ten essential recipes for a lifetime of brilliant baking

Perfect Ten

Nicola Lamb is a recipe developer, consultant and pastry chef based in London. She trained in some of London and New York's top bakeries, including Dominique Ansel, Ottolenghi, Happy Endings, and Little Bread Pedlar. She is the author of ‘Kitchen Projects’, a top food and drink newsletter on Substack, praised as an ‘incredible resource’ by the Observer. This weekly newsletter delves deep into the world of pastry, exploring everything from beignets and focaccia, to sorbet and cheesecake – and has over 42,000 dedicated readers. 
 
Nicola's recipes and writing have been featured in Serious Eats, the Guardian, Olive Magazine, Vogue, and ES Magazine. She continues to host sell-out pastry parties with her pop-up bakery, lark! and has collaborated with notable names like Verena Lochmuller of Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, Toklas Bakery, Soft & Swirly, and Kossoffs, among others. 
 
You can follow Nicola on Instagram @nicolaalamb

Ten iconic recipes, tested to perfection, designed for you to memorise, master, and eventually make your own. These are the foundations for a lifetime of brilliant bakes.Bestselling author Nicola Lamb is bringing you the only recipe you’ll ever need to make the perfect: 
<ul><li>Choc Chip Cookie</li><li>Shortbread</li><li>Flaky Pastry</li><li>Buttery Cake</li><li>Fluffy Sponge</li><li>Chocolate Mousse</li><li>Caramel</li><li>Meringue</li><li>Custard</li><li>Bread Dough</li></ul> 
Each perfect base recipe comes with ten further variations, designed to show just how reliable and adaptable they are, and empower you to experiment, adapt and ultimately build creative confidence.Perfect Ten will become the go-to-guide for new and established bakers alike.

Nicola Lamb

If you find baking a mysterious art in which success and failure are bestowed seemingly at random by a capricious kitchen god, Nicola Lamb is on hand to add a little scientific rigour to your pastry, biscuit and cake making.

The Times and Sunday Times Food Book of the Year

Ever wondered why your bakes won't behave? Look no further than Lamb's upcoming bible, which you'll have covered in sticky fingerprints in no time. Insightful and approachable, the pastry chef decodes everything you need to know about the intricate science of baking while sharing 100 creative recipes for everything from speedy miso, walnut and chocolate-chip cookies to a stage-stealing mocha passionfruit opera cake.

Evening Standard’s Best Cookbooks of 2024

Great recipes and a clever layout mean you can dip into the techy science behind making as much or as little as you like. I'm not a natural baker and don't have a particularly sweet tooth, but I genuinely get excited to make things from SIFT.

The Elements of Great Baking

'Every page is a masterclass in better baking' – Nigel Slater 
 
'When your bake rebels, trust in SIFT. Nicola Lamb solves the many mysteries of baking: why ganache misbehaves, why dough acts up, and what ‘until golden brown’ truly means. Informative, enriching, and so delicious' – Yotam Ottolenghi 
 
'Nicola understands and explains baking like nobody else' – Jamie Oliver 
 
'Simply extraordinary recipes' – Helen Goh 
 
'Everything you ever wanted to know about baking but were too afraid to ask' – Felicity Cloake 
 
Nicola Lamb is the go-to person for all your baking questions and cravings. In her essential new baking bible, SIFT, she takes the fear out of failure and offers up an inspiring collection of over 100 delicious bakes. 
 
In the first half of the book, Nicola breaks down the key elements and techniques with boundless enthusiasm and beautiful illustrations. Explore every how and why of baking and move forward with complete confidence – you'll never again wonder why your custard has curdled, why your sponge didn't rise or why your panna cotta didn't set. 
 
Nicola's recipes are divided into the time it takes to make a bake, ranging from gooey cookies and airy cakes that you can whip up in an afternoon to fabulous showstoppers you can devote a weekend to. These include: 
 
Bake in an afternoon: Roasted Strawberry Victoria Sponge, Miso Walnut Double-Thick Chocolate-Chip Cookies and Bread-and-Butter Pudding with Caramel Mandarins 
Bake in a day: Salted Vanilla and Pistachio Layer Cake, Fancy Rhubarb Tart and Olive Oil Brie-oche with Roasted Grapes 
Bake in a weekend: Mocha Passionfruit Opera Cake, Pain au Chocolat and Tiramichoux 
 
Sunday Times Bestseller May 2024 
Times & Sunday Times Food Book of the Year, November 2024

Nicola Lamb

Books by Nicola Lamb

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