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The Science of Baking by Matt Adlard – Cookbook Review

Who is Matt Adlard?
Matt Adlard is a self-taught baker and pastry chef from Norwich, known for making professional pastry techniques approachable for home cooks. He is the son of former Michelin-starred chef David Adlard, who ran Adlard’s in Norwich from 1990 to 2007 where chefs including Tom Kerridge and Aiden Byrne worked in the kitchen. Through his website, online classes and large social media following (@mattadlard), he shares detailed tutorials, troubleshooting advice and practical tips designed to help bakers improve their skills with confidence. His debut cookbook, Bake it Better became a Publishers Weekly bestseller. The Science of Baking is his second cookbook.

What is The Science of Baking’s USP?
It’s a baking manual rooted in food science, yet written for home cooks. Adlard doesn’t just tell you what to do, he explains why it works. However, fat from being overwhelming, that scientific insight is carefully balanced with practical guidance and approachable language, so you come away not just with beautiful bakes, but with a deeper intuition for technique and ingredients.

What will I love?
Meticulous notes compare essentials like types of pastry and flours. Clear, elegant infographics explain everything from gluten formation to the impact of mixing methods, and sidebars break down texture differences in a way that feels genuinely illuminating rather than academic.

The troubleshooting sections are especially helpful, offering a way to decode what went wrong and, importantly, how to fix it next time. That kind of guidance transforms mistakes from frustrations into learning opportunities.

The photography and design also deserve a mention. Clever visual layouts (such as a brownie split into three to show ‘chewy’, ‘fudgy’ and ‘cakey’ sections side-by-side) make complex information easy to digest and genuinely enticing to explore.

Is it good bedtime reading?
Adlard writes with clarity and a light touch, weaving insight with practical advice. Even when you are not actively planning to bake, it is absorbing to dip into: you might start by reading about the science behind meringues or laminated dough and find yourself several pages later, having learned something new without it ever feeling heavy or overly technical. The tone is curious and encouraging rather than instructional, making it the sort of cookbook you can happily read cover to cover.

Will I have trouble finding the ingredients?
For the most part, no. The book relies on well-known essentials (flour, butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate) that are easy to find at most supermarkets. Some recipes (such as the gluten-free tiger bread) call for particular types of flour, which may mean a quick trip to a specialist store or ordering online, but nothing feels prohibitively niche. The focus is on technique and understanding, not exotic ingredients.

How easy are the recipes to follow?
Although not all the recipes are easy in themselves (the book is designed to help elevate your skills after all), they are very easy to follow. Instructions are written with patience and precision, with steps that never assume prior expertise. The infographics and side notes explaining the purpose of each stage make even unfamiliar techniques feel achievable. Where other books might overwhelm you with terminology, Adlard’s explanations feel like gentle coaching, genuinely supportive and confidence-building. The accompanying photos are also clear and thoughtfully staged, helping you visualise the key stages and the final result.

Importantly, the book is designed to expand your skills gradually. There is a reassuring range of classic favourites like soda bread, chocolate chip cookies and other dependable staples, sitting comfortably alongside more ambitious bakes such as a stunning raspberry mille-feuille made with homemade puff pastry. You are never thrown in at the deep end; instead, you are invited to build confidence step by step, stretching your abilities without ever feeling out of your depth.

Stand-out recipes?

Caramelised Onion, Pea and Gruyère Quiche – a delicious combination of sweet caramelised onions, nutty Gruyère and crisp, buttery pastry. Perfect for lunch with a simple salad.
Seeded Cheese Soda Bread – a rich and cheesy loaf that is ready in under an hour. It is lovely served warm with homemade soup.
Muscovado Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce – a little more complex than a classic profiterole, but the deep caramel flavour in the crème diplomate is worth the effort.
Raspberry Mille-Feuille – Adlard’s version is an elevated version of the classic, which looks and tastes special. It takes a bit of time and planning, but the results are well worth it.

How often will I cook from this book?
If you are interested in baking, you are likely to cook the recipes in this book often. However, if you take the time to properly read the advice within its pages, you will actually realise that you are cooking from it almost every time you bake, applying Adlard’s advice and noticing his observations across a whole host of recipes.

Any negatives?
If what you want is a quick, no-frills baking book where you follow a list of steps without pausing to think, this isn’t it. The depth of information might feel overwhelming at first. But the writing always stays approachable, and the more you engage with it, the more it enriches your baking. It never feels pompous or needlessly complicated.

Should I buy the book?
If you are a home baker who wants to understand rather than just replicate, this book is transformative. It is ideal for curious cooks and confident home bakers seeking to elevate their creations. Beginners will benefit from the clear guidance; intermediates will enjoy the depth; advanced bakers will appreciate the intellectual rigour.

