Bakers craving homemade sourdough bread will find an expert coach in Anita Šumer, Slovenian baker, teacher and author of Sourdough Mania. She boasts tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, and has traveled worldwide presenting workshops and spreading her passion for bread that "tastes incomparably better than bakes made with baker's yeast," and is healthier and more digestible.
"First of all, I advise you to give your mother starter a name, as this will make it easier to care for it: my 'Rudl' and I are inseparable," Šumer writes in her detailed directions for making starter (the fermentation element that replaces yeast) using just four ingredients: "flour, water, time and patience." She describes various flours, "locally sourced and organic when possible," noting their relative merits. European measurements and references may be daunting to a novice baker, but Šumer balances these with encouragements, and a lengthy "SOS" chapter of "What If's." She includes gluten-free recipes, too. Photo illustrations show the progress of a proper jar of starter, kneading techniques and the artistry of decorating loaves. Dozens of recipes beyond the classic round boule include baguettes, croissants and desserts, such as chocolate babka.
In addition to her workshops and online outreach, Šumer is an ambassador for the Sourdough Library in Brussels, home to 128 sourdough samples from 24 countries plus an online collection.
With the enthusiasm of an artist and the precision of a scientist, Šumer leaves little to chance, and readers can anticipate success as well as conversion to Sourdough Mania. --Cheryl McKeon, bookseller, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.