How to Bake: Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins,

by Nick Malgieri

How To Bake is as necessary and essential as a good oven; it is the most comprehensive and accessible guide to baking available in English. In a single, illustrated volume, Nick Malgieri, one of America's preeminent bakers and baking teachers, leads cooks through the simple art of creating an international assortment of delicious sweet and savory baked goods. Here are the best recipes for breads, including such quick ones as Buttermilk Corn Bread, Irish Soda Bread, Classic Southern Biscuits, and Currant Tea Scones, as well as such delicious yeast-risen breads as Italian Bread Rings, Swiss Rye Bread, Challah, and English Muffins. Malgieri also offers recipes for savory treats like Old-Fashioned Chicken Pie, Pepper and Onion Frittata Tart, Cheese Quiche, and Rosemary Focaccia; and for sweet pastries ranging from puff pastries--Apple Turnovers, Banana Feuilletés with Caramel Sauce, Brioches, Strawberry Savarin, and Croissants--to pies and tarts, cobblers, and cookies of every stripe--drop, bar, rolled, and filled; brownies, macaroons, and rugelach. Cakes, too, are here, from layered to rolled, from angel to devil's food. The recipes in How to Bake are clear and methodical. Master recipes explain all the steps to making a classic dish. They are frequently followed by creative variations so that the baker's palate and skills will always be accommodated and challenged. Start out with a simple spice cake, for example, and transform it, under Malgieri's reassuring guidance, into a lavishly decorated celebration cake. In addition to an exhaustive and tempting selection of recipes, Malgieri offers clear, detailed instructions, interweaving techniques and helpful how to make a pastry bag out of parchment paper; what baking pans to buy; mastering pie and cake toppings; learning to decorate a cake so it looks as if it came from the bakery; and scores of other helpful tips. All this is punctuated with precise explanatory illustrations and thirty-two pages of luscious color photographs to inspire and guide the baker. How to Bake is a one-volume "bible" for bakers.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference

480 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 1995

Reviews

[Yaaresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This must have sat on my bookshelf for a decade before I actually made anything from it. One day I was trying to figure out why a dough wasn't behaving the way I thought it should and, after trying every other book I owned, reached for this one. Not only did I solve the problem with the recipe from this book, but I realized I had overlooked a real gem of a baking book. It gets a LOT more use now.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

WONDERFUL, I kept wondering why certain things were "failing" in the kitchen, he breaks it down to the most basic level, gives you a little history on it and then you can successfully figure out where you went wrong in the past.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best ever cookbook - the ins and outs of baking, why different flours matter, how to make a good tart, several different types of pie dough (and when and where to use them) - and oh, oh the cakes!

I buy a copy of this book for all my friends when they first get their very own kitchen. I hope it never goes out of print.

[Jinjer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So my L.A. BFF is the actual OWNER of this book, but she bought it at a little junk shop we visited here in Arkansas. It's too hot to bake anything in L.A. so she left the book here with me when she went home. I bought some yeast but haven't tried to make anything yet. lol

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book! The explanations are clear, accessible, and well-written, which I've found hard to come by in a baking book thus far. The Maryland Brownies are the bomb diggity. Yes.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic reference book, I just wish there were more, and better, pictures.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a cookbook aficionado and have been for decades. In all that time, I’ve rarely found recipes such as are in this book. Recipes, such as Italian Bread and Mince Pie, come with a little bit of history behind them that makes them all the more interesting. The ingredients are not outlandish but ones you’d find in most grocery stores. This cookbook be a great addition to any serious cooks’ repertoire. I received an arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Spencer Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best beginner baking books that I have come across. I bought this when I was 14 years old and made most of the recipes in this book. Nick makes the instructions easy to understand and there are some color photos in the middle of the book. I believe this is out of print now, but should be available through the used market. I highly recommend it!

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

My go-to baking bible!

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicks experience as both baker and teacher shine through this book. Lots of classic wisdom and technique. Wonderful.

[Shane C · Rating 5 out of 5]

these book is pretty much beatifull!!

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps the only bakery recipe book you'll ever need? This giant tome is filled to the brim with every imaginable recipe for anything ever baked, almost. Too bulky to use in the kitchen, copy a few favorites and send it back to the library. While the recipes are well put together, not every thing is pictured (well nigh impossible with a thousand recipes), and the items pictured are flat and uninspiring. I'd keep it on a shelf if only to have something that includes everything you may ever want to bake but carrying it around could be a problem! I wouldn't buy it myself and don't recommend buying a cook book that is so broad of scope and lacking in a theme.

[Blecy Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little cookbook that is centered on how to bake sweet foods. The recipes are all very clear and easy to understand, with ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store. If you're a new cook, or an experienced one, you will find this book informative.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

i Really, Really like my aunt's convection oven. eveyone should have one.

[Asia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i just love to bake!

[Janna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this while I'm eating breakfast and having coffee in the AM. Trying to get over my antipathy to baking stuff...

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

very nice, easy to follow, found a few 'keepers' for christmas

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

made my first ciabatta and focaccia from this book. Both turned out wonderfully. Very talented baker and easy to learn from his cookbook style.

[Debbie]

great!

[Linda Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great rolls