Customer Reviews

Baking: From My Home to Yours

5 star:		(102)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Now here's a baker after my own heart - Dorie Greenspan writes, "Some woman collect diamonds, I collect mixing bowls." After achieving a Doctorate in Gerontology some thirty years ago, Greenspan decided that she really wanted to bake - and bake, and bake, and bake - and bake she did - and still does, almost every day.

This is a marvelous book (I give it 4.5 stars) - cogently written with great style and clarity. Greenspan walks you through each step as if she were standing with you in the kitchen - and there's not a hint of pretense. So many cookbooks - pastry volumes in particular - have an almost punitive tone: "NEVER do this"; "ALWAYS do that". While the chemistry of baking must be respected, I have never seen the benefits of terrifying the reader or quashing one's creativity. You'll find none of that in this tome (save for the admonishments regarding the purity of butter). Greenspan is friendly, approachable, and forgiving. Her own fearlessness, mistakes, and inventiveness have inevitably led to better results. No knuckle-rapping here! You'll feel as if you're baking with an old friend. If you're a fan of the great Maida Heatter, you'll appreciate Dorie Greenspan.

The recipes are more comfort desserts than elegant showstoppers (although the "Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, based on the famous "Paris-Brest" pastry certainly has the glam factor) - but any of them would be welcome at almost any gathering - from a family picnic to a black-tie celebration. The text fonts are readable, the layout friendly and navigable, and the photographs gorgeous (although some are titled and others are not). The permanent hard cover is identical to the dust cover and can be wiped clean. Many of the recipes contain a handy sidebar entitled "Playing Around", giving alternative presentations and flavor variations, and serving and storing instructions are always included. The page on "Mastering Meringue" will help assure success every time. A "Glossary of Ingredients, Tools, and Techniques" appears at the end of the book that even seasoned bakers will find helpful.

There are a few inconsistencies. The "Table of Contents" is too broad (although the "Index" is easy on the eyes). A book on home baking ought to include at least some basic yeast bread recipes. Outside of "Brioche", "Raisin Bread", "Sticky Buns", and "Kugelhoph", there are none. This is really a "Dessert" book (including recipes for ice cream), not an all-purpose baking book, although there appears to be something for everyone in this collection of more than 300 recipes. No mention is made of the value of Magic-Cake strips, which eliminate the doming problem so often associated with layer cakes. In the instructions for "Lavender Madeleines", Greenspan does not specify whether the tablespoon of edible lavender should be dried or fresh. In her recipe for "Perfect Party Cake", the accompanying Buttercream frosting does not mention the need for the egg whites to reach 160 degrees. Although an explanation is given in the back of the book, redundancy is a plus when food safety is an issue. Overall, this is just nitpicking, however. This is really one nifty book written by a pro who loves to bake - and teach it as well.

With rare exception (edible gold dust, chestnut puree) recipe ingredients are easy-to-find items already in your pantry. Chestnuts and chestnut puree can be had in large metropolitan areas (Whole Foods, Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma, Trader Joe's, King Arthur Catalogue) at holiday time and edible gold dust (an optional component) can be mail-ordered through the Internet. One obvious miss: there's no "List of Sources" for equipment and ingredients - unusual for a volume of this heft and depth. Greenspan refers to "bakers' supply shops" but doesn't list them.

Whether you're a beginner or an old-hand in the kitchen, you'll love this volume of goodies. My own cookbook collection is substantial, but there are many books and authors I reject. This baby is a keeper and would make a wonderful and much appreciated shower, wedding, birthday, or Christmas gift.

One caveat: This is a big, heavy book. The trend these days is to manufacture books that can double as doorstops. Baby boomers who are developing arthritis don't seem to be a consideration with today's publishers. Gloss and semi-gloss enamel papers are heavy, too. Beautiful as they are, these Goliaths ought to be saved for the coffee table. I like to actually use my cookbooks - and lugging them around is getting to be a chore.

There is no other word for this work of art for all the "little" people of the baking world who don't have restaurant-grade kitchens yet want to bake as if they do!!

Dorie Greenspan is my brand new baking buddy!! The way that she speaks to you as you're reading the recipe introduction, you feel as if she's right in the kitchen with you, right next to you, just talking and spending the time showing you a fabulous recipe that will make you feel like a baking diva (or divo)!! I think that it's the secret to her incredible success and since she's written over nine books, you got to figure that she knows what she's doing.

