I love baking. If you follow the Norwich Bookstore at all, you may already know this about me. I often bake for special events and for our monthly book club (if you're looking for a book club to join, we're very fun and meet the third Tuesday of every month, even December). But, until quite recently, I would not have called myself a baker. I had the same few recipes I would rotate through, which are simple and low-effort (no-knead bread, chocolate chip cookies, a lemon yogurt cake that, apparently, all French children know how to make). To folks who bake not at all, perhaps this sounds like a lot of baking, but I've never made a meringue (can't even spell it, frankly), or caramel; heck, until this year, I'd never made brownies from scratch.
But lately I've wanted to dig deeper into this delicious hobby, to experiment and challenge myself. I've been watching a lot of Bake Off and wondering, could I do that? Baking, to me, has always been a strict science: when you bake, you follow the recipe to the letter. But now I'm thinking it's more like a science experiment; with an understanding of how the elements work, I figured I could explore while also avoiding disaster.
So, as is my wont, I went searching for a book. What I wanted was Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat but for baking. (If you're not familiar with Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat it is a sort of textbook on cooking; it illustrates the four main elements of cooking [see title] and teaches the reader to understand a recipe intimately through that context.) Thank goodness for Sift by Nicola Lamb, a brand new cookbook that breaks down the elements of baking, the foundational ingredients and fundamental techniques. It is exactly the deep-dive I was looking for, answering questions I've recently pondered as well as questions I didn't even know I had. Frankly, I am reading it cover-to-cover and I'm taking notes. After the early chapters, which analyze individual ingredients and techniques and their effect on the bake, Lamb puts your new knowledge to work with a variety of recipes organized by how long they will take (an afternoon, a day, a weekend). Finally, she gives you recipes for all the extra bits—ganache, frangipane, crème anglaise. I feel confident that, once I've made my way through this cookbook, I will be able to get through dessert week on Bake Off, if not go all the way.
So, it's the holidays and I'm a bookseller, which means I can't help but answer a question you may or may not have asked: who is this for? I mean, it's the perfect book for me, a baker who has always kept it simple but is interested in branching out, experimenting, and learning. There must be more of you out there, folks who have watched Bake Off and wondered: could I make choux pastry? Would I also burn the caramel? I wouldn't recommend this to beginning bakers, unless they love digging deep into a new hobby right away. But I would recommend it to seasoned bakers who can spell meringue and already knew crème anglaise was two words, yet have never explored the science of baking and might be interested in creating their own recipes, or at least tweaking their favorites. And hey, maybe, if you gift them this cookbook, they will share their delicious experiments with you.
Emma Kaas co-owns the Norwich Bookstore with her husband, Sam. When not at the bookstore you’ll most likely find her reading books, baking bread, tinkering with spreadsheets, or pulling tarot cards.