Cuisine: Baking
Suitable for: Cooks of all abilities with an interest in baking
Great for fans of: Cordon Bleu, Harold McGee, Leiths and Nicola Lamb
Cookbook review rating: Five stars
Buy this book: The Science of Baking by Matt Adlard £25.00, DK.

This review was written by Freelance Food Writer and Recipe Developer Sophie Knox Richmond. Follow her on Instagram on @sophie_kr_food.

Dessert Course by Benjamin Delwiche – Cookbook Review

Who is Benjamin Delwiche?
You are more likely to know Benjamin Delwiche by his instagram handle @benjaminthebaker. Despite having over 667,000 followers avidly following his baking advice, Delwiche is actually a maths teacher. It might seem an unusual link at first. However, the parallels soon become clear when you see his approach to recipes. Just as he might break down a complicated maths equation to help a puzzled pupil, Delwiche ‘decodes’ the science behind each stage in a recipe, helping explain how and why they work. As he says in his introduction, “Following instructions is one thing, but confidently understanding the concepts that underlie the process is quite another”.

What is Dessert Course’s USP?
Delwiche describes it as ‘a celebration of the art and science of baking: the ingredients, the recipes, and the concepts that make a baked good both technically successful and undeniably delicious.’ Dessert Course is about explaining how a handful of everyday ingredients can be transformed into an irresistible sweet treat without a kitchen full of expensive equipment or ingredients. It goes beyond just providing the recipes, aiming to help readers develop key foundational skills and understand the fundamental science behind each bake, all in a relatable and accessible manner.

What will I love?
Dessert Course is the ideal book for anyone interested in baking. Complete beginners will be able to build their confidence and knowledge, while more experienced bakers can brush up on their theory and discover more about how and why recipes work.

This is all explained in the first section, with pages dedicated to breaking down recipes, the importance of measuring and scaling, and details on various mixing methods (ever wanted to learn the ins and outs of classic creaming vs reverse creaming?). Then comes the recipes, each starting with a flow chart showing how altering a few steps (or ratios) can significantly impact the final result, ideal for anyone who enjoyed Lateral Cooking by Niki Segnit.

That such a treasure trove of information never feels weighty or dull is a testament to Delwiche’s writing and the skill of the book’s design team. The combination of diagrams, charts and side-by-side photos makes Dessert Course a surprisingly engaging read, despite the volume of information.

Even if you aren’t interested in baking theory, there are plenty of recipes that will have you reaching for your apron. This isn’t the kind of book full of unique flavour combinations or ingredients. Instead, you will find a strong selection of classic cookies, pies, cakes and breads.

Is it good bedtime reading?
Delwiche has a talent for making scientific concepts approachable. Add a few handy diagrams, flowcharts and delectable photos into the mix and you could easily find yourself whiling away the hours absorbed in how to transform a Classic Cheesecake into a Cotton (Japanese) Cheesecake, Chewy Sugar Cookies into Snickerdoodles, or the effect of using baking powder vs bicarbonate of soda. With other writers, this could become rather weighty. However, such is the style and structure of the book, all the information feels accessible and highly readable.

Will I have trouble finding the ingredients?
No. Part of Delwiche’s philosophy is that you don’t need speciality ingredients to become a good baker. All the recipes feature affordable ingredients you should easily be able to find in your local supermarket. Having said that, Dessert Course is designed to give you the skills to bake with confidence and understand a recipe, so you could get creative and include more extravagant ingredients once you have mastered the basics.

How easy are the recipes to follow?
There is a good mix of basic and more involved recipes. Naturally, Soda Bread is easier than Kouig-amann. However, Delwich ensures each one is clearly explained with flow charts highlighting the similarities and differences with other similar recipes (e.g. highlighting the links between Bagels and Pretzels), alongside highly informative images which clearly show the effects of different glazes, raising agents and/or how to tell if your bake is underbaked, overbaked or just right. Each recipe also includes a prep time, active time and cooking time at the top. Ideal for helping you plan how to fit a baking session into your day.

Stand-out recipes?
Don’t miss the Chewy Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies or Fudgy Brownies (there are also options for ‘Chewy’ and ‘Cakey’ versions, if you prefer). The Cinnamon Coffee Cake was also a hit.

How often will I cook from this book?
As often as you want to bak. There are recipes for every occasion with all sorts of classic cakes, biscuits and breads (not forgetting the delectable desserts and pastries).vWhether you want to make up a batch of simple Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies, or master the art of buttery Brioche.

