Short & Sweet

March 18, 2013
Dan Lepard’s collection of 280-plus baking recipes is a thorough and fun guide designed to be a “blueprint for great baking at home.” Lepard is a baking columnist for the Guardian in the U.K. Chapters are broken down into categories including “Breads,” “Cakes,” “Cookies & Crackers,” as well as “Small Things” and a selection of muffins, brownies, and scones. The collection begins with “Tips & Techniques,” with the goal of making the book a place “where skills and recipes meet.” Sweet and savory fill the pages. The “Supper” section includes meal-worthy mozzarella, broccoli and Parma ham tarts; spinach and ricotta pastries; and chicken and leek pies. Puddings from the U.K. (including cherry dick and blackcurrent roly-poly, and tripe and suet mincemeat), Australia’s Jammy Lamingtons (cakes used for fundraising similar to Girl Scout cookies in the U.S.), Scotland’s pumpkin and cider farls (a pancakelike dish), and oliebollen (fruit donuts from Amsterdam) lend an international flair to the collection. A cheerful and well-thought-out design along with full-page color recipe photos balance out the instructional text, making this the type of book readers will want to bake from.

Starred review from June 15, 2013

In his popular Guardian newspaper column, food writer and photographer Lepard distills his considerable baking expertise into entertaining, manageable chunks. This all-purpose baking book--the Americanized version of Lepard's 2011 UK release--reads much like that column, offering sweet and savory recipes that are grounded in tradition yet uncommonly intriguing. Spelt and ginger cookies, quick to make, are pleasantly nutty and delicate, and caramel-infused butterscotch banana cake makes a hearty teatime treat. Artisan breads are well represented. VERDICT Frequent home bakers, especially those who enjoy exploring various flours, fats, and sweeteners, will love this. Serious amateurs and professionals should seek out the original, which has more precise metric measurements.

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