Bigger Bolder Baking: A Fearless Approach to Baking Anytime, Anywhere

by Gemma Stafford

From chef and online baking star Gemma Stafford, you can get more than 100 accessible, flavor-packed recipes that anyone can make—anytime, anywhere—in her very first baking cookbook.

Gemma Stafford—chef and host of the top online baking show Bigger Bolder Baking—has worked as a pastry chef at a monastery in Ireland, a Silicon Valley tech startup, and a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco, and now brings her incredible desserts to life every week for millions of viewers via YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and her popular website, BiggerBolderBaking.com. Gemma hopes to restore baking as an everyday art, and this dessert cookbook is your guide.

BAKE WITH CONFIDENCE


100+ sweet and simple dessert recipes for maximum deliciousness with minimal effort
Use just a few common ingredients and basic kitchen tools for bold twists on cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream, and more
Every recipe has gorgeous color photography and step-by-step instructions that anyone can follow with ease
ANYTIME BAKING

An approach unique among baking cookbooks, the chapters are organized by the basic tools you’ll need—such as Wooden Spoon & Bowl, Rolling Pin, or No Oven Needed—so you can choose the recipes that are most convenient for you during any spur-of-the-moment cravingBOLD NEW RECIPES & CLASSICS


Surefire hits include Chocolate Lava Pie, Baked Cinnamon-Sugar Churros, Gemma’s Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies, “In Case of Emergency” One-Minute Mug Brownie, Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Ice Cream, and many more
BONUS: A chapter on Bold Baking Basics includes essential techniques, tips, and in-a-pinch substitutions so you can whip up Gemma’s irresistible desserts with confidence

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2019

About the author

Gemma Stafford is an Irish-born chef and host of the hit online baking show Bigger Bolder Baking. Gemma helps anyone bake with confidence anytime, anywhere with her chef-tested recipes and techniques. She has been featured on numerous TV shows and as a guest judge on the Food Network’s Best Baker in America and Nailed It! on Netflix, and her videos and recipes have been shared worldwide. Every day she connects with her millions of fans online via YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and her website BiggerBolderBaking.com. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and producer, Kevin, and dog, Waffles. This is Gemma’s first Bigger Bolder Baking Cookbook.

Reviews

[Tucker Almengor]

Many thanks to HMH for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review




I made cake using a recipe from this book!

thank you, HMH, for this beautiful cookbook!!!

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[Michelle]

If you're a baker like me, this one's a keeper! I always enjoy her recipes.

I made her "Devils Food Cupcakes" for an elderly friend's birthday yesterday. I used her recipe for Chocolate Fudge Buttercream icing, except I retained half the icing as just vanilla before I added the cocoa powder to the rest. Then I piped both the fudge & vanilla through a pastry bag into pretty vanilla/chocolate swirls.

Holy crap, they were good. I mean they were truly outstanding! This will officially be my go-to for chocolate cupcakes from now on.

There are so many recipes that I fully intend to make, but I figured I'd review these since I just made them. My daughter asked me to make them for her 30th birthday on Halloween. The only problem I foresee is stopping with just one 😯

[Sarah]

This is just utterly compelling—across the board delicious recipes, a great voice, evocative family lore, innovative organization, and gorgeously produced. Now I shall run to YouTube to watch Stafford’s channel (which I have never seen). Or maybe I’ll bake something first...

[Jennifer Goliash]

Absolutely love this cookbook!!!

This cookbook provides so much more than just recipes. It teaches for those who aren’t so confident in their baking skills. The recipes are delicious & the way it’s sectioned is really helpful.

[Beth Cato]

My Mother-in-law gifted me with this cookbook for my birthday, and I finally got around to reading it and bookmarking recipes I want to try. This is very much my kind of cookbook--lots of delicious-looking recipes that don't use unusual ingredients, and everything has a color picture! That last point is an important one for me. I love to see what the final result should look like! As for the ingredients, the one 'unusual' one by American standards would be golden syrup, which is in many recipes, and it makes perfect sense for Stafford to favor it since she's from Ireland; but even where I live on the edge of nowhere, I can find Lyle's Golden Syrup in many grocery stores, though it is a touch pricey.

If you love banana as an ingredient, this cookbook should be of particular interest, as Stafford loves it and has fresh takes on banana in many recipes.

As for me and my preferences, I want to try Quick Vanilla Cookies, Blueberry Frangipane Galette, and Linzer Tort, among many others!

[Tami Winbush]

I was thrilled to see the quality of this book. The stories are heartwarming and real, the language is something that I can relate to. All of the recipes were some that I've been wanting to make (since seeing them on the Great British Baking Show) but always thought were out of my reach. Gemma makes everything seem approachable. I love the section that shows you how to make things like self-rising flour and your own sweetened condensed milk. It makes everything that I have at home turn into something that can make any baking journey come to life.

