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I recently discovered a French Facebook group for makers of sourdough. It was started by a guy who started making his own bread during the first lockdown and little by little rolled down the slippery slope towards addiction. He obtained a professional boulangerie qualification, installed two professional bread ovens in his garage, and now sells his bread at his weekly market. Alongside his day job of course. The group has thousands of members who are similarly obsessive, with a daily avalanche of photos of amazing breads.

It's interesting to see the difference from anglophone sourdough blogs and forums.It's quite competitive and technical, with most people keen to bake to professional standards and produce Instagram-worthy loaves. Whereas I just want to make good bread for family and friends. 

Anyway, someone recommended this recently published book, and I thought it would be interesting to see a French approach, using French flours, since I always have to tweak recipes from US or UK sources. So I ordered it (on Amazon sadly, couldn't find it elsewhere). When they said it would be delivered today, I didn't believe it, but sure enough a guy in a van showed up at 5 pm on a wet Sunday afternoon.

Perhaps the best thing about it is that it has loads of recipes for using excess starter. Who knew you could make fresh pasta with it? Or granola? Plus a wildly popular brownie recipe which will probably be the first one I'll try.

Extra: today's sourdough. Not from this book evidently. The next project is sourdough baguettes.