Bachour The Baker

The recipes are not as detailed. I am pro baker and I wanted to read the directions to see his techniques. I understand some wha because I work with sheeter and but home bakers don't. So they need specific dimensions.
Like he says laminate the dough to 5mm and that is it, he does not say what dimensions. What cm x cm or inch x inch?
He does not explain the butter block in details. He says laminate to 5 mm. For the recored correct term is "roll". Laminate is only when you have the butter in the dough.
Instructional pictures are also very small to see and black and white. For example, if you look at another popular book like tartine, he shows you how to stretch the dough how to pre shape and how to shape. For a beginner these are very important.
Images are the key.

This book is very bare-bones. Every recipe has only a name, an ingredient list, and the directions. There's no hints or tips or explanations of any kind. There's no recipe introduction and no chapter introduction. There's not even a book introduction.

You have to already know what each item is, and what the taste and texture are supposed be like, or you will not know if you've made it correctly.

For things like puff pastry and croissants, you need to have prior knowledge of all the procedures on how to make them to make proper sense of the instructions, since they are written confusingly and missing a lot of details.

For example, the instruction for croissants will start off by saying something like "lay the butter onto the upper half of the dough and make a simple fold" without first telling how to position the dough, so you'll have no idea which is the upper half; and you may also wonder what exactly is a simple fold.

The accompanying pictures showing the steps are also pretty useless. They are in black and white, so you couldn't really tell which is the butter and which is the dough. If that's not bad enough, there's also no caption under the pictures, so you wouldn't know what the pictures are showing exactly. The pictures aren't numbered either, so you wouldn't be able to match them to the written steps.

Basically, these pictures will only make sense if you already know how to make a croissant, and if you already know how to make a croissant, then you don't really need to see these pictures.

Since this book seems to target professional audiences (and well-off ones at that), you'll find instructions like "lengthen the dough in a rolling machine until 4 mm thick" and "place in the proofer and let proof" instead of something more general like "roll the dough out to 4 mm thick" and "proof (let rise) in a warm place".

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I don't doubt that they will be good; the author is a great chef and I'm sure the products will turn out tasty. It's just unfortunate that the recipes are delivered poorly and a lot of people won't be able to accomplish them.

Beware that due to some editing errors, the egg wash recipe for 18 croissants yields almost a quart of the stuff, when you only need a fraction of that amount.

If you are a beginner, this book is not for you. It's missing all the important information that will lead you to success.

If you already know what you are doing and are hoping to learn the ins and outs of Viennoiseries, or are hoping to learn advanced techniques from a renowned pastry chef, this book is also not for you. It contains only the recipes and nothing else for you to learn.

You'd be better off with another recently released book by another Spanish speaking chef called "Sweet Devotion". Even with its poor English translation (the book is originally written in Spanish), you'll still learn a ton of advanced stuff. The author goes into great details over every little things. It's packed full of useful information. It is exactly the book I thought "Bachour the Baker" would be when it was first announced.

In conclusion, this book (Bachour the Baker) is just a glorified recipe folder. All you will get from it are recipes. You will not learn a single thing, not one. Each page of the recipes within is just like something you write down on a piece of paper and take with you into the kitchen if you don't want to get the book dirty; meaning that all there is are the ingredients and the directions. If you want to add good recipes to your collection, you might want to buy it. If you want to learn to be a better baker, however, you will be disappointed beyond belief.

By the way, every recipe does come with a pretty picture of the finished product, if that's any consolation.

Book is cheaply made. Pages are all curled as if they were wet, and all the photos and cover are of very poor picture quality. Book instruction is not clear either. I will definitely be returning this.

I love all of his books and the way recipes are all listed on one or two pages, which makes it easy to read when there are multiple components. However, especially with the croissant directions, it doesn't adequately explain the folding process. I know how to make basic croissants, but some chefs may do a 3 or 4 fold or vary the # of turns- I was most excited to see how he does his and cannot tell from the pictures or instructions. The cookie dough recipes are on the dry side and when scooped, each one had to be flattened during the baking process. Still, it's a great resource for ideas and I always appreciate chefs sharing their knowledge! Here is a link to a video showing the process, it makea more sense after watching. https://www.instagram.com/p/BW1SkUGDFac/

Not for beginners, poorly described process for lamination. organization is poor. You have to reference one of the early recipes on his lamination because he doesnt show it earlier.

B&W photos are fine to save money on printing, but who uses it anymore?? And the size of the photos are tiny, like 3cm x 3cm.

I feel like most of the users havent actually used this book, but just look at the pretty photos and give it high stars.

I wonder if these recipes were ever tested. A group of friends and I (all experienced bakers) have tried several of the baked good recipes in this book...several times. Complete disaster. Poor directions, almost no illustrations (so essential to show the foldings on laminated doughs) inaccurate recipes. Don't waste your money and your time.

In love with his book got it for Christmas as a gift and couldn't be happy amazing chef :) love it

Excellent

This book is a love letter to laminated doughs - puff pastry and croissant dough. It is clear, precise, and results are excellent. It is for a dedicated baker. Some of the ancillary pastries include choux pastry (eclairs and cream puffs), brioche (challah, stuffed with pastry creams), cookies, mille feuilles (napoleons), and several others. It is an excellent reference for those who bake at a high level.

Such a poorly made book, recipes are not detailed at all, for amateur/begginers bakers it barely makes sense, for professionals bakers its a waste of money and time. The pictures doesnt give you enough information about the process or technique and you can clearly see that they are photoshopped (different hands-jacket-arms-apron). The description of the recipes are lacking important details and there is no even a step by step with detailed explanation of the lamination process which is really the important part of a croissant, there is no mention of the folds, turns and measurements.