Tin and Thyme

Delicious and Nutritious Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes

Home » Reviews » Book Reviews » Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet: A Baking Book Review

Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet: A Baking Book Review

by Filed Under: Book Reviews, Giveaways

Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit

If you want to dip your toe into the world of baking, you could do no better than to get hold of a copy of Dan Lepard’s book, Short & Sweet. But you don’t need to be a beginner to love this book. There’s heaps here for the mid to experienced baker too. Read my review to find out more.

Cover of Dan Lepard's baking book, Short & Sweet.

AD – this post contains affiliate links. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.

Following on from the whoopie pie experience in my last post, I’m delighted to announce that I have three copies of Short & Sweet to give away to my readers. Yes, that’s right, the publishers, Fourth Estate, have been very generous and are offering not one but three copies.

You’ll find details of the giveaway at the bottom of this post.

Short & Sweet

As already stated in my previous post, I’m very excited about this book. Dan Lepard’s renowned book The Handmade Loaf, together with his excellent baking forum and weekly baking column in the Guardian have established him as one of the best bakers in the UK. I ordered the book back in April and had to wait six long months before it finally arrived through my letterbox.

First off, this is a nice hefty book with over 550 pages and a distinctive tricolour cover. It’s bound in such a way that the page stays open at pretty much any point. Most unusual and very welcome. With over 280 recipes there’s plenty to keep pretty much anyone busy for a very long time.

There are ringing endorsements from the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. In fact Hugh sums it up very nicely by stating “Dan demystifies the baker’s art … all kinds of seductive treats become instantly achievable”.

In true Dan Lepard style, the recipes are inspirational. Yes, the basics are covered, but there’s an awful lot to pique one’s interest. Parsley pikelet fry-up anyone?

I’ve made a number of recipes from the book already, including banana blondies, orange cassata cake and blueberry almond bars.

You can watch a 50 second video of Dan talking about his book here.

Book Sections & Chapters

I leapt straight to the section on cakes of course, but the book starts with the real stuff of life, bread. Other sections include biscuits, desserts, yeasted sweet bakes and there’s even one on how to make your own sweets.

Each section is itself divided into chapters. It’s like having several books all combined into one. The bread section, for example, covers: easy loaves, wholemeal loaves, rye loaves, soda breads, baps rolls and buns, flatbreads, sweet breads and sourdough.

Ever since my mother visited Sweden, she’s want to get hold of proper rye crispbreads. Well Dan has a recipe for extra-thin rye crispbreads, so I reckon I’d better put my baking apron on.

Despite the deceptive “sweet” in the title, I found plenty of savoury bakes. There is a whole section on supper which includes savoury pies, pizzas and scones. And I really want to get stuck in.

Apart from the chocolate ones, of course, some of the cakes I’m looking forward to making include: cherry beet cake, sticky lemon & poppy seed cake, coconut milk layer cake and saffron peach cake.

Baking Tips & Techniques

Each section starts with a few pages of extremely useful tips and techniques. And as if this wasn’t enough, I found various tips scattered throughout the book. When I read the tips and techniques chapter in the cake section, I noted several things I was unaware of.

I’m an inveterate forgetter of remembering to turn the oven on in time. I was particularly pleased therefore, to discover that it doesn’t matter too much if you don’t place the finished cake mixture immediately in the oven. If you transfer it very gently, the “rise” should not be affected.

Now, who would have thought that white chocolate made a good substitute for lard? Well that’s one of Dan’s tips and it’s one I’ve used to very good effect. Queue my Cornish splits.

Another top tip I’ve found really useful is to oil your hands and work surface when kneading bread. This gets around the age old problem of kneading on a floured board. Adding extra flour can make the dough dry and potentially tough.

Update October 2021

In fact, in the name of saving energy, more and more people are now baking from a cold oven. You may need to cook your bake for a few extra minutes in the oven, but bread and cakes in particular tend to work well.

What I Really Like

Dan has a particularly innovative approach to baking. I find this really appealing. He’s found his own way of doing things over the years and has introduced many new baking techniques. His method for kneading dough is quite different to anyone else’s, but it really works.

Some of the ingredients Dan uses in his cake recipes are quite unusual. They’re so up my street though. I love going off the beaten track. They include rye and hemp flours, ground porridge oats and condensed milk. That and some unusual techniques make for an intriguing baking experience.

The recipes really work. I’ve made a few now and they’ve all been delicious. Dan is an experienced home baker and he knows his stuff. There’s nothing more annoying than a bake fail.

