The Sourdough School: Sweet Baking: Nourishing the gut & the mind Kindle Edition

I loved her first book which opened up a world of healthy sourdough, however I do not have the time it would take to build these sweet desserts; spending 3 days building 2 loaves of bread is efficient because I've got it down to a science, it takes very little REAL time to achieve and so I do not consider that a time pressure.I just went through the book tonight as soon as I received it, there is ONE recipe I'd be tempted by but that is because I already have a starter I began from Vanessa's first book.These recipes however, are complicated, take a great deal more prep time and frankly, judging from the artistic photos provided ,end up looking mostly like small bales of hay. One of the aspects of baking I enjoy is the visual results of what I have achieved and (yes, this is VERY subjective) but the results here look more like I've a really BAD day in a hot kitchen and am attempting to make the best of it.I've been trying to return it but as usual, Amazon throws you in a loop you can't get out of, describing non existent return buttons. I will try on my laptop tomorrow instead of my kindle.I am certain anyone who is willing to spent hours making specialty mixes to use in these processes (or even recognize what the ingredients are) and then another 3 days building a cake ,or are lucky enough to artisan bake for their living, will love this book I simply do not have the time or the inclination.But...DO get her first book, it is STELLAR! It allowed me to weather some pretty spectacular (and hilarious) disasters in attempting to build my sourdough while it either chose death over dishonor or attempted to escape taking its container with it!Edited to say:This edit is more about Amazon's policies than the Kindle book itself.I ordered this book on the 15th of June and just found out the return window was June 22nd, for a book I did not receive until yesterday August 8th. So I guess if you pre-order something, it is yours no matter what.I have another book on pre-order which has been moved back from its original delivery date but it is not a book on how to do or make something.If I don't like it, the author is someone whom I respect and I would just think it an aberration.However this cookbook I would consider a tool and this experience very much like ordering a set of hand grass clippers to clean up corners of a small lawn and having Amazon deliver a combine without the recourse to return. it.

This book is well put together but not for an average baker. She gives ratios to make your own herbal flour blends (honestly I bake for success and relaxation not to struggle for 3 days). There honestly wasn’t one thing I’d like to make in this book (hoping I can return it). There’s several chapters in the beginning based on gut health, etc and it was not why I bought this book. All in all one of my least favorite cookbooks of all time and I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. I’d skip this and buy pretty much any other sourdough book....yes, it’s that bad

I love this book!It’s taking your sourdough baking to the next level!You don’t need a mill (I do have one) to use the book! I don’t have all the ingredients, substitute! Or don’t use! I didn’t have all ingredients when I milled the flour. I left it out! The cookies tasted great!There are some fruits I don’t like, I’ll be using another type.This book is about you using some imagination! Making the recipes yours! Remember where you live! I’m in the south, things ferment faster.Have fun with this book!I’ve updated the photos, two that I’ve baked from the book.

A well written and informative book IF you're interested in all the ins and outs of gut health, plus making a number of ingredients that are not available commercially before baking. I'm not interested. I was interested in a sourdough cookbook with recipes for sweets. These recipes are more trouble than they're worth at least to me. When I was younger, I would have taken up the challenge so this just might be your cup of tea!

Was very disappointed in this book. Not sure who is it for... I love since and I love baking and I wanted to deepen my understanding of sweet baking but this book isn't about that at all... It feels a lot of it is about "herbal flour blends" she makes (and I have a feeling she will try to sell soon).If you want a book about sweet sourdough baking THIS ISN'T IT.

As someone who works in a medical field nothing makes me happier than opening a book that makes claims about our gut microbiome and mental health and actually seeing sources cited. I would’ve loved more citations within the text (although all are available online) but I do understand that would have likely been distracting for readers.So far I have read through the book and have not yet tried a recipe— I will update my review when I have! But on just information and inspiration alone I’m hooked! I don’t have a mill but I’m inspired to combine different ingredients that I don’t need a mill for. And I’m completely hooked on fermenting my foods for improved health! This was clearly a labor of love and the book as a whole is beautiful.

