This cookbook for sourdough baking is amazing! Easy recipes and good advise. I tried this with a 11 year old boy who is into cooking and baking and he loved it! Highly recommend!

This book is nicely laid out and illustrated with a good range of recipes. I am not suitable how useful it is for kids though as the processes involved are long and I think would not be appealing to a child. Also, much of sourdough involves dealing with an extremely hot oven.

My main difficulty with this book, and why I cannot give it 5 stars, is the over-complication of the starter creation and ongoing feeding process. I made my first sourdough starter in April 2020 as I was unable to buy yeast due to covid. Due to the nature of the creation process you end up with more flour/water mixture than you can use as the starter is not mature for 2 to 3 weeks.

Once mature you have no need to feed it frequently and certainly no need for discarding any. I keep 50g in my fridge and when I do feed it I simply add 50g of flour and 50g of filtered water.. When fully risen, that 100g added is the starter I use in my recipe and the remaining 50g goes back in the fridge goes back in the fridge for 1 day, 1 week or 1 month. Some leave it even longer and it is fine without being fed. The fridge temperature stops the fermentation process so ongoing feeding is not required if you are not using the starter. Also, no need to add a mixture of flours - white and wholegrain - just feed it a wholegrain flour if possible as there is more goodness in that flour to keep your starter lively..

The first 2/3 weeks when I was creating my starter I had 'discard' but have never had any since. What a waste of flour and/or making things from 'discard' you don't really need. If you are teaching a child, or yourself as an adult, you are best to practice and get used to how a risen (fed) starter looks and how long it takes rather than follow the prescriptive timings and temperatures in this book.

Having relocated to be close to my grandchildren, and having baked sourdough myself, this book was a perfect introduction to teaching them about sourdough, how special it is, how fun it can be, and helping them make great loaves for the family. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I have also purchased my own hard copy.

Full disclosure- I didn’t read this book for my kids. I love sourdough but a starter has always scared me. I figured a book for kids may be easier for me to follow. Not as overwhelming. I was right. The author talks you through each day and what your starter should look like. Also how to troubleshoot if there’s an issue. (Though starters are temperamental you may just have to start over on day 6)

After figuring out your starter (go you) the author includes different loaves and different recipes to use with your starter. (Sweet & savory) I also learned English muffins and crumpets are not the same thing. The more you know.

This book would be wonderful for kids (hello science lesson & yummy treats) but it’s also terrific for people that need sourdough spelled out for them step by step.

This book shouldn't be limited to kids. There's a ton of good info and recipes in here for anyone who wants to do more baking with sourdough starter and discard.
The book starts with how to build and maintain a starter. Then there are recipes for various types and flavors of sourdough loaves and other dough recipes using starter, savory and sweet recipes using discard, and a chapter on yeast baked goods.
My favorite part of this book is the charts along with the bread recipes (and some of the others) showing a sample schedule - this is a part I always try to figure out on my own, and it is really nice to have it already there.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a thorough book!

I didn't get on the sourdough train early in the pandemic because I found the process confusing. This book is really helpful in understanding how it works and what to do! The book has a guide that is based on either weight or volume to make a starter along with information of how to keep your starter alive, a timeline of feeding your starter for the first couple weeks, and suggestions for using your discards.

The recipes include sweet and savory breads. There's some unique ideas I hadn't heard before. While there is some complicated language and things that younger kids may not understand, the book is generally pretty accessible and has a good variety of recipes.

Overall a nice find!