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The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients

Average customer rating:

An excellent general manual for occasional baker. Buy It.
Viva Coconut Biscotti

The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients
Carole, CCP Bloom
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Classic Stars Desserts: Favorite Recipes by Emily Luchetti
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Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate

ASIN: 0764576453

Book Description

If you are a beginning baker, this book offers an accessible introduction to essential baking ingredients, equipment, and techniques as well as detailed, step-by-step recipes that make it easy to prepare even the trickiest baked goods. If you are already an accomplished baker, it offers many sophisticated and unusual recipes that will help you refine your knowledge and skills.

The book features a distinctive organization based on six key baking ingredients, from fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and chocolate to dairy products, spices and herbs, and coffee, tea, and liqueurs. Select an ingredient or flavor you love, and you'll find many delicious ways to incorporate it into your baking.

Bloom's recipes encompass every type of baking. You'll find spectacular versions of familiar favorites - Cherry Pie, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Double Peanut Butter Cookies - as well as intriguing variations and extravagant indulgences, including Coconut Biscotti, Lemon Verbena and Walnut Tea Cake, and Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee. Her meticulous recipes specify essential gear, offer tips on streamlining the recipe and storing the finished dish, and provide advice on varying ingredients and adding panache.

With in-depth guidance on techniques and ingredients, 225 standout recipes, variations and embellishments for almost every dish, and 32 pages of striking full-color photographs, The Essential Baker is truly the only baking book you'll ever need.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent general manual for occasional baker. Buy It........2007-05-11

`The Essential Baker' by professional pastry chef and culinary writer, Carole Bloom presents itself as a complete baking manual, with a distinctively different organization, by ingredient. For its size, price, and claims, the book begs us to compare it to the recent `Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook', which is also a comprehensive introductory baking text.

As I first open the book, Bloom's `Essential Baker' does not readily impress me when stacked up against Team Stewart. Like Stewart, the book does not delve into a lot of the more technical explanations of baking science (as one may find in Rose Levy Beranbaum's more advanced `Bibles' on baking technique), but then the average baker really doesn't need most of this, as long as they get the message that with baking, one really needs to follow the recipe closely, even down to the size of the baking pans. Bloom does go into just a bit more detail, and may get herself into a few questionable statements, as when she states that one should not use all purpose flour for baking bread (every book I've ever seen on bread baking uses and condones `all purpose flour', with a preference for the higher protein products such as those from King Arthur.)

Based on their enormous magazine publishing resources, it's no surprise to find Team Stewart's book with wonderful pictures all along the way, especially with good series of tutorials on some basic techniques. Ms. Bloom oddly has virtually no pictures, and all she has are in two middle of the book rotogravure sections, to keep the cost down.

Two more comparisons tend to favor Team Stewart. The first is that their organization is by end product and method rather than by principal ingredient. For an introductory manual, I simply find that more useful and intuitive. Unlike savory cooking, one is much more inclined to begin with `lets bake a cake' or `lets make a pie' or `lets make some cookies' or `lets make some bread'. One of the few cases where this may not be true is with some highly seasonal local ingredients such as rhubarb. Otherwise, my baking choices are largely based on birthdays needing cake, picnics needing pies, and Christmas needing cookies. The second is that Ms. Bloom does not cover yeast breads at all. There are recipes for quick breads such as biscuits and Irish Soda bread (under the subject of buttermilk), but that's it. Team Stewart has a 70 page chapter on yeast breads with 31 recipes, including muffins, bagels, pizza, Danish, croissants, and babkas. If this were the whole story, Team Stewart would have it all over Ms. Bloom. Ms. Bloom, however, has an ace up her sleeve.

Only after reading the long and highly informative (but pictureless) introductory chapters in `The Essential Baker' did I discover that Ms. Bloom is hiding her light under a basket. While celebrating her ordering by ingredient, she neglects to trumpet the fact that her method for writing recipes is really superior. Everything is laid out in exactly the way one may wish to find it. And, on this count, she has Team Stewart beat hands down. But that's not all. I also find her recipes to be more interesting (albeit not necessarily more complicated) than those from Team Stewart. I compared at least a half dozen recipes and in all cases, Ms. Bloom had the more satisfactory recipe for the beginner. Stewart either tended just a bit too much to the simple or overembellished to fit her overriding motif of cooking for entertaining.

