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Usually ships in 18-55 business days | | | | | | If you are a beginning baker, this book offers an accessible introduction to essential baking ingredients, equipment, and techniques as well as detailed, step-by-step recipes that make it easy to prepare even the trickiest baked goods. If you are already an accomplished baker, it offers many sophisticated and unusual recipes that will help you refine your knowledge and skills.The book features a distinctive organization based on six key baking ingredients, from fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and chocolate to dairy products, spices and herbs, and coffee, tea, and liqueurs. Select an ingredient or flavor you love, and you'll find many delicious ways to incorporate it into your baking. Bloom's recipes encompass every type of baking. You'll find spectacular versions of familiar favorites - Cherry Pie, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Double Peanut Butter Cookies - as well as intriguing variations and extravagant indulgences, including Coconut Biscotti, Lemon Verbena and Walnut Tea Cake, and Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee. Her meticulous recipes specify essential gear, offer tips on streamlining the recipe and storing the finished dish, and provide advice on varying ingredients and adding panache. With in-depth guidance on techniques and ingredients, 225 standout recipes, variations and embellishments for almost every dish, and 32 pages of striking full-color photographs, The Essential Baker is truly the only baking book you'll ever need. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Carole Bloom | | Hardcover: | 645 pages | | Publisher: | Wiley | | Publication Date: | March 19, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0764576453 | | Product Length: | 8.3 inches | | Product Width: | 1.87 inches | | Product Height: | 9.4 inches | | Product Weight: | 3.55 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.3 inches | | Package Width: | 8.1 inches | | Package Height: | 2.1 inches | | Package Weight: | 3.55 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 12 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 12 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 34 found the following review helpful:
 An excellent general manual for occasional baker. Buy It. May 10, 2007
By B. Marold
"Bruce W. Marold"
`The Essential Baker' by professional pastry chef and culinary writer, Carole Bloom presents itself as a complete baking manual, with a distinctively different organization, by ingredient. For its size, price, and claims, the book begs us to compare it to the recent `Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook', which is also a comprehensive introductory baking text.
As I first open the book, Bloom's `Essential Baker' does not readily impress me when stacked up against Team Stewart. Like Stewart, the book does not delve into a lot of the more technical explanations of baking science (as one may find in Rose Levy Beranbaum's more advanced `Bibles' on baking technique), but then the average baker really doesn't need most of this, as long as they get the message that with baking, one really needs to follow the recipe closely, even down to the size of the baking pans. Bloom does go into just a bit more detail, and may get herself into a few questionable statements, as when she states that one should not use all purpose flour for baking bread (every book I've ever seen on bread baking uses and condones `all purpose flour', with a preference for the higher protein products such as those from King Arthur.)
Based on their enormous magazine publishing resources, it's no surprise to find Team Stewart's book with wonderful pictures all along the way, especially with good series of tutorials on some basic techniques. Ms. Bloom oddly has virtually no pictures, and all she has are in two middle of the book rotogravure sections, to keep the cost down.
Two more comparisons tend to favor Team Stewart. The first is that their organization is by end product and method rather than by principal ingredient. For an introductory manual, I simply find that more useful and intuitive. Unlike savory cooking, one is much more inclined to begin with `lets bake a cake' or `lets make a pie' or `lets make some cookies' or `lets make some bread'. One of the few cases where this may not be true is with some highly seasonal local ingredients such as rhubarb. Otherwise, my baking choices are largely based on birthdays needing cake, picnics needing pies, and Christmas needing cookies. The second is that Ms. Bloom does not cover yeast breads at all. There are recipes for quick breads such as biscuits and Irish Soda bread (under the subject of buttermilk), but that's it. Team Stewart has a 70 page chapter on yeast breads with 31 recipes, including muffins, bagels, pizza, Danish, croissants, and babkas. If this were the whole story, Team Stewart would have it all over Ms. Bloom. Ms. Bloom, however, has an ace up her sleeve.
