Sourdough Without Fail is now on Kickstarter

Creating a sourdough book for the rest of us

In some ways I’m grateful for the haphazard way I started with sourdough. I had previously been baking with yeast and had never found any recipes that really suited me, so I’d figured out my own. Switching over to sourdough, I took the same approach. I made some terrible loaves to begin with, but eventually figured out how to tinker with the starter amount, hydration, timing, temperature, and technique to produce breads with better flavour and texture.

If instead I’d followed finicky instructions from the internet or a book, maybe I would have been put off the whole idea.

I think a lot of books are written from a specialist perspective: someone that has focused on just one thing, written about it in isolation, without providing any guidance for those who do not have the same perfect conditions. I like to think of my book as being written by a generalist: Yes, I am making all my family’s bread, it’s an important part of how we eat and I love it, but I am also making cheese, fermenting, canning, preserving, gardening, caring for family and animals, building infrastructure, and all the other tasks that make for a diverse homestead.

Sourdough does not have to be difficult. You do not need to follow someone else’s schedule. By learning to understand why different techniques are done, you can decide for yourself whether it is really worthwhile to make a levain, autolyse, knead, stretch and fold, preshape, score, or any other aspect of sourdough.

By learning to really understand fermentation, and how the balancing act of timing, temperature, and prefermented flour percentage works, you can confidently adjust recipes to suit your lifestyle and your seasonal conditions.

Sourdough Without Fail has over 75 easy and adaptable sourdough recipes, along with detailed information to help the home baker really understand sourdough and learn how to tinker with recipes to get different results.

Not just bread

Sourdough is so much more than bread. Sourdough discard is a resource that I actually make on purpose, so that I can make the chocolate cake, apple pie, soda bread, pancakes, cookies, pie crust, and other discard recipes that I share in the book.

With sourdough you can make great pizza from wheat, spelt, einkorn, emmer, Khorasan, or gluten-free flours, and I will show you how.

sourdough pizza with olives and mozzarella — *Sourdough pizza with olives and mozzarella*

After years of making terrible burger buns, I’ve created two excellent roll recipes that will work for burgers, sandwiches, and more.

burger buns with sesame seeds on top — *Best ever burger buns*

Taking my fuss-free, busy homesteader’s approach to baking one step further, I’ve developed a recipe for Danish pastry that is more adaptable and down-to-earth than other Danish pastry recipes. I also share the most delicious doughnut recipe, and several recipes for different sweet buns, fruit breads, and more. All of these are 100% sourdough leavened, with 100% real food ingredients.

sourdough jam doughnuts — *Sourdough jam doughuts with homemade cherry jam*

I’ve created a chapter of gluten-free breads from 100% natural whole food ingredients, with something for everyone, and also tested gluten-free versions of the sourdough discard recipes, so that you can make gluten-free pancakes, cookies, cakes, pies, and more.

gluten-free sourdough bread — *Gluten-free sourdough bread made from oats, rice, and buckwheat*

Sourdough without fail!

If you’ve tried sourdough in the past (or if you’ve wanted to) and it hasn’t worked out, don’t despair. This book will help you to make your own sourdough bread, pizza, pastries, and more. Some of the best feedback I’ve had has been from recipe testers, including the quote from Gina that I’ll post below. If your past sourdough experiences have been like Gina’s, I hope you will also look forward to baking the recipes in my new book.

“I feel that at this point, I have to tell you how amazing these recipes are. I have tried to make sourdough for years and only ever turned out a brick. I'm on such a high from having successful loaves that I'm starting to look forward to feeding my starter instead of regarding it as a chore on the path to a hockey puck, lol! I can't wait to try the next one!!” - Gina, recipe tester

If you’re interested in learning more, please feel free to visit the Kickstarter page about my book. I’ve provided a discounted price and lot of bonuses that are only available while the Kickstarter is live for the next month. If you back the Kickstarter in the first couple of days you’ll also get access to this extra earlybird bundle of plans and ebooks.