I'm still inclined to see Stewart's `Baking Handbook' as the superior book for the beginner, except for the fact that Ms. Bloom does something that is rare in bigger baking books. She does not `divide and conquer' by separating all her utility recipes for crusts and other pastries in a separate section, so that one must constantly be flipping back and forth when doing a pie or an icing. This is really an exceptionally good thing for the occasional baker, who wants `the recipe, the whole recipe, and nothing but the recipe' in one place.

And, although both books retail for $40, Ms. Bloom has about 200 more pages, with a corresponding 30% more recipes. She also has an exceptionally good list of sources, the best I've seen in quite some time (although Miss Martha does a good job here too).

On the arrangement by ingredient, I'm still a bit agnostic about it, and it would have been nice to see a supplementary table of contents by type of recipe, but if you happen to really like books such as Aliza Green's `Starting With Ingredients' or books on vegetable or fish cookery, you will love this book. Otherwise, you may just like it very, very much.

Viva Coconut Biscotti.......2007-04-14

Though I love to cook and entertain, I seldom bake. Somehow, in planning my meals, dessert is often an afterthought. Thus, when a friend gave me Carole Bloom's latest tome, The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and other ingredients, I thanked her profusely and thought I would relegate the exhaustive 650 page book to the upper reaches of my kitchen shelf. Last week, in need of an easy dessert recipe, the stunning chocolate madeleines on Bloom's book cover came to mind. What delights might I find within its pages, I wondered? I thumbed through it, looking for something simple to complement a bowl of fresh strawberries. The Coconut Biscotti on page 229 caught my eye.

I followed Bloom's instructions to the letter. The author of Chocolate Lovers' Cookbook for Dummies, among eight other books, made it all the easier thanks to her clever organization: ingredients and their corresponding usage are laid out side by side on the page rather than one following the other as is usually the case. I assembled the dough in minutes, shaped it into two loaves as instructed, and popped them in the oven. I waited for them to cool before slicing them into biscotti, and returned them to the oven a few minutes longer. Twenty minutes later, "my" biscotti looked like those sold by the piece at an extravagant price in upscale coffee shops--sweet and crumbly and ready for dunking. "Those are the best biscotti I have ever tasted," opined my husband, a cookie connoisseur from way back.

The Essential Baker may not turn me into a pro but the clarity of recipes inspire me to try the Cherry Clafouti(page 61) and the Pineapple Tarte Tatin (page 247). I may even read through Bloom's extensive Baking Essentials section to expand my newfound skills!

Average customer rating:

Wow! Great Brownie Recipes
sinfully delicious
Where are all the pictures?
Buy "Brownie Points" instead
Fantastic flavors!

Brownies to Die For!
Bev Shaffer
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Cake Book
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Chocolate and Vanilla
Brownie Points: Over 100 Outrageously Delicious and Easy Variations on North America's Favorite Dessert

ASIN: 1589803825

Book Description

Stop and smell the chocolate with over 100 brownie recipes, from the traditional to the decadent.

Written by award-winning chef, culinary instructor, food columnist, and bakery director Bev Shaffer, this tasted-and-tested collection spans the brownie spectrum. In addition to a history of brownies, baking basics, and useful information on chocolate, the recipes collected here include everything from classics like Deluxe Brownies with Caramel Sauce and Swirled Brownies to more adventuresome suggestions like Raspberry-Mascarpone-Filled Brownies, Kahlua Brownies, Macadamia-Nut White Brownies, Cappuccino Brownies, and much more. A chapter on "Brownies as Art" will encourage you to dip, dunk, and layer your once-basic brownies, and another chapter on frostings and glazes will further inspire you to make that special brownie even more irresistible.

