Fans of The Great British Bake-Off know him from his steely gaze, his hearty handshake, and his cutting critiques of the bakers, but Paul Hollywood comes by his baking knowledge through old fashioned experience. His father had a bakery, so he was learning how to bake at a time in life when most of us were still out riding bikes or doing homework. He has traveled and learned pastry all over the world, and he has put all his decades of knowledge into Bake.
Hollywood has subtitled this My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics, and that’s exactly what this is. It’s tried and true recipes for (mostly British) classic desserts and breads. These are his favorite recipes. You can tell just by how he talks about them. But there’s also how he talks about baking in general. He sees it as a way to give to others, to bring joy, to be creative, and to connect with cultures all over the world.
Throughout the cookbook, there are some recipes or techniques that get a series of photos to help newer bakers see exactly how to do something, or how the bake is supposed to look throughout the recipe steps. The key steps for bread-making get this treatment, as well as the Victoria Sandwich Cake, Almond and Orange Biscotti, The Ultimate Focaccia, Pizza Margharita, Creamed Jelly Doughnut, Croissants, and Chocolate Soufflés, among others.
There are chapters for classic bakes, like Cakes, Cookies and Scones, Breads and Flatbreads, Pastry and Pies, and Desserts. And then there is the chapter of Pizza and Doughnuts. Hollywood said that’s his favorite meal, so he dedicated an entire chapter to recipes for his favorite pizza and for doughnuts. I’m not complaining, since those are both excellent food groups, but I can’t say I’ve seen them in a chapter together before.
The recipes include just about anything you’d want to bake or eat, from classics like a Lemon Drizzle Cake, Blueberry Muffins, Classic Scones (the Queen Mother said they were the best scones she’d ever had), Shortbread, Baguettes, Chocolate Doughnuts, Pigs in Blankets, and Barry Pavlova as well as more complicated treats like Lime Macarons, Sourdough (including instructions for making your own starter), Hand-Raised Sunday Lunch Pie, Baked Alaska, and Chocolate and Raspberry Entremets.
Basically Bake is a master class in British baking. It’s the best of Hollywood’s experience captured in recipes and gorgeous photographs. If you ever wanted to know what the chefs on The Great British Bake Off learn in a season, then bake your way through this book. It will get you there. A lot of bakers learn what they know from parents or grandparents; they just grow up around baking and absorb the information through the years. For those of us who didn’t get that kind of opportunity, this book is exactly that kind of mentorship.
I thought Bake was a beautiful cookbook. I’ve been a big fan of the Bake Off for years, and I have several other cookbooks from the chefs involved and from the series. They’re good, but I have yet to see one like this from the franchise. Even Hollywood’s other cookbooks, while excellent, don’t feel like this sort of master class in baking. The insights he shares with these recipes, and all the beautiful photos that help guide me when I’m baking, make me feel like this is a must-have cookbook to keep in my collection for a very long time, or until I’ve got all the pages stuck together or dripped with chocolate and find that I need a new copy.
Egalleys for Bake were provided by Bloomsbury USA through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I loved that early copy so much I pre-ordered a hardcover copy for myself.
