DIY Sourdough: The Beginner's Guide to Crafting Starters, Bread, Snacks, and More

by John W. Moody, Jessica Moody

Your helping hand for adding simple, homemade, whole grain sourdough to your weekly schedule

Real life is busy enough without having social media-worthy sourdough on your to-do list. But if your goal is to make simple, nourishing, and delicious whole grain sourdough for your whole family, then DIY Sourdough is your one-stop beginner's guide. Coverage includes:

Simple sourdough recipes for breads, snacks, and more The secrets to consistent results Tips and tricks for homemade sourdough, including flour buying, home milling, and sourdough starter Homemade bread scheduling options, including split-day sourdough recipes for making sourdough an easy part of your weekly routine.
DIY Sourdough is your personal guide to getting started with sourdough. It gives you a helping hand to succeed and offers a simple time-saving approach to make nourishing and delicious sourdough that fits into a hectic lifestyle.

The Moody family has been making traditional foods, including fine-tuning sourdough recipes and making sourdough with grains, for over a decade. John Moody is author of The Elderberry Book, the founder of Whole Life Services and Whole Life Buying Club, and the former executive director of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Involved with farming, food, and homesteading, the Moody family of two old-timers and five rambunctious kids farms and homesteads on 35 acres in Kentucky.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2020

About the author

John W. Moody is a farmer, homesteader, speaker, and author.

Reviews

[Haley Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent basic book on sourdough. I would not necessarily recommend this to the beginner unless you were more focused on the ancient grain aspect of bread-making. I would have appreciated a book with more ferment time (although I can modify that), and more discussion of what fermentation actually does.
Some of these recipes look really fun to try! And I learned that chickens enjoy your sourdough discard.

Note to beginners: you don't have to follow a rigorous schedule as recommended in her. Starter is much more forgiving than that.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

DIY Sourdough is a fairly brief but very personal book by the author and his wife. The emphasis here is on healthy. It's a more holistic take on sourdough starters than you typically find since the author really recommends you use organic grains, whole grains, and heirloom grains such as spelt: and do your own milling to create the flour.

The book is more about ensuring you get a decent sourdough than recipes. As such, there is a lot of information to ensure you get it right - consistency, taste, and plenty of recommendations if things go wrong. Creating a sourdough starter is likened to raising a baby - you have to feed it on a regular schedule for 3 months or so to ensure that it matures into something with an excellent taste. Along the way, there will be extra starter that you can use for some of the recipes in the book such as waffles or pancakes.

A lot of emphasis is given on milling your own grains into flour. From the different types of equipment you would need to conversion charts, freshness, fineness, and how much to mill at a time. So those looking to create the freshest bread possible have a resource here in learning to use a home mill.

Each of the Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks sections contain around 6 recipes. From banana bread to french toast, crackers to artisan spelt bread. And although there are biscuits and roll recipes, there are only two bread loaf recipes in there. Several of the recipes have photographs that shows the steps. Each recipe has prep time, cook time, serving size, ingredients, and numbered steps. Tips are given to take the recipes a bit further or for storage such as freezing.

In all, I would say this is one of the few health-oriented sourdough recipe books available on the market today. But as the author says clearly, this starter won't taste like the regular white-flour sourdough but it won't be a brick, either. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Sydney Levi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read as I continue to enjoy baking bread for my family. It’ll be a different challenge to start this sourdough journey. This book makes the task seem less daunting than I originally had about the process.

[PoligirlReads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just okay. I'm going to have to look for a different book on sourdough.

I would have liked a book more on the chemistry behind sourdough and less an essay on how sourdough is a part of their personal lives. The cookbook felt tedious, and Moody's beliefs on breadmaking turn sourdough from a basic source of food into a luxury item. While I can appreciate the tips on grains, there's no way that I can source grains at the low prices he lists, nor can I have all the equipment on hand that he uses.

What he does well is offer a clear sourdough feeding schedule, along with useful conversion tips.

For all of this though, the proof is in the eating, and well, we eat primarily with our eyes. Not a single end product looked appetizing. This book is headed right back to the library.

[Michael D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of time

For most people this book is a waste of time. I would not recommend it. Baking ingredients should be measured by weight in grams not by volume,

[Lisa Vaxmonsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate this book for concepts and ideas, but the recipe themselves were not great. The English muffin recipe was incredibly dense. Not at all like an English muffin.

I did enjoy the read in the writing style and how the authors milled their own flour, but unfortunately I think some of the recipes missed the mark.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a complete newbie to sourdough I have found this book very helpful. It gave me a good idea of the process along with some tips. It’s very brief as well - read in just under an hour (excluding recipes).

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that all the recipes use whole wheat flour, and I love the method they use to keep their start alive. I've been trying it and I love it.

[Edward Fenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile book to read and gain experience for novices and modest talents like myself. I learned a lot from it. Now to try some of these recipes out. Enjoy.

[Louise King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tips for starters and maintenance of your starter. Interesting recipes to try!

[Maricela Salazar · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little pretentious but other than that there's some good info.