This is Sourdough

Jerry Staniewicz used to bake bricks: dense, flat loaves nobody wanted a second slice of. Now people fight over his bread, and this book shows you how he got there. It's written for home bakers, not professionals.

The first chapters cover the basics: a reliable everyday loaf, ciabatta, and a wholewheat that actually rises. After that it moves on to hand-cut sourdough pasta, gnocchi and Neapolitan-style pizza, and then to sweet things like fudgy brownies, New Orleans-style beignets and a triple chocolate cake.

There's a whole section for your discard too, so the starter you feed every day stops ending up in the bin.

Over 50 recipes, explained in plain language with some humour along the way. If you've ever wondered what a levain is, start here.