Baking and the Meaning of Life by Helen Goh - Book

Timeless baking companion by Ottolenghi pastry chef and food columnist, including 100 favourite tried-and-tested bakes as well as insight into why baking brings us joy.

When we bake, it's never just about the richness of the butterscotch or the crisp flakiness of the pastry. For many, the act of baking itself is meaningful. Whether you're a beginner or a veteran, when you roll up your sleeves and get out the mixing bowl, you do it for reasons far beyond the mere production of a piece of food. Few know this better than Helen Goh, who - along with being a recipe developer with Ottolenghi for more than a decade, a baking columnist and co-author of bestsellers Sweet and Comfort - is, uniquely, a practising psychologist.

In this, her first solo cookbook, Helen draws on her own life to bring together 100 favourite recipes that show how baking is the ultimate vehicle to convey joy, connection and personal growth. There's the buttery chocolate babka Helen and her son love to make together, a fragrant pandan chiffon cake that instantly transports her back to the familiar warmth of her Malaysian childhood, the cheesy cornbread muffins that are her go-tos for picnics and charity bake sales, an impressive champagne and blackcurrant cake just perfect for celebrations and her sweetly spiced orange madeleines that are deliciously simple and ideal to share.

Through this remarkable collection of recipes, Helen explores the joy and meaning of baking in all its guises.

• Number of pages: 336 pages
• Book cover: Hardback
• How to find joy in 100 recipes