Presented in the humorous and down-to-earth style of author and radio and television personality Bev Shaffer, this book invites you to join in her passion for food, baking, and fun. Specializing in creating uncomplicated recipes and calming food phobias, Shaffer includes her usual measure of tips, techniques, and encouragement with each tablespoon of chocolate.

Bev Shaffer is an author, food writer, and culinary instructor, as well as the director of Mustard Seed Market and Café Cooking Schools in Akron and Solon, Ohio. She is a columnist ("Ask Bev") for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine and her weekly radio spot on Akron, Ohio's WAKR's "Morning Drive Time" program features quick and easy seasonal recipes with tips.

A member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Chefs Collaborative, and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Chef Shaffer is also a founding member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, Cleveland-Northeastern Ohio Chapter.

Customer Reviews:

Wow! Great Brownie Recipes.......2007-02-19

My sister brought this book home from the library and it looked wonderful, so I made up the Kahlua brownies right away. Can you say Fab-u-lous! Since we had to return the book to the library, I bought the book so as never to be more than an hour away from a brownie treat.

The next batch of brownies I made (cream cheese layered) were better than the first batch. This book is a solid home run. If you love brownies, you will love this book.

sinfully delicious.......2007-01-04

Many recipes call for a basic brownie to start with, and others are far-fetched variations on a theme, but there are enough excellent twists (and great instructions) to make the book a worthwhile addition to the library of any decadent brownieholic.

Where are all the pictures?.......2006-08-20

Great recipes, but I have a tendency to want to know what the finished product is going to look like, especially on the more complex recipes. Very little pictorial representation is the only drawback that I can find to this book.

Buy "Brownie Points" instead.......2006-06-08

I searched three different bookstores on my last day in the US, so desperate was I to have this book. Just when I was about to give up, I was able to procure the last copy that they had at Barnes & Noble.

I read this on the 15 hour flight back home, and I must say that I prefer Lisa Slater's Brownie Points. While Brownies to Die For! has a more captivating title, and is hardbound, I'm a little wary of the photos, which I feel are very amateur for a published book, especially one by a food writer and recipe developer. Reading the past customers' reviews about wayward recipe cooking times only increases my trepidation of whether this book was worth my fervent search for it. Save yourself the grief and buy Brownie Points instead.

Fantastic flavors! .......2006-05-04

With patience and an understanding that not all ovens are the same, I waited with great anticipation as my first batch of brownies from this book emerged from the oven. A little moist, I simply continued to bake just to the right point...let them cool and devoured them with friends. Can't wait to try the rest of the recipes and get copies for gifts!

Brownie Mix Bliss: More Than 175 Very Chocolate Recipes for Brownies, Bars, Cookies and Other Decadent Desserts Made with Boxed Brownie Mix

Average customer rating:

My friends are raving about ME!
Another delicious timesaver by Camilla Saulsbury!
Book Description
Brilliant! Brilliant!
The best brownie book ever!

Brownie Mix Bliss: More Than 175 Very Chocolate Recipes for Brownies, Bars, Cookies and Other Decadent Desserts Made with Boxed Brownie Mix
Camilla V. Saulsbury
Manufacturer: Cumberland House Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Cake Mix Cookies: More Than 175 Delectable Cookie Recipes That Begin With a Box of Cake Mix
Cookie Dough Delights: More Than 150 Foolproof Recipes for Cookies, Bars, and Other Treats Made With Refrigerated Cookie Dough
No-bake Cookies: More Than 150 Fun, Easy & Delicious Recipes for Cookies, Bars, And Other Cool Treats Made Without Baking
Puff Pastry Perfection: More Than 175 Recipes for Appetizers, Entrees and Sweets Made with Refrigerated Puff Pastry Dough
Complete Cake Mix Magic

ASIN: 1581824440

Book Description

In COOKIE DOUGH DELIGHTS, Camilla V. Saulsbury worked magic with refrigerated cookie dough. With BROWNIE MIX BLISS she turns her attention to the familiar box of brownie mix and the many possibilities contained herein.

