Sourdough Starters (eBook), Francisco Javier Antoja

Flour, water, and salt. Sourdough is all the rage. The truth is that using sourdough starters, in their various forms, is simply a return to the origins of breadmaking after the hiatus caused by the introduction of chemical yeasts into the baking process.

For several decades, with exceptions and mainly in small rural bakeries, bakers used yeast as a quick and simple means to increase the speed of their production.

This period in the history of breadmaking, where volume and quantity took precedence over quality, began to change a couple of decades ago when some master bakers started using sourdough starters again to achieve better flavor and preservation in certain breads. With the arrival of young bakers, better trained thanks to their families' efforts, and given the success of some of them, the baking industry moved towards a "revolution" based on "tradition"; that is, the new breadmaking that is thriving worldwide is simply a return to its origins: good raw materials, the use of sourdough starters, and long fermentation processes.

This book brings together the technical information that bakers need to better understand sourdough starters and easily apply them in their creations, avoiding cumbersome technical jargon. It is not intended to be a treatise or encyclopedia, but rather a practical training and reference manual that provides the key elements of the subject, allowing professionals to choose the most appropriate options for each situation.

The book is rounded out with a series of recipes for various breads from renowned bakers such as Xavier Barriga, Jordi Morera, Antonio Cepas, Anna Bellsolà, and Xevi Ramon, among others, which serve as examples of using sourdough starters. The repertoire of breads that can be made using this knowledge is immense.