I first learned of Dorie specifically when she worked with Julia Child in making "Baking with Julia"; probably my favorite Julia book. The character of her writing is that of someone who has come to know and love the kitchen as much as yourself. She seems to gravitate to baking and make it as much a love of art as it is a love of creating. No wonder that you feel so comfortable attempting these desserts since Dorie makes them so accessible without feeling the need for intense training or bizarre ingredients.

The book itself is a grand adventure, as is its size; big and sturdy and printed just right with smooth pages holding glossy photographs and temptng treats of what will be; they are large and detailed so you know what to expect.

Her book is broken into:

Introduction

Breakfast Treats

A Cache of Cookies

Cakes of All Kinds (this was by far the BEST chapter; these are awesome with the "Celebration Cakes" called Devils Food White-out, Perfect Party Cake, Big Carrot Cake, Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake, Black and White Chocolate Cake, Tirmisu Cake, Berry Surprise, Chestnut Cake, Amaretti Torte, Chocolate Armagnac Cake, Ice Cream Torte, Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, Coconut Roasated Pineapple Dacquoise, etc)

Pies and Tarts

Spoon Desserts

Indispensables (basic recipes)

A Dessert Makers Glossary of Ingredients, Tools, and Techniques


I would love to print every recipe in this book but the index alone is over 17 pages of luscious and decadent desserts!! So for an example, I give you "The Perfect Party Cake" on page 250. Holy cow!! Wow!! More adjectives please!! It turned out EXACTLY as she promised and when you are first hit with the visual impact of this cake, you realize how important the right photography style is to any cookbook author. To feel that something that gorgeous can come from your kitchen and to actually be able to make it, does wonders for your zeal for baking. Every luscious layer of fluffy white cake that is followed by a delicate, thin layer of raspberry filling followed by fluffy frosting, you see it begin to take shape and height. You wonder if it really will be as good as it looks. But as you get to the end of the layers and you put on that last layer of frosting, then cover it in snow-flaked fresh coconut, you realize that you are one awesome baker and Dorie will be your new best baking buddy too!! It was a hit for its beauty and taste because when you cut into that first piece and see it in its red and white party glory.....wow!!

Yes, I know............it's just a recipe but is Michelangelo's "David" just a piece of clay to art lovers? Baking makes you want to please the eyes as well as the palate and if you want to do it right, you want to learn from those who are the masters. Dorie is just that, but without all the pretensions and fanfare. She just loves to bake and this book is the epitome of her passion.

Dorie, Julia will always be the Queen Mother of the kitchen, but your pedestal is right by hers!! Thanks!!

`Baking From my home to yours' by leading professional baking writer, Dorie Greenspan, fits very comfortably into that niche defined by one of her earliest, and most successful, books, `Baking With Julia'. Another major recent book in this category is `A Baker's Tour' by noted baking author and teacher, Nick Malgieri. In fact, Greenspan cites Malgieri, and collaborator Pierre Herme, as her primary inspirations and sources when she has a difficult question on baking.

This sub-genre is very personal in that it reflects the recipes that happen to have meant a lot to the authors over the years. It also covers a broad range of recipes, hitting virtually every major type of baking, including pastry (pies, tarts, shells), cookies (drop, roll, sheet), cakes, yeast breads, and quick breads (muffins, biscuits, scones, fruit and vegetable breads) and cooked sweets (puddings, flans, custards). In spite of this wide coverage, there is no concerted effort to touch every little corner of baking lore or professional genre. This sets it apart from `Baking With Julia' which made a point of bringing in experts in literally every baking discipline, including some of the more esoteric topics such as artisinal (natural yeast) bread baking and wedding cakes. It also sets it apart from the excellent books done by both baking teachers (Malgieri, Flo Braker, Rose Levy Beranbaum) and leading restaurant pastry chefs (`The Sweet Life' by Chanterelle pastry chef, Kate Zuckerman and `The Secrets of Baking' by Spago pastry chef, Sherry Yard) which delve deep into the whys and wherefores of baking techniques.

One sure sign that this book has no intention of being `politically correct' with its organization is the fact that cheesecake (100% American cream cheese recipes here, thank you) recipes are grouped with cakes, rather than with custard pies. And, since this is how most people think about cheesecake, this is just fine in a book aiming at the experienced home baker who doesn't have the `baking nerd' gene inhabiting people such as Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher.

