Cookbook Showdown: Sourdough Recipes

Published in 2020, this “new world” sourdough cookbook is indeed a fresh and exciting look at an age old technique. While sourdough is frequently associated with European cuisine, natural yeasts have been used to make breads across continents and cultures throughout human history. Ford’s cookbook teaches the basics of sourdough and keeping a sourdough starter alive, but it also explores ways to use your starter for a variety of international recipes like Honduran pan de coco, Italian ciabatta, Jamaican hard dough, Brazilian pão de queijo, New Orleans beignets, and Mexican birote. After a year of baking sourdough, seeing so many different flavors and techniques to make with my starter is thrilling, and I can’t wait to give more of these recipes a try. (I did try an olive oil and sea salt loaf recipe from this book, which is one of the less challenging variations. It was fantastic!) Let’s take a look at how Bryan Ford’s classic “Pan Rustico” sourdough turned out.

Emilie Raffa started her food blog The Clever Carrot in 2012. But after starting her journey with sourdough, The Clever Carrot slowly morphed into a sourdough-focused blog, and eventually led her to publish this cookbook in 2017. Raffa focuses this book on sourdough beginners, demystifying the magic of sourdough and helping home bakers learn all of the things they can do with sourdough starter. The cookbook features a variety of bread recipes for traditional sourdough and other styles made from the same starter, like roasted garlic knots and tomato basil focaccia. Further, Raffa includes recipes to make with sourdough starter discard, like cinnamon sugar waffles and gruyere crackers, as well as dishes to make with or accompany sourdough, like croutons, spicy white bean dip, and small-batch jams. Looking through this cookbook definitely inspired me to try new flavors with my sourdough starter. For this showdown, I made Raffa’s “Everyday Sourdough” recipe.

Baker Yoke Mardewi is known for teaching sourdough classes in Australia, along with lessons on other fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Unfortunately, her teachings don’t come across as clearly in her cookbook Wild Sourdough, published in 2019. Of the cookbooks I reviewed, this one had the fewest and the worst quality pictures. In fact, there are no pictures to help readers understand the techniques and process; only finished loaves. Additionally, Mardewi’s techniques are minimally described, and I couldn’t even find videos online to better understand her methods. The book does, however, feature a wide variety of flavors and mix-ins. Sourdough recipes include everything from halloumi mint to fig walnut to feta chilli. While this cookbook would certainly prove challenging for beginners, Mardewi does provide the tools to better understand the science of sourdough, the properties of various grains, and how to improvise. This cookbook might be a good fit for experienced sourdough bakers who want to learn to create their own recipes. For this cookbook showdown, I made Yoke Mardewi’s “Pain au Levain”.

This 2012 cookbook comes from Ken Forkish, owner of Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland. Forkish spent years learning the secrets to the most popular European artisan breads. Then, he spent years translating those bakery recipes to something amateur bakers could make in their home kitchens. This is the only book I reviewed that includes a majority of recipes that use store-bought instant yeast. However, all of those recipes serve as lessons to work your way up to artisan sourdough made entirely with natural yeast. The cookbook spends a lot of time explaining the science of bread and how slight differences in temperature and water to flour ratios can make all the difference. He also talks extensively about pizza, including different crusts, toppings, and methods. This book probably has the least diversity in recipes and flavors; it also teaches the most about technique. For this test, I made Forkish’s “Overnight Country Blonde” recipe, about which I will respectfully not make a one-night-stand joke.