The Hairy Bakers – Big Book of Baking? Si King and Dave Meyers, who we know and love as the Hairy Bikers, with a heart for cooking – this recent cook book shows they have a love and understanding of baking as well. Based on their enjoyment of cooking combined with travel – a real treat for the eyes and good to watch – as we enjoy the interaction of Dave and Si together and also with the folks they meet. Good fun!!
Big Book of Baking Hardback edition Big Book of Baking Kindle download
So it is off across Europe to visit Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Italy, France and Spain. A wide ranging journey that must have taken some planning and organisation.
The book was published 1 March 2012, with 256 pages by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Cakes, breads and pastries from the various countries are cooked by the bikers and the folks they meet along the way. Visually really good in HD, originally aired on BBC2 Bakeation as the guys motorcycle across Europe.
You can see a repeat of the show, if you stay up late – beginning with Norway on 25 Aug 2012 BBC 1 at 01.40 – so set your SKY+ or digital recorder.
Read all about the recipes, locations and people that the Hairy Bikers meet at the BBC2 Bakeation site. See programme links for the 8 episodes at 1 Norway, 2 Low Countries, 3 Germany, 4 Eastern Europe, 5 Austria, 6 Italy, 7 France and 8 Spain.
So back to the book. The bikers have always been into baking, since their early years as kids. They toured the UK with a baking in Britain series that was very popular.
The recipes are accompanied by details of the folks they met in the different countries and lovely images of the breads, pastries and cakes.
Examples of the recipes include:
- Jarlsberg Twist Bread, Ryes breads, Flatbreads from Norway
- Amsterdam caramel cookies, Dutch apple cake, Belgian potato tart.
- Meat and cabbage buns from Germany
- Slovak cheesecake, fruit crumble from Slovakia
- Hungarian layered csasserole
- Romanian sweet bread
- Ham souffle from Austria
- Focaccia, Lemoncello Babas from Italy
- Provencal bread, madeleines from France
- Galician pie and various Spanish breads
Make sure you watch the TV series as it is now being repeated!
Overall a value for money cook book, it will keep you busy for some time exploring the recipes and trying them for yourself. We all love baking, but the smell of fresh bread is wonderful. Hot from the oven… it is worth the effort, as all cooking is.
The Norway recipes are available on the BBC Food website with a link to recipes from each of the other episodes.
Enjoy, thanks to Dave and Si – putting a smile on our faces!