Paul Hollywood
Author of How to Bake
About the Author
Series
Works by Paul Hollywood
The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets (2011) 139 copies, 2 reviews
The Great British Baking Show: The Big Book of Amazing Cakes (2019) — Contributor; Foreword — 72 copies, 1 review
A Baker's Life: 100 fantastic recipes, from childhood bakes to five-star excellence (2017) — Author — 54 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
The Great British Bake Off: A Bake for all Seasons: The official 2021 Great British Bake Off book (2021) — Foreword; Contributor — 22 copies
The Great British Bake Off: Favourite Flavours: The official 2022 Great British Bake Off book (2022) — Foreword; Contributor — 5 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1966-03-01
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- baker
TV presenter
writer - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
I suppose that it is best to begin with a confession: my wife and I are huge, long-time fans of The Great British Baking Show and Paul Hollywood is a big reason for that. As the judge that all the contestants fear the most—and are most eager to win the approval of with a coveted “Hollywood Handshake”—he shows himself time and again to be knowledgeable about all things related to baking as well as a master of execution in the culinary arts. So, when it comes to evaluating a cookbook show more that promises to include Hollywood’s favorite, time-tested recipes for a wide variety of classic bakes, I am more than a little biased before I even begin.
That acknowledged, BAKE is a remarkable collection of outstanding and tantalizing recipes. The thing about the book that is most impressive is the diversity of its coverage. Unlike the bread-centric focus of some of the author’s previous cookbooks—baking bread is his passion, after all—this is a far more balanced selection, including dishes from a broad set of sweet and savory categories that cover just about anything a home baker might want to cook, including Cakes, Cookies and Scones, Breads and Flatbreads, Pizza and Doughnuts, Pastry and Pies, and Desserts. All of the recipes are easy to follow and I really appreciate that the weights and measures were tailored to the U.S. audience. Also, at the head of each category, as well as before each recipe, the author offers lovely personal observations that are both insightful and frequently charming.
For what it is worth, we baked three of the recipes from different categories: Peanut Butter Cookies, White Sandwich Bread, and Yule Log. So, in addition to reading all these great preparations and imagining how wonderful they might be on the plate, we have first-hand experience with how a few of them actually turned out. They were all fun and satisfying to bake and ended up being delicious. However, our bakes were not uniformly successful—without the right pan for the Yule Log we over-cooked the sponge, which ended up being more of a Yule Parfait, but it was still quite tasty. Also, the bread came out great and exactly as described, but was very time-consuming given the required dough-rising and proving. Overall, BAKE is a cookbook that should be an essential resource for any home baker and it is one that we will enjoy using for many years to come. show less
That acknowledged, BAKE is a remarkable collection of outstanding and tantalizing recipes. The thing about the book that is most impressive is the diversity of its coverage. Unlike the bread-centric focus of some of the author’s previous cookbooks—baking bread is his passion, after all—this is a far more balanced selection, including dishes from a broad set of sweet and savory categories that cover just about anything a home baker might want to cook, including Cakes, Cookies and Scones, Breads and Flatbreads, Pizza and Doughnuts, Pastry and Pies, and Desserts. All of the recipes are easy to follow and I really appreciate that the weights and measures were tailored to the U.S. audience. Also, at the head of each category, as well as before each recipe, the author offers lovely personal observations that are both insightful and frequently charming.
For what it is worth, we baked three of the recipes from different categories: Peanut Butter Cookies, White Sandwich Bread, and Yule Log. So, in addition to reading all these great preparations and imagining how wonderful they might be on the plate, we have first-hand experience with how a few of them actually turned out. They were all fun and satisfying to bake and ended up being delicious. However, our bakes were not uniformly successful—without the right pan for the Yule Log we over-cooked the sponge, which ended up being more of a Yule Parfait, but it was still quite tasty. Also, the bread came out great and exactly as described, but was very time-consuming given the required dough-rising and proving. Overall, BAKE is a cookbook that should be an essential resource for any home baker and it is one that we will enjoy using for many years to come. show less
I mean ... one does not simply _not_ request/read a Paul Hollywood book when it appears on NetGalley, amirite? :D
I may not have Netflix anymore to keep up with "The Great British Baking Show," but that just means I'm in even more need of a Paul handshake (as long as he's not side-eyeing me with those piercing blue eyes and making me second-guess every plan I've got). :D :D
This cookbook is gorgeous--exactly what I expected, and then some, from the master bread maker, who possesses a more show more extensive repertoire than I ever realized! I loved reading about Paul "beyond GBBO"; frankly, he felt a lot more approachable here than he does on screen, haha. I was surprised to see the recipes he recommends new bakers start with (the Victoria sandwich, for starters, and that cherry cake should be "in every baker's repertoire"); I couldn't help but hear his pronunciations of "ciabatta" and "scohns" in my head as I read (not to mention Mel and Prue kicking it off with "BAKE!"); and I was pretty darn excited that he included a recipe for chouxnuts, even if I'd much prefer to buy and eat one than make it myself.
