"baking cookbooks" news and stories

Everyone loves "top ten" lists and the James Beard Foundation has come up with a great one, albeit slightly bigger than usual: They've compiled a baker's dozen (13 books) list of essential baking books.

"The hardest part is narrowing down the list," Kathleen Purvis, chair of the James Beard Foundation Book Awards Committee, told Slashfood."

"We [committee members] all picked five or ten books and then compared lists. Some of them were on everybody's list like Flo Braker, Carol Field and Maida Heatter. Those books immediately made the cut and then we started narrowing down. We had all baked from these books and could name our favorite recipes."

The culinary posse also wanted to ensure that the books selected encompassed not just baking cakes and cookies but savories and breads.

For years, the only recipes I used for baking were ones handed down to me, or random searches I made on the Internet. I could never find a good, decently priced book full of diverse recipes, pictures, and tips. And then, one Christmas, a friend gave me The Essential Baking Cookbook.

In the book's 300 pages, you'll find a brief rundown on the history of baking, a glossary of terms, a gallery of basic utensils, recipes, and troubleshooting. The book is broken down into a diverse selection of baked goods -- Teatime, Cakes, Biscuits, Slices, Sweet pies and pastries, Savoury pies and pastries, Bread, and Celebration cakes. The diverse selection of recipes is great, but what's especially handy are the pictures. Every recipe comes with at least one image of the finished product, and there's a selection of pictures for each section that show what potential problems will look like.

The only challenge of this book is the selection of ingredients. The book comes from Murdoch Books in Australia, so you'll find a few ingredients that aren't normal for North American baking, like caster sugar and using self-raising flour rather than always adding baking powder and baking soda.

Still, there are a number of excellent recipes in the book that are sure to make your tastebuds happy. Some of the recipes that have gone over best for my guests were the Sour Cream Coffee Cake, Tollhouse Cookies, and Cheese Scones. If only it were healthy to eat these goodies every day.