Vanessa truly understands the beauty of sourdough baking, and it shines through in this book. Her love for the craft, and her passion to share well- researched recipes and foods with those around her is inspiring. Sweet Baking exposes the flaws of refined ingredients in most of our desserts and sweet treats, and gives readers the knowledge and resources to truly show affection through food by means of whole grain fermentation. Beautiful. Artistic. Informative.

I have been baking bread for about half a century, and Sourdough is a passion of mine. This book revealed so much more to me than I knew, and I am most grateful to now be able to make sweet dough products with a sourdough starter. I never ever thought to try that! Onward to new adventures that are also healthier!

I was really looking forward to this book, I pre-ordered it back in July. I have the author’s previous book on sourdough, The Sourdough School, and I still use her fantastic ‘method’ to make delicious sourdough bread. I was hoping that this new book would allow me to use my starter for easy sweet treats on days when I am making bread anyway. Unfortunately, this is not the case.The book centres around gut microbes diversity and research findings that show that the main contributing factor to achieving optimum diversity is down to the number of different plants/nuts/seeds/grains/herbs/berries we eat each week, ideally 30 different varieties. I was familiar with this prior to reading this book, and in my household we actively try to maximise this diversity in our diet.The first about 50 pages of the book are science relating to microbiome and flour, which I found to be an interesting read, but it is full of scientific terminology.The next section is about creating botanical flour blends by home milling! There are 10 different blends in total, containing a mixture of grains (such as spelt, einkorn wheat and emmer wheat), dried edible flowers (such as mallow flower, rosehips and hibiscus flowers), herbs/spices and others (such as dried blue corn, cocoa beans and green/wakame seaweed). These are then used to form the basis of the recipes. I imagine most people won't have the time, accessibility, storage space and/or financial resources to attempt this. Although it is stated in the book that you may use supermarket bought wholegrain flour for some of the recipes, but then you will be "more restricted" and the blends will be "less diverse". Not all of the recipes suggest this alternative.The book then moves onto more science about eating symbiotically (probiotics), which then leads to recipes for 'additions', that you can then use in the sweet baking recipes. These include things like malted orange labneh, butter/ghee, various syrups etc.The next section is about the sourdough process itself with more science and a guide for creating your own starter. Again, it is interesting, but if you have been baking with a sourdough starter for some time, then you will be mostly familiar with this.Then, finally, on Page 122, the sweet baking recipes start. There are about 25 of them in total, and I am very disappointed to say, I am not going to attempt any of them. I am unfamiliar with quite a few of the creations and the recipes/images do not appeal to me. There are a lot of expensive ingredients (ground almonds, coconut sugar, raw unpasturised honey, raw organic cocoa powder, Ndali vanilla powder, orange blossom water, khorasan flour etc). The recipes require an awful lot of pre-prep (make your own botanical flour blend, make your own creme patissiere, make your own orange marmalade, make your own cultured butter etc). I am a keen home cook and baker; almost all our meals are cooked from scratch, I happily experiment with complicated recipes and I bake home-made sourdough bread a number of times a week, so I am happy to put in the effort to create something wonderful, but even I draw the line at, for example, making wild blackberry tarts with instructions spanning over 3 days, requiring me to first mill my own botanical blend (which, incidentally, is blend 4; and the ingredient list for blend 4 (10 ingredients) includes blend 2 that you should already have made up (another 11 ingredients), then to pre-make blackberry fresh fruit compote and creme patissiere, before you can even start following the recipe.I would describe this book as a wonderful dream that takes you to a magical place where you have your own wildflower garden, where you keep your own honey bees, where you have unlimited time on your hands to create 10 botanical flour blends, and you have a large pantry to store these, as well as all the pricey ingredients which your unlimited resources will allow you to buy. Where you can follow instructions spanning over 3 days to create an undoubtedly fantastic chocolate brownie cake with the similarly delicious cultured cream on the side. And then you wake up in the real world where most of us will have family commitments, jobs, household chores and a somewhat limited budget.Personally, I think it is much easier, simpler and cheaper to be a conscious shopper on your weekly food shopping trips by carefully selecting fresh produce and added ingredients (herbs, seeds, nuts) that will allow you to eat 30 different varieties every week. Or at least (in my case), it’s a much easier goal to aspire to.

