Unlock Your Inner Baker with The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking

Gordon Phillips: Great

United Kingdom on Nov 20, 2023

Zalewski Valerie: Another good Bake-off book, full of excellent recipes for all kinds of baked goods. The recipes are easy to follow, well explained and certainly delicious.

France on Jun 27, 2023

Amanda Gross: Love this cookbook! It is well published and is full of fun and delicious recipes

United States on Nov 12, 2022

Paul S.: I am disappointed with this book. As a fan of the show I expected a much more instructive format. The quality of the book and photography is fine but there are few back stories of each recipe as well as few pictures of each recipe item when finished. I learned all I wanted to know about the contestants from the show and frankly don't care about their dreams and aspirations. I want to know how to prepare each item but more importantly to learn the techniques involve. Hollywood's book " How To Bake" is an example of how this book should have been presented. It shows techniques, tells you why and something about the origin of the food. Lots of illustrations as well. I won't be buying any of the other books on the Bake Off series. It's just another recipe book. Nothing to learn here.

Canada on Nov 30, 2021

Lisa M.: I’ve waited to write this review until I’ve tried a decent amount of the recipes in here. So far I’ve baked: chocolate fudge brownies, the perfect soft white sandwich bread, plaited saffron loaf, stuffed focaccia, banana bread, chocolate and cherry loaf, ciabatta, Roquefort and walnut-filled loaf, Victoria sandwich cake (many, many times!), Cherry and almond Battenberg cake, lemon curd Swiss roll, cherry cake, giant sausage roll, cheese ham and chive tart, and the snowball meringues. I have many more recipes in here I still want to get to.

The book is a mix of recipes from the show and ones that are not. I don’t mind this, but I would’ve liked to see more from the contestants. Yes, the measurements are all metric. Kitchen scales are $10 or less on amazon, just grab one. Directions are clear and easy to follow. If you’re a fan of the show, grab this cookbook. Even if you’re not a fan, there are tons of awesome recipes in here that are definite crowd pleasers.

United States on Oct 16, 2019

Olivia Barrett: It’s a great recipe book I do wish they had more recipes from the show and the judges and less random recipes that you have no idea whose recipe it is, but still a great buy! One thing I have to say there is a typo there may be more than one, but the one I came upon was for the praline biscotti. I went ahead and made them and was all excited until I bit into the biscotti and it was pretty soft and chewy. Come to find out the second bake was suppose to be at the Celsius degree and not the Fahrenheit because they accidentally swapped the temperatures. So baked it at 170 Fahrenheit because that was as low as our oven went and they were still fairly blonde, but I thought that’s how they were suppose to come out. Ughhhh so that was frustrating, but glad my sister in law looked it up and found that error.

United States on Dec 07, 2017

Paul: I only just bought this and so far it seems to be a fairly decent baking guide. There is a section at the beginning that explains the various baking techniques they use, which helps with terminology as well. Get yourself a kitchen scale, because everything is given in metric units (it will also make your bakes more reliable anyway). The recipes are directly from the show, so they should at the very least look appetizing, though time will tell if they taste good as well.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that there seems to be a recipe missing. I'm not sure if I just have a misprinted edition, but there is a recipe for "Savoury Pastry Parcels" listed in the "Savoury Bakes" section that should be between "Tapenade Twists" and "Little Crab Souffles." In my book Tapenade Twists occupies page 261, and then Little Crab Souffles is on page 262, with Paul's Mini Sausage Plaits closing out the chapter. "Savoury Pastry Parcels" was the title of a signature bake, so perhaps it was meant as a placeholder for the editor that was never filled? The main reason I bought this book was for the savoury bakes, so it was mildly disappointing to be missing one. Regardless, the...

United States on Oct 09, 2017

A. Searcy: "Never let it be forgot, that once there was a spot. For one bright shining moment - that was known as British Bake Off". A wonderful slice of television history soon to be lost to us all. Recipes handed down the generations, or whipped up in the imaginations, of an age and ethnic-varied group of people vying for a glass cake plate with all the competitiveness of a warm hug. But enough wistful reminiscing about a gentler and less greedy age of cookery. As to the book itself - apart from the baking temperatures, if you don't speak metric (oh President Carter, if you'd only been more insistent about Americans converting), you'll need to make some translating notes. Americans will need to translate ingredients as well - strong flour = bread flour, plain flour = all-purpose flour, bicarbonate of soda = baking soda, icing sugar = confectioner's/powdered sugar, double cream = heavy cream (not really), caster sugar = granulated sugar (not really), muscovado sugar = brown sugar (not really), golden syrup = corn syrup (not really), treacle = (well, you get the idea). Unless you have a source for the British ingredients, the recipes aren't going to taste exactly BBC - but then again, the...

United States on Sep 19, 2016

peg2: I'm liking this book. I've tried a few things; all have been exceptionally good. Try the poppyseed white bloomer bread; or, rather, try half of it. The full recipe overwhelmed my aging countertop mixer, so I had to knead by hand for the first time ever; it came out so well, I think I'll knead by hand from now on. The bread had a consistency I can only describe as creamy; it made the most fabulous French toast I've ever had. Other recipes have been very good, but this one stands out.

I would give this five stars if it had more than the most perfunctory information on the contestants. I, too, would like more of the challenge recipes; I didn't mark down for that, though, because a lot of the recipes from all seasons are available on the BBC web site.

United Kingdom on Apr 06, 2015

Nathan Choat: I was very excited about getting this book, and it was definitely worth the wait. Even with just a quick flick through the pages, it's evident the amount of time and care has been put into it - visually it is beautiful. The design is colourful and simple but extrememly effective, and the photography is stunning - the pictures make you want to start baking right away.

The recipes themselves are many and varied and their difficulty level is clearly set out in the top corner of every page. The chapters range from Cakes, to Patisserie , to savoury Bakes, so there is something for everyone. I haven't baked anything out of the book yet, but I have lots of ideas of what to try out first. In addition there is a bakers guide at the beginning of the book which explains all the techniques an terminology used.

Overall, this book is a must buy for all bake of fans and general home baking enthusiasts - highly recommended and great value for money.

United Kingdom on Aug 16, 2014