Angela Nilsen - Great British Bake Off – Bake it Better (No.3): Pies & Tarts

Would you like to learn to be a better baker?

We know that so many people watch The Great British Bake Off for the tips and techniques you pick up not only from the judges, but from watching the bakers too. We wanted to distil that knowledge into a library of cookbooks that are specifically designed to take you from novice to expert baker. Individually, each book covers the skills you will want to perfect so that you can master a particular area of baking everything from cakes to bread, sweet pastries to pies.

We have chosen recipes that are classics of each type, and grouped them together so that they take you on a progression from Easy does it through Needs a little skill to Up for a challenge. Put together, the full series of books will give you a comprehensive collection of the best recipes, along with all the advice you need to become a better baker.

The triumphs and lessons of the bakers in the tent show us that not everything works every time. But I hope that with these books as your guide, we have given you a head start towards baking it better every time!

Linda Collister

Series Editor

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2015
by Hodder & Stoughton
An Hachette UK company
1
Copyright Love Productions Limited 2015

Design and Photography Copyright Hodder & Stoughton 2015

The right of Angela Nilsen to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

BBC and the BBC logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
BBC logo BBC 1996.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Hardback ISBN 978 1 473 615304
Ebook ISBN 978 1 473 615298

Editorial Director: Nicky Ross
Editor: Sarah Hammond
Project Editor: Laura Herring
Series Editor: Linda Collister
Art Director: James Edgar
Layouts: Andrew Barker
Photographer: Amanda Heywood
Food Stylist: Joanna Farrow
Props Stylist: Linda Berlin

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

Contents

BAKE IT BETTER
Bakers Guide

BAKE IT BETTER
Recipes

Learning to bake a pie or tart opens up a world of baking treats and this book will give you 40 delicious recipes to get you started.

As well as being great bakes, the recipes have been hand-picked to show you all the key techniques, such as rubbing-in, kneading, rolling out, lining and filling, that not only get you baking better pies and tarts, but which will improve all your baking. Begin with the Easy does it section and master your basics with recipes like Pepper Pizza Pie or rich Chocolate and Pear Galettes. As you grow more able, you can move to the recipes that Need a little skill a Lemon Tart with Limoncello Cream perhaps, a Spanakopita Pie or Chocolate Mocha Mousse Tarts. The more you bake, the sooner you will be Up for a challenge, testing your pastry skills with the French Strawberry Tart or perfecting puff with a showstopping Beef Wellington.

The colour strip on the right-hand side of the page tells you at a glance the level of the recipe (from one spoon for easy to three spoons for a challenge), and gives you a helpful checklist of the specific pastry and special equipment you will use. Before you begin, have a look at the Bakers Guide at the beginning of the book. That will tell you what equipment you need to get started (just a bowl, a spoon and a pie dish will do!), introduce you to the most important ingredients, and explain some terms and techniques in more detail.

Any pie or tart cooked with love and attention will give a stunning result. With Bake It Better: Pies & Tarts its amazing what you can do with just flour, butter, eggs and a filling so its time to get ready, get set and get baking.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

SECTION 1: BAKERS GUIDE

Read this section before you start baking.

The Bakers Guide contains key information on ingredients () relevant to the recipes in the book.

Refer back the Bakers Guide when youre baking if you want a refresher on a particular skill. In the recipes the first mention of each skill is highlighted in bold.

SECTION 2: RECIPES

Colour strips on the right-hand side and 1, 2 or 3 spoons show the level of the recipe.

Within the colour strips youll find helpful information to help you decide what to bake: Hands-on time; Baking time; Makes/serves; Special equipment and the specific Pastry used.

Refer back to the Bakers Guide when a skill is highlighted in bold in the recipe if you need a reminder.

Try Something Different options are given where the recipe lends itself to experimenting with ingredients or decorations.

Easy does it

Needs a little skill

Up for a challenge

Simple pastry requires very few ingredients most use only flour, butter and a splash of cold water, plus sugar if youre making a sweet pastry. The difference comes either in varying the ingredients, or the method with which you use them. Understanding your ingredients before you use them will help you make successful and delicious pies and tarts. This list will guide you through buying, storing and using the key ingredients used in this book.

BUTTER

The main purpose of fat in pastry is to give the dough a good texture and, in the case of butter, a rich flavour and colour, too. Unsalted butter usually has slightly less whey than salted butter and some bakers believe this gives a more evenly coloured bake; it also has a milder flavour, although some prefer the slightly stronger taste of salted butter. The choice is yours, just remember that if you are using salted butter you dont need to add extra salt to the sweet pastries, only to the savoury ones. Keep the butter in the fridge until you need it, as cold pastry is easier to handle and is essential for making shortcrust and puff pastries (bear in mind that some recipes require butter at room temperature, or melted), and check the best before date. Store butter tightly wrapped in its original wrapper in the fridge, away from strong flavours, or you can freeze it for up to a month.