Step into the corner bakery — the ceiling fan turning slowly, the marble-topped tables, the glass jars of biscuits sold by weight, and the bun that is always still warm.
The Indian Bakery brings home the food of the Irani café and the neighborhood Indian bakery — a tradition built in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Secunderabad, and beloved across India. This is not restaurant food. It is bun maska and a glass of strong, sweet, cardamom-scented chai. It is brun pav with a crackling crust, nankhatai that melts into sweet sand, flaky khari, dense mawa cake, and the warm vegetable puff sold from a tray for the price of a bus ticket.
Across 34 tested recipes and six chapters, Farah Mistry walks you through the whole bakery counter — breads, tea-time biscuits, sweet buns and rolls, keeping cakes, savory bakes, and the chai that completes every plate. Every recipe is written for a real home kitchen, with no commercial equipment required: clear measurements in both metric and US cups, a difficulty rating, doneness cues you can see and feel, and make-ahead and storage notes.
A generous opening section teaches the foundations — making ghee and mawa, kneading enriched dough, laminating pastry, knowing when a bake is done — so even a first-time baker can begin with confidence. A full troubleshooting chapter, an ingredient substitution guide, a glossary, and four ready-made "Bakery Pairings and Menus" round out the book, with simple line-art illustrations throughout.
Inside this book:

34 tested recipes across breads, biscuits, buns, cakes, savory bakes, and chai
Bakery icons: Bun Maska, Brun Pav, Ladi Pav, Nankhatai, Khari, Osmania and Shrewsbury Biscuits, Mawa Cake, Bombay Fruit Cake, Vegetable Puff, Cream Roll, Irani Chai, and more
A complete techniques chapter — ghee, mawa, enriched dough, lamination
Metric and US measurements, difficulty ratings, and storage notes for every recipe
A troubleshooting chapter with "what to do next time" guidance for every common problem
Ingredient substitution guide and a baker's glossary
Four "Bakery Pairings and Menus" for breakfasts, tea trays, snack plates, and sweet counters

Whether you grew up with these flavors and want them in your own kitchen, or you are meeting the Indian café-bakery for the first time, The Indian Bakery is a warm, practical guide to a tradition worth keeping alive — one bun, one biscuit, one glass of chai at a time.
Put the kettle on.