Incredibly, all 175-plus recipes in BROWNIE MIX BLISS begin with a standard box of brownie mix. What's more, all the recipes have been streamlined for easy, everyday baking. The problem, if you can call it that, will be deciding which treat to make first. How about Mocha Buttercream Brownies? Or Snickers Supreme Brownies? Or maybe Mint Julep Ganache Brownies? And that's but the tip of the chocolate iceberg. While brownie mix can be used to create all manner of mouthwatering concoctions, it can also be transformed into countless other very easy, very chocolate desserts ranging from sophisticated biscotti, soufflé cakes, madeleines, and cheesecakes to nostalgic drop cookies ice cream novelties, gooey layered bar cookies, and so much more.

In addition to the recipes, Saulsbury offers "Brownie Points," or tips for baking success. For the accomplished baker as well as the novice, BROWNIE MIX BLISS takes the chocolate dessert to a new level of, well, bliss!

Customer Reviews:

My friends are raving about ME!.......2007-03-04

Thanks to a recipe in this book. I had just bought the book and have only made one recipe and shared my brownies with my girlfriends and their hubbies. They were amazed...and I am amazed, too, since I am not known for my cooking skills ;o)

Another delicious timesaver by Camilla Saulsbury!.......2006-08-30

This book, along with Camilla's on refrigerated cookie dough, is a must have if you're a baker that wants to cut some corners. Start with a box of brownie mix, and you're halfway there! Stock up on mix ins, and you're done. Rave reviews from the people at my husband's office. I will never let them know that my killer brownies are not 100% from scratch, let them think it!

This book is a must have for all you busy Mom's, busy women, and young bakers out there!

Book Description.......2006-08-08

Brownie Mix Bliss: More Than 175 Very Chocolate Recipes for Brownies, Bars, Cookies and Other Decadent Desserts Made with Boxed Brownie Mix

In COOKIE DOUGH DELIGHTS, Camilla V. Saulsbury worked magic with refrigerated cookie dough. With BROWNIE MIX BLISS she turns her attention to the familiar box of brownie mix and the many possibilities contained therein.

All 175-plus recipes in BROWNIE MIX BLISS begin with a standard box of brownie mix. What's more, all the recipes have been streamlined for easy, everyday baking. The problem, if you can call it that, will be deciding which treat to make first. How about Mocha Buttercream Brownies? Or Snickery Supreme Brownies? Or maybe Mint Julep Ganache Brownies? And that's but the tip of the chocolate iceberg.

While brownie mix can be used to create all manner of mouthwatering brownies, it can also be transformed into countless other very easy, very chocolate desserts ranging from sophisticated biscotti, soufflé cakes, madeleines, and cheesecakes to nostalgic drop cookies ice cream novelties, gooey layered bar cookies, and so much more.

In addition to the recipes, Saulsbury offers "Brownie Points," or tips for baking success. For the accomplished baker as well as the novice, BROWNIE MIX BLISS takes the chocolate dessert to a new level of, well, bliss!

Brilliant! Brilliant!.......2006-06-13

Admit it - even die hard bakers and cooks like me - can use a short cut now and then - this is the brownie mix bible! Buy it - you won't be disappointed. -- Addendum: Made the dark rum brownies today with the chocolate glaze - dear God - - I bake them and then left the house - I came back in and the house smelled incredible (and I bake all the time!) - - - they taste even better than they look and smell. You would swear you bought these at some posh bakery! I made a double batch to send to my husband's work - but couldn't send them all - wrapped up some for favorite friends and pals - only the best of friends deserve these!

The best brownie book ever!.......2006-03-04

If you only own one brownie book, it has to be this one! I've never had a recipe come out bad, and have tried so many i've lost count. The writer gives some really good tips on making brownies to make sure they come out perfect every time. Highly recommended!

Average customer rating:

Cookies, Biscuits, Bars and Brownies
Catherine Atkinson
Manufacturer: Lorenz Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0754813002

Book Description

Everything you need to know about making delicious cookies and biscuits is given in this wonderful, practical cookbook.

One Smart Cookie: All Your Favorite Cookies, Squares, Brownies and Biscotti ... With Less Fat!

