Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook

This book really is for the home baker who doesn't have the special ovens and tools of the artisans like Daniel Leader's Bread Alone or Nancy Singleton"s La Brea Bakery. Ed Wood's book gives instructions that can be used with any sourdough starter although I have produced far better sourdoughs with his starters than any I captured myself. There isn't a baker's yeast recipe in the entire book. If you're a novice baker or an old hand, you can learn a lot about sourdoughs from this book.

This is the only book I have found that really tells how to make sourdough bread the right way without having to use yeast. The book gives explicit instructions from the moment the starter comes from the refrigerator until the finished loaf leaves the pan. The step by step methods tell how to produce an active starter every time so the bread always rises well.

Each recipe gives different options for length of proofing cycles using different proofing temperatures. I was never able to control the temperature during proofing until I read the description for making an inexpensive proofing box described in the book. It made all the difference between success and failure.

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I began following this author quite a while ago including reading ealier books because there wasn't that much information about baking sourdough bread. He has simplified the directions a little but I was never successful with his directions until I took a course at King Arthur and discovered that baking sourdoughs isn't all that complicated. Now I make naturally leavened bread almost every week. I finally trashed the silly "proof box" that Mr. Wood recommends. I occasionally dip into this book to try the recipes and I'm pretty sure some of them have significant errors (the SF sourdough turns out more like a ciabatta because either the flour or water measurments are wrong). If you want a really good book on bread baking check out "Bread A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman. It has lots of good sourdough recipes based on solid baking formulas.

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The thing I liked best about Dr. Wood's new book was the section on doing sourdoughs in bread machines. For the last 10 years I've been totally frustrated trying to get a decent sourdough out of a machine. Now, I'm turning out a perfect sourdough with the sourness I really like and the loaf comes out with that open texture with all the big holes of a real San Francisco sourdough.

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I have used the recipes in this book and they work pretty well with the Sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour I then purchased some starters from Ed Wood and followed the instructions in the book. When they did not revive (they came dried) his basic reply was "tough" even though they claim you will get a refund. Since the book is an infomercial for his starters I would think they would be a little more friendly!!