How to Bake: Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins,

by Nick Malgieri

Book Overview

How To Bake is as necessary and essential as a good oven; it is the most comprehensive and accessible guide to baking available in English. In a single, illustrated volume, Nick Malgieri, one of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060168196
• ISBN13: 9780060168193
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 8.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A great book for beginner and expert alike.

I like Malgieri's practical, no nonsense instruction. This book is a great teacher as well as a good cookbook. It is equally good for beginner and expert. His recipes are achievable and delicious. He explains and teaches so that one is not left in the dark as to any of the "how tos." Last Christmas, I gave countless loaves of panettone...all met with great appreciation and raves. I fear it is now an expected tradition for me. His challah is one of my favorites and was my first attempt at this beautiful braided bread. I am hooked. It is interesting as each time I make it, I think "this isn't going to rise" but each time it rises beautifully. My only critique is that I wish he'd included comments on oven spring. Some rise like crazy in the oven, some do not. All in all, it's a good book to have.

A Must Have for the Avid Baker!

I am a big baking fan, and this book has become my bible. I have tried about 2/3 of all the recipes, and all came out perfect.First of all, this is one of the few American baking books that uses an appropriate amount of sugar for sweet cakes......most books use a ratio of 3 parts flour, 2 parts sugar, which is too sweet for me. In this book, the author uses the classical 2 parts flour, 1 part sugar.One of the biggest successes is his recipe for the genoise. Unlike other recipes, he uses extra yolks instead of butter, which makes them super, super soft and moist. The pizza dough is to die for, a pizzeria can't make it any better.The book has a good balance between easily understandable recipes, variations to all recipes, guides, notes and general explanations as to how to get great results. Each chapter starts with a general comment on the kind of cake/pizza/pastry that is to be baked, where the recipe originated, possible variations of the recipe, and a perfect description of the consistency and taste of the finished product.The bread section gives a wonderful explanation about the different starters, the effect of the different risings in bread, and it has great quick breads as well as some wonderful artesian breads with a crackly-crunchy crust.If you don't want to invest in a lot of specialized baking books, this is the ideal book: it covers everything from pizza to bread to cookies to croissants to cakes. And if you already have a great collection of cooking and baking books, this one is an absolute necessity!

What a great Baking Book!

Again, I was impressed. This book has recipes for many different kinds of baked goodies. From breads to tarts and cakes to pies, this relatively easy book almost has it all.I must warn you, if you are going to buy this book to learn "How to Bake", then this book is really not for you. Nick Malgieri does not go into any type of specific detail about 'how to bake' in the meaning itself, but he does tell us how to bake many delicious treats. This book is packed with recipes for assorted breads, scones, biscuits and muffins. Pizza and Focaccia, chicken and fruit pies. Many different fruit and creme tarts. Beautiful to look at and eat Cookies and Filled Cookies. He has included a wide assortment of Cakes (my family's favorite), with frosting. He even has plenty of recipes using certain types of dough, such as Pate a Choux, to make many different kinds of pastries. Some of the pastry doughs are a little time consuming, as are some of the bread recipes, but they are pretty uncomplicated, and very much worth the time and effort. I have tried out several different kinds of breads and pastries, which of course, were all superb. Every recipe is clear in its description, and there are illustrations for many of them. There are two sections of beautiful color pictures that are pleasing to the eye as well as the pallette. This book is a welcome addition to any cooks library. I love the variety of different recipes all packed into one book. If you want to impress your family and friends with your culinary skills, then I suggest giving this book a try.

If you can own only one book on baking, this is it!

We own a long shelf of baking books, both for bread and pastry, but there is no book in these areas that we rely on more than this one. The recipes are marvelously clear and precise without being pretentious (as in, say, Nancy Silverton's book that could scare anyone out of the kitchen.) When I scout all of my cookbooks for a certain pastry recipe, it is ultimately Malgieri that serves as the bottom line, the one I compare the others to. This would be one of my half dozen basic cookbooks.

Easy to follow, impeccably perfect recipes

After seeing Mr. Malgieri on the Food Network, I waited quite some time to obtain this book...and I wish I hadn't. The recipes are perfectly detailed and easy to follow. Many of them tell you how to mix the ingredients three different ways: by hand, with a heavy-duty mixer or with a food processor. As a baker for many years, I found myself not only baking with this book, but reading it, too. It is finely detailed and contains many hints and recipe variations that you won't want to miss. Can't wait to receive my recently ordered Malgieri book, "Great Italian Dessert."