Average customer rating:

Very tasty reduced-fat (if not always reduced-calorie) cookies
A Must Have
Fabulous
My perfect match!
Simple, delicious recipes

One Smart Cookie: All Your Favorite Cookies, Squares, Brownies and Biscotti ... With Less Fat!
Julie Van Rosendaal
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 1579549446

Book Description

Think rich, chewy, gooey, chocolatey cookies, brownies and squares are off-limits? Not so! In One Smart Cookie, you'll be thrilled to find more than 200 recipes for goodies such as Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Decadent Cheesecake Brownies, Pecan Pie Squares and Cranberry White Chocolate Blondies, trimmed of fat but not the flavor!

Everybody loves cookies. They are as welcome at a dinner party as they are tucked into a lunch box or hanging on the Christmas tree. And we all have longtime favorites that have often become family traditions. In this book, you will find lower fat recipes for your favorite cookies, squares, brownies, and biscotti, as well as a wealth of information that will help you to reduce the fat in your own special cookie recipes.

The desserts and snacks in this book aren't just a healthy alternative to the cookies you crave-- they are the real thing!

Customer Reviews:

Very tasty reduced-fat (if not always reduced-calorie) cookies.......2007-02-16

The good: I have made about 15 recipes from this book so far. All ranged from "good" to "excellent", a very respectable turnout. Not a single one was unpleasantly tough, dry, or otherwise failed. They compare VERY favorably with other lowfat cookies I have tried. I will definitely be making some again, and trying others. My personal favorites were apricot almond streusel squares, `gourmet' variation of the chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie squares, crunchy peanut cookies, and cornmeal maple pecan twists.

In general, the recipes in this book are reliable, tasty and have significantly reduced fat (especially saturated fat) as compared with comparable `regular' cookies. E.g., in a typical ~ 2 cup flour recipe, there is usually ~4 T butter here as opposed to 1-2 sticks, and egg yolks are usually reduced or eliminated. The changes do reduce overall dough volume and yield a smaller batch size, which in my opinion is all to the good. (If you're buying a reduced-fat cookie cookbook, chances are you don't want 5 dozen extra cookies lying around every time you head to the kitchen to try a new recipe).

Other pluses: these recipes use familiar, inexpensive and natural ingredients that you already have on hand or can easily find: no weird or artificial diet substitutes. Unlike most low-fat recipes, these cookies are portioned normally and even generously; there is no artificial lowering of the fat content by instructing you to fashion micro-cookies of which you would have to eat 10 to equal one normal cookie. In fact, in several recipes I ended up with more cookies than the listed yield, which almost never happens to me.

This book also seems like a labor of love-- the recipes are unusually well-tested and fine tuned. The instructions are clear, careful and include useful details, like tips on how to reduce the number of dishes you dirty in the preparation. The book belies its small size with lots of helpful or interesting marginal notes and voluminous recipe variations, many of which yield genuinely different recipes (not just something obvious like substitute one variety of raisin for another). You'll find a wonderful diversity of cookie flavors, textures and styles and familar standbys as well as unique recipes of the author's own creation.

The bad: First, I found a few baking times to be off, in particular, too long (my only general `recipe testing' complaint). The author is good about providing other done-ness cues, but I'd recommend you start checking cookies much earlier than indicated.

Second, although these recipes are very good, there were some clear `consequences' of reducing the fat. Several cookies had telltale textural issues such as being soft and cakey instead of tender-chewy, or being hard-crunchy instead of tender-crunchy. Also, almost all became stale frustratingly quickly, in several cases, within a few hours. Some took well to refreshing, freezing, storing unbaked dough to bake off as needed, etc., but I had to figure this out on my own. Given the pervasiveness of the premature staling problem, I would really have appreciated more attention to storage advice and/or strategies - no one wants to end up throwing out most of one's labors away.

