Updated Sourdough Cookbook Expands Starter Use Across Baked Goods

Sarah Owens’s revised cookbook brings a veteran home-baker’s clarity to one of the most useful ingredients in a kitchen: sourdough starter. The updated anniversary edition focuses less on sourdough as a single loaf-making ritual and more on making starter work for a broad range of baked goods, with tested recipes and approachable techniques that fit everyday routines.

At the core of the book are practical, recipe-based instructions: starter maintenance and timing guides you can follow to have an active culture when you need it, hydration examples that explain how starter affects dough handling, and step-by-step shaping and baking approaches tailored to common home ovens. That structure is designed to demystify decisions bakers face, from whether to feed starter the night before a bake to how to adapt hydration when swapping flours.

Beyond the technical primers, Owens nudges bakers toward creative use of discard. Recipes span cookies, cakes, scones, flatbreads and tarts, showing how starter adds flavor, texture and structure across sweet and savory applications. Flatbreads and quick bakes offer weekday-friendly options when you want sourdough flavor without a full fermentation schedule. Cookies and cakes turn discard into a way to reduce waste while experimenting with tang and crumb. Scones and tarts provide accessible projects for weekend baking and community bake sales.

The edition is especially helpful for local baking groups, classroom instructors and market vendors who need reliable, tested recipes to share. You can bring the starter schedules to a workshop to teach how feeding cadence affects rise and flavor, or use the hydration examples when demonstrating how to adjust dough consistency on the fly. Having clear, repeatable methods makes it easier to teach novices and to standardize recipes for events.

If you bake at home, you can apply the book’s guidance immediately: establish a simple feeding routine, weigh your ingredients to match the hydration recommendations, and try one non-loaf recipe to learn how starter impacts texture. For community kitchens and libraries offering baking programs, the cookbook supplies a compact curriculum of techniques and recipes you can adapt for group classes.

Check local bookstores, library collections and community centers for copies and consider pairing the book with a hands-on session so everyone can experience starter beyond the loaf. The updated edition turns a sometimes intimidating aspect of sourdough into practical, repeatable skills you can use across your baking repertoire.