Only after reading the long and highly informative (but pictureless) introductory chapters in `The Essential Baker' did I discover that Ms. Bloom is hiding her light under a basket. While celebrating her ordering by ingredient, she neglects to trumpet the fact that her method for writing recipes is really superior. Everything is laid out in exactly the way one may wish to find it. And, on this count, she has Team Stewart beat hands down. But that's not all. I also find her recipes to be more interesting (albeit not necessarily more complicated) than those from Team Stewart. I compared at least a half dozen recipes and in all cases, Ms. Bloom had the more satisfactory recipe for the beginner. Stewart either tended just a bit too much to the simple or overembellished to fit her overriding motif of cooking for entertaining.
I'm still inclined to see Stewart's `Baking Handbook' as the superior book for the beginner, except for the fact that Ms. Bloom does something that is rare in bigger baking books. She does not `divide and conquer' by separating all her utility recipes for crusts and other pastries in a separate section, so that one must constantly be flipping back and forth when doing a pie or an icing. This is really an exceptionally good thing for the occasional baker, who wants `the recipe, the whole recipe, and nothing but the recipe' in one place.
And, although both books retail for $40, Ms. Bloom has about 200 more pages, with a corresponding 30% more recipes. She also has an exceptionally good list of sources, the best I've seen in quite some time (although Miss Martha does a good job here too).
On the arrangement by ingredient, I'm still a bit agnostic about it, and it would have been nice to see a supplementary table of contents by type of recipe, but if you happen to really like books such as Aliza Green's `Starting With Ingredients' or books on vegetable or fish cookery, you will love this book. Otherwise, you may just like it very, very much.
31 of 33 found the following review helpful:
Viva Coconut Biscotti Apr 13, 2007
By Kitty Morse
Though I love to cook and entertain, I seldom bake. Somehow, in planning my meals, dessert is often an afterthought. Thus, when a friend gave me Carole Bloom's latest tome, The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and other ingredients, I thanked her profusely and thought I would relegate the exhaustive 650 page book to the upper reaches of my kitchen shelf. Last week, in need of an easy dessert recipe, the stunning chocolate madeleines on Bloom's book cover came to mind. What delights might I find within its pages, I wondered? I thumbed through it, looking for something simple to complement a bowl of fresh strawberries. The Coconut Biscotti on page 229 caught my eye.
I followed Bloom's instructions to the letter. The author of Chocolate Lovers' Cookbook for Dummies, among eight other books, made it all the easier thanks to her clever organization: ingredients and their corresponding usage are laid out side by side on the page rather than one following the other as is usually the case. I assembled the dough in minutes, shaped it into two loaves as instructed, and popped them in the oven. I waited for them to cool before slicing them into biscotti, and returned them to the oven a few minutes longer. Twenty minutes later, "my" biscotti looked like those sold by the piece at an extravagant price in upscale coffee shops--sweet and crumbly and ready for dunking. "Those are the best biscotti I have ever tasted," opined my husband, a cookie connoisseur from way back.
The Essential Baker may not turn me into a pro but the clarity of recipes inspire me to try the Cherry Clafouti(page 61) and the Pineapple Tarte Tatin (page 247). I may even read through Bloom's extensive Baking Essentials section to expand my newfound skills!
29 of 33 found the following review helpful:
 Disappointed Sep 08, 2007
By Wok King
The first three reviews all gave "The Essential Baker" top 5-star ratings and, frankly, I was impressed and ordered the book. However, my elation quickly turned to disappointment once I scanned the pages. The first 50 pages on baking essentials had brown text on a light brown background and the remainder of the book, the text remained brown on white rather than black on white. Moreover, the font style and small size in addition to the brown text made reading difficult for a senior citizen as myself. This difficulty was more pronounced since the ingredients listed on the left margin were in bold type whereas the instruction were not, thus I personally would find difficulty in using the book while trying to cook.
One thing the author mentions up front is that all her recipes use Extra-Large eggs and every recipe for making pie dough uses a food processor. Just be aware to adjust your thinking. The book is hefty with 220 pages devoted to fruits, 21 to vegetables, 48 to nuts and seeds, and 125 to chocolate, 29 to dairy, 45 to spices and herbs, and 50 to coffee, tea, and spirits. The way the recipes are formatted, as discussed in prevous comments, are unique and at times it takes three to four pages for a recipe such as Pumpkin Pie or Lemon Meringue Pie.
