Mark Hix's favourite baking recipes It may sound strange, but whenever the word "baking" is mentioned around most of the cooks I know, they run a mile. Even those with lots of culinary experience can be terrified at the thought of cooking with precisely weighed out ingredients and having to follow the rigid rules of the pastry kitchen. The funny thing is, baking doesn't have to be like this. Baking is not just about cakes - it covers a wide range of savoury as well as sweet dishes. Secondly, and most importantly, anyone can bake. Baking has always been an essential cooking method all over the world. Indeed, before stove tops and hobs were around, baking food in a natural, wood-fired oven would have been the only way to cook anything, with the exception of cooking in a hole in the ground, perhaps. Ironically today a wood-fired oven is seen as a sophisticated luxury, one that only real foodies can be bothered to build in their gardens. Well, I'm a real foodie. I have a wood-fired oven and all I can say is that it produces simple food with the most fantastic flavours. But then again any oven, whether wood-fired or fan-assisted, can give great results - concentrating flavours, transforming textures and delivering exceptional food. Here is a selection of my favourite baked dishes, those which I have been cooking for years or eaten on my travels around the globe. Some are exceptionally simple and quick to make, others take a little more time and effort. None of them is difficult, yet all of them, I think, are delicious. Mark Hix On Baking by Mark Hix (Quadrille) is available for £18 plus £1.25 p&p from Telegraph Books (0844-871 1515; books.telegraph.co.uk)