| 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. |
| Acknowledgements.Introduction.I: BAKING ESSENTIALS.Best Baking Practices.Essential Ingredients.Essential Equipment and Supplies.Essential Techniques.Essential Baking Language.II. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.1. Stone Fruit.2. Apples, Pears, and Quinces.3. Citrus Fruit.4. Berries and Grapes.5. Tropical and Exotic Fruit.6. Dried Fruit.7. Vegetables.III. NUTS AND SEEDS.8. Nuts.9. Seeds.IV. CHOCOLATE.10. About Chocolate.11. Dark Chocolate.12. Milk Chocolate.13. White Chocolate.14. Cocoa.15. Specialty Chocolate.V. DIARY PRODUCTS.16. Milk and Cream.17. Cheeses.VI. SPICES AND HERBS.18. Spices.19. Herbs.VII. COFFEE, TEA, LIQUEURS, AND SPIRITS.20. Coffee.21. Tea.22. Liqueurs and Spirits.Appendices.Comparative Volume of Baking Pan Sizes.Weight and Measurement Equivalents.Metric Conversions.Sources for Ingredients and Equipment.Photography Credits.Index. |
| Bloom, the author of eight cookbooks whose work has appeared in "Bon Appetit," "Gourmet" and "Food + Wine," adopts an unusual approach in this exhaustive and tantalizing look at baking. Instead of categorizing recipes by food type, she organizes them by primary ingredient-- a useful approach for the baker with a craving or surplus of one ingredient. Sections include fruits and vegetables; nuts and seeds; chocolate; dairy products; spices and herbs; and coffee, tea, liqueurs and spirits. The recipes themselves are uniquely formatted in a table layout that lists the ingredients across from their steps to help with organization. Bloom includes a list of equipment needed for the dish along with instructions on storage, streamlining, altering the recipe and recovering from mishaps. The collection covers the gamut with 225 recipes, including such delectable gems as Pear and Walnut Layer Cake with Maple- Cream Cheese Icing; Coconut Biscotti; and Cranberry Nut Tea Loaf. Other highlights range from Chocolate Chip Cookies and Macadamia Nut Blondies to Malted Milk Chocolate Cheesecake and Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Bloom also provides valuable instruction in sections on essential ingredients, equipment and supplies, and techniques. 32 full-color photos. "(Apr.)" ("Publishers Weekly," January 8, 2007)Food writer and cooking teacher Bloom is the author of seven other cookbooks, including All About Chocolate and Cookies For Dummies . Her big new book, obviously a labor of love, presents more than 250 recipes, along with a thorough introduction to baking techniques, equipment, and ingredients. Organized by main ingredient (e.g., fruits, chocolate, liqueurs, and spirits), the recipes offer a wide array of treats, with carefully written and thorough instructions. Although the recipe head notes are somewhat repetitious, and it would have been helpful to have a listing of the desserts by category (e.g., pies, cakes), this is an essential purchase for baking collections. ( Library Journal , March 15, 2007) Bloom, the author of eight cookbooks whose work has appeared in Bon Appetit , Gourmet and Food + Wine , adopts an unusual approach in this exhaustive and tantalizing look at baking. Instead of categorizing recipes by food type, she organizes them by primary ingredient-a useful approach for the baker with a craving or surplus of one ingredient. Sections include fruits and vegetables; nuts and seeds; chocolate; dairy products; spices and herbs; and coffee, tea, liqueurs and spirits. The recipes themselves are uniquely formatted in a table layout that lists the ingredients across from their steps to help with organization. Bloom includes a list of equipment needed for the dish along with instructions on storage, streamlining, altering the recipe and recovering from mishaps. The collection covers the gamut with 225 recipes, including such delectable gems as Pear and Walnut Layer Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Icing; Coconut Biscotti; and Cranberry Nut Tea Loaf. Other highlights range from Chocolate Chip Cookies and Macadamia Nut Blondies to Malted Milk Chocolate Cheesecake and Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Bloom also provides valuable instruction in sections on essential ingredients, equipment and supplies, and techniques. 32 full-color photos. (Apr.) ( Publishers Weekly , January 8, 2007) |