The Baker's Dozen Cookbook

by Rick Rodgers (Editor)

More than ten years ago, cookbook author and teacher Marion Cunningham and professional baker Amy Pressman met occasionally to talk about the wonders and mysteries of baking. They chatted, exchanged ideas, offered suggestions, and ended up solving some of their difficult baking problems. Slowly a concept took shape. Suppose groups of like-minded bakers were to meet to exchange ideas and solve baking problems? At the first meeting of The Baker's Dozen, forty people showed up with forty lemon meringue pies. The topic of the meeting was weeping and shrinking meringues and how to prevent them from happening. (The Heat the egg whites and sugar while beating to avoid weeping; use more egg whites to solve the problem of shrinking.) The word spread quickly, and The Baker's Dozen has grown to more than ten times the original number -- there are now more than four hundred members in the Bay Area. The groups continue to have two simple Share what you know about baking and learn from one another. Now you can share the collective experiences and favorite recipes of The Baker's Dozen in The Baker's Dozen Cookbook, with recipes selected and tested by some of the most respected and most accomplished bakers in the business. Lindsey Shere, co-founder and pastry chef of Chez Panisse, shares the secrets of tarts. Authors Carol Field and Fran Gage and baker Peter Reinhart offer their collective wisdom on yeast breads and flatbreads. John Phillip Carroll teaches about easy quick breads, coffee cakes, and muffins. Renowned author and baker Flo Braker and her team share their years of cake-baking experience. Carolyn Weil and her group offer the ultimate advice and techniques for pies and piecrusts. Robert Morocco and Julia Cookenboo divulge their trade secrets of making foolproof cookies equal to those of any quality bakeshop. The Baker's Dozen Cookbook goes far beyond recipes. You'll benefit from what these bakers learned on their field trips. You'll learn tricks such as using dental floss to cut neat slices of creamy cheesecake. You'll learn the differences between a pastry bag and a parchment cone; between a pâte brisée, a "broken dough," and a pâte sablée, a "sandy dough"; between butter and shortening in determining the flakiness of a crust; and so much more. So whether you simply want to become a better baker yourself or to form a Baker's Dozen group with others, all you need is The Baker's Dozen Cookbook. It puts four hundred of America's best bakers and everything they know right by your side. For baking tips, recipes, and information on starting your own Baker's Dozen, visit www.bakersdozen.org

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

357 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for people just starting to bake or people like me who used to bake and want to get back into it again. The Baker's Dozen is a group of professional bakers in San Francisco who try out recipes, discuss baking strategies, and visit local baking resources (ex. Cowgirl Creamery and Fleischmann's Yeast). The book had a lot of background information on ingredients and tools used in each baking section, which was helpful. Things like ways to get your meringue to quit shrinking or the right way to cream your butter and sugar to get better results. Most of the recipes seemed a bit too advanced for me, but there's still 20 or so recipes that I would like to try.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bakers Dozen really made me believe that I could be a baker, and I still use modified versions of a lot of the recipes in here. It's a great resource if only to demystify why we need seven kinds of flour and how to properly cream. It's wonderful.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great baking book for your collection. I love Flo Braker so this one is must for me. The pistachio roulade with white chocolate cream is heaven....

[Kairous1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

a really good baking cookbook from a dozen veteran bakers. the recipes are simple and straightforward and the education section was very...educational. Learned a lot about baking from this book

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find almost every endeavor is made better by collaboration and this baking book is no exception. The baking book field is intensely competitive as there are some truly genius bakers out there. Because there are so many illuminaries offering their learning and tips on a wide variety of baking issues and problems this book is well worth reading. The introductions to topics are beautiful, helpful and informative. The recipes are basic but honed by skill and repetition. Worth reading.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the greatest cookbook for baking EVER.