Product Description

James Peterson is the premiere go-to source for home cooks of every level. His newest book and the second in a series of instructional tomes, BAKING teaches all the essential basics--how to make fail-proof tender pie dough, a fabulous birthday cake, sourdough starter that actually works, legendary babka, and more. In more than 300 recipes, each accompanied by handy instructional photos, Peterson guides readers through the techniques for creating perfect breads, cakes, cookies, pies, and pastries, each and every time with confidence. Readers working their way through the book will learn every fundamental of baking, and discover the recipes and nuances that ensure consistent, impressive results.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1296 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-29
• Released on: 2009-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This workhorse of a guidebook (a sequel title to Cooking by the James Beard–winning author), is a worthy baking school between covers. Jam-packed with instructional photos accompanying a carefully created modular approach that aims to teach you to think like a baker, the work features over 300 recipes, mostly classics based in the French tradition. The five chapters—Cakes; Pies, Tarts and Pastries; Cookies; Breads, Quick Breads, and Bread-based Desserts; and Custards, Soufflés, Fruit Curds and Mousses—include a comprehensive overview, sidebars on techniques and recipes designed to teach techniques that can be used in more than the recipe listed. While you won't find innovative recipes, all the basics are here—classic puff pastry dough, sheet cakes, chocolate chip cookies, baguettes—along with classic, fanciful treats such as frangipane tart, madeleines, Grand Marnier soufflés and chocolate croissants. While not glamorous, this is a comprehensive title. (Nov.)
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Review
A Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

Baking: 300 Recipes, 2000 Photographs, One Baking Education James Peterson. Ten Speed, $40 (416p) ISBN 978-1-58008-991-3

This workhorse of a guidebook (a sequel title to Cooking by the James Beard–winning author), is a worthy baking school between covers. Jam-packed with instructional photos accompanying a carefully created modular approach that aims to “teach you to think like a baker,” the work features over 300 recipes, mostly classics based in the French tradition. The five chapters—Cakes; Pies, Tarts and Pastries; Cookies; Breads, Quick Breads, and Bread-based Desserts; and Custards, Soufflés, Fruit Curds and Mousses—include a comprehensive overview, sidebars on techniques and recipes designed to teach techniques that can be used in more than the recipe listed. While you won't find innovative recipes, all the basics are here—classic puff pastry dough, sheet cakes, chocolate chip cookies, baguettes—along with classic, fanciful treats such as frangipane tart, madeleines, Grand Marnier soufflés and chocolate croissants. While not glamorous, this is a comprehensive title. (Nov.)


It will soon be said--if it hasn’t been already--that one could learn everything one needs to know about cooking by simply having and using James Peterson’s books. This latest addition to his ever-impressive collection fills in the previously missing piece--baking--with gusto and thoroughness. It has already become my go-to all-purpose baking and pastry reference when teaching my own students and also when I’m baking at home.
--Peter Reinhart, baking instructor at Johnson & Wales University and author of Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day


For years, cooking has benefited from James Peterson’s classy, classic touch. With camera in one hand and rolling pin in the other, he’s finally turned his savvy and creativity to Baking, and we get to peek over his shoulder--a delight for both eye and palate.
--Pam Anderson, USA Weekend food columnist and cookbook author 


Bakers rejoice! At last, James Peterson has turned his talents to the subject dearest to our hearts. Clearly written and beautifully illustrated, Baking brings the classics of the canon within reach of every serious home baker.
--Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking from My Home to Yours


Trust me--you need this book! With groundbreaking clarity, James Peterson masterfully demystifies baking in this visually mesmerizing, user-friendly manual that guarantees any baker a more intuitive, confident approach to the art.
--Flo Braker, author of Baking for All Occasions and The Simple Art of Perfect Baking


This book makes the complicated and often secret techniques of baking plain and simple, with hundreds of photos to walk you through the hard parts. It’s all you really need to learn it all.
--Gale Gand, author of Chocolate and Vanilla 

From the Publisher
* The definitive, highly illustrated, step-by-step instructional for making the best-loved basics plus new and fresh versions of pies, tarts, cakes, cookies, pastries, and breads.
* Sequel to COOKING, which won the 2008 James Beard Award for best general cookbook.
* The most thorough step-by-step visual guide to baking all the favorites.
* Every recipe is illustrated with sequential how-to photographs.

