Phaidon Press recently sent me a review copy of What to Bake & How to Bake It by Jane Hornby. The large, beautifully-illustrated book arrived a couple of weeks ago, giving me ample time get to know the book and try a few recipes.

When reviewing a cookbook, I start with a quick overview. Is the index easy to use? Does it have the sections I usually look for? Is it engaging both to my eye and my taste buds? Are the recipes interesting? Will I want to look at it again, as soon as I get home from work tomorrow?

Granted, these are basic questions, but they are the questions that matter. The most telltale question is the last one; did I return to it as soon as I got home from work? Yes! And, we had friends due for dinner the next evening, it was the perfect excuse for me to make something to give the book a trial run.

Going back to my list of questions, I found the book to be set up well, starting with my favorite introductory section. Hornby gives basic advice for successful baking: how to master cakes, pastries, cookies, and bread; lists of required equipment and best ingredients; and a photographic guide to baking sheets, pans, utensils, equipment; and – my favorite – the visual guide to what things should look like.

The visual guide includes what poorly creamed butter, split batter, overbeaten egg whites, overwhipped cream, and burnt melted chocolate look like. Equally important, it shows what they should look like. For a novice, this is invaluable. Heck, it helps all of us!

After the introduction, the book is divided into four sections comprising the 50 recipes in the book: Simple Family Baking; Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea; Special Bakes; and Desserts and After Dinner.

While I can’t figure why scones appear in both Family Baking and Morning Coffee, or why pumpkin pie is a Special Bake and not under Desserts and After Dinner, I did decide that these choices are personal. The important thing is that they are easily found, well done, gorgeous to look at, and the instructions are detailed and accurate.

For our guests, I chose something from Special Bakes section, something I hadn’t had in ages – Linzer Cookies. Hornby makes hers with hazelnuts but acknowledges that some people prefer almonds. As I had my first Linzer Cookies in Germany, made with almonds, that was my choice for the cookies, too.

Following the well-written, step-by-step illustrated instructions, I made the cookies exactly as written. (Sorry I didn’t have a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the centers!)

Hornby’s incredible attention to detail made the recipe a breeze for me, and the results were, without doubt, the best Linzer Cookies I have ever had.

Since then, I have made her buttermilk pound cake. Again, it came out perfectly. She used a hand-held mixer, but said it could easily be made with a stand mixer. For the test, I used my hand mixer, as well and it came out looking just like the photo in the book.

Cake taste-tester friends all loved it. I served it with lemon curd, a popular condiment here in citrus world.

Some of the other recipes I plan to bake soon include: Golden Drizzle Citrus Cake, Vanilla Sponge Cake, Classic Crusty Bread, Cherry-Almond Streusel Slice, Maple-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls, Coconut Layer Cake, Chocolate Hazelnut Log, Strawberry Meringue Cake, and Mint Chocolate Macarons. 

I like this book a lot, and happily recommend it. As you can tell, the recipes cover a range from simplest to fancy, and all are completely doable. Hornby’s clear directions – with her beautifully laid out visual instructions – will make this a go-to for all bakers.

What to Bake & How to Bake It from Phaidon Press retails for $35, and for $39.95 in Canada. (All opinions within this review are my own.)

Back to baking!
~ David

Linzer
Cookies

Preparation
time: 15 minutes, plus chilling
Baking
time: 10 minutes per batch
Makes
about 22
(Notes:
My cookie cutter was smaller, so I got 24 full size cookies. I also baked the
holes of the 24 tops and made 12 mini sandwich Linzer Cookies. They were
über cute! My edits
appear in blue)
For the
cookie dough
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond meal
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 small orange, finely grated zest only (optional)
For
decorating
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam, or use Nutella, lemon curd, or apricot jam
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets with butter, then line them with parchment
paper.
(I opted to use my Silpat liners, so did not grease the pans.) Separate the egg, then put yolk in the bowl of a food processor with the sugar, the vanilla, and butter.
Process the ingredients together until creamy and evenly mixed.
Add flour, salt, cinnamon, and ground nuts (almond meal) to the processor bowl. Finely grate the orange zest, if using, then pulse until the ingredients form a soft dough ball. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl down once or twice.
Lightly dust a work surface with flour, turn out the dough onto it, then split it into 2 equal balls. Flatten each ball into a saucer-size disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20-30 minutes, or until firm but not rock solid.
Sprinkle more flour on the work surface, then get ready to roll. Press ridges into one of the disks of dough with a rolling pin (this stretches it without overworking it, which makes it tough). Turn the dough and repeat this ridging a few times, until it is about 3/4-inch thick. If any cracks appear, pinch them together. Now roll the dough to about 1/8-inch thick. The dough is very short and may split; don’t worry – just gently press it back together.
Using a 2 1/2-inch fluted pastry cutter, stamp out 12 rounds. Next, using a small heart or star-shape cutter (Or even the end of a wide icing tube to make a round hole I used a 3/4-inch round cutter), cut out shapes from the centers of half the cookies.
Carefully lift the whole round coolies onto one baking sheet, and the cookies with holes onto the other. Squish the remains of the dough together (taking care not to knead it, as this can make the dough tough), re-roll, and stamp out more cookies until you fill the sheets. (I kept the holes, baked them for 9 minutes, and made a dozen mini Linzer Sandwich Cookies.)
Bake the whole cookies for 10-11 minutes (I baked mine for 11 minutes) and the cut-out cookies for 9 minutes, or until they are pale golden and smell nutty. Let stand for 2 minutes, then lift them onto cooling racks and let cool completely. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
Use a fine-mesh sieve to dust the confectioners sugar over the cut-out cookies. Spoon about 1 teaspoon (I used a generous 1/2 teaspoon) jam over the whole cookies, then sandwich them together with the cut-outs. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for 3-5 days and are best sandwiched the day youre going to eat them. (Trust me: they are so good that they will never last more than 1 day!)

