Customer Reviews

Baking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was one of those books that actually angered me. In the introduction, they go out of their way to explain to you why mass measurements are superior to volume measurements, but then go ahead and supply volume only measurements for all of their recipes. This is unacceptable. It's one thing to find "American" style measurements in a casual chocolate chip cookie book, but for a large expensive baking book supposedly written by professionals, it behooves them to include mass measurements for serious home bakers.

But the real reason I disliked this book was that the recipes I tried simply did not work as advertised. The challah recipe was not a standard recipe; it seemed extremely large for a single loaf, the mixing technique was not like what I had encountered in amateur and professional books before, but I perservered and followed the directions fastidiously. The loaf was edible, but otherwise a failure. The fact that there is no explanation for this, and no anticipation of the problems I encountered is unacceptable. I have made dozens of challah recipes and I never had a problem before. Usually, when something goes wrong, I blame myself. I can tell when I have made a mistake and I take responsibility for my failures. This was one of those times where I blamed the recipe. This was just an odd ball recipe.

Similarly, the mudslide cookies did not work as the recipe stated they would. How hard is it to make a simple cookie recipe function properly? In the end, I managed to salvage these cookies through ingenuity and improvisation, but that's no excuse; careful faithfulness to the recipe should yield perfect results. Again, no explanation or attempt to anticipate such problems.

That was the last time I wasted my time with this book. Do yourself a favor and instead of buying this expensive paper weight, get yourself one of Pierre Herme's books, or Bo Friberg's Professional Pastry chef.

The how-to information provided is really basic and assumes the reader is new to baking. Nothing here for the intermediate or advanced baker wanting to learn something or to be challenged, just a collection of recipes. Unfortunate for the beginner, there are errors in the recipes that the beginner wouldn't recognize. For example, the Banana Nut Bread on p. 82 should say 1-1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda. (Instead it lists 1/2 tsp baking powder.) Silly me, I second guessed my instinct and followed the recipe as written. I really should have searched the 'net for errata BEFORE I made the banana bread. Another criticism of the book is, as others have noted, the use of volume measurements rather than weights. ("Three medium bananas" isn't quite specific enough for my liking.) There really are other, better books to teach baking skills. I'd recommend instead Labensky's On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals, or for a more in depth approach, Figoni's How Baking Works.

I have been baking for few years now and even though my cakes turn really well, I was not aware of all those small tips that make baking more convenient and efficient. Tempering eggs, making custard( finally with pictures!!) or even kneading yeast dough to make it strong and elastic - all you can find it here.

I too have had a little difficulty with some of the recipes, but nothing major. My bread was done about 10 minutes before the baking time given, but was able to rescue it since I was watching. I love how thorough the introductions and what not are. I had no idea about the development of gluten and how essential it is to a good bread. I'm still working my way through this book but would recommend it to anyone who enjoys baking.

When I first started to learn how to bake, this book proved to be invaluable. It covers a lot of the techniques and basic recipes. I really appreciate the variety of different baked goods to provide the home baker with an arsenal of crowd pleasers.

I do have to offer a warning, though. No book can truly substitute a hands on learning course. As much as book can describe what the right stage is for mixing dough for choux for cream puffs, it does not compare to someone who is experienced standing beside you and telling you what you are doing wrong. I maximized the use out of this book because I enrolled in a fundamental baking class. It also helped me to hone many of the recipes.

The success of the recipes partly lies in the quality of ingredients the baker selects. I recommend that if you don't go cheap, then most of the recipes should turn out fine. Another challenge that I discovered in baking is that my oven sucks - and this plays a large large role in the success of some of the recipes. I had to adapt many of them to accommodate the deficiencies of my oven.

Addressing some of the criticisms of the volume vs weight, there is a reason for this, though not great. The original series of books by CIA, such as The Professional Chef, deal with training exactly that, professional chefs. Therefore the recipes are for 10 or more servings and all are given in weight. This book is more like an excerpt and development from their other book. The problem is that this approach is not "friendly" to many home cooks/bakers as they are accustomed to dealing in volume (or mired in tradition). I figure it was a bit of a compromise in order to sell more books that were appealing to general public. This makes some sense in that measuring cups are cheaper than scales that can weigh out several pounds, and I don't have to have a separate bowl for each thing I weigh. Can you imagine the frustration in a recipe written for 9 cakes requiring 9 pounds and 3 oz of flour, then trying to convert this to proportions for 1 cake? Not only would I need a digital scale, but also a calculator!

I never write anything for reviews but after reading a negative one I felt compelled. I found this at the library and started baking things out it, apple pie, citrus shortbread, gingerbread cookies, royal icing, etc, etc,...and everything that I made has been amazing! I would give away cookies to people at work and I swear that every time I used a recipe out of this book someone would say it was about the best pie, cookie, whatever that they'd ever had. So yes, get this book, use it, enjoy.

My dream is to one day own a small bakery in my community. I have read several books on the business, and on baking itself.
Every recipe in this book is enough to start you off on the types of products a good bakery should have. I have made about 6 of the recipes and they turned out very well. As intimidating as they might look I encourage anyone who reads this book to try them; just take your time and use the correct measurements. If you're interested in seriuos baking let this be the first book you buy. Great photos and each step is explained in very easy to understand terms. Truely on of the best books on the art of baking.

My main qualm with this book is the same as another reviewer's. I find it unacceptable that there are only volume measurements in this text. These days digital kitchen scales are very easy to come by. Weighing ingredients like flour instead of shoveling them into a measuring cup is yields far more consistent and reliable results. There is no reason why the home cook cannot at least be given the option of measuring the ingredients by weight instead of volume.

This book is fine as a collection of recipes (although a few could have benefited from further testing), but if you are interested in really learning baking techniques, there are better books out there (Jeffrey Hammelman's new book on bread, Pie and Pastry Bible....).

After reading some of the reviews about errors in some recipes, I decided against buying this book. Since I recently returned to college for Baking and Pastry Arts, I found this book in the school library and immediately checked it out. I was on the lookout for a new butter cake recipe and found a high-ratio butter cake recipe in this book and I could not wait to try it out. The batter look excellent and I was anticipating a moist, rich, buttery cake but this cake was extremely dry. Even with a lemon curd filling between the layers, I still could not save this cake. The overall book is great and filled with tons of information but if the recipes aren't great, then I can't see myself purchasing this book.

This is a great book for anyone who is just beginning to learn about baking. It covers the fundamentals for one to understand about cakes, cookies, pastries, chocolates, frostings, pies, breads, etc. It will give anyone a good baking foundation to begin with, so that as one progresses in their culinary adventures they will have the confidence to explore more advanced baking books.