[Ruth]

An amazing cookbook with easy to do recipes. Lots of additional tips to make extra ingredients from scratch. Beautiful pictures of finished products, something to strive to achieve.

[Gail]

After nearly 40 years and many hours streaming GBBS, I’ve reignited a desire to bake. I was looking for a nice, general baking book with recipes that were not too “fiddly” as they say in the UK and that had weights for ingredients. I landed on this one, written by a popular baking blogger.

There was much to recommend this book but after reading through it I decided it was not for me. Most of the things I want to bake weren’t in here and there weren’t enough explanations to suit me. The photos of baked goods were terrific.

I decided to stick with her blog and return the book in favor of something more extensive and with better explanations of the baking science/process. These days, recipes are easier to find on the Internet and downloadable into my Paprika app.

This might be a good book for an absolute beginner but just wasn’t a fit for me.

[Clare]

I've very much enjoyed making lots of stuff (and eating it) during lockdown. I've now tried out eight recipes. The New Zealand Afghan biscuits are OK (might make them again) but the rest so far have been amazing and will now be on high rotation. I've never had such super tasty pancakes ever before, and although it requires buttermilk and I know there's info on the internet on how to make it, I think it's handy that there's a recipe for it right there at the back of the book. Things like that plus the introduction to each recipe, the way they're categorised and the pictures are all great touches.

I really like the breadth of recipes available in this book. It pretty much covers every area of sweet treat making (other than lollies).

Highly recommend, and I can imagine it would coax beginners to go for it in the itchen.

[Laura]

I'm not clear about the title here - the recipes here aren't really bold (unless the act of getting you in the kitchen is emboldening?) - I don't get the bigger, bolder part. However, this is a solid baking book with super clear recipes, a photo for every recipe, and very solid basics. Her backstory is sweet, and she gives just enough history/explanation on with the recipes. Some of them weren't that great (didn't love the chocolate soup), but she had some different recipes (Anzac cookes), and I thought that the puddings (chocolate mousse!) and mug cakes were real highlights.

If you're looking to start baking, this is an excellent resource. If you're a seasoned baker, the book has less to offer as far as novelty, but is still worth checking out.

[Lou]

As a baker myself I came across this lady online first then purchased a copy of the book after watching countless videos. Fantastic purchase and worth every penny. Her alternatives to dairy are priceless given food allergies. Whether you're a novice or experienced cook you should have a copy of this book in your kitchen

[Beth]

Excellent cookbook!

[Taran]

Fantastic recipes, great tips, easy to follow

[Zelmirrah]

A lovely read and a little background on Gemma’s private life. All baking fanatics must check this book out.

[Karen Flanagan]

A fantastic baking cookbook. No crazy hard to get ingredients. It has become a firm favourite because of the easy instructions.

[Stacey]

I love a cookbook that actually has pictures of the finished product of the recipes. Would be a good cookbook for newbie chefs and for those with experience baking.

[Mark]

She is the queen of baking. 10 out of 10

[Elizabeth]

Lot of recipes I want to make.

[E.]

Amazing stuff! Recommended by a patron! It didn't disappoint, want to make everything!! Loved the personal insights by Gemma.

[Stephanie]

A wonderful collection of recipes and stories. Looking forward to trying many of these recipes for myself.

[Denise Prewett]

I have followed Gemma for years and enjoyed this cookbook. Great recipes with clear instructions and vibrant pictures. Loved the paragraphs about each recipe and the history behind them.

[Miss Clark]

Quite possibly my favourite cookbook of the year.... And this has been a year of excellent and varied cookbooks, both newly published and newly discovered. And yet after working through to page 261, I had amassed a list of twenty-two "favourite" recipes when I usually only come up with a dozen or so from my best finds. And I hadn't even finished!

I also enjoyed hearing about Gemma's childhood and work; her heritage and approach to baking.

Those twenty-two were:

Bigger Bolder Irish Shortbread
Cornish Fairies Biscuit
Australia Anzac Cookie
Old-Fashioned Gingernuts
Irish Rhubarb Crumble
Eggy Bread Like Mum Used To Make
Toasted Pecan Pie
Rustic Raspberry & Lemon Tart
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
The Fudgiest Giant Brownies
Cinnamon Roll Cake
Irish Fairy Cakes
Classic Coconut Cake
Strong Coffee + Toasted Walnut Cake
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Steamed Banana Pudding
Winter Apple Eve's Pudding
Three-Ingredient No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Peanut Butter & Fudge Ice Cream Pie
Simplified Chocolate Truffle
My Family's Favourite Tiramisu
Single Serving Key Lime Pie Cheesecake

[Beka]

An odd but nice book. For a book that claims to be pretty bold, most of the recipes seemed pretty normal to me, but they did still look tasty. :)

Update: I've now watched all of Gemma's youtube videos, and I'm definitely a fan of her work. While I'm still not certain that these recipes qualify as bigger or bolder, I think there are enough yummy ones in here that I might need to get myself a copy.