin and polenta sourdoughHoneyed porridge loavesYoghurt light spelt boulesKefir milk sourdoughMalted muesliEinkorn and spent ale grain sourdoughCrackled black barley and stout breadSourdough baguettesAll in all it's an excellent book for both new bakers and those who just haven't quite found the right method yet.

I strongly disagree with some of the negative reviews of the book. I bought it when it was first published and have bought numerous copies as gifts for friends. Three of my friends were really struggling to make good sourdough bread I gave them some of "Vaneesa's starter, a recipe and methods of how to make the dough. They are all delighted and making good bread. I know some people don't like the layout of the book however I wholeheartly disagree. I have yet to see another book that goes into such depth.It is broken down into a very well thought out layout. Firstly Vanessa explains what sourdough culture is in detail that is written so home bakers can understand the information. Secondly all ingredients are explained. There is really good information about starter and levain management. I was struggling to understand about how to manage the starter however Vanessa explains it simply and its easy to understand. It's made a Hugh difference to my sourdough bread.Thirdly Vanessa goes into great detail about the process of making the leavain and dough and the importance of desired dough temperature. The processes are accompanied by beautiful photographs Vanessa suggests planning a schedule to make your bread and keep a loaf record. There is a fantastic selection of different recipes starting at a basic loaf and building on it as your skills improve e.g. cheese and jalapeno, wild garlic boules ( great in spring time ),chocolate and hazelnut bread, beetroot and feta to name but a few. There is specific advice accompaning each recipe pertaining tothe particular bread you are making Lastly there is a great discussion about digestibility and nutrition of the bread you make. Vanessa is inspirational enthusiastic and so knowledgeable. I have lots of bread books and there is no other book that goes into such detail. Its certainly a holistic approach to making sourdough bread.

I bought this book as a beginner. At first I found it very confusing and had to keep flicking back between the master method and recipes, with dough splattered hands. Now I've got to grips with the techniques & I've been using the book for several months, my bread is turning out really well. All the information & advice is there, the layout just needs updating & perhaps use a new editorial team, to make it all less confusing for beginners and remove the odd bits of conflicting information in the book. Having said all that, I love all the recipes & the science & now I understand it better, it's my 'go to' book for sourdough.

To begin with, I bought this book because I wanted to build my sourdough starter and kept failing. With Vanessa's instructions it worked from day one and felt like a very straightforward and fun process. As I am typing this my starter is almost a year old and thriving happily.The bread baking process was an emotional journey... It definitely took time for me. Not because the book isn't good enough - it's simply impossible to learn all the techniques by reading. You need to see the process at least once. So I did. I found a couple of bakers on social media, watched them, listened to their advice and then combined those tips with the book and wow, I started getting beautiful loaves every time! It is like a mediation for me nowadays.The book is packed with information on sourdough, grains, gut health, tips and gorgeous, gorgeous photography. And I adore how passionate Vanessa is about the subject and, in a way, taking us back to the roots, cultural history, appreciation of proper flavours and real food. We need more people like her out there.I've now got her other book, too. Cannot wait to start baking something sweet.

Just like the perfect sourdough loaf, with a beautiful crust and a welcoming, soft crumb, 'The Sourdough School' is a book of many layers. Whether you are baking your first ‘Classic white’ or reeling from the delicious possibility of a chocolate starter, there are clear and concise instructions that are backed up by all manner of supplementary notes.Whilst you are enjoying the deeper, more complex flavours of your sourdough toastie, Vanessa will lead you through every facet of the making process and, with a chef’s ability to combine flavours, suggest what you can do with your leftover starter. The very thought of a pumpkin and cinnamon sourdough dust is a revelation and one that triggers the imagination as well as the tastebuds.Vanessa gives very specific and precise instructions as a solid framework for you to work from. Once you have read the book thoroughly, it is down to you to translate each element into your own environment. As with anything in life, if you want to achieve a goal, you must make the effort and apply yourself.That said, you can tell from the way that the book is presented, Vanessa really does want you to succeed so follow her considered advice, even if it means buying some extra equipment. With careful planning, good ingredients and a decent pair of oven gloves, you too will be spreading butter onto a satisfying slice of real bread! Yum!

