Gail's Artisan Bakery Cookbook

I am happy of my purchase. I cannot wait to try and make some bread from this book

I bought this book after a visit to London when I became addicted to Gail's amazing sour cherry and dark chocolate drop scones. Back at home I followed the recipe and got a perfect imitation of the scones. There are dozens of other recipes in the book that I haven't tried yet, but I'm sure I will.

Fantastic Bakeries in London. Fab book. Measurements are in metric (g). Much easier when measuring out ingredients. Love Gail's!

Full disclosure: I've never been to Gail's. This caught my eye because it had a recipe for maple brioche and the rest of it looked fantastic, so I picked it up. So far, the recipes are spot on and delicious. However, I'm giving this 4-stars because the recipes sometimes lack a little information that a novice baker wouldn't catch. For example, the cream rolls use milk cream and butter as the only liquids, but nowhere in the recipe does it mention what temperature they should go in at. If you're not paying attention or thinking it through, you would likely just toss it in cold, but that's going to retard your yeast growth a ton and you'll have dense tiny rolls as a result. Having baked for long enough, I knew to scald the milk (to denature the proteins) and then let it cool to ~100*F (so it won't kill the yeast) before adding it in. Vital steps most seasoned bakers should already know, but I don't imagine that's the target audience here.

The recipes are clear and fantastic. Her cooking made out London trip even more wonderful. We needed to try to bring sone of the experience home with us. This book gives expert advice clearly enough for novice bakers to follow. The photos are so good and mouthwatering, that I have goon looking for a recipe and spent 30 minutes just looking at all the fantastic food. Get the book and visit her in Pimlico for breakfast or lunch! You will not be disappointed.

I haven't tried any of the recipes but can't wait to. A beautiful book with such tempting recipes, but I was disappointed the type was so small and very light imprint color. I will need to use a magnifying glass. I am currently gluten free but I've had the desire to bake bread for the last few years and will now hopefully "wow" my neighbor's with Gail's recipes. This book made me want to go to the next step and rethink the possibility and the joy of baking bread again. I used to bake bread over 30 years ago living on my sailboat in the Bahamas by hand milling grains into flour. I feel like going through this book one recipe at a time like the character Julie in the movie "Julie and Julia" about a novice chef who cooks every dish in Julia Child's book "Mastering The Art of French Cooking." Please, if you come out with a new edition, please make the typeface bolder and larger.

It is one of the best bread baking books there only a few now one has been added to that few