As a librarian, I loved the detailed index. It makes the recipes really easy to find. Dan’s husband, David Whitehouse, not only edited the book, but created the index too. In my experience the indexing of many modern cookbooks leaves a lot to be desired.

What Could Be Better?

Although I like to think of myself as a serious cook, I do find I like to have photographs in my cookbooks. It’s always nice to have an idea of what your aiming for. And sometimes it’s the picture alone that seals the deal on whether you bake a particular recipe. This was my one disappointment with Short & Sweet. There are photographs and very enticing ones too, but they don’t cover every bake.

A book mark ribbon would also be a welcome addition, but I guess I can live without that.

Short & Sweet Details

Short & Sweet: the best of home baking*/ Dan Lepard. Published in hardback by Fourth Estate, 2011. RRP, £25. ISBN: 9780007391431. 

Conclusion

As regular readers will know I always give my own views on any items I review. In this case I bought the book for myself so you can be doubly sure that I do indeed think it’s a classic and will make an excellent addition to any baking library. In fact it’s my favourite and most used baking book.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you have a copy of Short & Sweet, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Have you any top baking tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

For further book reviews and giveaways follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter.

If you’d like to try some baking recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Short & Sweet. PIN IT.

Front cover of Dan Lepard's baking book, Short & Sweet.

Short & Sweet: Giveaway

So, to the giveaway and your chance to win one of the three copies. You must leave a comment on this post answering the question below. You have until midnight on Friday 21st October when the giveaway closes. The winners will be randomly selected after this date. Apologies to oversees visitors, but this is only open to those with a UK or Ireland postal address.

What cake recipe do you consider to be indispensable in a cookbook?

Additional entries can also be made by (but you must answer the question above for these to be eligible):

  • Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect. Leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so.
  • Follow me on Twitter. Leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so and include your Twitter handle.
  • Tweet this message “win a copy of @dan_lepard Short & Sweet from Chocolate Log Blog @Choclette8 – bit.ly/pE6ARV”. Leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so
  • Like this post on Facebook. Leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so.

Winners: 22 October Update

This giveaway is now closed. The three winners have been drawn using Random.Org as follows:

  • 78 – Nursey
  • 53 – Janice
  • 37 – Dom

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Links are marked with an *. If you buy through a link it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a small commission. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments

  3. blankFoodiva says

    A must in every cook book? Definitely chocolate cake, of course! The book just won’t be complete without it.

    Oh, in case you’re wondering, I have a UK mailing address too (in case I win…crossing my fingers!).

    Reply

  4. blankMitch says

    Hmmm… for me at my current stage in life it would be a failsafe birthday cake, one that will become your family birthday cake, able to be adapted but reliable and a bit special. @mitchdafish

    Reply

  14. blank[email protected] says

    I’m always intrigued to see a fruit cake recipe in cookbooks, just to see how different baker’s interpret this classic! Lovely giveaway, and so pleased you like the book- I’m a huge fan of Dan’s too!

    Reply

  15. blankHannah says

    What a great review (and look at all of these comments!).
    I haven’t read anything from Dan Lepard, yet. I’m still stuck somewhere between Elizabeth David and my Cordon Bleu books.

    I don’t like to see a staple thing in any cookbooks – I look for originality and new ideas rather than re-hashing old recipes again and again (unless they have something radically different to say about them).

    Reply

  16. blankGrazing Kate says

    …and I follow you on googleconnect or whatever it’s called. Thank you for your comment on my birthday photo!

    PS what kind of word is ‘mucation’ to have as the security word verification!!??

    Reply

  19. blankCakefairyblog says

    My first thought was a chocolate cake, but as everyone has said that, I will say the next one that popped in to my head and that’s an easy peasy lemon squeezy lemon drizzle cake! Fruity and delicious my absolute go to cake, every cookery book should have a recipe for this! 🙂

    Reply

  21. blankJohanna GGG says

    am short on time so that is fine that I can’t enter the comp but I am excited to hear about this book – am a dan fan myself – hope you are enjoying chocolate week – will read that post when I have more time

    Reply

  25. blankWorking london mummy says

    Now for the fun bit – which cake recipe is indispensible???
    a really good chocolate cake – non floury, intensely chocolatey, melt in the mouth. My best one so far is chocolate nemesis from River Cafe cookbook x

    Reply

  32. blanksouperior says

    I think it really is essential to have an ultimate chocolate cake in any cookbook – it’s an absolute must for me! Love Dan Lepard’s recipes so really hope I win a copy! 🙂

    Reply

  45. blanknursey says

    I’m in retro mode at the moment, so am judging all cook books on the quality of their lemon drizzle cakes – got to be soft, not too sweet and with just the right amount of lemon!