In comparing the recipe for Anise and Almond Biscotti (Carole Bloom vs Martha Stewart), for example, Bloom calls for 3 extra-large eggs and 3 extra large egg yolks, but no butter and Stewart calls for 4 large eggs and 4 tablespoons of butter (both use 2-1/4 and 2-1/2 cups of flour respectively. I would have to bake each recipe to determine which I preferred, but someone like Alton Brown (author of, "I'm Here Just for the Food") could tell you the pros and cons of eggs vs butter.
If I had to choose an all round baking book, my choice would be, "The Dessert Bible" by Chrisopher Kimball who is also Publisher and Editor of Cooks Illustrated. His recipes include a feature that explains "what could go wrong" explaining things that could go awry whch I found helpful.
Bloom incorporates some innovative features in laying out her baking techniques and no doubt has many excellent recipes, but I downgraded the book primarily on "mechanical" features rather than content and the fact that I personally find the book difficult to use.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
FABULOUS DESSERT BOOK--VERY EASY TO USE Oct 27, 2007
By Paula Kindler
I have a lot of cookbooks, mostly on desserts. When I saw this book I thought it was just another dessert cookbook with the same old recipes and pictures. Was I wrong. This is quickly becoming my favorite dessert cookbook mainly because it is so easy to use and it has such a wide variety of recipes. It's arranged in such a logical way with recipes divided up by their primary ingredient. For example, I like tropical fruits so I just go to the tropical and exotic fruit section and all the recipes with tropical fruits are there. My favorite here is the Coconut Biscotti but that Pineapple Tarte Tatin is so, so yummy also. I like anything with chocolate and there is a big section with many recipes. The White Chocolate and Lemon Tart is to die for. Another thing so neat about this book is the way the recipes are laid out in a kind of table format which makes them so easy to follow. I am really happy with this book. I am thinking it may be the only dessert cookbook I will every need. I intend to make all of the over 250 recipes (and some of the variations too). I highly recommended this to all dessert bakers. It is really easy to use and there is something for everyone.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Unique & Delicious Recipes Aug 09, 2007
By SweetHappyLife-com
"SweetHappyLife-com"
"The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices and Other Ingredients" is a new book by Carole Bloom, who is a professional pastry chef and confectioner. As the title promises the contents include an impressive array of recipes that use everything from coffee & tea to vegetables & fruits as their main ingredients. More than this, however, Bloom's recipes are unique, with a dash of sliced almonds adding both flavor and texture to banana muffins and pearl sugar enhancing the visual appeal of apple turnovers. I loved her recipes for coconut biscotti, jasmine tea cakes and spiced sugar coin cookies. Indeed, though I usually give away most of the goodies I bake, I couldn't bring myself to share the biscotti with anyone other than my husband. On a few occasions I wasn't entirely thrilled with the way a recipe turned out, but given my delight with other recipes I have to chalk this up to taste. One cannot expect every single recipe in a book to enthrall, after all, and modifications can always be made to suit your preferences.
Bloom's instructions are clear and easy to follow, though the way ingredients are presented took some getting used to. Instead of listing ingredients before the recipe, as most cookbooks do, recipes are divided into stages with the ingredients for each stage listed beside the instructions. At first I didn't like this aspect of the book, but as I continued to cook with it I realized that this arrangement a) forced me to read through the entire recipe before beginning, I'm a notorious improviser, and b) made it nearly impossible to become confused about which ingredient should be used where. Essential gear is listed along side the recipe, where helpful information is also included: storage tips, variations, and instructions for streamlining the baking process over more than one afternoon (i.e. How to begin cookies one day and finish them the next.) While I'm always appreciative of baking books that have photos for every recipe, the straightforward presentation of Bloom's recipes made it easy to visualize the final result without an image. Photos for twenty recipes are collected in the center of the book, representing the various chapters, which include: fruit & vegetables; nuts & seeds; chocolate; dairy products (milk, cream, cheeses); spices & herbs; and coffee, tea, liqueurs & spirits. The first chapter is devoted entirely to baking techniques, language and an overview of essential baking gear.
Recipes range in difficulty from easy to challenging, so this may not be the best book for a novice baker. Yet those with baking experience and a curiosity for novel recipes may want to check it out. From Key Lime Squares and Raspberry-Blueberry Galettes to Pomegranate Butter Cookies and Triple Vanilla Souffle, there is something in this book to pique everyone's interests.
See all 12 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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