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Book Review: Sourdough Without Fail

Monday, March 23, 2026 0:03

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Last October I contributed to a Kickstarter for one of my favorite homesteading authors. The other day I received my rewards copy of her newest book.

Sourdough Without Fail

by Kate Downham

I’ve dabbled with sourdough a few times in the past, because if I can master sourdough, I’ll never have to buy baking yeast again. I had some success with enough failures to finally give it up. I had two basic problems:

Amounts, including amounts of flour and water to feed and the amount of starter it made. I always seemed to have way too much.
Room temperature, which is said to be 68°F to 77°F (20°C to 25°C). Without central heating and cooling, my kitchen only maintains this range in spring and autumn. The rest of the year it’s either hotter or colder than that.

All of that might have been a reason to ignore the Kickstarter and ignore the book. But Kate’s books are exceptional in both the information she presents and the way she presents it. Her A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen was fantastic and her Natural Small Batch Cheesemaking is the best book I’ve ever read on cheesemaking. So in spite of my past sourdough failures, I had every confidence that with Kate’s help, I could succeed.

Sourdough Without Fail is loaded with information I had no idea about. She not only discusses the art of sourdough making, but also the science. The amount of information is almost overwhelming! But Kate’s encouraging attitude basically tells the reader, You don’t have to actually know all this stuff, it’s just here if you ever want it, feel free to jump right in on the recipes.

With that I turned to page 16 and followed the instructions for making a sourdough starter from scratch. Then I sat down to read through the book. I was delighted that she addresses both of my problems.

My first problem had been with amounts. Recipes varied quite a bit with the amounts of flour and water to add. Some included a sprinkling of yeast or a bit of sugar. Many recipes had you throwing away most of the starter and feeding only a little bit of it. From Kate I learned that I don’t have to be making and feeding large amounts of starter to begin with. Yes, it increases from feeding, but Kate also includes “discard” recipes, i.e. recipes using the starter before it’s fully matured, things like crackers, flatbread or pancakes. No waste!

My second problem was with inconsistent room temperature. Kate herself lives off-grid, so she had the answers. I’m learning how to help my starter thrive even when the room is too hot or too cold. An excellent little chart summarizes everything I need to know and do to keep my starter at its best no matter the season.

More things I’m learning:

why bakers fail with sourdough
types of sourdough starters and their feeding ratios
types of flours and other ingredients
all about hydration (moisture content) of the dough and how it affects the bread
stages of sourdough ripeness (and what each is useful for)
the difference between a starter and a pre-ferment
tips for mixing, kneading, proofing, baking, and cooling sourdough bread
baker’s percentages

Numerous recipes discuss various types of whole grain flours: rye, wheat, spelt, white, and gluten-free such as buckwheat, oat, rice, quinoa, polenta, and chia. How about scalded flour? That’s a new one for me!

What I love about her recipes is that each one presents amounts in a chart for you to select how much you want to make. Since I just cook for two, I don’t need 4 loaves, 4 cakes, or 4 dozen muffins very often. Especially not with starter always growing and at the ready. With Kate’s charts I can scale down the amounts I bake so that we can have fresh bread and baked goodies whenever we want.

One word of warning. The photos are in color and are guaranteed to make your mouth water! Seriously, I want to try every one of them.

The book is only available on pre-order at present. You can see it at Amazon here. I believe Kate is planning an announcement and giveaway on Permies later this year, so I’ll be sure to let you know when that is. She’ll be available then to engage with readers and answer questions.

In the meantime, we’ll see if I can have success practicing my newly learned skills.

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Source: https://www.5acresandadream.com/2026/03/book-review-sourdough-without-fail.html

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