Customer Reviews

Sourdough Breads and Coffee Cakes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bad title.
The recipes within are not true (pure) sourdough. They all, but one, contain lots of dry yeast.
There are no pure rye or wheat starter recipes given nor are they even mentioned let alone discussed
Her starters are: Beer, Hop, Ginger beer, Peach leaf, raw potato, cooked potato.
Recipes are for MASSIVE amounts...4 to 6 1lb. loaves. Impractical, for me anyway.
Lots of fats and eggs (4 to 13!).
A few ingredients I've never heard of nor seen in any store, such as maple syrup cheese, maple-honey syrup, hickory smoked cornmeal, spiced peaches, rice polish.
Recipes just weren't appealing.
Also this is an old book. 1967, 1983

Only recommended if:
You have 6+ kids who all eat sandwiches everyday, you have no fear of high fat and cholesterol and aren't looking for, nor care to learn about, pure sourdough startes/recipes/methods.

If you are looking for a great bread book, which covers pure sourdough as well as yeast spiked, and is up to the minute on techniques in fermentation etc to bring out the best in the flour and other ingredients get The Bread Baker's Apprentice By Peter Reinhart. I've made 10 different breads from it and they've all turned out terrific.

I was very disappointed in this book. Not enough sourdough starters for the average cook. For instance, "Peach Leaf Starter", "Hop Starter", etc. The book was not worth the price. Unless you want unusual recipe's, don't get this book.

I have repeatedly turned to this book to make the West Coast French Sourdough Bread on page 115 of the book published in 1967. I now have to order a new book because the one I have is falling apart. While there are not a lot of varieties of sourdough starters, the one I have from this book is twenty years old and everyone loves the bread I make.

I am a bread baker. Every week I enjoy baking bread. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to experiment making different breads. It will encourage you! Jan B.