This is also not an elementary cooking manual. For that, we now have the superb `Martha Stewart's Baking Manual', a true amateur's introduction to all the basic equipment and techniques. That doesn't mean you need to be an experienced amateur to work with this book, but it helps. Like `Baking With Julia' before it, all of Miss Dorie's recipes are painstakingly thorough and well written, so you really don't need the sidebars on basic techniques which Greenspan does provide. Unlike other books such as Maida Heatter's (quick genuflection here) big books on cakes, this is not an encyclopedic collection. There is no flourless Hungarian nut cake; no crepes, pancakes, or waffles; no Tarte Tatin; and no gingerbread cookies or houses. On the other hand, there are plenty of major standards such as buttermilk biscuits, blueberry muffins, cheesecakes, scones, banana bread, chocolate cake, apple pie, and lemon meringue pie.

Looking at two of the most basic recipes in the book, buttermilk biscuits and pastry dough (pate frisee), I find Ms. Greenspan is a bit different from my usual recipes, but entirely on the side of the angels in her insisting on butter and cold, cold, cold technique. She even calls for more butter than I'm used to in my Susan Purdy standard. And, like Martha Stewart's authors, she does not add in a lot of extras such as egg, vinegar, or baking soda into the pastry dough. While I use the extras, I really like the emphasis on simple ingredients and skillful technique.

If this book were nothing but a collection of superior recipes, it would be worth the somewhat higher than average list price of $40, but Madame Greenspan brings a charm to her writing that is strongly reminiscent of her distinguished colleague of years gone by, Julia Child.

The superior writing may be enough added value, but Miss Dorie also adds really useful tips to each recipe, which I immediately put to use in a task I have in hand now. I need to bake some things for a post-Sunday service Fellowship at my church, and I was planning to make muffins, but muse Dorie accurately points out that practically all muffin (and biscuit and scone) baked goods are best when eaten the day they are baked! On the other hand, sweetbreads made with virtually the same ingredients as muffins are much more robust, until they are sliced. The perfect example of this is a comparison of buttermilk biscuits and Irish soda bread. Biscuits mutate into hockey pucks around 8 hours out of the oven, while uncut soda bread, especially if it includes raisins or other moist fruit, will comfortably hold its interest for a day or more. Slightly less useful, but not common in other books is Miss Dorie's serving suggestions, which make each entry a perfect starting point from which to build an afternoon tea or dessert menu. There is also a sidebar on many of the recipes labeled `Playing Around' that identifies methods for tweaking the recipes, to make them a bit different the next time you bake them. Some of these variations may show little difference in the end product, such as the difference between biscuits based on baking powder and biscuits based on buttermilk and baking soda. But, if you happen to be a buttermilk and baking soda traditionalist, its good to know some options (as when your megamart is out of buttermilk).

If you are an inveterate cookbook collector, this one is a keeper, good for both baking and reading. If you are just starting out, this is probably even better than `Baking With Julia' as a collection of really useful recipes.

Highly recommended for its excellent recipes of standards.

This book is fantastic! Not only are the recipes great, but she provides so much detail on how to get it "just right" that you can't possibly fail! I love all her tips about how to make your pie crust better (think really, really cold ingredients), pound cakes lighters, and just so many other wonderful tips. And it is really meant for the person that just loves to bake great desserts -- no pretense, no recipes for show, just great, great desserts like heavenly brownies, great cakes, and fabulous pies. For the home baker this is heaven. Forget Martha and the others, I'm sold on Dorie!

I picked up this book a few weeks ago, because "Baking with Julia" is an absolute favorite cookbook of mine. The book is chatty and enjoyable to read through, but the proof is always if the recipes WORK.

I made two recipes from it for the first time for Thanksgiving.

The pecan pie is hands down the BEST pecan pie I have ever had, let alone made. What caught my attention is the description in that the pie is not as sweet as most pecan pies - which is a plus for me, since that's the one thing I dislike about pecan pies - the propensity to be super sweet. The undertones of espresso are fabulous. Next time I make it, I would probably omit the bittersweet chocolate just to get more of a "pure" pecan pie taste, but the espresso definately stays.

I also made the chocolate armagnac cake, but substituted Scotch and raisins for the armagnac and prunes (just because that's what I had on hand). Again, fabulous. Most nearly-flourless cakes fall in my experience - this did not. It was fudgy and dense - and you definately get more than the 8 servings out of it. A small sliver of a rich dessert is more appealing to me than a large serving, so this fit the bill. I will be trying this recipe with some of my other favorite paired-with-chocolate liquors, like Cointreau, Chambord, Kahlua, Amaretto...

