The Natural Baker

The first thing you'll notice are the beautiful photographs that accompany the text...they'll have your mouth watering! The author talks about whole food ingredients, and the benefits of each type (eg, the various types of grain and the benefit of each), and then goes on to talk about her experience with whole food cooking. This isn't a health-food book, it's more of a 'better for you' book. The recipes are simple, but elegant, and look really tasty! There are sugars used in them, and plenty of desserts are offered, but it's 'better for you' because, if you're going to eat sugar and dessert, you might as well make it real, and tasty, food.

Fab baking book. The introduction bit is a bit shorter and less detailed than I expected, as I am not an experienced baker I'd love to read some more about basics.
The pictures are really amazing. Caused me instant desire to try this recipes.
There are some really exciting recipes, like Caramelized Red Onion Cheddar and Parsley Scones, Feta Olive and Rosemary bread rolls, Peanut, Rye and Raisin Brownie, fig banana dark chocolate cake, etc. I really liked the cake section, you could easily start your own hipster coffee shop with these cake recipes.
I couldn't believe my eyes, after seeing a Gozleme recipe, which is a traditional Turkish pastry made in villages.

The recipes are detailed and need many ingredients, but I think this is only normal as most of them are quite interesting combination of mouth-watering ingredients... Can't wait to try some of those.

Thanks for the publisher and NetGalley for this copy, in exchange for an honest review.

5 natural and wholesome stars to The Natural Baker! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

I’ve been fortunate to review some stellar cookbooks lately, and The Natural Baker is no exception. It includes a nice mix of whole foods-based (not processed) recipes, some of which are vegan, more are vegetarian, and some that have meat.

All of the recipes are pictured in full color photos, and many are two page spreads! The photos are on a bright white, clean background (the focus was on the naturally colorful food), and they have an almost bucolic appearance, which I loved.

After going through the basics of wholesome baking, the book has sections for everything from breakfasts to desserts. It includes much more than just muffins and breads. The ingredients and steps are presented in a clear and concise manner.

I found myself bookmarking most every page, so here’s the short list of what I’m eager to try soon:

~Almond Apple Porridge (baked oatmeal): We eat baked oatmeal regularly because it’s easy to prep in advance, I can stuff it full of fruit, and it’s filling. This one looks like a fresh twist.
~Green Pea, Fava, and Feta Cakes: Oh my!
~Feta, Olive, and Rosemary Soda Rolls: Please don’t notice the feta theme here. I promise I’m not obsessed with feta or anything.
~Polenta, Kefir, Raspberry, Lemon, Coconut Cake with a Rasperry Yogurt Ripple: This sounds like a doozy, but the recipe looks easy enough to follow, and there’s kefir in it! In a cake!
~Pistachio Cranberry Cardamom Sables
~Tahini Honey Tiffin with Figs: These look like brownies! With tahini!
~Coconut Oat Biscuits (Cookies)
~Pumpkin Spinach Ricotta Pie: YES!
~Millet Sweet Potato Kale Cakes with a Sunflower Seed Crust
~Plum Blackberry Blueberry Crumble with Lemon Syrup

So, some of the above may sound “fancy schmancy,” but the recipes seem straight forward and not as strenuous as baking can typically be. I will make sure to update once I’ve tried a few things. Overall, I’m impressed with this cookbook’s presentation and content, and super excited to try some of these adventurous and delicious-sounding recipes!

Thank you to Henrietta Inman, Jacqui Small/Quarto, and Netgalley for the ARC. The Natural Baker is available now!

It is rare for me to review a cookbook that leaves me breathless and wanting more. I thought this a superb book in all respects. It is highly professionally handled but also personable. I will be proud to own a copy and will use it extensively.

