Product Description

The Secrets of Baking is a comprehensive primer that guides the cook through the world of baked goods and other desserts, from time-honored classics of the French patisserie to the inspired and fanciful creations that made Spago the famous restaurant it is today. At the same time, it advances a radically new understanding of these recipes, one that will give the baker greater flexibility and confidence in the kitchen.
Instead of grouping desserts into traditional categories (pies, cakes, cookies), Sherry Yard arranges them around crucial master recipes. Starting with these recipes -- simple, basic guidelines for making caramel, chocolate sauce, lemon curd, pound cake, and brioche, to name just a few -- Yard shows the cook how to create dozens of variations. Knowing how ingredients interact opens the door to a multitude of baking possibilities. For example, cream puff dough forms the foundation for éclairs, profiteroles, and the caramel-coated tower the French call croquembouche, but understanding how and why it behaves the way it does allows the cook to create deep-fried beignets, mascarpone-filled cannolis, or simmering-hot dumplings.
This authoritative, friendly bake-shop bible contains fascinating mini-lessons on food science, illuminating bits of baking history, and time-saving tips. Newcomers to the world of baking will feel at ease with such simple, homey desserts as Banana Bread and Mississippi Mud Pie, and elaborate show-stoppers like Chocolate Brioche Sandwich with Espresso Gelato and Blackberry-Lime-Filled Doughnuts with Blackberry Sorbet and Berries will transform amateur bakers into expert pastry chefs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16017 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
With an air of authority and an enthusiastic tone, Yard sets out to prove that pastry making need not be a complicated affair. Yard, the executive pastry chef at Spago Beverly Hills, has an easy didactic style that comes across in her spunky text and straightforward recipes. She divides her book into 12 master recipe chapters (such as Ganache, Vanilla Sauce and Brioche) instead of sticking to the conventional sections on cookies, cakes and tarts. This refreshing approach brings to light the relationships between certain recipes-how, for example, the chocolate and cream in the Master Ganache can be transformed into Campton Place Hot Chocolate, with minor adjustments in ingredient quantities and cooking methods. Yard also is generous with variations, offering a handful of optional approaches to most recipes. Her desire is to teach the reader the fundamentals, and then apply them to more complicated (but often very doable) dishes. Headnotes are peppered with encouragements like "Remember, whisking by hand burns calories." Sometimes, the text can become cumbersome with scientific explanations, such as the pH scale discussion in the Curds chapter. But as Yard explains in her introduction, "I show you how the ingredients interact with one another, so you'll know the reasons behind the steps you're following." A wide range of recipes makes the book accessible to all levels, allowing novices to become comfortable with pastry basics and professionals to combine multiple recipes to create more complicated impressive confections.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The tone of Sherry Yard's book makes her feel like a new best friend who just happens to be the pastry chef at the most famous restaurant in tinsletown.....she takes the well-codified genre of desserts and sets it down in a new way, using recipes and techniques as building blocks....I'm not a pastry chef, but I find this volume almost empowering" -- Gourmet -- Review

Review
"Yard...has an easy didactic style that comes across in her spunky text and straightforward recipes. A wide range of recipes makes the book accessible to all level, allowing novices to become comfortable with pastry basics and professional to combine multiple recipes to create more complicated confections." Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly )

"Immensly appealing...Detailed and clearly written...Yard's book is approachable enough for the novice and even challenging enough for the experienced baker." (Library Journal Starred )

"The tone of Sherry Yard's book makes her feel like a new best friend who just happens to be the pastry chef at the most famous restaurant in tinsletown.....she takes the well-codified genre of desserts and sets it down in a new way, using recipes and techniques as building blocks....I'm not a pastry chef, but I find this volume almost empowering" -- Gourmet (Gourmet )

Customer Reviews

Sherry Yard Is My Hero
I absolutely love this book. Sherry Yard is very informative and breaks all the recipes down into easy-to-understand text. It's divided into sections like, Ganache, Caramel, Cookies, and more. She explains everything in detail, you will learn lots of things about the pastry world. You will feel very acomplished after you make anything in this book. Everything is delicious. I wouldn't recommend it if you're just starting in the pastry industry, though, because although everything tastes great, it can be very challenging to make.

So disappointed
I ordered this book over one year ago because of the rave reviews. I tried two recipes in it. The lemon pound cake was dense, too lemony and just all around not to my or my boyfriend's liking. The vanilla cupcakes were so, so. I make exceptional desserts from recipes in other books and articles and people have raved about them. I also follow instructions precisely. However, in this case I know that the recipes are not good (at least to me) and the baker is not the problem. I guess I just don't have a taste for the recipes in this book. I am almost afraid to try another recipe because the two others have been so disappointing.

Perhaps this book is for someone who has different tastes from the norm. However, I like decadent desserts. So far I'm thoroughly disappointed and wished I hadn't purchased the book.

Recommended so got it as a gift for spouse
Just as thrilled as with the other by this author. Thorough, easy, and beginner-friendly...very!