Baked the lemon and poppy seed cake, took less than 10min to mix, 8ish hours to ferment on the kitchen counter, tastes tart and light and the sourdough does all the work.Love this book about sweet sourdough baking. I do want to address one thing first, this is probably not the best for a beginner just starting to discover the world of sourdough. This is a book of information, of inspiration, and not necessarily a "follow this recipe and you'll have perfect bakes every time". If you're a beginner and at this stage then yes, buy the book! Also, you don't need to blend your own flour, I don't but I was able to use the information in the book to mix up my flour blend from what I already had in my cupboard and start to truly experiment with flour blends from organic & heritage grains. The taste is incredible and so good for you!I've been baking with sourdough for a few years now and recently started investigating sweet bakes using only natural leaven. I found this book fantastic to expand my mind on flour and using the principles of sourdough to any sweet bakes that usually use baking powder or yeast. So if you're at that part of your journey, then this is the book for you! Understanding what happens in your bake but also in your body (!) when eating it is so essential when exploring the way you want to bake.I now have a long list of traditional sweet bakes and cakes that I want to turn into sourdough masterpieces with the knowledge from this book to guide me!

I find this an inspirational and exciting book. I think it is capable of confusing some people purely because it is not a straightforward cookbook - and it isn’t intended on being so but what it offers is the opportunity to learn from cutting edge knowledge on how we can change our health and attitude to food through variety. This is one of a kind and offers so many recipes to enhance any eating experience - the labneh, cultured butter, cultured cream, vinegars, compotes for example. I already have a huge interest in fermentation and gut health and I think for people who are passionate about eating differently and who are on a similar learning trajectory to Vanessa you will love this. Personally I love seeing the evolution of this authors work. She is one of a kind and her pursuit of understanding it is completely obvious is a life long passion and personally I am enjoying starting to process what she has included here. I also like the wider network of experts she has built up to inform her evolution. Inspiring work

I have been waiting eagerly for this book. I knew from Vanessa’s previous book, The Sourdough School, that there would be great depth and knowledge all backed by research with a practical approach to health and wellbeing and I am not disappointed. This is not just a recipe book for sweet sourdough, it is a journey to understand how what you eat affects your gut and how nourishing your gut can affect your overall health and wellbeing. There is a lot to take in – the book goes deeply into how probiotics, prebiotics and increasing the diversity of what you eat are beneficial. It is not just about making cakes and biscuits as a way to use up your sourdough starter discard either, although that is a great idea. The book introduces you to nourishing your gut using fermented yogurt, cultured cream and cultured butter, making fresh fruit compote to add polyphenols to your diet, making fruit syrups and wild vinegar – along with using heritage grains and increasing your fibre intake. It shows you how to blend flours, spices, and seeds etc. to increase the diversity of your food along with guidance on how to do this if you do not have a mill. The basics are all there for how to make a starter from scratch, how to maintain your starter and build a leaven and there are advanced recipes for those who love a challenge.My sweet starter is now building and the schedules are carefully planned to fit into a working day. I have my eye on making the poppy seed and lemon cake with unpasteurised raw honey (my prebiotic). I can’t wait to have that with live yoghurt (my probiotic) and a spoonful of blueberry compote (my polyphenol), see I’m learning already! So glad I will continue to learn as I delve deeper into this fabulous book.

Vanessa's 'The sourdough school' is a bible and helped me progress from knowing nothing about sourdough to baking sourdough every weekend with great results. So I was excited to progress my baking to sweet sourdough. This book does not disappoint for those who want to expand not only their repertoire of bakes but also their knowledge of the science behind gut health. Full of great explanations about how diversity of flour feeds our gut bugs to practical tips about the sourdough process; this book is beautiful. It fed my mind as well as my belly! Most of the recipes follow the principles of leaving the dough to ferment but if you're used to sourdough baking, you'll know that takes time to get really tasty bakes which are good for your health. I loved the galette, biscuits and breakfast pots and I'm looking forward to trying the rest of the recipes too. A great book for your sourdough library. Inspirational!