Finally, the philosophy of this book is very much of a mid-nineties `reduce fat and who cares about anything else' style, and that philosophy, as most people would now acknowledge, suffered from some major nutritional flaws. Again, the recipes do succeed, and admirably, on satisfying the criteria they set out to satisfy (they are lower fat, and they taste good-- no mean feat). However, if you flip through the nutritional information handily accompanying each recipe, you may notice that many of these cookies are very high in refined carbohydrates and calories. Many of the bars, especially, hover around the mark of 200 calories EACH (and some even more)-- that's a lot. And of course you're not going to eat just one. Morever, many recipe variations are rather decadent (calling for additions of things like nuts, chocolate chips and caramel), with added fat but no added calorie information. I find all this to be off-putting in a book that promises `healthy alternatives that can be eaten without guilt.'

In fact, a number of these recipes seem to have nearly the same total calories as the `standard' version whose fat has not been assiduously reduced. In such cases, you're not so much saving calories as you are exchanging them--by and large, fats for simple carbohydrates. Arguably, this is a trade for the worse, as it increases the "empty calorie" count of your treat and decreases the satiety that fats provide. Then there are the losses that come along with the fat for simple-carb trade--e.g., lower-fat cookies go stale much faster and without the fat, they can taste too sweet. In many cases the new cookies, while still very good, are obviously missing elements of the old standbys. If you slash the amount of chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie or the amount of nuts in a Russian tea cake, you can tell that those elements are missing, however appealing the new versions may be on their own terms. This, in combination with a belief that the new cookies are `healthier' (and are going to be stale tomorrow) can lead us to eat an extra cookie or two and thus end up with more calories than if we'd just stuck with the family recipe from the 50's.

I'll now remove my party-pooper hat and reiterate that the author has succeeded in producing a book of wonderful-tasting, diverse and easy cookies with less fat. The book is absolutely in the top tier of the low-fat dessert cookbook family. If you are selective, you can also find many tasty choices that are not JUST reduced fat, but also sport an impressive nutritional profile for dessert. And the book is generally a pleasure to cook and read from. So, I give it 4 stars because it mostly delivers on what it promises. Just don't expect the recipes be nutritional miracles.

A Must Have.......2006-04-13

I bought this recipe book when I really did not have the money to invest in recipe books. Now that I can buy the pricier books I find myself constantly returning to this old favorite. Very very good recipes. Lowfat goodies made with easy variations. I highly recommend it.

Fabulous.......2005-11-07

Ooh I just love this book. Every recipe sounds realy good and there's so little fat that it makes you feel less guilty indulging in the cookies. I've only just purchased the book and have tried one recipe so far the Chocolava cookie and it turned out great. This is a good book to have even if you are just trying to use up egg whites like I was after makng ice cream. A real contradiction I know. But I give this book 2 thumbs up.

My perfect match!.......2005-07-15

My sister and I are health addicts-we are majoring in nutrition. We love to bake and cook healthy. Her cookies are as good as the high fat ones. My favorite so far is the Aaron's melt in your mouth peanut butter cookies. It is like eating rich, fudgy peanut butter. Her fruit bars are good as well. The instructions are written perfectly-I hardly make any adjustments. It comes out just like she says. The book is like my long lost friend that I have discovered. It is a miracle that she came up with these recipes. She must have tested them out and experimented many times. I give Julie 1000 thumbs up. I'll keep making cookies and sweet tasty desserts without feeling the guilt!

Simple, delicious recipes.......2005-04-20

I bake a lot, and this is one of my favourite cookbooks. The recipes are straightforward, there's lots of variety, and every one I've tried has turned out wonderfully (and I have tried probably 30 or 40 of them!)

I always get requests for the recipe when I make things from this book, and people never guess that they're less-fattening versions. I have given a couple of copies of this book as gifts and they've been much appreciated.

This is my go-to cookbook whenever my family is in the mood for cookies or squares. We use it every week.

Average customer rating:

Best Cookie Book I Own
PERFECT PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
Simply Superb
Simply Superb
perfection

Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies
Alice Medrich
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cookies | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts
Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts
Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate
A Year in Chocolate: Four Seasons of Unforgettable Desserts
Baking: From My Home to Yours

ASIN: 0446523828

Amazon.com

In Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies, the goal is perfect results. For Medrich, a playful perfectionist who writes with wit, perfection includes big flavors, "noisy textures" that crunch and crackle, and lots of chocolate. Achieving it requires paying attention to details, such as using unsifted, bleached, all-purpose flour, measured so a cup weighs close to five ounces. Other meticulously detailed advice helps you make evenly baked cookies that are tender and rich, not dry or tough.