Any negatives?
It is very geared towards an American audience. Not a problem if you enjoy Snickerdoodles and Pumpkin Pie, but don’t expect to find the secret to the perfect Sticky Toffee Pud.

Should I buy the book?
If you enjoy cookbooks that delve deeper into the whys and hows of recipes, Dessert Course is the book for you. In some ways it is similar to SIFT (Nicola Lamb), although the recipes focus more on popular American crowd pleasing classics (compared to Lamb’s array of more innovative, elevated ideas).

Cuisine: Baking and Patisserie
Suitable for: Baking enthusiasts of all abilities
Great for fans of: Matt Adlard, Nicola Lamb and Ravneet Gill
Cookbook review rating: 4 stars
Buy this book: Dessert Course: Lessons in the Whys and Hows of Baking
£27.00, DK.

This review was written by Freelance Food Writer and Recipe Developer Sophie Knox Richmond. Follow her on Instagram on @sophie_kr_food.

The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt

A friend does a great impression of a former housemate. It’s at exactly the moment they realise it’s much quicker to make mashed potatoes by chopping it into smaller bits first, rather than boiling one giant potato and mashing it whole. We’ve all been there. A fizzle and a crack as old neurons make new connections, a deluge of endorphins, a brief moment of shame and eureka: a higher plane of consciousness.

Get used to this feeling reading The Wok, a book of such astonishing detail and craft that comparisons to other weighty tomes like encyclopaedias seem somehow derogatory. J. Kenji López-Alt has built his reputation on this meticulous, science-oriented approach to cooking and has seen him garner a huge online following with over a million subscribers to his excellent YouTube channel as well as regular contributions to major publications and a growing collection of cookbooks.

His latest is substantial in both size and scope. Physically, it’s the sort of thing that used to be compared to the Yellow Pages but now is probably more like a stack of iPads. Though the heft is a reward for the sheer breadth of information found on its pages, ranging from the basics of stir-frying and chopping all the way to Scoville units and the glutamic acid content of certain foods.

Woks are versatile creatures and the chapters reflect this, being summarised by either ways of cooking with a wok, like Stir-Frying, Braising or Deep Frying or cooking with wok-centric ingredients like Rice or Noodles. Each chapter mingles technique, scientific explanations and applicable recipes like in the section dedicated to stir-frying chicken for instance, you will find an explanation for velveting, the scientific reasoning behind it and then a recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken.

If you’ve ever enjoyed something cooked with a wok whether from China, Japan, Thailand or even at your local takeaway, it’s likely to be here. There’s recipes for ramen, tempura, dumplings, curries, all types of noodles, classic takeaway meals, traditional dishes, oils, and condiments. The recipes are written with such exacting measurements and instructions it’s almost impossible to get wrong and are so precise, you’re often told exactly where to place the ingredients into the wok (swirl your sauce around the side!). Trust in the process and it’ll deliver probably the best homemade version of that particular dish you could hope for.

The book has elevated every part of my cooking with a wok. Dishes like Fried Rice, Dan Dan Noodles, Pad See Ew and Lo Mein that benefit from the turbocharged gas burners in restaurants were as good of an approximation I could have wished to achieve at home (I’ve yet to try the suggestion of using a blow torch to achieve more authentic results). Recipes less demanding of high heat like Kung Pao Chicken, Khai Jiao (Thai-Style Omelette), Mapo Tofu and Soy Glazed Mushrooms were all exceptional. Better still, The Wok has improved my cooking even when not following the book. Using the lessons learned like the specific size of the vegetables, the order of cooking the ingredients or how you heat the oil has meant the quick Tuesday night stir-fry is as good as it’s ever been.

There’s no avoiding The Wok is theory heavy, more a Cook’s Book than a cookbook. Scientific explanations are almost always lurking over the next page and how much you engage with these will depend on your appetite for it. They are tiny marvels in themselves, using a data and process driven approach to justify any conclusions though personally, I find overly academic accounts of kitchen alchemy can leave me a little cold, like gazing at a rainbow and being told it’s just water drops and light dispersion, actually.

This however, is a pocket-sized gripe. Much like López-Alt’s The Food Lab, Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, The Wok is a book that isn’t content with showing you how, it wants to show you why. Sure, you can teach a man to fish but you could also show him how salt interacts with protein on a molecular level until he makes the best Kung Pao Prawns this side of the river. For a little time and energy, this is a book that will change how you cook for a lifetime.

Cuisine: International
Suitable for: Confident home cooks/Professional chefs
Cookbook Review Rating: Five stars

Buy this book: The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt
£36, WW Norton & Co

Review written by Nick Dodd a Leeds-based pianist, teacher and writer. Contact him at www.yorkshirepiano.co.uk