    Reply

  51. blankHeidi Roberts says

    I have tweeted the message
    “win a copy of @dan_lepard Short & Sweet from Chocolate Log Blog @Choclette8 – bit.ly/pE6ARV” @walpolegirl

    Reply

  64. blankJanice says

    The most important cake recipe for me is Nigella’s Chocolate Guiness Cake, it has never failed and is a big hit with men and boys! Oh dear that doesn’t sound right, I mean my husband and sons, of course!

    Reply

  65. blankJacqueline says

    Whoops, didn’t realise my hubby was signed into facebook, so I have now requested a friendship through him. Re-did it for myself. Try not to report him. He is Graham snd not to blame, hehe. Oh and like button wasn’t working so I shared your story on facebook instead, which I figured is even better 🙂

    Reply

  74. blankChele says

    Well my only way to enter is through leaving a comment so I’ll give it a go anyhoo. Of course I am going to say the most important cake recipe in any book has to be a chocolate cake, preferably one that can be added to for the personal touch … I rather think Nigella is great at those kind of recipes but I know that kind of goes against the purpose of your post here teehee

    Reply

  75. blankDeborah Richards says

    I already follow you on twitter
    I like to see a plain ‘maderia’ type cake in a cookbook with a list of useful adaptations that themselves can be further adapted. Basic recipes encourage imagination as does a lack of pictures: because you don’t have any idea of what they should look like ther can be no comparison or sense of failure, good for the confidence. Encourages everyone to have a go!

    Reply

  76. blankKatie says

    Ohh how exciting! This is a hard question. I think after much thought I’d say it wasn’t necessarily one type of cake recipe, but rather a cake recipe that the author/chef considers to be their signiture cake. The one they are most proud of or famous for. Everyone likes to be able to reporoduce a masterpiece 🙂

    Reply

  78. blankMojca says

    Many of the nice cakes Dan comes up with in The Guardian would qualify, of course. However, I think everyone needs one good foolproof recipe for a chocolate cake: a type which isn’t fussy, doesn’t require anything fancy and always works, that can be “dressed up” with a bit of cream or ice-cream or some nice frosting perhaps. But if we keep those who don’t like chocolate in mind (not too many, surely), then a good “everyday cake” is a must: a nice, moist, not-too-sweet, goes-with-everything type of cake, with everyday ingredients, perhaps with some fruit, that can be whipped up quickly when the afternoon urge strikes (or friends visit unexpectedly).

    Reply

  87. blankJennifer says

    I tried to think of something different from the cake most mentioned in the previous comments but as Chocolate Cake was my first thought it seems pointless thinking of something else. So there you have it – a very good chocolate cake is indispensable.

    Reply

  93. blankAnonymous says

    (My posts are not showing up so trying using Anonymous!)

    There should be a robust sponge cake recipe because you can make so many variations.

    @beachrambler

    Reply

  98. blankkibibi says

    Followed you on twitter @kibibidesigns, Google friend – Teresa murphy, request sent on facebook and your link has been posted on twitter. Every good cook book needs a fabulous chocolate cake recipe, the one your kids will love and people will ask you for, that gets used at birthdays, parties, and picnics and you never tire of. Teresa xx

    Reply

  100. blankGrapeVine says

    No book is complete without a classic Victoria sponge – so many other more advanced cakes are based on the technique. And a slight twist on the recipe or a change inpresentation can make it unique to the book.

    Reply

  101. blanknicsnotebook.com says

    Have added you as a friend on Facebook (Nicola McCandless) and once you accept, I will like your post 🙂 x

    Reply

  105. blanknicsnotebook.com says

    This book looks and sounds amazing!! Every cookbook should have a fabulous chocolate cake recipe – my absol fav!!! 🙂

    Reply

  114. blankStralisemiai says

    I clicked the link to ‘like’ your facebook post, but it lead to your information page, I was unsure which bit to like, so.. I shared the Dan Leopards link you had posted on your wall. I am Rach Lines on facebook. (A picture of a pink troll – you can search me looking for user – stralisemiai to confirm this step)

    Hope this is satisfactory, @Stralisemiai

    Reply

  115. blankStralisemiai says

    I have also tweeted your fab giveaway and hope many others come to read your blog, I followed JanesGrapevine here after seeing her tweet on twitter.

    @stralisemiai

    Reply

  118. blankStralisemiai says

    The cake that should be a staple in every cook book has to be the good old chcolate cake, I adore it in any shape or form, with a twist, boozy, nutty, sticky or gooey! I am bias however, as like I said, I do like choclate. @stralisemiai

    Reply