World Affairs Brief, January 27, 2023 (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).
SOURDOUGH BREAD RESOURCES by Andrew Skousen
Sourdough natural yeast is a key part of every self-sufficient homestead because it reduces good bread making down to just three ingredients: flour, water and salt. When we started making sourdough bread the first loaves turned out like dog biscuits—teeth-jarringly hard. But the loaves now are soft and sturdy enough for sandwiches and a host of other sourdough baked goods like muffins, waffles and homemade crackers. So don’t worry if you have some rough loaves along the way. Here are some books, tools and classes to help speed you along the path to better tasting and higher quality homemade sourdough breads and baked goods.
Wardee Harmon’s Class:10 years ago this class made all the difference for our sourdough and we enjoyed many of the recipes from her pdf cookbook. The course has since been expanded and is now a combination of video lessons, a printed book and an ebook. Her course is also the cheapest at just $67. It is a good introduction to all the possible recipe options with sourdough from whole grain bread to cake.
Melissa Richardson’s Cookbooks: Your most reliable recipes need to be printed out and bound. We have recently been using The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast ($25) whose simple recipes work well for us without much tweaking because they were developed at a high altitude, low humidity climate like ours. Although co-authored with Caleb Warnock, it is written by Melissa and she cheerfully walks you through all the steps of developing your own sourdough starter or maintaining one and how to bake with it. Her explanations are straight-forward and functional. The six basic bread recipes that form the core of the book (including one for bread machines) are very versatile and she teaches you how to adapt them for rolls, pizza, etc. Look for the Second Edition.
Her follow-on cookbook, Beyond Basics with Natural Yeast: Recipes for Whole Grain Health ($34), builds on the first book (and does not replace it) with a huge variety of new recipes from more breads like rye and pumpernickel bread to pretzels, pastries to sourdough pasta, cornbread, pizza dough and much more. It also has a valuable section on troubleshooting. I recommend owning both books in your preparedness library.
Tools: The most important tool is a wheat grinder. We like the MockMill for quality but our Nutrimill still does most of the heavy-lifting because of its speed. A Danish dough whisk is excellent for mixing the flour—especially at the early stages of the sourdough bread process. Kneading is historically done by hand, but many turn to a Bosch mixer for this job. We have liked the products from Breadtopia, especially if you want to continue your sourdough bread journey into the artisan style breads. Clay and cast-iron baking molds seem to perform the best, and bakeware with a lid (like Dutch ovens) can keep the steam inside if you want that special crispy crust.
The cold, bleak days of winter are an excellent time to heat up the oven and hone or learn a new sourdough baking skill. Not only is warm, fresh bread especially nice this time of year, but by letting the natural bacteria and yeast in sourdough work on your grains first, the baked goods made from them are healthier and tastier. You can make your own sourdough starter or get one from cultures for health—they are having a sale now (and every January) to rotate their products through. Breadtopia also has a live sourdough starter culture for only $9. With so many valuable resources it is easier than ever to get started or improve your sourdough bread baking skills.