Books for Pros & Aspiring Pros

[LindaL]

Thanks, Sweetside for clearing that up for me. I am very new at baking and EG so I am very excited to get specific replies to my questions. I have been ordering from Amazon and Jessica's Biscuit so I am curious to check out Ecookbooks.

By the way is there a forum about baking books that you know of? I was actually looking for such a foum when I stumbled upon EG. What a find!

←

Ah, if you've found Jessica's Biscuit, you've already found ecookbooks.com... One and the same.

Don't know about a forum on books, but there are threads on eGullet where people are baking from a single book and comparing results / recipes, etc. Just do a search on a particular book.

Welcome to Cookbooks Anonymous...

←

I made the most wonderful Challah by following the thread on Baking with Julia. Very inspiring. Had the book for quite a while but didn't really appreciate the value of the book untill reading the thread.

Love Jessica's Biscuit, they really have very good deals. Since I do not live in US, I have it sent to my sister who lives in US. She will then bring the books back when she visits which is once a year. Between her visits I will have to drive 200 miles to our capital where Borders or another Japanese book store called Kinokuniya is for a quick fix. Books are really expensive here. One King Arthur book is equivalent to over 60 bowls of Wonton noodles for me, this is like breakfast money for two months but I am determined to build a good cookbook collection on top of learning to bake.

Also thinking of getting these, any opinions would be helpful

American Desserts by Nancy Bagget,

Great Cookies by Carole Walter,

Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti,

Sweet Kitchen by Regan,

Sensational Desserts by Payard,

Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax,

Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers,

Bakers Dozen.

Edited March 12, 2006 by LindaL (log)

[SweetSide]

Also thinking of getting these, any opinions would be helpful

American Desserts by Nancy Bagget,

Great Cookies by Carole Walter,

Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti,

Sweet Kitchen by Regan,

Sensational Desserts by Payard,

Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax,

Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers,

Bakers Dozen.

←

I have Great Cookies (use it all the time), Sweet Kitchen (love it) and Sensational Desserts (love it).

Sweet Kitchen is about half instructional in the beginning, but what I also like is that it has an extensive flavor pairing chart that I use when I'm coming up with original desserts. No opinion on Baker's Tour yet -- I have it, have read it, but haven't made anything out of it.

[Wendy DeBord]

Also thinking of getting these, any opinions would be helpful

American Desserts by Nancy Bagget,

Great Cookies by Carole Walter,

Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti,

Sweet Kitchen by Regan,

Sensational Desserts by Payard,

Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax,

Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers,

Bakers Dozen.

←

←

I can highly reccomend Sensational Desserts by Payard. I also really like The Bakers Dozen and Great Cookies.

[cookman]

Hi everyone,

Been reading your posts and learning a great deal from it. The demos, discussions and pictures are really great. I have learnt a great deal over the past months just by reading from this forum.

I am wondering if any of you could advise which one of the professional range of baking books (Bo Friberg, CIA, Wayne Gisslen) you would recommend a home baker trying to move on to the next level. Which are the ones more self explanatory, clear and easy to follow from a home baker's point of view. Please tell me of any other I should be considering too..

Many thanks.

←

I highly recommend Flo Baker's "The Simple Art of Perfect Baking". The recipes are written in great detail, to ensure success. There is also a lot of explanation to go along with each step of her recipes.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081184109...5Fencoding=UTF8

[LindaL]

Also thinking of getting these, any opinions would be helpful

American Desserts by Nancy Bagget,

Great Cookies by Carole Walter,

Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti,

Sweet Kitchen by Regan,

Sensational Desserts by Payard,

Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax,

Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers,

Bakers Dozen.

←

←

I can highly reccomend Sensational Desserts by Payard. I also really like The Bakers Dozen and Great Cookies.

←

Is Bakers Dozen more comparable to Baking with Julia in that different people contributed a different recipe or is it something like Cooks Illustrated? I have both the Baking Illustrated and also Baking with Julia, love both but still would be great to know what to expect of Bakers Dozen.

P.S. Wendy, I have been reading your post with keen interest. They are very practical and honest.

[Wendy DeBord]

The Bakers Dozen used to have a website, probably still do..........I just haven't looked at it in years. Try to find it and check it out.

Comparing............

Baking with Julia has excellent recipes from various professional chefs and authors.

The Bakers Dozen is a group of bakers, many professional some not, authors and others who all work together testing and comparing recipes. It's similar to what we do here when we are working in the 'best of____' threads. So your getting a group consensous. One of the fun things about this group is that they'll all bake the same thing and then they meet to share. Using the same recipe they'll can get different results among them so then they research why and break down the science.

Cooks Illustrated seems to be one person, or a small group of people tweaking a recipe. I've come across some really good recipes and some not so good recipes from them. So it may depend upon which person is developing what recipe as to the quality of the final recipe.

These 3 sources are all reliable for solid baking advice and recipes, in my opinion.