Photo by Katarina Cermelj
Having had Becky Excell’s How To Make Anything Gluten Free on here just a few weeks ago, I was initially hesitant about finding room so soon for another gluten-free baking book, but Baked to Perfection by Katarina Cermelj is just too good to ignore. Besides, I have more baking books than I can count; if I were coeliac, or following a gluten-free diet for any other reason, I certainly wouldn’t regard having one book on the subject justification for not getting another!
And this is a really lovely book. Quite apart from the recipes themselves, and the utterly gorgeous photographs (taken by the author herself), it is an enormously helpful guide to baking in general, frankly, and gluten-free baking in particular. Cermelj is a scientist by education and training and has a real gift for explaining the science behind what works and what doesn’t in a way that is as entertaining as it is elucidating. And then there are the recipes! I have nothing against gluten, but this book is just full of recipes I long to make: the most delectable cakes, gorgeous cookies — I have my eye, particularly, on the Chocolate-Covered Digestives, Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, and Rosemary Crackers — as well as beautiful pies, and bread that would be amazing enough even if it wasn’t gluten-free. And then there is quite exquisite patisserie — including eclairs that look out of this world, and incredibly flaky and delicate Millefeuilles — and nine, yes nine, different brownies. And the recipe I just had to share with you comes from this section, in the form of these quite irresistible Salted-Caramel-Stuffed Brownies.
Extract taken from Baked to Perfection by Katarina Cermelj (£22, Bloomsbury).
Photography © Katarina Cermelj