I'd love to be more enthusiastic about this book. It is full of useful information, the photography is very good, it is obviously written by an experienced and more than competent baker - but the basic text is in dire need of an editor's guidance to knock it into shape and a logical sequence. There are plenty of contradictions too: often on the same page spread.A couple of examples: On Step 4 (Autolyse), she advocates a pre-leaven autolyse because "Mixing develops the gluten and it is best to do this without any acidity from the leaven." But on the facing page, she discards this advice "because I have seen no visible difference between autolysing before or after adding leaven." In any case, the instructions for Step 3 (Mixing the dough) has the leaven whisked into the water before adding the flour - which rather settles the matter, either way. On Step 5 (Adding salt) the directions are the 1. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and mix in, and then 2. Use 25g of the reserved water to mix it. However, in the next column, there is another technique implied: previously adding 20g water at a time, several times, and only then (with 25g of the last 45g of water) mixing in the salt. Was that step 4.5?Others have commented on putting your starter into a jug of water and discarding the remainder (what remainder: it's all in the jug?), and there are lots of similar examples. Having taken the author's advice, and read the whole book, and made the backwards and forwards cross-references, I think I can piece together a sensible sequence and method: but it's mine, not the author's.The text needs the hand of an editor but has the potential to be a great book.

This book is amazing! I was feeling really down-hearted as I was finding ordinary bread difficult to digest and I have bread all of my adult life. Then I found this and it was a revelation. This book is more about a way of living your life than just picking out a recipe. It takes you fully into the world of sourdough and yes it takes time to master it but like many things it is worth taking the time. Now using longer fermentation times I can make bread that is digestible for me and a joy to make. I have just bought the Kingle addition too so that I can make sourdough on our motorhome travels next year. I can not bear to be without this book, it is beyond amazing!

If you are seriously interested in learning how to make good sourdough then this is a book for you. I’m a relative newcomer to making sourdough and until recently I based my bakes around information from a couple of books penned by celebrity bakers (who I wont name) who I felt would know best. The results that I got were mediocre, but at the same time better than my earliest attempts.Vanessa Kimbell’s book has changed all of that. It made me realise that making sourdough isn’t just an art, but also a science. She includes a lot of information that I found useful on flours, starters, leaven, nutrition etc as well as taking you through the process of producing sourdough bread. There are also recipes.I see some reviews have been critical of the book saying its complicated and not easy to follow. I have to disagree - if you follow the advice on the page entitled ‘How to use this book’, then its not complicated at all.Having read the book, I went back to basics and adopted Kimbell’s techniques. The resulting sourdough has been the best I’ve ever made.So - if you’re simply looking for a book of sourdough recipes then maybe this book isn’t for you. There are plenty of alternatives out there. However, if you’re looking to learn technique and understand the science behind making good sourdough, then this is the book will not disappoint.

This is a really beautiful book in terms of its appearance and something that I love to see on my bookshelf! The content is priceless, really valuable. It helped me to understand sourdough and how it all works and it has great formulae for various types of bread. I find, practically, that I tend to use the same formula all the time so you'd want to be more exciting than me to get the most out of this book...

This was recommended to me and I am so glad I made the purchase. Beautifully photographed and it really gets into the science behind the process. Highly recommended!

El libro es muy didáctico y está muy bien organizado. Es el lugar idóneo para iniciar si quieres preparar masa madre. Se puede complementar muy bien con videos y otras referencias.

This book is a dream. Every recipe book should be the same: brings you to *understand* what is going on, what you are looking & smelling for. Each page makes you want to discover more and more ...

Our family is full of enthusiastic bread makers; I made my first sourdough start (Alaskan) when I was about 12 and got many, many loaves of bread from it.My sister recommended this book; she is an expert breadmaker herself and knows I enjoy the science behind baking almost more than the actual baking. This is one of the first books I've seen on sourdough that breaks down the actual composition of the starter and its potential flavor profiles.I grew up near San Francisco, so I've always loved the deep tang of sourdoughs from that area. Commercial bakery attempts to reproduce them using other ingredients (acetic acid, yogurt, lemon juice, etc) are usually disastrous. It was great to see this book offer suggestions for flours, methods, and particular strains of lactobacilli that get you close to that great flavor.Highly recommended for anyone who loves to make bread.