Good Housekeeping - Good Housekeeping Brilliant Baking: 130 Delicious Recipes from Britain’s Most Trusted Kitchen

When using kitchen appliances please always follow the manufacturers instructions.

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

HarperCollinsPublishers

1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road

Dublin 4, Ireland

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2021

FIRST EDITION

Text and photography Good Housekeeping 2021

Cover photography: Shutterstock.com

Project editor: Tracy Mller-King

Recipe writers: Meike Beck, Emma Franklin, Alice Shields, Georgie DArcy Coles, Grace Evans, Gabriella English, Suzannah Butcher, Elisabeth Hutchinson, Madeleine Burkitt, Lucy Jessop, Sophie Austen-Smith, Monaz Dumasia, Charlotte Watson, Zo Horne, Olivia Spurrell

Photographers: Kate Whitaker, Gareth Morgans, Alex Luck, Kris Kirkham, Sam Stowell, Charlie Richards, Myles New, Will Heap, Mike English, Steve Baxter, Maja Smend, Toby Scott, Simon Walton

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Good Housekeeping asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 978-0-00-839538-4

Ebook Edition October 2021 ISBN: 978-0-00-848782-9

Version 2021-09-08

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

• Change of font size and line height
• Change of background and font colours
• Change of font
• Change justification
• Text to speech
• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008395384

C ould any smell be better than that of a freshly baked loaf emerging from the oven? Or any treat bigger than freshly made scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea? Or any taste more delicious than a birthday cake that someone has made for you knowing exactly what your taste buds enjoy? And is there anything more satisfying than passing round the biscuits or flapjacks that youve made and hearing the grateful mmms of family and friends as they tuck in?

More than any other form of cooking, its baking that has the ability to spread joy both for the baker and for the recipient of their endeavours. Heres an activity that brings a little magic, creating nice, warm fuzzy feelings inside us, almost akin to a wonderful hug!

You dont need to be a psychologist to realise the power of this pastime. Just consider what happened during the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 when people right across the country found comfort in baking banana bread, and growing cultures in order to make sourdough became a craze. Conversations with friends and family over Zoom tended to focus either on discoveries of brilliant series on Netflix or sharing fabulous new recipes.

On our website, goodhousekeeping.com/uk, we marvelled as we saw millions logging on for troubleshooting articles on baking bread, easy three-ingredient bakes, and what to make when it was impossible to find eggs in the supermarket.

In my own home, I watched as my teenage daughter, Lara until then a fan of watching The Great British Bake Off on TV from the comfort of an armchair turned herself into the real deal, up at dawn (yes, dawn!) kneading and proving in order to be able to produce a wholemeal loaf in time for breakfast. As GCSEs were cancelled, revision was replaced with a hive of industry in the kitchen and Laras cupcake creations also became an almost daily occurrence. She was just one of the many for whom baking became a kind of mindfulness therapy as the focus on following the recipes and the various processes involved took her mind off everything else and gave her a sense of calm and being in control, as well as creating something to be proud of (and, of course, to post on social media!).

And creating is absolutely the right term for baking because, more than with other forms of cooking, there is definitely some alchemy at work. Something almost magical happens in the bakers kitchen, whereby some really simple ingredients are mixed together and become eminently greater than the sum of their parts. Eggs, flour, butter and sugar are mixed, put in the oven and a short time later rise into a beautifully light sponge. A little yeast is added to flour, salt, oil and water and, hey presto, a loaf is born!

In good times, tea and cake is an indulgence right at the heart of gatherings with friends, but even during our recent most bizarre of times, exchanging baked goods has been a way of showing others we care. Often when Lara baked, she left a tin with a slice of cake, a blueberry muffin or a few biscuits on the doorstep of our neighbour, who lives alone, and they never failed to raise his spirits and a smile even on the bleakest of lockdown days.

For many of us, there are fond memories deep within us that link baking with happy times and treasured people think of blowing out candles on those early birthday cakes, or of afternoon tea spent with grandparents or, perhaps, of cutting a wedding cake. Its little wonder that the old estate agents adage about the smell of baking selling houses still rings true one mere whiff is guaranteed to get those positive endorphins flowing!

So, with all of this in mind, we felt there was no better time than now to pull together our collection of favourite breads, cakes and bakes from the Good Housekeeping kitchens to give you all the inspiration you need for creating magic and memories and simply to spread the joy of baking.

All of these bakes, under the incredible leadership of our cookery director Meike Beck and with the support of her wonderful team Emma, Alice, Grace and Georgie have been triple-tested to perfection so these are recipes that you can rely on to work every time. Our Tried, Tested, Trusted trademark is one that we take exceptionally seriously, so you can cook with confidence.

Not sure of where to start? Some of my own favourites include the recipes for Ultimate Brownies, Best-ever Carrot Cake, the Vegan Chocolate Cake and Alices Marmalade and White Chocolate Loaf. That last bake is one of the most joyous creations I have ever tasted and proof that the results of baking are definitely greater than the sum of their parts.