Bourke Street Bakery: The Ultimate Baking Companion [Paperback]

I purchased this book a few weeks ago and am in love with it!! The Bourke Street Bakery in Sydney Australia is one of my guilty pleasures that I try to stay away from because everything is so yummy. When I saw the book I couldn't resist...the pictures and are beautiful, and the recipes are extremely well thought out and explained. The bread making section has a huge amount of detail and many pictures to really demonstrate what you need to do. There are sweet, savory, breads, pastries, tarts, desserts etc all in this wonderful book. So far I have cooked the dark chocolate and raspberry muffins, the vanilla and strawberry brulee tarts, the leek and tart, and the pork and fennel sausage rolls... they all turned out amazingly well! I am not an experienced cook and am only just getting into baking so really think this is a book that has something for everyone. It would also make a really nice gift for someone who enjoys cooking. You won't be disappointed!!

What a fantastic book. I just love using it and the recipes are great. Today I made the banana cake and its to die for. Have also made pastry, pies and muffins and each recipe just works so well. Its a must buy book for anyone interested in home baking.

As I write this review, I have the croissant dough for Pain Au Chocolat from this book in the refrigerator resting. I have a ton of books, and started methodically teaching myself to bake with Carol Field's "The Italian Baker" and Nancy Silverton's "The Breads from La Brea Bakery". I considered them my baking bibles. Bourke Street Bakery has replaced them for a number a reasons.

(1) The breadth of the recipes is fantastic, from savoury to sweet and the recipes are good;
(2) The images demonstrating step by step are useful in helping you understand how the dough is supposed to look at various stages;
(3) The measurements, metric and imperial, are precise and leave no room for guessing, and they work;
(4) The instruction is detailed, clear, and concise; The introduction walks you through a basic understanding of how water, flour, and yeast work, and explains the process very clearly;
(5) The food photography (by one of my favorite photographers, Alan Benson) is sublime;
(6) It has all the Australian baked goods that I crave!

If you are considering this book, you should know that it is not really the kind of book that you will open and go into the kitchen and turn out something in an hour. There are some of those recipes in here, but it is a book based on a bakery, and any good bakery takes its time to make its goods, and so will you! For example, I am on day three of the croissant dough. Developing your own starter takes even longer. This is because much of the flavor in these baked good relies on a slow rise.

So, this is a book for someone who is not scared to delve into the world of baking, someone who would like to improve upon/add to their baking skills, or someone who has a great command of baking skills (bread doughs, laminated doughs, yeasted doughs, etc.)