Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread

“Think of grain as fresh produce,”urges baker Jensen in this thorough and thoroughly delightful guide to baking sourdough, rye, and whole grain loaves. Developing and maintaining a worthy sourdough starter can be a chore, but Jensen (A Baker’s Year) guides readers through percentages and seasonal conditions with patience and good cheer. The novel way each recipe is introduced—method for refreshing the starter, yield and pan size, dough temperature, and skill level—is a small revelation in itself, beginning with the half whole wheat, half white flour loaf she dubs workweek bread and working up to a stunning cardamom bun bread. Even seasoned home bread makers will be surprised by a Flemish-style starter called desem (pronounced “DAY-zum”), which starts with a ball of moistened whole wheat flour buried in a container of dry flour and results in intensely “wheaty-tasting” pitas, stuffed parathas, and cinnamon-raisin loaves. Perhaps the most enriching information she imparts is the breadth of options for using those inevitable amounts of sourdough discard left over from refreshing a sourdough starter, among them coffee cake, pie and tart doughs, and sorghum graham crackers. With a fresh perspective and assured hand, Jensen offers no shortage of excellent ways to tackle the art of good bread making at home. (Aug.)