There are about 50 recipes in this book. Each is a gem, from the most buttery shortbread (using melted butter is a key) to the most sophisticated, barely sweet chocolate-chunk cookie, truly tangy lemon wafers, and incredibly easy Almond Macaroons. For killer brownies, Medrich offers a new technique she calls the Steve Ritual. Guaranteed to make the outside crustier and the inside creamier, it involves a pan of ice water. Beyond cookie recipes, Medrich includes a doubly peanutty filling for sandwich cookies and a careful guide to chocolate-dipping your favorite cookies and biscotti.

Luscious color photos and enchanting line drawings illustrate this articulate, one-of-a-kind cookie book. --Dana Jacobi

Book Description

Now, both serious foodies and fair-weather cooks alike can savour the considerable talents of the woman whose name has become synonymous with dessert, rich, elegant, chocolate dessert! Alice Medrichs mouthwatering recipes for everything from chocolate decadence cookies to espresso swirl brownies to snicker doodles will appeal to all readers in search of the sweet hereafter. Scrumptious, addictive, and delightful, Medrichs cookies and brownies are rivaled only by the simplicity of her recipes. The authors previous Warner hardcovers have a proven track record with Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts (1994) and Cocolat (1992) shipping close to 90,000 copies combined. Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts was named the Best Cookbook of the Year (1995) by the prestigious James Beard Foundation (besting rival books by Jacques Pepin and Martha Stewart), as well as winning its Healthy Focus category. Cocolat won the Julia Child Award for Best First Book, the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Best Dessert Book and Best First Book, and the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Cookbook and Best Photography. Praise for Cocolat: Her enthusiasm and extraordinary dedication to chocolate desserts.... make this book a must for chocolate lovers. Jacques Pepin Uniquely wonderful.... This is a gift to all of us home cooks. Marion Cunningham, author of The Fanny Farmer Cookbook and The Breakfast Book

Customer Reviews:

Best Cookie Book I Own.......2006-10-16

I own more cookbooks than I care to admit, and the majority of those are for baking. But when I'm in the mood for something sweet, this is inevitably the first book I grab.

Every recipe I have tried--and I have made many recipes from this book--has been both straightforward to make and incredibly delicious. And I have made "Bittersweet Brownies" so many times that I no longer need to actually look at the book.

The recipes are clearly written, and most of them use ingredients and pans that I already have, so it's perfect for those evenings when I have to have chocolaty goodness *right now* and am not interested in running out to get an ingredient.

I'd also recommend this book for those who are not regular bakers. The recipes are easy to follow, so this book is a good way to convince someone that baking isn't that difficult, as well as of the value of keeping parchment paper and good chocolate on hand.

The only negatives for this book are: First, my copy is quite literally falling apart, which is frustrating. Second, this book has gone out of print. But if you find a copy--grab it. You won't regret it.

If you love to bake cookies and brownies, this book is a must have.

PERFECT PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES.......2006-04-03

Without a doubt, the Peanut Butter cookies are the best ever! Use a candy-making spiral tool and yours can look just like Alice's too!

Simply Superb.......2003-03-09

Don`t let the size of the book bellie its weight in gold. Most recipes have variations so its actually more than the over 100 pages. I had so much successwith the first recipe that i could not wait to try all the rest and they were all superb (especially the mexican wedding cakes that melts in the mouth with a pecanish taste lingering in your mouth) The recipes are really simple due to precise instructions and for a number of them, you just need a saucepan...less work, less clean-up and a thumbs-up for a good cookie. If you're like me and want minimal fuss and maximum taste, read this book. This is the only book i use for chocolate chip cookies.

Simply Superb.......2003-03-09

perfection.......2002-03-29

I bought this book because Ms. Medrich did a presentation at the bookstore where I worked. Needless to say, the "samples" she brought were devoured in minutes.