The author, Henrietta Inman, grew up in the Suffolk, England countryside, where she remembered eating wholesome food that was locally grown and sourced, and was delicious!
Henrietta left Suffolk as an adult and she went to France and Italy and she finally went to school on a patisserie scholarship. “A pâtisserie (pronounced [pɑtisʁi]) is a type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets, as well as a term for these types of food, in English often used without the accent.” (Wikipedia)
She went back to Suffolk and she started making food using whole grains, free range eggs, locally grown produce and locally grown honey.
This cookbook uses ingredients such as rye flour, figs, dark chocolate, honey, coconut flour, and olive oil - just to list a few of them to create food that tastes delicious and is good for you!
The recipes are detailed and thorough, you will need to read them carefully, follow the directions and maybe practice the techniques so that your food comes out right.
There are recipes for carmelized, red onion, parsley and cheddar scones that look delicious, black seed oatcakes that you use a food processor to mix, and a pumpkin, spinach and ricotta pie with oregano and pine nuts that uses phyllo sheets and a whole pumpkin that looks fun to make!
Go on a baking adventure with Henrietta, and make some fabulous, healthy food!

As the old saying goes "you first eat with the eyes" this book just wants you to eat everything. The food is simple fair but luscious at the same time. Utilising fresh and raw ingredients, the results are just gorgeous. There is something for everyone, no matter what taste or dietarian requirement, and the recipes are easy to follow. There are so many recipes that I want to try - I am going to be really happy for a long time.

Broad overview of complicated recipes with many ingredients, perfect for a foodie or home cook who loves trying new, intricate recipes.

Beautiful photography, throughout the book, so you can see what the finished product should look like. Wholesome, natural, quality food the book achieves what it sets out to do, which is to give you quality recipes that are not only fresh and wholesome but look good too!

Beautiful photography and approachable, wholesome recipes make Inman's "The Natural baker" a naturally delicious treat.

I have mixed feelings about this cookbook. Aesthetically, it's not bad--it's actually a few nice format and design to read--however I went into it with different expectations. I assumed "natural" meant "healthy," which tends to be the case in certain instances, but not all the time. Flour is "natural" but it tends to not be part of a "healthy" lifestyle. So there weren't as many recipes I could save from this one, but the ones I did I AM excited to attempt.

I learned so much from this book! I do my best to follow an all natural cooking style and I've never heard of einkorn and emmer (two ancient varieties of wheat) and I appreciated how the author described why things go into baking (science, but for the lay person). The baking tips & techniques were super helpful as well - it helps me to understand why ingredients go together for baking; and not many cook books that I've reviewed contain this information. The recipes are inventive and interesting (green pea, broad bean and feta cakes with mint; polenta, kefir, coconut, raspberry and lemon cake with raspberry ripple yogurt cream), the photos are beautiful and the instructions are detailed. They could have been a bit more simplified for me, but maybe that would affect the recipe? Overall, a great resource to have!

If the ingredients used in The Natural Baker by Henrietta Inman from Quarto Publishing Group-jacqui small are unfamiliar to you please don't let that scare you away from this gem of a cook book featuring healthier for you recipes. The book has beautiful pictures, even some step by step pictures and good, easy, intriguing recipes. The recipes include some gluten-free, some refined sugar-free and some dairy-free featuring wholesome ingredients. You'll find recipes using einkorn, emmer and spelt, which are ancient varieties of wheat so not perfect for gluten free but a good choice for those avoiding modern wheat. There are recipes with wholegrain rye flour which is lower in gluten than wheat, and also spelt.. There are recipes using coconut flour, almond flour, rice flour, oat flour and more for gluten-free choices. Honey, coconut sugar, and maple syrup are some of the alternative less processed sugars used. Wait don't let those ingredients scare you. I live 3 hours from the nearest Whole Foods and I can easily find these ingredients in my very rural area and they are just as tasty and easy to work with as wheat flour and refined white sugar. They're just better for you. The recipes Ms Inman presents are the kind you want to try, not the hippie dippie things no one would ever what to eat.
This is a beautiful, useful cook book and the kind of book you want to have on your bookshelf.
Thank you Henrietta Inman, Quarto Publishing Group-jacqui small and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Fabulous baking book! The recipes are detailed and the photos are beautiful! Can't wait to try them out!

I love cookbooks that give alternatives when you have allergies or intolerances. And Henrietta Inman encourages you to adapt her recipes with local and seasonal products. It's a really good cookbook, I want to try a LOT of recipes, like Feta, olive and rosemary soda bread roll (yummy) or Honey and walnut tart with wholegrain oat pastry. The pictures are gorgeous. It's a beautiful and practical book to have in your kitchen!

