Sharp - Super loaves and simple treats: modern baking for healthier living

If youve become used to thinking cakes are bad, bread dangerous, and baking best kept as an indulgence, this book will be full of good news. It will transform your ideas and show you a revolutionary way to bake that is absolutely delicious and also good for you.

Modern Baker is a thriving bakery and caf in Oxford, UK, where we make the healthiest breads and cakes it is humanly possible to produce that still taste delicious. All of our different breads are made with natural sourdough startersour own wild yeast cultures made only from flour and waterteeming with beneficial lactobacilli bacteria. So our breads are made with just stone-ground flour, water, and fresh air and then long-fermented for 48 hours. Many of our cakes, cookies, and bars use these sourdough starters, too. Research shows that sourdough is great because it addresses the vitally important issue of helping to improve our gut health. It also naturally reduces Glycemic Index (GI) and gluten levels if using a natural sourdough culture and if it's long-fermented.

More people are realizing the importance of a healthy digestive system for our well-being. When the ingredients are combined to make sourdough they explode into the millions of fermenting microbes that our digestive tract is crying out for, vital elements of which survive through baking. This opens the door to a wealth of benefits that can transform our health.

Sourdough bread can be an everyday, health-giving delight, but who doesnt also love the occasional sweet treat? The way we make them at Modern Baker ensures that there is no reason not to enjoy these too. We only use unrefined ingredients to sweeten our treats, such as coconut sugar, dates, maple syrup, raw honey, and lucuma. Although evidence shows these are all better for you than the white sugar generally used in baking, they are nonetheless sugars and should still be regarded as treats. Coupled with stone-ground whole grains and as many nuts, seeds, fruits, and other nutritious ingredients as we can fit, baking has never been so good for you. Every ingredient earns its place according to our three core principles: good provenance, nutritional benefit, and great taste. Nothing is included just for the sake of it.

We believe passionately that its possible to make wonderfully delicious cakes, cookies, and bars that also make a positive contribution to a healthy diet. Whats more, the recipes are simple to make. There are no complicated directions here; you can rustle up a batch of something delicious in less than an hour. Finally, we can all have our cake and eat it, too!

All of our recipes are vegetarian and clearly marked with symbols to indicate which are gluten-free (GF), dairy-free (DF), or suitable for vegan (V+) diets.

This book is a labor of love, packed with fabulous recipes that are positively, proactively good for youand, most importantly, simple to make and excellent to eat. The Danish concept of hygge holds that the value to the soul of making simple pleasures special is central to our well-being, so any food that ignores the pleasure principle is missing the point. Sometimes a slice of cake or a hot chocolate can be just the thing. Its no accident that the store embraces a fresh Nordic esthetic: hygge operates at its heart.

Before you get started on putting into practice the art, science, and miracle of natural fermentation in your own kitchen, find out how Melissa started on her transformative journey to becoming a Modern Baker.