As a home cook and baker, I like to buy cookbooks and try them out. I have bought the martha stewart ones, some famous bakeries from the US ( FLOUR, TOPPOT, bon appetit).
Goldilocks has been a bakery institution in the philippines for so long. I love their butter loaf and my hubby is addicted to their caramel popcorn. So it was an easy decision to buy their cookbook.
One thing I can say by just browsing throught the recipes is that they were written in a very simple way (compared to a detailed one I have encountered elsewhere). So in trying some of the recipes, I have encountered these:
1. mislabelling of ingredients
in one recipe,( meat filled buns) they indicated 1/2 cup of salt -- half a cup??? ( it think they meant 1/2 a tsp)
2. confusing instructions
they had ingredients in the list that were not used when you read the instructions.
another thing is when they instruct you (for the butter loaf) to put everything in with the eggs, flour and milk and then on the following line of instruction, they say to gradually put in flour and milk in alternate patterns (huh? i just put in everything like you said!!!)-- sheesh!!!
The book is so full or errors one has to wonder if they PROOF READ! I had to make notes on the side to try to adjust the recipe.
If you are a novice in the kitchen, this book will just make you frustrated. If you are a mid level cook, DON'T even bother buying this. You can find a better cookbook somewhere else.
The amount of flour- liquid ratio is wrong (in the meat filled bun) -- I'll have to explain on a later post. but this will NOT give you any of Goldilock like quality cakes. At least in the US bakeries, you get something better looking when you buy their cookbook.
What a big disappointment. EPIC FAIL
Have you tried their recipes yet? I don't have the recipe book but I just browsed through it from Flicker..I wanted to try my favorite egg pie.. but as I looked through the ingredients, I'm not so convinced too... do let us know how your cakes/ desserts turned out.. thanks!
ReplyDeletewww.bakerwannabe.com
i tried the egg pie already. The crust, you can get a better recipe elsewhere. AND they don't tell you to prebake it in the book. I suggest to prebake yours. The filling turned out ok, but since they got the crust wrong, it bubbled up and kindda ruined the whole thing.
ReplyDelete--the butter loaf was nowhere near the goldilocks one.
--decent chocolate loaf
some recipes (like the rolls-- ube, mocha) are cut and paste of the chocolate roll recipe. (same ingredients, just add diff flavor) The have an instruction to mix all the wet ingredients with a paddle in mixer... (mocha roll) but when you see the ingredients, there is only 1 wet ingredient- the milk!!
-- also in the mocha roll one, they have milk in the ingredient but in the instruction, they dont tell you WHERE and when you are to add it in... I had to read the other recipes (chocolate roll) to see they omitted that part (when they cut and pasted it)--- so many ERRORS that I can't believe they didn't see it!
the meat bun was ok. very good... if you KNOW already how to make bread and know what it looks like. - by which I mean, how a proper bread dough consistency SHOULD be. but for a novice, this would be quite a hard bread recipe to follow.
hope that helps. I am still going to try the other recipes in the book ( going to proofread first though)
HI,
ReplyDeletehave you tried the puto?
any good?
thanks
if you want puto.. just try the one on this site!
DeleteI'm visiting Manila and just saw this at National Bookstore. Glad I chanced upon your site before buying it. I was hoping it would be a good one, but from what you've pointed out above, it does sound like an epic fail of a cookbook. That's sad.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw this book at NBS, I was so excited but I thought to myself that could it be that Goldilocks would actually be giving away their trade secret recipes?
ReplyDeleteI was so close to buying the book but prefer cookbooks that have both volume and weight for ingredients or better still baker's percentage.
Thank you for the review. Now I know I am not missing anything for not buying it.
Yes, I agree the book is an epic fail. I was so excited when I bought the book but when I tried some of the recipes (crema de fruta, vanilla sponge, cinnamon roll, ensaymada, ube roll) it was just so frustrating! I had to guess some of the steps in the procedure as I think they have left some steps missing. I have been homecooking and baking and bought some cookbooks by Mary Berry and didn't encounter any problem like this. It's just a pity because I love Goldilocks since I was a kid. But this book ain't something you'd love.
ReplyDeletehttp://test.www.goldilocks.com.ph/our-story/goldilocks-bakebook
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I don't trust this book at all. You'll have better chances finding the right recipe in google.
ReplyDelete