I should note that I almost always make recipes to spec the first time, and after that I start playing with flavors - changing up liquors, nuts, extracts, spices, etc. The two recipes I tried would be very workable to make changes it seems without unbalancing the chemistry of the recipes.

With the upcoming holiday season, I do a lot of baking - this book will be getting a workout!

It's a beautiful book, with a lot of great, interesting recipes, but my main beef is with her baking temperatures--for a lot of the smaller cake/muffin recipes, she advises baking at 400 degrees, which is a lot higher than the usual recommended baking temperature of 350. I gave her the benefit of the doubt (I figured, maybe her technique is better?), and I ended up with grotesquely overbaked things. And it wasn't because there was anything wrong with my oven's internal temperature.

So proceed with caution...if you find a recipe here that you'd like to try, it's worth investigating similar recipes from other sources to see if the baking times and temperatures are similar.

But with a book like this you really shouldn't have to take this sort of precaution.

It's difficult to add to the comments that have already been made about this book, so I'll be pithy.

1. The World Peace Cookies alone are magnificent. I've now won 2 baking contests with them (giving her full credit of course), and I cannot think of a better cookie in the world.

2. Everything I've tried has come out perfectly (the poundcake puts Sara Lee to shame.... and I love Sara Lee).

3. There is a dessert for virtually every taste style and season. From my 4 year old to my 76 year old mom, no one is disappointed. It's the first place I look for something new to try.

4. The recipes range from traditional to . .. . Whoa! What a wonderful compendium, whether you want to have a simple (but perfect) chocolate chip cookie, or something a little more daring (like a prune dessert).

I just got this book and will have to buy another. Because the first one will be filled with butter stains and
chocolate drippings and flour spots - this is a book to bake from, not just to read. Although Dorie makes the
reading part almost as good as the baking part. And nobody writes a recipe like this woman. She takes you by the hand and guides you through the recipe, making it impossible to screw up. Even for a baking klutz like myself. Trying to decide which recipe to try first is a challenge, but I highly recommend the World Peace Cookies. If they could be served right now to all the world leaders visiting the U.N. our chances for world peace would soar. Bake them and you'll see what I mean.

...and enjoying everything I've made! The book is large, with many beautiful photographs, so I use my plastic cookbook holder to keep the book pristine, and hold the pages open.
The recipes I've tried have all turned out perfectly. The Classic Brownies are great -- make a double batch! The Allspice Crumb Muffins are gently spiced and light, not leaden like so many muffins. The Chocolate Chip Cookies are a variation on the usual recipe; for example Dorie uses light brown sugar instead of dark. The result was a bit lighter and less pancake-shaped. The Devil's Food White Out Cake (pictured on the cover) was incredible! I didn't have time to make the marshmallow frosting as advised, so just made a quick buttercream. The cake was a hit.
My only quibble is with the recipe for Chocolate Pots de Creme. Dorie advised that these be baked in a roasting pan in a water bath, encased in plastic wrap! She claimed this wouldn't melt in a slow oven, but I found that wasn't true. After some hesitation I followed instructions, using my name brand plastic wrap. When I checked the oven after 15 minutes the plastic wrap had melted and stretched into a spiderweb of filaments. I took the entire pan out of the oven, picked away the melted plastic, and recovered the pan with aluminum foil, as I'd initially been tempted to do. The Pots de Creme came out great, absolutely delicious in spite of the interrupted baking.
I'm looking forward to more baking with this great book, but I'll trust my instincts in the future re: plastic in the oven!

I own five books on baking and this one is the best. The recipes are masterly formulated and beyond delicious. I have never experienced a book that is so accurate with oven time--when it states thirty minutes, believe it! Even "ordinary" dishes like biscuits or coffee cake become epicurean delights with her tweaking. I became a much, much better baker because of the tips included in the recipes (flavoring sugar by pinching it with zest, using White Lily flour for my biscuits, dusting berries with flour before adding them to the batter, etc.). Trust me, even if you already have great recipes, use her tips and watch them soar to new levels.

The recipes I have tried included ingredients already in my kitchen. I've yet to run to a specialty market for an exotic ingredient. It's her measurements and the way she incorporates the ingredients that make her recipes outstanding. I urge you to follow them exactly before altering them for your own taste.