Customer Reviews

Typos
I got this book and was very eager to jump right in - this would be 5 stars based on the photos, tips, and several of the recipes (the Devil's food cake is the BEST I've made, it was simply perfect). BUT I've found several typos, 1st one is professional buttercream on page 45 - 1 1/2 cups of butter is not 1 1/4 pounds of butter. So the 1st time I made this I grabbed 3 sticks of butter and was confused on why my buttercream was gooey and did not set up, and I thought the mistake was in my soft-ball sugar which is the hard part, when it turns out I just didn't have enough butter. There are also a few instances of incorrect page numbers when referencing side bars. I have only made a few things so far but but if you use this book just be forewarned of the poor editing and lack of recipe testing prior to mass release.

Lastly, the only way to really make sure your measurements are correct is to weigh your dry ingredients, especially flour, so I am actually disappointed that there aren't more weights vs. volume and that I had to spend time doing math. I hate math.

Another winner by James Peterson
James Peterson has produced yet another outstanding cookbook. He focuses on technique, first and foremost, and the recipes are accompanied by numerous color photos, sometimes more than a dozen.

There are helpful tips throughout the book, such as "judging the amounts of frosting, glaze, and simple syrup needed for layer cakes," "reconstituting congealed buttercream," or "making brown butter." The cakes are elegant, sophisticated, and Peterson provides instructions and photos to decorate them professionally, such as making a caramel cage to top a torte. He has extensive info on how to construct cakes, from ensuring that a cake rises properly, wrapping cakes with chocolate strips, to filling and stacking.

The book is divided into the following main chapters (after a couple intro chapters with fundamental info), and since there are over 350 recipes in the book, I'll list a few of each:

Cakes - sponge cakes, almond flour sponge cake, pound cakes, buttercreams, mousselines, carrot cakes, frostings, making rolled fondant, assembling square and round cakes, decorating cakes with flowers or a gelatin mirror.

Pies, Tarts, and Pastries - cream cheese pastry, pate sucree, lining square and round tart pans with dough, baking blind, making liquid fondant, cream filled pies, passion fruit meringue tart, apricot frangipane tart, banana cream pie, pithiviers, eclairs, napoleons, danishes, gougeres, croissants

Cookies - butter cookies, madeleines, palmiers, macarons, chocolate sable cookies, tuiles, financiers, langues de chat

Breads, Quick Breads, and Bread-Based Desserts - white bread, white bread made with mature starter, rye bread, ciabatta, pizza, focaccia, brioche, challah, coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls, banana nut bread muffins, apricot bread, popovers, scones, apple charlottes

Custards, Souffles, Fruit Curds and Mousses - pots de creme, cremes caramels, creme brulees, grand marnier souffles, lemon curt, passion fruit curd, passion fruit mousse, chocolate mousse, cheese souffle.

A great baking/dessert resource.

Mostly a Rave for Another Valuable Peterson Culinary Book
I purchased James Peterson's brand new humongous tome on BAKING a few days ago. It is wonderfully illustrated and clear in its instructions. It's got me thinking I can do far more baking-wise than I've ever attempted before because the processes are so clearly broken down in steps. (Which reminds me of something often attributed to Julia Child: There are no such things as difficult recipes. Some just have more steps.)

The one complaint I have about the book - and to me it's a substantial one - none of the measurements for the recipes are by weight. I believe this is a big mistake when so many recent baking books (including this one) talk about the precision of baking. There can be a meaningful lack of accuracy when doing measurements solely by volume.

To finish on the positive, I am eager to start working my way through all Peterson's recipes and increasing my baking vocabulary and technique. There's a huge amount to learn here and it all looks delicious!