Stephen Rees's blog

I was very pleased to get the message that my request to look at this book was granted. The description provided is entirely adequate and tells you everything you need to know about the book. What you get however is the PDF, which is impressive, but a bit awkward to negotiate, so that you end up moving around each page a you try to read sections of the text. It certainly whets my appetite and I would indeed like to add this volume to my collection. I frankly doubt that i would actually make many of these confections since I already have issues with my waist line - and type 2 diabetes. Sugar, it seems, it not something that can readily be substituted. 

What I actually bake most often these days is bread, known - very inaccurately - as "sourdough". None of these recipes use that technique - although one does refer to a "starter" it also calls for instant dried yeast. The popularity of sourdough rocketed when commercial yeasts became unavailable at the start of the pandemic. I am pretty sure that bread raised this way can be adapted to pizzas and other baking - but that is missing here.

Not only that but without the ease of use offered by a printed book I doubt that if someone doesn't make me a present of it I will probably find some other way.  It is well written, beautifully presented and well worth the asking price.  And, as long as you have a routine that burns off surplus calories, I am sure you will enjoy using it!

Published by Penguin Random House Canada March 2023 $50