Making sourdough accessible....

Sourdough is confusing. It seems like a lot of work. Like a pet you have to feed and discard its waste.
You have to keep it alive!
Michelle breaks it down and makes it accessible for those with a bit of baking knowledge and a few recipes and techniques for those with more advanced skills.
Recipes for bread, pastry and more.
Recommend.

Modern Sourdough: Sweet and Savoury Recipes from Margot Bakery is a tutorial cookbook by professional baker Michelle Eshkeri.

The book guides you through creating your own sourdough starter and mastering its use. The book goes beyond the bread recipes, it has also sourdough Pastry and Sweet Sourdough creations (perfect for my sweet tooth). Of course, savoury sourdough recipes are abundant too.

The book is a feast for the eyes with its stunning photography that makes you hungry just by looking at it.  I appreciate how the recipes are clear and simple to follow, supplemented with helpful tips. Starting from the basics of creating a sourdough starter, the book ensures you're well-prepared for the journey ahead.

This book is a must for those who've heard friends brag about their sourdough but lacked the patience or time to try it themselves. Now, you can join the sourdough party with confidence.

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own!

A great book for everyone. Something for novice and experienced sourdough bakers. So many great recipes inside!

The recipes in this book are easy to follow and the few I’ve tried came out wonderfully. Additionally, the layout and images in this are beautiful.

Title: Modern Sourdough: Sweet and Savoury Recipes from Margot Bakery
Author: Michelle Eshkeri
Publisher: White Lion Publishing
Pub date: 9/10/2019

I had high hopes for this one. I’ve never made sourdough starter and thought this might just get me to start. Unfortunately, I’m not very patient and felt intimidated even more despite the lengthy and detailed explanations. Part of me was really confused by why you discard part of your starter. Do you really discard it or use it with another one so as not to waste anything?

On the plus side, the pictures were gorgeous and made me hungry! There were other yeast recipes that I would have liked to try but, didn’t get the chance. The recipes and steps were well photographed to give one a clearer vision on what one needs to do and what the final product should look like.

For me, this one will have to wait until I feel more comfortable with the process to attempt any of the sourdough recipes. If I ever get the chance to go to Margot Bakery, I’ll be diving into as much as possible because it all looks so good and I wouldn’t want to choose just one!

Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this cookbook.

Such a gorgeous cookbook! The photography makes you want to head over to the kitchen immediately! It starts with the basics including how to start making sourdough starters. Steps are broken into themes, which is so helpful for newer bakers.

I like how ingredients are broken by into stages - that makes it much easier to separate and prep effectively.

At the end of recipes, there are a few different flavor variations which can gave you great ideas to execute or start your own ideation.
There are some ‘leftover’ variations too - like the twice baked croissants - that are so tempting! (Lemon/pistachio; tahini caramel)

I would like to see a summary time duration - sourdough baking isn’t fast, but it does help when browsing over what can be done over a day or weekend.

Overall this is a beautiful cookbook to add for any bread baker’s collection!

Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing/White Lion for the ARC.

This book is absolutely gorgeous! They really should make the cover just as gorgeous as the inside of it.

If I was not so scared of sourdough (or more exactly my incapability to keep anything alive, myself included) I would definitely have this book in my cookbook collection. That being said, this book has the most detailed and easiest to understand way to make sourdough. Even so, I am still scared to make it.

80% or more of the recipe features only sourdough recipes and I honestly had no idea you can make so many things using sourdough. I did save a few recipes that use sourdough and I saved even more of the recipes that don't use sourdough. The thing is, you can see the passion in this book and it really makes you want to bake - but I figured I should first learn to bake some of these things without sourdough because when you add sourdough things get a bit more complicated (but still tons of fun).

The pictures are gorgeous, the recipes are really diverse too and did you know that Australians have a cake-cookie-sweet similar to a Romanian dessert? I was shocked and now I want to cook them both and compare them.

Oh, the recipe featured in this book for simple syrup is actually a rich simple syrup (this is just fyi).

Beautiful pictures, and simple, step by step directions for starting and maintaining your sourdough starter then flows into lovely pictures and recipes of different types of bread, sweet pastries (croissants!) and cakes using your sourdough starter.

I appreciated the variety of breads, pastries, and savory recipes that are sure to satisfy all!

Thank you Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion | White Lion Publishing for the ARC!

Modern Sourdough is a great read for beginners and experts in sourdough, alike. With details as to how to create your starter, to information pertaining to the benefits of sourdough, the reader will learn much about this timeless art of bread-making. I am glad I picked this up to read.

This is a wonderful book for experienced bakers. It almost feels written for bakery owners. these are time consuming recipes but if you have the time they are oh so worth it. The sourdough takes time but the flavor is wonderful. The flatbreads are great and I loved the bagels as well. So many recipes to try....

Although I own and have reviewed a few books about sourdough, I cannot resist a new book about it. And as Michelle Eshkeri writes at the beginning of this book: "There is not only one way to make bread and there are as many ways to make good bread as there are bakers".

