Sourdough School: Sweet Baking: Nourishing the gut & the mind

This book provides a practical guide to using sourdough to improve health and develop culinary skills, focusing on sweet sourdough bakes that nourish the gut and improve mood. It includes recipes for cakes, tarts, biscuits, doughnuts, brioche, and pretzels, as well as vinegars, compotes, cultured creams, butters, and ghee. The author explains how sourdough helps maintain the health and diversity of the gut microbiome, and how it can impact mental health.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 03 September 2020
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group

This book is a much-needed, unique, and very practical guide to how you can use the new knowledge of the gut microbes to improve your health, as well as developing and expanding your skills in the kitchen.

Tim Spector, in the Foreword, states that it is impossible to read this book without wanting to scuttle off into the kitchen.

Nigella Lawson, in the Foreword, also praises the book, stating that the benefits of sourdough are well known - the slow fermentation process creates a healthier and lighter dough that is easier to digest - but until now, they have been mainly linked to bread. However, if it rises, it can be made with sourdough, and in this groundbreaking new book, Vanessa Kimbell focuses on sweet sourdough bakes that not only nourish the gut but also improve your mood.

Using a variety of flours, including chestnut, spelt, and einkorn, as well as blends you can make up yourself, the classic recipes and new ideas for flavour combinations cover everything from cakes, tarts, and biscuits, to doughnuts, brioche, and pretzels, and rely on natural sweetness wherever possible.

Recipes include Morello Cherry Shortbread, Chocolate, Tangerine & Pistachio Cakes, Carrot & Walnut Cake, Doughnuts, Mille-feuille, as well as vinegars, compotes, cultured creams, butters, and ghee. There is even Chocolate, Almond & Hazelnut Spread, and Sourdough Vanilla Ice Cream.

Vanessa also explains how sourdough helps to maintain the health and diversity of your gut microbiome. From understanding the benefits of having diversity in your diet to the amazing work of enzymes, this book is about understanding the connection between our food, gut microbiome, and the potential impact on our mental health. New studies are unveiling links between the microorganisms in our gut and our mood and behaviour, and Vanessa is at the forefront of this field.

Weight: 878g
Dimension: 217 x 256 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780857836755