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A review by mrsacount
Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller, Sebastien Rouxel
4.0
I can't decide between three and four stars, so I'll go for four.
The pros:
Gorgeous photos. They make me want to try much harder to make my baking pretty (I've become very used to my sloppy handiwork).
The recipes are grand: so far I have made the OhOhs, TKOs, Better Nutters, blueberry muffins, and croissants, and all, except for some user error, have turned out to be extremely tasty.
They allow me to replicate foodstuffs that I miss from the US, Better Nutters especially (even if I do have to eat them all by myself because Brits seem to have an aversion to peanuts, even if they put almonds in everything. Whatever).
French-American fusion baking. Need I say more?
The cons:
It is massive. Huge and heavy. Fortunately I have a bit of room to spare on my kitchen counter.
It doesn't make allowances for those of us who don't have the half a grand or massive kitchen space (that isn't already being taken up by this book) to spare on a stand mixer. I do everything by hand, which isn't a huge issue as getting the same results isn't a problem, but I wish there was some acknowledgement for people who bake this way.
As an editor I understanding the reasoning, but I'm not a huge fan of having to flip between lots of different pages for the components of one recipe.
Some of the instructions are over-detailed or too specific, so I have to look up alternatives for brand name ingredients.
So overall...
Gorgeous, huge, and in the end, has very tasty results. But if you're a beginner baker, it will probably send you running away screaming.
The pros:
Gorgeous photos. They make me want to try much harder to make my baking pretty (I've become very used to my sloppy handiwork).
The recipes are grand: so far I have made the OhOhs, TKOs, Better Nutters, blueberry muffins, and croissants, and all, except for some user error, have turned out to be extremely tasty.
They allow me to replicate foodstuffs that I miss from the US, Better Nutters especially (even if I do have to eat them all by myself because Brits seem to have an aversion to peanuts, even if they put almonds in everything. Whatever).
French-American fusion baking. Need I say more?
The cons:
It is massive. Huge and heavy. Fortunately I have a bit of room to spare on my kitchen counter.
It doesn't make allowances for those of us who don't have the half a grand or massive kitchen space (that isn't already being taken up by this book) to spare on a stand mixer. I do everything by hand, which isn't a huge issue as getting the same results isn't a problem, but I wish there was some acknowledgement for people who bake this way.
As an editor I understanding the reasoning, but I'm not a huge fan of having to flip between lots of different pages for the components of one recipe.
Some of the instructions are over-detailed or too specific, so I have to look up alternatives for brand name ingredients.
So overall...
Gorgeous, huge, and in the end, has very tasty results. But if you're a beginner baker, it will probably send you running away screaming.