4.1 Getting Started

While I’ve tried to include everything you need to know in order to bake all of these recipes, I have not included a lot of background information on the whys and wherefores of the processes. For that, I strongly recommend that you purchase the following two books And get physical books, not ebooks. Ebooks are not good for all the page-flipping you will want to do.

  1. Artesan Bread at Home by Peter Reinhart. This is the book I started with, and it remains a go-to source. It walks you through making and maintaining starter, and my recipes for Pan au Levain and pizza dough originated there. There are lots of other good recipes (both sourdough and conventional) that you may want to try.
  2. Tartines, by Chad Robertson. This book took me to the next step of sourdough baking. It is a different kind of book, in that a) it is very autobiographical, an b) it is mostly built around a single recipe. It is also extremely well illustrated, so I’d suggest having it at hand when you follow my condensed versions of his recipes.