Thanks to the publisher for my e-copy through NetGalley.

Stemming from the author’s Suffolk roots, using fresh farm ingredients and growing with experimentation, The Natural Baker cookbook was born. These recipes are designed to be used with fresh, natural ingredients without additives, preservatives, or colorings.

In the brief introduction to the book, the author indicates that the chapters for the recipes are merely a guideline. She suggests that some of the breakfast recipes may work well at lunch and the desserts recipes may work for breakfast etc. Encouraging adaptation, the author continues on to suggest creating the recipe as written the first time and then adapting it to your own tastes next time.

Core Ingredients are also discussed in the introduction giving you the background on the various staples you will need and use. Next are Magic Ingredients, those that give an extra wow factor. Baking Tips and Techniques which are used throughout the book are also discussed along with Equipment and Storage/Freezing requirements.

Recipes are split up into five categories:

Breakfasts
Breads & Crackers
Cakes & Biscuits (Cookies)
Lunches & Suppers
Desserts & Puddings

It’s recipe category also comes with its own introduction. This includes some tips and suggestions as well.

Each of the recipes has a brief description, serving size, and some also offer variations. The author’s English roots were showing when I was reading one of the recipes that called for several “knobs“ of butter. My Canadian roots were showing when I did not understand how much a “knob” was. Thank goodness for Google.

Each of the recipes is beautifully photographed. I think it is so important to know what the final product will look like once you’re done. While the recipes have several ingredients each, they do seem to be fairly straightforward. There are not a lot of “recipes in recipes” to complicate things.

Some of the more complicated recipes also include step-by-step photographs to help. This could come in very useful if you’ve never made that kind of recipe before.

Excellent Variety And Unique Recipes

While you may have heard of the basic recipe before, the flavor combinations for many of these recipes are unique. There are many classic recipes with interesting ingredients included.

If you can make it through this book without wanting to go directly to your mixer and start working on something new, you have much more willpower than I. There are too many beautifully created wonderfully flavorful recipes to be able to withstand the temptation.

See the full review and the recipe for Black Seed Oatcakes at The RecipesNow! Reviews And Recipes Magazine. This review is written in response to a complimentary copy of the book provided by the publisher in hopes of an honest review.

My kitchen is stocked with most all of these natural foods in this cookbook. This was the perfect cookbook to get so many good new recipes using them. Recipes are easy to make and I love the pictures.

Unique ingredients, simple recipes and beautiful photos make up this gorgeous cookbook. While my family eats fairly whole and healthy most of the time, this cookbook will become a staple in our house for it's twist on every day baking. Various flours (almond, coconut, rye, spelt) and natural sweeteners (honey, figs, maple syrup) are used in places of wheat flour and refined sugar, and the recipes include variations according to diet and taste. I'm looking forward to cooking my way through this book!

Thank you Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The Natural baker is a lovely cookbook using alternatives such as Flours (using wholegrain wheat), sugar (honey or light brown muscovado) and,tries to use local produce where possible. Explains the core ingredients and what they are and does the same with magic ingredients - they add texture and flavour to make the recipe "wow'.

The book begins with chapters on an Introduction, Core & Magic Ingredients, Baking Tips, Equipment and Techniques

The main chapters: covers Breakfasts, Bread & Crackers, Cakes & Biscuits (Cookies), Lunches & Suppers and Desserts & Puddings.'.

Each recipe comes with imperial and metric measurements, beautiful colour photography.I

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

Some great English recipes that I am eager to try. Most are easy to follow and while they look complicated with the lists of ingredients or fantastic photos, the couple ai have experimented with have been easy to follow for a novice baker.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley for my unbiased opinion of the book. I really enjoyed making the recipes on my way through this book! I really loved it!! All the natural ingredients such as spelt, wheat, oats instead of all-purpose flour which I am trying to put only natural organic, locally sourced ingredients in the things I make. I thought the layout was well done and pictures of each recipe well placed and yummily delicious looking! I enjoyed making Spinach Souffle', black seed oatcakes, and the Red Wine and Cassia Poached Pear Cake. I look forward to making each recipe in this book! What a great book for someone who is trying to have a more organic processed free life!

