Most of my knowledge about sourdough came from three books, and I recommend all three to anyone who is looking to expand their sourdough repertoire.
Tartine Bread
Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. This book taught me how to make sourdough bread. I have tried all of the bread recipes. Through this process, I learned how to make my own starter, work with different flours, incorporate different ingredients, make different enriched breads such as baguettes and english muffins, and make sourdough brioche. I fully credit reading Tartine Bread with giving me the experience necessary to build my sourdough intuition.
I recommend Tartine Bread for artistic sourdough beginners and those who want to learn more about making baguettes, english muffins, brioche pastries, and savory brioche breads.
Flour Water Salt Yeast
Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish. FWSY has been an amazing supplement to Tartine Bread because it really dives into the technical aspects of sourdough bread baking. In fact, Ken Forkish has an incredibly helpful YouTube channel with technical tutorials:
I recommend FWSY for technical sourdough beginners and those who want to learn more about pizza. Although, for pizza, my top recommendation is actually Ken Forkish’s other book, The Elements of Pizza. Also, if you are ever in Portland you can visit either Ken’s Artisan Bakery or Ken’s Artisan Pizza.
The Cheese Board Collective Works
The Cheese Board Collective Works. As much as I love Tartine Bread, Tartine Bakery it is actually not my favorite bakery in San Francisco. In fact, I live within close walking distance of both an Arizmendi Bakery and Tartine Bakery. While I regularly wait in line for Arizmendi’s english muffins, I think I have been to Tartine once. Therefore, when I found out that Arizmendi’s sister bakery had a cookbook, I bought it immediately. While the described sourdough technique is much less nuanced than Tartine Bread or FWSY, this book provides a large collection sweet and savory pastry recommendations in addition to dependable sourdough staples.
I recommend The Cheese Board Collective Works for sourdough beginners looking for a super simple approach and those who want to learn more about simple breads and pastries (e.g. scones, muffins, focaccia).
Other Resources
There are tons of other resources out there and I recommend exploring. Here are a few blogs and guides that I have either used or others have recommended to me. I will continue to update this list.
- r/sourdough Reddit has a pretty active sourdough community that is constantly posting about recent projects. I never knew sourdough could be so visually appealing! They also have a list of resources.
- The Perfect Loaf A friend of mine recently recommended this site. I am very eager to try their sourdough bagels!
- Sour Flour. I used to live across the street from a shop that sold Sour Flour and attended a helpful bread workshop with them in 2018. I am not sure if they still exist, but they have some resource recommendations on their website.
- San Francisco Baking Institute. A few people have recommended SFBI to me; however, their programs seem to be a bit advanced. However, they have some helpful resources.