How to Bake

If you haven't heard of Paul Hollywood, it won't be long before you do. The 47-year old Hollywood started working as a baker in his father's bakery as a teenager. Baking and teaching others to bake has been his life ever since. I first came across him watching The Great British Bakeoff, but he has since expanded his horizons and is appearing as a judge on The American Baking Competition 2013 (CBS). I liked Paul Hollywood's Bread so much that I acquired a copy of How to Bake and am I ever glad that I did! Let me tell you about a few of my favorite recipes from the book. Hollywood's passion is bread baking (he is said to bake the most expensive loaf of artisan bread in Britain, an almond and roquefort sourdough) and that comes shining through in How to Bake , with about 2/3 of the book devoted to bread in various guises, with chapters on Basic Breads, Flavored Breads, Sourdough, and Croissants, Danish & Brioche. Hollywood spent some time living & working in Cyprus and you'll see that experience reflected in a number of the breads featured in the book. I've made several of his recipes (his Ciabatta from Paul Hollywood's Bread is stunning and an unusual shaping technique makes it dead-easy) so I chose something a bit different for a test recipe. ▶︎ TEST RECIPE - PUMPKIN SEED STICKS WITH POPPY SEEDS This is an easy recipe that utilizes bread flour, whole wheat bread flour and malted bread flour chock-full of pumpkin seeds. (If you can't find malted bread flour you could use a 7 or 12 grain flour.) The dough is divided into 10 portions, then each portion is rolled out into a stick about a foot long, brushed with water and then sprinkled with a generous amount of poppy seeds. The sticks are scrumptious with a rich, nutty flavor - excellent with cheese or the Carlton Pate that I recently made from Mary Berry's Christmas Collection . This recipe could easily be baked as a single loaf, formed into dinner rolls instead of the sticks, or cut into 20 portions instead of 10 for a thinner, less filling nosh. I cut a couple of sticks on the bias, brushed them with a tiny dab of good olive oil and baked them at 250 to make small toasts or crackers to serve with cheese or that pate. Where most baking books spend a lot of time on cakes and cookies, Hollywood combines Biscuits, Puddings & Cakes all into one chapter. Remember that in the UK biscuits are cookies and puddings can be any dessert. Look in this chapter for stunning recipe for traditional Shortbread that he says will keep 3-4 days (not in my house!), cheesecake, muffins, clafoutis and more. I was sorely torn between a flour-less Chocolate Almond Cake covered in Chocolate Ganache that uses ground almonds to provide a "cake" texture and a lemon cake. Lemon won. ▶︎ TEST RECIPE - MRS. POST'S LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE A variation on Orange Marmalade Cake, this makes a small loaf that is flavored with lemon curd, then soaked with a mixture of lemon juice, lemon zest and granulated sugar while hot from the oven. One bowl, no mixer required. Lovely with a cup of tea, the cake is moist, very light textured and keeps for several days. It quite reminds me of my mother's favorite lemon cake - without the cake mix. ● One note - when making this or Orange Marmalade Cake (recipe not included in this book) do not "eyeball" the amount of marmalade or curd called for. Too much will throw off the chemistry of the cake and you'll end up with an ugly, though edible, dip in the middle of the loaf. The final chapter in How to Bake is Tarts & Pies, which also includes Puff Paste. It is this chapter that thoroughly made the book for me. Our British cousins are much more prone to savory pies than we are here in the US and it is here that Hollywood's non-bread baking really shines. Having discovered Chicken & Mango Chutney Pasties inspired by the flavors of the British Raj in The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets , Hollywood's recipe for larger but similar Moroccan Pasties caught my eye straight off. ▶︎ TEST RECIPE - MOROCCAN PASTIES Shortcrust pastry colored bright yellow with turmeric is cut into 7" circles, then filled with raw ground lamb and a mixture of potato or sweet potato, red onion and chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) flavored with cinnamon and spiced with a pinch of chile flakes. I used sweet potato since that was what I happened to have handy. Hollywood's Shortcrust Pastry recipe is a bit different than you see on this side of the pond. I make a mean pastry thanks to my Grandma - light and flaky. Hollywood's recipe is, however, not just a really good pie dough. It is exceptional, the flakiest I've ever come across this side of puff pastry. Grandma's $0.02 - If you acquire How to Bake for the shortcrust pastry alone, it is worth every penny! My copy came from the UK and is in metrics. Other books by Paul Hollywood that I've purchased here at Amazon have not been "translated" so you'll need a digital scale. You'll find volume measurements on the side of your pyrex measuring pitcher. Teaspoons and tablespoons are the same.

I'm a fan of the TV series and found that this "How to Bake" book is a terrific beginner's book for learning some of the basic dishes that appear on the show. There are seven sections in all with illustrated instructions at the beginning of each chapter that takes you through the steps of the basic recipe. Especially nice about this book is that it also includes foundational recipes for creme pat, marzipan, genoise, Victorian sponge, puff pastry, ganache and other components of British bakery goods that we don't usually find in American cookbooks. The book is well written and easy to follow, with most of the ingredients readily available in American markets. I've made a dozen of the dishes so far and have had success with all of them except for the sourdough recipes (which could be due to the difference in elevation & humidity). Worth mentioning is that is a British book with ingredients listed in grams and milliliters, and temperatures in Celsius. A kitchen scale that reads in grams is definitely a must for this book! If you are interesting in making dishes from the Great British Baking Show, this is a great book to start. Once mastering these basic skills. moving on to the more advanced recipes will be much easier.

