How to Bake Kindle Edition

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.

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!

This book is fantastic, even for an American baker. This was my very first attempt at the first recipe in the book, for Basic White Tin Bread. It came out of the oven absolutely perfect, and I swear I have never made yeast bread before. The quality of explanations, tips, and step by step photos in this book is amazing, by any standard.

I am in love with the Great British Baking Show and Master Class, and I needed a little Paul Hollywood of my own. While I would like Mary to teach me how to make cake I was really eager to find out how Paul knows when the dough is properly proved. I've over proved and under proved, I love the science of baking the alchemy and magic of making something wonderful form just a few ingredients. My friends and family would consider me an advanced baker and there is no challenge I would not take on but I wanted to know how to get it right every time. How to Bake takes the mystery out and teaches in an easy to follow and understand format. It is British so get ready for some metric conversion, but you really should be weighing your ingredients anyway and your scale already knows metric. There is not a ton of recipes but some of everything and enough to instruct so that you can tackle anything else that comes your way. I need to find some more hungry people so I can start mastering puff pastry!

What I really like about this cookbook is that it includes pictures for each recipe. The other cookbooks from Mary Berry and the GBBO show do not always have pics for each recipe. Tough to judge whether your recipe turned out when you don't know what it is supposed to look like. Good thorough instructions in Paul's cookbook. I did note a discrepancy in one of the recipes compared with the show and have written an email to his blog. I know some people in the states complain that the recipes are metric but I solved the problem by purchasing an inexpensive scale.

I am giving this book 1 star because it has sooooo many errors. I have to try the recipe here, it is not good, I then have to watch the Master Class espisode where he makes what I want to make. Really disappointed with how many errors I have found. Please publish corrections to this book. For instance ciabatta calls for olive oil, in Master class he states that you add oil for foccattia bread, baguettes say handle bread gingerly to keep air, he knocks the dough down, and shapes the dough with a french cloth. PLEASE FIX this book

The recipes work well and are easy to follow. My only criticism would be I'd assumed that (like most of my modern cookbooks) the temperatures were given for a fan oven. Only when reading the bread introduction I spotted a sentence saying the temperatures were for conventional ovens - so take off 20 deg for fan.

I would give this book more stars if I could. I bought this book to have a read about different baking and once reading though the pages on making basic bread it seemed interesting. Although I have baked over the years I have never been interested in baking bread and have never tried. I decided to give it a go and started with a basic white loaf. I followed the easy recipe word for word and the loaf came out so well that everybody said I must of bought it. I was so chuffed with the look, smell and taste of it that I then started making all the other different breads. That was 3 years ago and I'm still making bread now, usually 3 times a week, different types . I still follow Paul's basic white loaf recipe when making white bread and have experimented with different shapes and recipes, which have also been successful. I would say if you have never made bread or you know someone who might like to give it a try, get this book, it was an inspiration to me and one I still look at 3 years later.

Having now worked through several of the recipes in this book I have found many really basic errors. For instance his seeded bread recipe reads "Transfer to your baking tray and slash down the length with a sharp knife. Put the tray inside a clean plastic bad and leave to prove for an hour". If you follow these instructions you will find that the dough will just spread out from the slash and become flat. What should be done is to slash the dough before it goes in the oven. I gave the recipe the benefit of the doubt and ended up with a spread out loaf. These are BASIC bread making mistakes. Someone really ought to have proof read before it was printed. Wouldn't recommend any of his books.

Easy to follow instructions with amazing results. I have stopped buying bread, now preferring my own bakes. The Sense of acheivement and satisfaction producing quality bakes is heart warming. I purchased the kindle edition of this book as it was a bargain, however found the illustration a little tricky to follow. I personally prefer the hardback versions of Paul hollywoods books. In summary a well written book with step by step work instructions. However be warned, once you master the techniques you just can't stop baking.

I was very excited about this book, but having tried couple of recipes I have to say I'm very disappointed. E.g. Recipe shortcrust pastry for the Flamiche didn't work - followed it the letter and ended up with a patchy though, googled some recipe online, each step was clearly described and it worked amazingly well. The Flamiche itself was very tasty, but that's basically just leek, eggs and cheese - what's not to like?Another pastry I tried - again followed the recipe to the letter was Paste Sucree which turned to be a total disaster. The pastry was too wet even before I added egg, had to throw away the whole thing and googled recipe which again worked great!Update: Tried puff pastry, ended up with a super wet dough again. Unfortunately the recipe doesn't say "at this point the dough should be dry/wet/sticky" and you end up googling stuff with your hand covered in dough.So if you want clear, hassle free recipes that work first time and every time I'd would suggest look somewhere else, these recipes seem very vague and leave room for interpretation - it feels a bit like technical challenge.