Following her careful, yet simple, instructions and tips, will make for wonderful cookies and brownies. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made, and I have tried several recipes, and the apricot/lemon bars were also a big hit. I am going to make several of the recipes here for Easter sunday with the family, and I am confident that they will be well received.

Ms. Medrich's other cookbooks are on my wish list because her recipes are to me, the standard in dessert making.

365 Great Cookies and Brownies (365 Ways)

Average customer rating:

365 Great Cookies and Brownies (365 Ways)
Joanne Lamb Hayes , and Bonnie Tandy Leblang
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cookies | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060168404

Average customer rating:

Fifty-Five Best Brownies in the World
Honey Zisman , and Larry Zisman
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Cakes | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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The Ultimate Brownie Book: Thousands of Ways to Make America's Favorite Treat, including Blondies, Frostings, and Doctored Brownie Mixes
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ASIN: 0312058624

Book Description

Picture a plate of your favorite brownies. Are they packed with milk chocolate an walnuts? Dates and molasses? Peanut butter? Are they covered with chocolate strawberry glaze--or baked into a luscious pastry shell? These and other unspeakably rich, extravagant versions of the traditional chocolate-and-nut classic are the winners of the Nationwide Great American Brownie Bake and have been declared the 55 Best Brownies in the World.Only the author of The 47 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World could have compiled this unbelievable brownie bonanza. With more than 3,500 delicious and imaginative recipes to choose from, they've selected the most heavenly brownies bakeable, all made with back-to-basics ingredients that are both wholesome and outrageously delicious.

Bake and Freeze Desserts: 130 Do-Ahead Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Brownies, Bars, Ice Creams, Terrines, and Sorbets

Average customer rating:

BAKE AND FREEZE DESSERTS: 130 DO-AHEAD CAKES, PIES, COOKIES, BROWNIES, BARS, ICE CREAMS, TERRINES AND SORBETS
I bought, I read, I ate!

Bake and Freeze Desserts: 130 Do-Ahead Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Brownies, Bars, Ice Creams, Terrines, and Sorbets
Elinor Klivans
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0688123473

Customer Reviews:

BAKE AND FREEZE DESSERTS: 130 DO-AHEAD CAKES, PIES, COOKIES, BROWNIES, BARS, ICE CREAMS, TERRINES AND SORBETS.......2005-09-03

I have made several (5) items out of this book so far, and they have all received rave reviews from the recipients. I found this book at the library and had to get it for myself. You must love to bake.

I bought, I read, I ate!.......1998-08-24

Bake and Freeze Desserts is a great way to learn about baking while producing fantastic desserts to eat immediately and/or freeze for later! Elinor's recipe's console me, an amateur cook, and lead me through the recipes with ease. She answers every question as it pops into my head and I always learn something about ingredients or techniques when I read and use her books. I love how Elinor tells you how the batter will look or when you know a cake is done. And how great to spend a free evening baking to pull out a fabulous dessert a few weeks later to amaze and delight your friends?! I highly recommend Bake and Freeze Desserts to those used to baking and to those who aren't!

Average customer rating:

Yum, Yum: I get hungry just looking at the pictures
Bar Many

Bar Cookies A to Z
Marie Simmons
Manufacturer: Chapters Pub. Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cookies | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1881527557

Customer Reviews:

Yum, Yum: I get hungry just looking at the pictures.......2003-07-15

I own about 100 baking books (ok, maybe 50) and this is my favorite. It has great color photgraphs (just about every recipe has a photo.) I especially like the Island Bar (coconut, nuts, chocolate: what's not to like?) The Utterly Delicious Bars (caramel and brownies) are also good. I highly recommend this book.

Bar Many.......2000-05-17

This book is absolutely beautiful to look at. The pictures are so pretty that they make you want to bake everything immediately. I made the applesauce bars, and the praline topping was so delicious that even though I am not ordinarily excited by apple desserts, I wanted to eat the whole pan. I took the pan to work instead and people offered to fall on their knees and worship me. I also made the chocolate chip bars, which I found to be unexciting. However, after the great first experience and the great pictures, I look forward to trying more.

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