Thank you Netgalley for the arc copy of the The Natural Baker by Henrietta Inman, this beautiful book is one of the best cookbooks I have ever had the delight of reading and I read a lot of cookbooks!! The book is full of colour, with beautifully illustrated photos. The recipes are easy to follow with supermarket ingredients. The book contains both savoury, and sweet recipes. This book is absolutely delightful to either just flick through and look at the pictures as well as making some of the wonderful delights contained in it. I will definately be purchasing the hard copy! highly recommend!

Wholesome ingredients and beautiful photos! This is a great cookbook that I highly recommend for any home!

Beautifully organized cookbook full of pictures. Recipes are well laid out and easy to follow. The pictures make me want to make everything! To be a good cookbook it must have tons of pictures and this one meets that requirement! The recipes are unique. This isn’t one of those cookbooks that’s just like any other book. Lots of variety and interesting combinations. There are quite a few not regular pantry ingredients in some of the recipes, however. I would highly recommend this book! It’s excellent.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher. Opinions stated in this review are my own.

As an amateur baker and wannabe pastry chef, I couldn't help but be won over by the beautiful and inspired baked goods in this book. Henrietta Inman has clearly put a lot of thought into her concept--that she can make baked goods with all-natural ingredients taste as good, or even better, than their traditional baking counterparts.

Ingredients like coconut oil, coconut sugar, spelt flour, and maple syrup abound. What was previously thought to be reserved for people with food allergies is now celebrated here. Inman stresses the importance of their nuttiness and deep rich flavor in ways that make me, a white flour user, very curious.

Of course, these recipes will take a little investment if your cupboard isn't already stocked with things like teff flour, almond meal, or rye flour. However, I am curious enough to taste the difference that I'd be willing to hunt them down in Whole Foods. Eating all-natural comes at a cost, as anyone who has done it already knows. From that perspective, the recipes are not outrageous. For people who are gluten-free, egg-free, or just trying to eat "clean", these recipes will seem not only doable, but also a welcome addition to their repertoire.

Besides the concept, the execution is also really well done. The writing is beautifully descriptive. Inman has a gift for writing about food in ways that make me want to lick the page. She weaves together ingredients in ways that are at once familiar and creative. For instance, I can't wait to make recipes like her Honeyed Semolina, Pine Nut, and Orange Custard Tarts or her Sticky Pear, Ginger, and Molasses Cake. Her cooking style leans British, with combos like orange and chocolate or prunes and chocolate, and Italian as well due to her background in Italy.

The photos are beautiful and match the recipes perfectly. There are lots of edible flowers and lots of rustic charm, with cake edges unfrosted, and muffins still in the pan. Best of all, there's a full-page photo for every recipe, which makes this the perfect cookbook to browse. I would absolutely give this as a gift to a number of friends, many of whom are gluten-free. With the current trend focused on clean eating, I feel like this is the perfect cookbook for this moment.

If you love to bake, and are concerned about using natural ingredients, The Natural Baker: A new way to bake using the best natural ingredients by Henrietta Inman is a cookbook you’ll want to own. This cookbook includes recipes that call for different kinds of flour, organic produce, and other natural ingredients.

One of the first recipes from this book that I tried was the Breakfast Gruyère gougères with crispy bacon and watercress; they were delicious. The Halloumi, dill and soured cream Maslenica was incredible warm; the halloumi with creamy sauce was a unique treat that everyone loved. It was also good at room temperature. Cherry, pistachio and dark chocolate clafoutis with chocolate chip frozen yogurt is a treat that will be repeated. Other recipes in my queue are Cappuccio cake with whipped mascarpone coffee cream, Bacon-and-egg pies with spring onions (scallions) and tomato, and Five-in-one oaty cookie cakes. Even cooks who don’t care about organic or natural will find plenty of recipes that appeal.

The photographs are beautiful, and the recipes are easy to understand. Some of the recipes are absolutely mouthwatering, and many use seasonal produce and organic ingredients. This is a perfect cookbook to generate ideas for using summer fruits.

