Anyone Can Bake (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) [Hardcover-spiral]

Better Homes & Gardens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen | Publication Date: September 8, 2009

• The perfect, easygoing companion for anyone who loves the enticing smell of baking and could use a helpful hand in the kitchen.

• Hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes show how to make everything from classic apple pie to triple chocolate cookies to restaurant-style Baby Lava Cakes and irresistible Chocolate-Almond Croissants!

• How-to photos, helpful sidebars, and tips walk readers through any step that might appear tricky and answer questions such as, “What if I don't have a rolling pin?” and “How do I combine wet and dry ingredients?”

• Recipes call for easy-to-find ingredients, standard kitchen equipment, and simple techniques that anyone can master.

• Helpful icons identify each recipe as easy, easier, or easiest.

• This title makes an enticing gift for newlyweds, graduates, or anyone who's always wanted to become a better baker.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The fastest and easiest way to turn anyone into a great baker

Amaze your friends with your newfound (and very impressive) baking skills. Anyone Can Bake shows you step by step how to bake with more than 500 easy-to-follow recipes. With loads of helpful photos to guide you visually through the tricky steps and useful tips that answer basic baking questions, you'll be whipping up all kinds of cakes, cookies, pies, and other tasty treats before you know it.

Highlights include

• Hundreds of traditional and modern recipes, from Classic Apple Pie to Triple Chocolate Cookies to Baby Lava Cakes
• More than 500 full-color photos to guide you through the key steps, like rolling cookie dough or folding egg whites
• A helpful "Ask Mom" feature at the bottom of every recipe that clearly answers common baking questions, like "What if I don't have a rolling pin?"
• Recipes that use easy-to-find ingredients, standard kitchen equipment, and simple techniques anyone can master

If you love the enticing smell of baking and could use a helpful hand in the kitchen, you'll find everything you need in this friendly baking companion. Just pick out a great-looking recipe, roll up your sleeves, and you're on your way to demonstrating that anyone can bake.

Recipe Excerpts from Anyone Can Bake

Brown Sugar Icebox Cookies

Chocolate-Mascarpone Raspberry Pie

Lemon Curd Bars

From the Inside Flap

Better Homes and Gardens

Anyone can Bake

Step-by-step recipes just for you

See it, do it, nothing to it!

Everything you need to know to start baking now

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover-spiral: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047050059X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470500590
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!!, September 10, 2009

By 

S. Bateman (IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anyone Can Bake (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) (Hardcover-spiral)

I own the Anyone Can Cook book and I love it. Last weekend, I was at Borders and saw this book. It's packaged so you can't read it in the store, but I knew I'd love it since the first one was so good.

I couldn't have been more right!! This book is awesome! The pictures just enhance the book and make you feel excited about baking. All the recipes look delicious and a lot have 12 or so variations on different flavors. For examle, there is an oatmeal cookie recipe and then the next page, it gives you 12 or so variations on oatmeal cookies-like peppermint, chocolate covered raisin,etc!!

I also love how they say if a recipe is either 1,2,or 3 in terms of difficulty. This helps me since I am not an experienced cook. I will try the easier ones first and the move my way up. Very helpful!

I would reccommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, colorful, mouth-watering, and exciting cookbook!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, March 2, 2010

By 

ThreeSidedOrchid "ThreeSidedOrchid" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Homes & Gardens: Anyone Can Bake

This book is fantastic. I received it as a gift just before Christmas (2010) from a friend. I've been baking on and off for the last year or so, but am self-taught, so prior to that I had almost no experience with baking that didn't involve cake mixes or pre-made dough. I have a number of baking cookbooks, but rarely used them because they so often rely on you already knowing the basics. Oh sure, many of them have pages and pages of basics at the beginning, but it's not very helpful to read a chunk of text and then try and remember it later on when you're actually making something.

That's why I love this book. There's some introductory text, but each recipe has clear pictures (helpful pictures, not just of the food), and notes where you should look in the book if you need to know how to do something (say, mix a cheesecake to just the right consistency). There are basic recipes (yellow cupcakes, with quick suggestions for how to turn them into more interesting mixes, for example) as well as very different recipes (lemon-blueberry biscuits). I've learned more from this book in 3 months than I learned about baking my entire life before receiving it.

I should also mention that I haven't had a recipe from this book that hasn't been good/didn't turn out. I made the lemon-blueberry biscuits for a party and people raved about them. Never having made bread/worked with yeast before, I used the book's tips on how to work with yeast doughs for making a king cake (from an internet recipe) and was only one of 2 people in a group of 5 making king cakes who didn't have a problem with the dough.

All in all, if you're an experienced baker you might not be that impressed with the book (other than a few interesting recipes), but you could probably have guessed that from the title. However, if you're new to baking, it's definitely worth getting.

4.0 out of 5 stars Better homes and gardens have the best books, December 29, 2011

By 

Leorah - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Anyone Can Bake (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) (Hardcover-spiral)

A friend of mine gave me "Anyone can Cook" when I got married and I basically learned how to cook using that book. I never was a big fan of recipe books and generally go online when I need a recipe book, but I got this book because the "Anyone can Cook" taught me so much and I was hoping the same for this book. I really like how it gives how to make one type of cookie, or muffin, and then suggestions on how to 'personalize' the recipe however you want. It helps me 'think out of the box' and be a little more daring to try things where I will make it how I like it, not how I am told how it should be made exactly. There are several recipes that give me ideas of what I can do. I have to admit, my favorite baking recipes I got online from Eagle Brand, but I go back to this book for new ideas.