Home Baked Comfort (Williams-Sonoma): Featuring Mouthwatering Recipes and Tales of the Sweet Life with Favorites from Bakers Across the Country [Hardcover]

Kim Laidlaw (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 2012

This delicious new baking book from Williams-Sonoma has over 100 decadent, down-home, comfort food recipes, highlighting America’s most revered bakeries and bloggers with recipes from each. Stunning photography and a gorgeous design bring it all to life. In addition to the crave-worthy recipes, author Kim Laidlaw shares tips on becoming a better baker, offers insight on choosing the best kitchen tools, and reveals all you need to know about ingredients––ultimately showing how fun and easy baking can be.

Discover just how fun it is to transform the simplest ingredients—flour, sugar, eggs, butter—into irresistible baked goods. With over 100 recipes, starring family favorites and mouthwatering creations from seasoned bakers and popular bloggers, this enticing book will become your go-to source for luscious treats. You'll find recipes for gooey s’mores, brownies, and cherry "toaster tarts" that will take you back to childhood; modern twists on classic comforts such as flaky rhubarb turnovers and heirloom tomato and goat cheese tart; and classic favorites like maple pumpkin pie and chocolate crinkle cookies. So turn on your oven, pull out your mixing bowl, and spread the joy of baking!

Features more than 100 recipes, including caramel whoopie pies, sour cherry “toaster” tarts, deep dark chocolate cupcakes stuffed with marshmallow cream and glazed with ganache, gooey s’mores brownies, brown butter pound cake with fresh fig compote, flaky rhubarb turnovers, crème brulee with caramelized blood oranges, maple pumpkin pie, brown-sugar banana bread, and chocolate crinkle cookies.

Featured bakeries:

Baked (Brooklyn, NY)

Floriole Café & Bakery (Chicago, IL)

Flour Bakery + Café (Boston, MA)

Huckleberry Café & Bakery (Santa Monica, CA)

Pearl Bakery (Portland, OR)

Salty Tart Bakery (Minneapolis, MN)

Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop (Austin, TX)

Tartine Bakery (San Francisco, CA)

Featured blogs:

Bakerella

Cannelle Et Vanille

La Tartine Gourmande

Smitten Kitchen

Table of Contents:

Why Bake?

Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Baker (and Enjoying It)

Top Baking Tools I Cannot Live Without

All About Ingredients

Amazing Baking Facts You Might Not Know

Breakfast

Breads

Cookies & Bars

Cakes & Cupcakes

Pies & Tarts

Custards & Soufflés

Basic Recipes

Tips & Tricks

Index

Sample recipes:

Bite-size Bacon and Cheese Scones

Lemon-Blueberry Drizzle Bread

Whoopie Pies with Salted Dulce de Leche

Cherry Potpies

Savory Goat Cheese Soufflés

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kim Laidlaw is a cookbook editor, food writer, and baker who has been in the kitchen covered in flour since she was big enough to stir the biscuit dough. She has worked in the cookbook world for over nine years and was the first blogger on KQED’s popular Bay Area Bites blog, which launched in 2005. Kim previously worked as a professional baker at La Farine French Bakery in Oakland, CA. She lives with her husband in San Francisco, CA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Weldon Owen (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616282002
• ISBN-13: 978-1616282004
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 1 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kim Laidlaw is a cookbook author, editor, food writer, producer, project manager, and baker who has been in the kitchen covered in flour since she was big enough to stir the biscuit dough. She has over 16 years of experience in book and online publishing, and a lifetime of experience in the kitchen.

Her first cookbook, Home Baked Comfort, was published in 2011; her second cookbook, Baby & Toddler On the Go, will be published in April 2013; and she is currently writing her third cookbook, Dessert of the Day, due out in Fall 2013.

She was the first blogger on KQED's popular Bay Area Bites blog (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/), which launched in 2005, and previously worked as a professional baker at La Farine French Bakery in Oakland, CA. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their toddler, whom she cooks for everyday. Find out more at http://www.kimlaidlaw.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Recipes March 6, 2012

By C. Newton

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I found out about this book several months ago while it was an exclusive Williams-Sonoma purchase. A fellow blogger had contributed a recipe to it and when I peeked through the pages I knew I had to have it for my collection. As soon as it was released on Amazon.com, I snatched it up!

I've already tried a few recipes from the book and they've turned out great. They are simple with clear instructions, and a good amount of pictures to recipes. I also like how the book is divided into various recipe categories:

- Breakfast
- Breads
- Cookies & Bars
- Cakes & Cupcakes
- Pies & Tarts
- Custards & Souffles

I also like that this isn't your typical 'desserts-only' cookbook. As you can see from the sections, it covers sweet and savory, baked comfort classics. I've found that the recipes have all been solid across the board - from savory breakfast items, to sweet and decadent desserts.

It's a great item to add to your cookbook library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars home baked comfort book March 29, 2012

By Suzanne Tran

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I baked a few desserts from these book and it tasted wonderful. The instructions is clear with beautiful pictures and alot of yummy recipes. I can't wait to bake from way through the book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceeded my expectations July 16, 2012

By Polina Liberman

Format:Hardcover

I did not expect much from this book to be honest, so it has been a really nice revelation. I've now baked three things from here and they turned out perfectly: red velvet cupcakes, blueberry lemon bread, and cranberry oat muffins (twice!). The muffin recipe is possibly the best one I've ever made or tried with a perfect mix of sweet and tart and a wonderful texture. I planned on taking them to work but my husband said "no way".

The q&a with bakers around the country is a nice touch. A good share of nicely done photos though not for every recipe. And I really appreciate the weight measurements. Overall a wonderful baking cookbook that will be used frequently in my kitchen and one I highly recommend.

UPDATE: This has officially become my go-to everyday baking book. I've baked about half a dozen things from here and every single one has been praise-worthy. The biscotti were the best I have ever tasted and the aroma while they were baking induced some serious drooling. Also thumbs up for the pumpkin cake with pecan streusel. The layout is very user friendly and I love that the recipes include weight measurements. I just can't say enough good things about this book!

2nd UPDATE: I won't downgrade my rating because this is still one of my favorite everyday baking books but wanted to note a few errors. The volume to weight conversion for sugar (and I think brown sugar) is off. Every other baking book I own says 1 cup sugar = 200g. But this book says 1 cup = 250g. None of the recipes I've made produced overly sweet results when using the weight measurement so I'm inclined to think if you use the volume measure, you may want to up the sugar a bit. The second error is in the recipe for the almond lemon cake from Tartine. It says the recipe produces two 9x5 inch loafs. I also own the Tartine cookbook and it has the same recipe which says it produces one 9x5 inch loaf. I made the cake and it definitely did not produce enough batter for two loaves. It was a really good cake though - the crunchy lemon sugar topping added a great dimension.