 

24 Comments

  1. Jill

    February 21, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    You forgot to say when the tasting would be held 🙂

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 23, 2015 at 2:39 pm

      Jill – I will remember to send an invitation next time!

      Reply
  2. Lizzy (Good Things)

    February 21, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    I'm with Jill, when do we get to taste!? Seriously, looks like a great book… great review too, David. And Linzer cookies, I've always wanted to bake those!

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 23, 2015 at 2:39 pm

      Thanks, Liz – I think you will really like these!

      Reply
  3. Unknown

    February 22, 2015 at 4:00 am

    I'm so glad that you featured this recipe – I've wanted to try these for so long. Isn't Penzeys Cinnamon the best? I agree with your criteria for a cookbook review but have never articulated it this way.

    I just received the most hilarious book to review called "Confessions of a Serial Entertainer" by Steven Stolman. I did find a couple of recipes to try – but a lot of them use Bisquick, etc. Anyway, if you're offered it, I think you'd really enjoy his writing.

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 23, 2015 at 2:42 pm

      I love Penzeys, Susan – it is so wonderful to have a store only a couple of minutes from the house – convenient and dangerous! Thanks for the recommendation of "Serial Entertainer!"

      Reply
  4. Andrea_TheKitchenLioness

    February 22, 2015 at 8:27 am

    David, ah Linzer Kekse – actually they are some of my favorite cookies to bake at Christmas time and I also add lots of nuts, cinnamon and vanilla and my favorite jam (seedless as well) to them – you certainly baked some picture perfect cookies there – I bet they were an absoulte hit and disappeared in no time!
    Euch noch einen schönen Sonntag
    Andrea

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 23, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      Vielen Dank, Andrea! Do you use almonds or hazelnuts when making Linzer Kekse or Linzertorte?

      Reply
  5. dedy oktavianus

    February 22, 2015 at 8:51 am

    Simply damn delicius coookies!!!
    Dedy@Dentist Chef

    Reply
  6. Padaek

    February 22, 2015 at 11:41 am

    Looks and sounds like a great cookbook and your Linzer cookies look amazing! Your photos are always so beautiful. For a moment there, I thought they were photos from the pages of the cookbook. Always great to read your posts. Best wishes. 🙂

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 23, 2015 at 2:44 pm

      Wow – that is the greatest compliment I could get! I love your site – I went over and read lots trying to find your name to thank you! Padaek is lovely and I look for3ward to your posts!

      Reply
  7. Sippity Sup

    February 22, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    Is it the almond that make this a Linzer cookie (kinda like the almonds in Linzertorte). GREG

    Reply
  8. Valentina

    February 23, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    Lovely. I love Linzer-esque desserts. Sound like a great book to have. So cool that it shows you what you're not looking for (split batter, etc.) P.S. I quite like the powdered sugar art. 🙂

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 24, 2015 at 3:48 pm

      Valentina – so glad you liked the powdered sugar shot. It was just too much fun to pass up!

      Reply
  9. Unknown

    February 23, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    David, I believe Linzer cookies travel well by mail…just sayin.
    I love, love Linzers and yours look fabulous! I love cookbooks with lots of photos, because I want to see what it looks like! I've never understood the books without photos or maybe just a couple here and there. I would think photos are vital for a cookbook!
    This one looks like a keeper. I'm surprised the scones weren't in the afternoon tea section because as a Brit, that's where they belong for me! xx

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 24, 2015 at 3:49 pm

      Ah, the scones appeared in both places, Nazneen – which is why I was so confused! But, really, it doesn't matter as there was a scone there, too.

      I am really with you – I want lots and lots of pictures in my cookbooks! xo

      Reply
  10. Provence WineZine

    February 24, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    David, That's quite an endorsement! It looks like a book I would like to have in my library–I love the idea of a section that shows what something should and shouldn't look like.
    Now, when are you writing your own?
    xo

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 24, 2015 at 10:18 pm

      Susan – I agree! The section that shows you what things should and should not look like is extremely valuable!

      As for my book, you will need to be very patient! xo

      Reply
  11. Karen (Back Road Journal)

    February 25, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    Your linzer cookies look beautiful. The book sounds like it would make a great gift to give to new bakers, with all its photos of what things should look and not look like.

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      February 27, 2015 at 4:44 am

      You are right! And I think this would make a great wedding gift, Karen.

      Reply
  12. Linda

    December 1, 2023 at 11:37 am

    I immediately ordered two for gifts! Thanks! Gorgeous photos, as always.

    Reply
    • Cocoa & Lavender

      December 5, 2023 at 3:39 pm

      It’s a great book with many different recipes — good for beginner and experienced bakers!

      Reply

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