We love this book. Very clear instructions. Easy to understand. Nice photos. We were successful on our first blush! I'd just add that these British books give recipes in weights not volumes. So it's in grams not cups like in most American books. We bought a very cheap digital scale and we're psyched we did too. If you think about it it's so much more accurate. Cooking by volume, especially with flour, is silly because the actual amount could vary a lot due to how compact or fluffed out the flour is. I think this is why so many of our cooking hasn't really been spot on before. I mean, we follow the recipes and get inconsistent results, if not just plain old not so good result. I've always wondered why this happens. Finally realized that we're doing it wrong. Immediately upon cooking by weight, we followed a recipe and it worked out great the first time. So we're sold. Back to the book: It's nice looking, great photos, easy to understand instructions. I like the decent part of the book in the beginning where he's talking more about the why's of baking and basic skills. I would recommend this book to anyone who's upping their game. The only thing missing is the long pauses and the inevitable handshake you'll deserve!

Excellent book for baking. Clear, concise directions. Also, he not only tells you what to do, but why you are doing it. However, he uses the European way of measuring. Flour is measured in grams, not cups. Temperatures are in Centigrade not Farenhiet. I used a temperature conversion calculator on the Internet to make up a list of temperature conversions and taped the paper in the front cover. Another list shows the conversions of grams of butter, etc to tbsp. and a list of British nomenclature to American i.e.: Strong wholemeal bread flour = wholewheat flour. Also bought a small inexpensive scale to weigh out the flour. The results are better than most of the American recipes I've got. Lots of pictures on what the final product should look like and an explanation of various techniques. I highly recommend this book.

A good baking book, BUT there are discrepancies between some recipes/instructions and Paul’s video demos. We’ve had this book for a year, now, and have found the best results come from cross-referencing recipes with Paul’s on-line videos or relevant episodes of GBBO or GBBO Masterclass. For example, the ciabatta recipe calls for olive oil, however, Paul explains in his masterclass that ciabatta dough isn’t made with olive oil. It is also a very tricky dough, technique is critical, so the masterclass video helps you work through some frustrations. Another example is that the focaccia recipe instructs the baker to cover the formed dough, in the final proving stage, with a plastic bag. Paul leaves his uncovered in the masterclass demo. Covering this very soft, sticky dough with a plastic bag has resulted in some deflated dough even when the bag was carefully removed.

Great book especially if you are fan British bakes. Paul goes into so much detail. I highly recommend this book.

I wish I could give 10 stars because I totally would! I have tried at least a dozen recipes from this book and every single one is a winner. I had very little experience baking bread or advanced things like puff pastry or laminated doughs, but everything that I have tried as been a success from the first try. I do think that he provides a good mix of instruction and recipes, I've definitely learned a lot of techniques, and there is a wide variety of recipes. His bread recipes are DELICIOUS!! Hands down, best bread I have ever eaten! I can't wait to get some of his other books. Yes, be aware that the quantities are in metric, but I actually prefer that and think it gives you a much better product. Don't bother to covert, just get an inexpensive kitchen scale that does grams. It's easy. If I were to make one negative comment, it would be that I find that some of the desserts are really geared toward British tastes, and there's a handful of recipes that don't appeal to me much at all as an American and I don't think I will be trying them, I guess it's the "pudding" concept with fruit and spices and things like that. But there are still plenty of awesome recipes.

My wife got me this book on a whim because we're fans of the GBBS and thought it'd be fun. Neither of us had any idea how much this would spring me into baking. While all of the recipes I've tried are fantastic and rewarding, the directions are the best part - Paul's step-by-step instructions are very easy to follow and include lots of details without bogging it down with too much overthinking. I actually bought this copy for a family member because I was having such a great time baking stuff from scratch that they kept asking for pictures of the recipe pages, so I bought them their own.

O livro mostra o básico que se precisa saber sobre panificação, de forma simples e bem ilustrada e traz muitas receitas de pães e tortas. Vale muito à pena.

I love this book!! It is like my bible for baking. It covers everything from sourdough to desserts to pies to standard white bread loaves. So whatever your skill level, this book will have a recipe(s) what suits you. Paul gives little useful tips and pointers throughout the book what is really helpful and gives you the reassurance what's sometimes needed whilst following a recipe. As I have baked a lot of the recipes out of this tremendous cook book; I'm not going to lie - they have come out perfect every time!! Paul Hollywood also has a very helpful introduction about the main ingredients and the equipment that needs to be used during the recipes, so make sure you have a read of this section as it is crucial to your baking. His recipes are also very easy to follow and aren't complicated at all, plus there are pictures accompanying every single recipe, what is a bonus because I like to know what I am attempting to make and what the end result should replicate. There are a few things that you will need prior to buying this book to ensure you get the best results with your bread, pastry, cakes etc., and they are: electric mixer (not essential but needed for 20% recipes), thermometer (that works for dough and water), scotch scraper (these are cheap and are easy for cutting dough and scraping work surfaces), baking parchment (NOT greaseproof paper), and baking sheets (all various sizes: small to large).

El libro está en muy buenas condiciones, como informaba el vendedor; usado, pero cuidado. En cuanto al manual en sí, muy bien escrito, bien explicado y con fotografías sobrias pero atractivas. Todo lo que he estado mirando, hasta el momento, me parece interesante.

I brought it for my partner who loves Great British Bakeoff and she now loves the book. Baking once a week. its great!

I love this book! True, I do wish there were a bit more pictures, but if you read all steps carefully, you will be fine. I am going slowly through the book, made about 7 different breads and while some were baked multiple times because they were favourites, they all turned out great. It's a great collection of recipes for people of all levels of baking experience.