This isn’t a book for the mainstream baker who isn’t passionate about using natural ingredients and isn’t willing to search for some of the difficult to find ingredients. A good health food store is necessary, and nowadays there are health stores in most cities. It is definitely a book for those who are passionate about natural ingredients and has enough good recipes to keep everyone happy.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I received an ebook copy in exchange for a fair review.

This is a really nice cookbook. The photos are beautiful and the recipes are fairly easy to follow. Although there are a few ingredients I think one might have to really search for, most are completely do-able.
Lots of neat ideas and very interesting takes on favourites. I recommend taking a look if you want to broaden your baking horizons!

The photography throughout this book was art in itself! The recipes were not only well-laid out with full-detail but all were healthy and work with fresh ingredients. Having never cooked with many of the alternative ingredients shared in this book, I can't wait to try some of the 80 or so recipes! Always dealing with digestive issues, I believe I've stumbled onto an incredible resource in this book.

I loved this cookbook. The recipes were a nice change from the ones I usually see. I can't wait to try out all the ones I've bookmarked.

A gorgeous book! It's a little bit fancy but also wholly approachable, my favorite mix in a cookbook. I am so eager to try some recipes... I bet I bookmarked two dozen.

This is a delightful cookbook, the pictures make you feel as though you are right there in the cook's kitchen (which is really well lit and I am jealous) it has a homesteady feel, which I found nice. The recipes look delicious (I kinda lost it at the Dill, Haloumi, and Soured Cream Maslenica!) and they are clear and easy to follow. Overall I liked this cookbook, it is well worth the read.

Beautifully presented book. Earthy natural flavours. Ive already attempted the date muffins and orange cake and they were both superb. All the images are just bouncing off the pages waiting to be consumed

#TheNaturalBaker #NetGalley #Bakery #BackToTheBasics

Henrietta shares with us her experience in the art of country style bakeries by using naturals ingredients.

I have gone through my fair share of recipe books recently. It is not that I immediately set to work on trying to recreate the magic so tastefully depicted within the pages but I still have a partiality for them. They are for those imaginary future instances when I would dazzle those even more imaginary visitors with delicacies. This particular book though puts something more attainable within my reach.

This is a book with baking recipes for different meals of the day with varying amounts of complexities and although I am a vegetarian, there are ample options provided for me. Most of the ingredients are basic but the combinations relatively unique. The pictures do need to be mentioned though a lot of painstaking effort seems to go into the photographs of food books of late. The presentation of each recipe with a few tidbits of information made it time spent reading this ARC enjoyable. It is the kind of book I would gift a baking enthusiast who wants to cook for the slightly out of ordinary flavours.

I enjoyed this book, it is easy to follow, has a nice layout and lovely, bright images
Definitely a purchase I am going to be making in the future, can't wait to try some of those recipes!!

Wonderful recipes that are well written! I enjoyed the ideas in this book with the recipes chosen and ingredients listed -- this is a nice idea for a cookbook with great variety -- a little something new too.

This was a gorgeous cookbook with some amazing recipes. So many amazing recipes and the pictures are beautiful.

An excellent baking book with many new ideas. I loved discovering how to use new types of flours. It is not a book for someone who wants to rely on a standard pantry (you will have to buy new ingredients in many cases) but the discovery is very interesting indeed. Some flours might be difficult to get hold of except in organic shops but the internet will solve that very easily. So a book to explore and enjoy, really worth it !
It has definitely opened new baking paths for me with excellent results in most cases, thank you Henrietta.

I love baking, but needed help using whole-grain flours. This book has wonderful recipes and amazing pictures! I highly recommend it!

I have mixed feelings about this book. First, the cons:

1. In order to use these recipes you need either a farm or money to shop at Whole Foods.
2. If you were to work your way through this book, you would need at least three different types of flour which will go bad because they're organic
3. There are so many ingredients I've never even heard of, which is a turn off for me.

The pros:
1: the recipes, at their core, are open to alterations and experimentation
2: many recipes take the form of some kind of tartlet or cake, which can be adapted to a muffin pan or silicone molds. I happen to adore muffin pan recipes.
3: influence for the recipes came from different cultures which I also live for.


Final verdict: I wouldn't buy this for myself because I probably wouldn't actually make anything from it. On the bright side, there are a few organic/natural mommies I know who might like it.