Baking Illustrated

Additional Baking Illustrated Information

Recipes range from quick breads and yeast breads to pizza, cookies, cakes, pastry, crisps, and cobblers to all manner of pies and tarts. And they feature American home classics (including Southern Cornbread, Pecan Sandies, and Sour Cream Coffee-cake) as well as more contemporary favorites (such as Rosemary Focaccia, Orange-Almond Biscotti, and Chocolate Truffle Tart) and European baked goods (such as Brioche, Black Forest Cake, and Tarte Tatin). Every recipe has been exhaustively researched and tested to bring you the "best" recipe (we’ll let you be the judge), along with detailed and precise explanations from everything from why you should use unsalted butter to what is the best oven temperature and why it all matters. We’ve also tested every kind of baking equipment available, from mixers and food processors to the humblest spatulas and loaf pans, and the results of our experiments are described throughout so you can benefit from our trial and error.

And because we know that good baking depends on understanding basic techniques, Baking Illustrated features a 16-page, full-color insert that shows you how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls in baking, such as overmixed egg whites, cheesecakes that crack, and bread dough that has overproofed. (We know a lot about mistakes – we’ve made them all.) We don’t want you to take the time to bake a layer cake from scratch only to settle for the "homemade" look. The visuals in this insert show you how to do it right. Color photographs demonstrate good results as well as bad, and hand-drawn step-by-step illustrations help you to perfect your technique for fail-safe baking.

Baking Illustrated also gives you the handy tutorials on baking basics, including how to stock your pantry and how to store and measure ingredients, cream butter and roll out pie dough. A master baking class between two covers, Baking Illustrated takes the guesswork out of baking and will expand your repertoire without ever losing sight of your ultimate goal: making family favorites that taste better than ever.

What Customers Say About Baking Illustrated:

It explains why certain ingredients are preferred (like bread flour over all-pupose flour). That said, this has some fantastic recipes in it: pizza crust dough, cream biscuits, buttermilk biscuits, chewy chocolate chip cookies, double/triple chocolate cookies.I could go on & on.This is the first time I've been able to make a pizza crust that's actually good & tastes like a pizza crust. Let me start by saying, if you like lots of pictures in your cookbooks, this may not be a good choice for you. It give step-by-step directions for how to stretch pizza dough, make giant cookies, form biscuits, etc.The friend who recommended this cookbook to me, told me she had loved every recipe she had used. My husband loves it. One of my favorite things about this cookbook is the wonderful "why" information. I totally agree with her. (By the way, this book was purchased for me from Amazon as a gift).

I have been baking recipes from this book for over a year and I am still in love with this book. The recipes are so clearly explained and everything I have made turned out delicious. I now refer to this book as "the book I trust." I can't imagine my baking hobby without it.

The format, though, is a little awkward to deal with. The vanilla pastry cream impressed the former owner of a bakery, and she wanted the recipe. Every recipe we have tried from this book has become our new standard. I appreciate all the explanatory text, but it often makes the recipes continue onto the next page, so you have to flip back and forth from ingredients to method. The Key Lime Pie is perfect, just tart enough. The German Chocolate Cake surpasses the original recipe in taste. The Maple Pecan Pie variation on Pecan Pie is to die for (try it as Maple Walnut pie, too), but I finally wrote the substitutions in the margin of the original recipe to avoid all the flipping. I really do like the content of this book, though, and am giving one to a beginning baker.

This book is very precisee, which is exactly what I was looking for in a baking book. I like that the measurements of the flour are also given by weight and that an instant read thermometer is used to check if the bread is done (otherwise, how is one supposed to know how "hollow" a loaf should sound). I also like the blurbs about what qualities the editors are looking for when determining what is "best." A most excellent book on baking.

What's so wonderful about this book is that there is a story to go with each recipe. :D My favorite recipe is the "White Cake" It's splendid, and is much like a traditional wedding cake. THIS IS AMAZING. this would be a good thing to try, or maybe this. I haven't had anything out of this book yet that wasn't great. or that. Instead of me looking at the recipe and saying, well. I've made dozens of them and every time I get the same response.

etc etc, they have all the things they tried and why they didn't like the outcome. Finally a book of recipes that has all the mistakes already made for me, so I can just enjoy the baking part. I even purchased the book for my Mom, as she Loves to bake as well. :)