The book was written to share the recipes that Michelle bakes in her London bakery, Margot. The pictures are beautiful and leave you no choice but to try the recipes for yourself (unless you are lucky enough to live close to her bakery!).

The book starts with a good section on basics that covers the techniques for making a starter, keeping it, refreshing it and making the dough, shaping and scoring the bread as well as cooking it. The explanations are very clear and nicely organised step by step. They are very complete and cover everything you need to know to succeed in your baking. I would maybe have welcome a few more pictures of the various stages of starter and dough and of the main techniques as this would help less experienced bakers to enjoy using this book.

I will certainly have another try at making sourdough myself with this book and experiment with some of its recipes. There is a nice selection of loaves, with the Geronimo standing out for me. The sweet pastries range is also lovely and I have never tried sourdough sweet pastries before, but I will definitely try the sourdough banana bread. The savoury ones are definitely attractive, with a special mention for the fennel and feta muffins and the smoked cheese and beetroot pull-apart bread. With a chapter on the Margot non-sourdough specialities (Lily's tahini cookies sound delicious) and on spreads and jams, the book wraps it all up nicely.

This book is a nice addition to my sourdough collection and it will bring joy to many bakers who are prepared to take the time to go with the sourdough flow.

I love good bread, especially sourdough, and have to go out of my way to get it from local bakeries: making my own would make so much more sense but I have never found a simple enough recipe. Sadly, this book is no different, but that is not a criticism, I am just searching for the holy grail!!


Every recipe (with accompanying photos) looks delicious and I would eat them all! However, I do find the whole process of feeding starters a faf and in reality, until I retire, and have more time on my hands, I am unlikely to change my ways.

I did not know sourdough could be used in pastry and sweet desserts and will definitely try cinnamon buns and the salted caramel chocolate chip cookies when I can find that all elusive time. Until then I’ll drool over the photos and head off to the bakery….

This book made me want to bake bread again for the first time since I was in pastry school a decade ago. My husband used to keep a sourdough starter and I am thinking of buying this book for him so that we can get back into bread baking together. Thank you so much for this ARC, I really enjoyed it and the level of detail included in the book - great for someone who is a a beginner or hasn't baked in a long, long time.

This is a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to learn how to bake sourdough! It has a great selection of recipes that are easy to follow. The many pictures are also a great addition!

This is a great book. I have lots of bread baking books and this book has different receipes that I have not seen before. It seems to give a good guide how to start your starter and how to treat your dough but I have not tried any of the receipes.

I think I'm just too casual of a baker for this book. I found it overwhelming and hard to navigate. Though some of this is likely because it wasn't designed to be on my kindle. Might try to get it through interlibrary loan, see if that helps.

Holy smokes this book is not only drool-worthy it will make a great sourdough baker a great companion book.

I’ve been baking most of my life and at fifty I have collected hundreds of cookbooks and baking books, but there is only a handful I use every week and I could see myself using this one all the time. I love sourdough and have been using the King Arthur Flour method for many years and have been happy with it. Still, I am limited with recipes I can use my sourdough in so before I know it the sourdough is gone and I have to make it again. Hence, I need to broaden my horizon and have more recipes I can use sourdough in and this book would most definitely do that for me.

Not only does this book offer chapter after chapter of recipes for your sourdough, but it also offers specialties recipes for things such as cookies, cakes, and muffins and there is also jam and spreads.



Each recipe offers step-by-step instructions and wonderful images.

I've been making sourdough bread for about 6 years now and this book taught me new techniques and ideas for my hobby. I love the inventive flavors and types of sourdough Michelle introduces to us in this book. Fantastic read, can't wait to make some different sourdough breads!

I was really excited when got the opportunity to read this book. I'm always been fascinated by those who manage to bake bread. I tried several times in the past years but failed miserably. It looks simpler than it is, but this book was a great help! I tried some sourdough bread in some bakery and I deeply love eating in the morning just with some butter and fresh homemade marmalade. I love how the book it is structured, as guide the reader step by step. The initial part might look difficult, but as soon as it is well understood than it gets easier. I also liked that it includes different types of bread also with flavor.
I also want to take few seconds to say how important are the covers of the book. I think this book cover, was a good choice. It has to attract the customer, otherwise they will just get the one that has a better cover.
I loved this book in all its parts, and super happy that I managed to finally bake a bread that wasn't turning into a stone after few minutes!

Spoiler Alert: This book by the owner of Margot Bakery in London is NOT for the novice baker.
I am currently hell bent on moving away from pappy supermarket UPF bread and also moving away from industrial yeast. The plan is to get more fermenting buddies into the kitchen and sourdough is to join ranks with Hugo the kefir. I have some experience with sourdough (given, not made), but with a lot of travelling keeping it was a problem.
The starter process was explained in good detail, however the chapter on the starter and even more so the dough shaping would have greatly benefitted from illustrations - all those different folds are rather difficult to follow.
And you’d better have no full time job - e.g. the ciabatta takes 60 hours to make - sans baking!

All in all, an interesting and generous array of different sourdough bread and pastry recipes with mouth-watering pictures.