Wild Bread: Hand baked sourdough artisan breads in your own kitchen, 2nd ed. 2023

© 2023 Lisa Rayner Books
Second edition ISBN 979-8-9879697-1-7

$9.99 USD Amazon Kindle and Etsy eBook
$16.95 print edition on Amazon

Wild Bread is one of the most highly rated sourdough bread books published in the last 15 years according to reviewers on Amazon of the first edition, published in 2009. Lisa Rayner is an award-winning author who has been baking sourdough bread since 1995.

This 204 page expanded second edition of Wild Bread has 36 full color pages with new text of 110 photographs of sourdough cultures and sourdough breads, including photographs of the author kneading doughs and preparing different sourdough breads.

Have you ever wanted to bake San Francisco sourdough, crusty French artisan loaves, traditional Scandinavian and Russian rye breads, Italian ciabatta, Indian naan, Middle Eastern pita bread, great homemade pizza crusts, Uzbeki naan, soft whole wheat sandwich bread, bagels, sweet doughs, English Muffins, French toast, gluten free Ethiopian injera crêpes and so much more?

Wild Bread explores what goes on inside dough as it is transformed from water, flour, wild yeast and probiotic bacteria into the kind of bread that makes your mouth water. You may never be satisfied with ordinary bread again. Once you learn what factors affect aroma, flavor, shape, crust and crumb, you too will be transformed into an artisan. Wild Bread encourages your creativity and provides the basic principles you need to bake any bread you desire without needing a recipe. Wild bread also explores baking bread sustainably in solar cookers and wood-fired earth ovens.

Wild Bread teaches you how to make authentic whole grain sourdough artisan breads that are easy to knead by hand and make in the variable temperatures and humidities of an ordinary kitchen.

Part I explains the science and care of sourdough ecosystems, including how to capture your own sourdough culture and where to buy authentic cultures from around the world.
Part II explains how to make bread, including how to grind your own wholegrain flours and bake artisan-style breads in a home oven.
Part III contains instructions for making a variety of artisan loaves, flatbreads, pan breads, batter breads, sweet rolls and more from wheat, rye and gluten-free whole grain flours.
Part IV introduces you to the world of sustainable bread baking, with an exploration of energy-efficient solar cookers and wood-fired earth and brick ovens.
Part V contains a variety of information to improve your bread baking, including commercial sources for authentic sourdough culture, bread troubleshooting tips, sources for sustainably-produced grains and flours, and books and videos on sourdough and artisan bread baking.

"This book is wonderful! I am so thankful to find a book that is more in line with our values than what is available on the mass market! Plus I would much rather support authors who are independently publishing or otherwise operating outside of the system." — Julie, Cultures for Health