Comments:  Quite honestly, there's not a lot of baking you can do in 30 minutes. And this book admits it — with only ten of the forty recipes in the 30-minute start-to-finish section (a few cookies, muffins, and biscuits.) More than half of the remaining recipes take 15 minutes or less of "hands-on time," although they may spend a while in the oven. The final dozen recipes offer instructions for preparing and storing large batches of cookie, pie, and tart dough, so that you can whip up something delicious at a later date when you are pressed for time.

In the case of this book, baking means dessert, not bread and rolls.

The Smarter Cook section at the back of the book offers suggestions on planning ahead, how to prep ingredients, how to shop, how to keep a well-stocked pantry, etc., which will certainly be of interest to new cooks, and will have some helpful suggestions for not-new cooks.

Except for the occasional frozen puff pastry and phyllo dough, this is really baking from scratch — and this from a company that exists to sell you lemon curd and lots of other prepared foods. Bravo!