Customer Reviews

Simple Sourdough: Make Your Own Starter Without Store-Bought Yeast and Bake the Best Bread in the World With This Simplest of Recipes for Making Sourdough (or Sour Dough)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

This book is a printed edition of what had previously been an electronic book (PDF) sold here on Amazon. This is a very short book, for a very low price. It contains all the information you need to start making sourdough bread TODAY. You do not need to purchase yeast or sourdough starter. You can add many additional ingredients for taste & texture, but you can get by with flour & water alone if you wish.

This is NOT a cookbook, in the sense that you will not find dosens of recipes here. You will find only one recipe and the author will present you with several (simple) variations on it. There are many books on making sourdough breads that come with dosens of recipes. If you feel this is what you need -- skip this one. I didn't and I'm very happy I got it. Read on...

WHY I LIKE IT

Rather than merely listing recipes, this book TEACHES you all you need to understand about sourdough. You could say, "the theory of sourdough". It explains in great detail what is dough, why dough rises, what are yeast, what kinds of flour exist and how to pick the ones you want, what is sourdough, how a crust is formed, etc. If you read this book, you will actually learn a few things, rather than have some mindless recipes to follow. Once you understand this ONE SINGLE
recipe, you will be able to improvise and invent and modify it to create countless delicious variations. All on your own, all without any additional help.

This book will make you independent:

- You only need four and water and salt. You don't need to buy yeast or sourdough starters. Ever.

- The recipe works. Period. I've made my third batch last week, and the results are getting more and more delicious with each try. I've been making some variations on the basic recipe from day one, and it's been wonderful.

- You do not need to measure or weigh ANYTHING: Not flour, not water, not sponge -- NOTHING. The book will show you how to use textures to figure out what's missing and with experience, nothing will be missing

-- you'll be cooking like your great-grandmother probably did -- with your own intuition.

- There's no real substitute for understanding. Luckily, there's not much to understand: Reading 9 pages is something you can do in a matter of minutes. Personally, I'd much rather have a book with one recipe, that would show me how to create countless others, than have a book with basically a long list of recipes and no principles to guide me. This book is one of the shortest routes to making sourdough breads -- get it and you'll love the results!

- If you enjoy making bread, if you're health conscious, if you want specialty breads (e.g., low-salt, low-sugar, etc), and are willing to experiment a bit, then this is a real fun book to have. Also, specialty breads are not cheap in the US: FOR SPECIALTY BREADS, THIS BOOK WILL PAY FOR ITSELF IN AFTER ABOUT THE SECOND LOAF.

If you want to make naturally leaven bread with wild yeast you can make in your kitchen, Simple Sourdough is the essay to read. I love the idea of making something from nothing, and the concepts I gleaned from this booklet grounded me in the basics of sourdough bread making.

My whole-wheat starter (as described in this book) is bubblier and more active than a starter I tried to cultivate with store bought dry active yeast! It takes much patience to make this work, but it's well worth the effort. I make the tastiest bread, for little cost or trouble, and my family loves the results.

Simple Sourdough is not a book of recipes; it's pages filled with a concept to sourdough bread making that can be expounded on with a cook's initiative and imagination. I would recommend this booklet to anyone who wants to make sourdough simply for years of enjoyment.

After years of trying to make sourdough bread I found Mark Shepard's webpage recipe for a sourdough starter. Three days later I had a wonderful bubbling starter. Then I bought the book and now I am making the best bread I have ever made, and what is more, the best bread I have ever tasted. This bread is 100% whole wheat with the great sour taste of the best yoghurts and kefirs. Warning! It is addictive. But what a fine healthy addiction to have.

I need to pay attention so that I don't write in this review more than this book's content. Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but this is a brochure with 16 pages, left-side pages contain only some decorative drawings, and on the other 8 the writing is rather big and covers only 60% of the surface, so it feels very airy. I'm not saying this is good or bad, just that's the way it is.
The book is basically a simple recipe - how to make a tasty and natural bread just using whole wheat, salt and water. You don't need any yeast - that's the special part, the yeast-like micro-organisms are being collected from air (which means that the taste depends on where you live and make the bread).
It is named "sour" because there is a stage where you let the yeast "eats" the gluten (wheat sweetness), the result being a pre-digested (and more sour) and tasty product, easier to assimilate, especially by people who otherwise have a gluten allergy. Sourdough breads are healthier than other breads.
He explains how it works, where you can make variations (he even suggesting some ideas) and ends up explaining that until 150 years ago this was he way bread was made, but commercial baking had people stop carrying their own yeast and made them buy it (or even buy the entire bread).
It's easy to make bread, now I know it first hand, and actually it was the first I made any kind of bread. If I did it (with a yummy tasty result), then anyone can do it.

This is my first review, but I had to write something about this simple and wonderful book. I've picked up half the books on Amazon for sourdough and this pamphlet of a book it great. He tries to teach a technique and give a few ideas of how one can play with different ingredients.

My first sourdough bread in 15 years was made using his technique and was very good. The other books were good too but I've notice many of their recipes seem to follow Mark's basic technique, but with a few twists. If you want to make sourdough you can't go wrong with this simple little book.

This is a little tiny booklet with one recipe for sourdough. It is too basic for most and I doubt it will help you decide to try sourdough. "Adventures in Sourdough" by Wilford is a much superior and complete primer for making you fall in love with this natural baking.

I think this is a very interesting book, and the foreword answers why:
"I first learned to love this bread while visiting the Community of the Ark, a utopian society founded in France by an italian disciple of Gandhi. On my return home, a friend tought me how to make the same bread - or pretty close. Some further experimenting ended up with the method in this booklet."

I was shocked when I saw what I paid so much for. The only thing it has going for it is the recipies and darned few of them! Buyer beware!!

This is a simple little booklet that I bought because I needed just a few more dollars so I could get free Super-saver shipping! But, I really wanted to get a simple recipe for sourdough bread. (I also bought a book on making earth ovens, so I can't wait to build my oven and try this simple recipe!) If you're totally new to sourdough, this will be something to get you started. Don't expect anything spectacular... hey, what do you want for $3.00! It was worth the $3.00 to me, though.

Simple sourdough is simply an overstatement. One single recipe and the random musings of a bread maker barely filling the pages, unless you count enlarged, bold print. I was very disappointed in this book and give it the lowest recommendation. By the time you pay for shipping, you could have easily purchased a book on the subject, locally, giving you the same information, and more. You could also Google the topic and receive the same information for free.