Customer Reviews

Rachel's Baking Secrets

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am enjoying this cookbook very much. The Irish-style quickbreads are easy and delicious and pies and cupcakes (fairy cakes!)are just as good. Rachel Allen is the delightful author of this cookbook. She comes from, or has married into, the Allens of Ballymaloe, a well-known cooking school in the south of Ireland. The north American user will not need to make the usual adjustments to reading a cookbook from an International source as Ms. Allen has made it effortless, using measurements and layouts that are familiar to us all. Her scone recipes are wonderful and while I have not yet ventured to try her yeast bread, I can't wait to do so. Her instructions are clear and easy and she writes in a comfortable style with humour. She also ventures into the Christmas season with the usual Christmas cake, pudding and mince pies recipes. There is a section at the end of the book on icings and frostings, which I have found very useful, and she even ventures to offer an "American" frosting. For anyone who is pastry-phobic, Ms. Allen offers a clear set of definitions of the different kinds of pastry and sensible instructions on technique for each. I find the photographic illustrations to be helpful and nice to look at and in keeping with the production values of the whole book. My only cavil is one of expectation. There is a section in the book on Baked Meals and I suppose since the book title is simply "Bake" she's within the mandate to include this. However, I find that I'm just not interested - these recipes may be wonderful, I'll just never know. Give me more cakes, tarts, scones and goodies, please!

Lots of breads, cakes, buns from a variety of traditions. Everything is covered if you want to make croissants from scratch you now have a receipe!

Some savoury food - baked dinners, pies.

I thoroughly enjoy what these receipes have produced.

Some of dinners took a while to prepare - she doesn't give preparation lengths in it.

this book was very well written ,informative with scads of information, the recipes were practical and down to earth easy to read and easy to make i really enjoyed the book

For the North American, perhaps this cookbook might be a little frustrating with its use of scales and questionable oven temperature conversions (I have scorched some treats) but if you own a scale and keep an eye on your desserts, you will be fine. Not only that, you will have wonderful treats to share with friends and family.

I have made four recipes that I adored, even when I screwed the macaroon tart one royally (my bad). It is true that not all recipes have a photo but there are many cookbooks out there that do not have half the photos this book does contain. The quality of the photos is fantastic and I like seeing Rachel here and there throughout the book in them, like she is there cheering us on.

The printing is high quality, each page a different pastel colour and there is even a blue ribbon place holder that utterly charmed me. All the recipes look amazing, many have variations like the banana bread. I was intrigued by "glace cherries" but went with chocolate chips instead.

For me, this is a great cookbook and love the look and feel of it as well as the recipes. Truly a treasure in my kitchen.

The first impression is really good: Hardcover book, rough thick paper with a nice design, and cooking measures in Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas. Recipes look really tasty and are explained in a simple and easy way to follow. However, after flipping through the pages a big, HUGE, problem shows up: Only 30% of the recipes have a picture, so it makes it impossible to know how the final dish has to look like. A picture is sometimes -specially with desserts- as important as the recipe itself. The worst of it is that some recipes come with a picture of a woman or kitchen tools! What the hell?? This is a cook book guys, not a home interiors magazine!