The book is a veritable encyclopedia (but way more approachable than Brittanica) for the home baker. It explains the "why" behind so many baking quirks, and will only enhance one's baking experience. GBBO fans and non-fans--is there such a thing?--alike will enjoy it, as it features many a sweet and a savoy recipe straight from the show.
Brilliantly photographed, written, and presented, it's deserving of a Hollywood handshake if I do say so myself.
I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less
I may not have Netflix anymore to keep up with "The Great British Baking Show," but that just means I'm in even more need of a Paul handshake (as long as he's not side-eyeing me with those piercing blue eyes and making me second-guess every plan I've got). :D :D
This cookbook is gorgeous--exactly what I expected, and then some, from the master bread maker, who possesses a more show more extensive repertoire than I ever realized! I loved reading about Paul "beyond GBBO"; frankly, he felt a lot more approachable here than he does on screen, haha. I was surprised to see the recipes he recommends new bakers start with (the Victoria sandwich, for starters, and that cherry cake should be "in every baker's repertoire"); I couldn't help but hear his pronunciations of "ciabatta" and "scohns" in my head as I read (not to mention Mel and Prue kicking it off with "BAKE!"); and I was pretty darn excited that he included a recipe for chouxnuts, even if I'd much prefer to buy and eat one than make it myself.
The book is a veritable encyclopedia (but way more approachable than Brittanica) for the home baker. It explains the "why" behind so many baking quirks, and will only enhance one's baking experience. GBBO fans and non-fans--is there such a thing?--alike will enjoy it, as it features many a sweet and a savoy recipe straight from the show.
Brilliantly photographed, written, and presented, it's deserving of a Hollywood handshake if I do say so myself.
I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less
I wasted no time in experimenting with this cookbook!
Paul Hollywood's Bake, My best ever recipes for the classics, arrived today, and the cherry cake above is already out of the oven and cooling down for a sweet something after dinner. It's the easiest cake I've ever made: you bung all the ingredients except the cherries and the almonds into the Kenwood, and when you've blitzed the batter you fold in three quarters of the cherries, and then you press the rest of them and the almonds into the show more top of the batter.
(The eagle-eyed reader will notice that the pantry held only slivered almonds instead of whole blanched almonds and a mixture of red and green glace cherries, but necessity is the mother of invention as they say.)
As you'd expect from Paul Hollywood, judge of The Great British Baking Show, there is a bit of yada-yada at the beginning, but the main message is that it's easy, you can do it yourself, and people will love you for it .
Next time you go round to someone's house, bake a cake or a loaf of bread and take it with you instead of a bottle of wine or some chocolates. There's nothing like making something yourself. The processes involved, the fact that you can share the experience with your kids and family, it creates those all-important precious, lasting memories. (p.11)
It's true, isn't it? There's just something about baking... I love it when my best friend comes for dinner bearing a tarte tatin. Her husband loves it when I bring a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast when we go on shared holidays. The Offspring loves my apple tart, which just like my mother's version, is packed with fruit and not too sweet. And The Spouse's favourite is my orange and almond cake... but it could be that there are some challengers in this cookbook...
Chapter 1: Cakes
- Chocolate Orange Banana Bread. I have four bananas, they just need to a bit squishier and then I'm trying the recipe.
- Victoria Sandwich: interesting to see that he uses half butter/half margarine. I have some lovely posh jams for the filling... see the photo here
- Sticky Ginger Loaf: golden syrup and black treacle! And cloves!!
- Cherry Cake: I chose this one to do first because we had all the ingredients in the pantry, more or less.
- Chocolate Hazelnut Torte : this one is a definite for a dinner party, it looks impressive but is really easy.
- Carrot cake: I will need to master the art of piping cream to make it look the way it is in the photo, but the actual cake is simple. It uses wholemeal flour so we can pretend that it's healthy.
- Lemon Drizzle Cake... yes, when our lemon tree stops sulking and produces some fruit. (Ok, maybe I did prune it too hard, but still...)
- Chocolate Fudge Cake: three layers of total decadence, see the photo and recipe here
- New York Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake... to die for.
- Fruits of the Forest Cheesecake: the most demanding of the recipes, and I'm not quite sure what he means by frozen 'forest fruits'. Berries??
Plus there are recipes for Blueberry Muffins, Chocolate Brownies, and Blondies.
(You will have noticed that there are four cake recipes with chocolate.)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/25/bake-by-paul-hollywood/ show less
Paul Hollywood's favorite British bakes, divided by region. The introductions talk about how differences in climate, crops, and finances has created varied baking traditions for each region and are all very interesting and enlightening and I wished for more in-depth information, but this is a cookbook after all, not a history book. The recipes are great - very British - and the illustrations, especially the technique ones, are extremely helpful as "fairly wet dough" is a somewhat loose show more description. Note that many of the recipes take some experimenting with because US ingredients, especially flour, are different from British, but it's not difficult to get good results. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 2,055
- Popularity
- #12,510
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 19
- ISBNs
- 60
- Languages
- 3
