Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The strength of this book is the breads section. The pizza recipes are great, and the scones and yeast breads are delectable. But I don't feel that I can always count on Mr. Malgieri's selection of recipes, and I find Maida Heatter, for example, to be much more reliable and careful in both her choice of recipes and in her instructions.

The Chocolate Chip Cookies are, hands-down, the worst I've ever made: I was skeptical when I noticed that his recipe didn't include vanilla or even a pinch of salt. The resulting cookies were lackluster --not good enough to serve to company. The Coconut Layer Cake yielded too little batter for the 9" layer cake pans that were called for, leaving me with two VERY thin layers, and the directions for the accompanying coconut buttercream frosting weren't helpful enough.

Although the Apricot Crumb Cake was outstanding, a Hazelnut Gugelhupf was just okay, the Banana Cake was ho-hum,and the Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake was dry and dull. The cheesecake recipes are very good, though.

Also, I feel that the title "How to Bake" is misleading. This is a big collection of recipes, and there are tips for success included with each, but I haven't found this a manual to learn by.

Nick Malgieri's book `How to Bake' is not perfect, but it is a very, very good survey of baking methods and baking recipes by one of the most widely respected and referenced baking experts in the country. That some reviewers have observed that he is a less than nice man to students and admirers in book signing lines is irrelevant. I have baked several recipes from this book and all have produced very successful products. In each case, I have also baked the same product from an alternate recipe and Malgieri's recipe has produced a superior result. To those who have not had any luck with his recipes, I would suggest they try some of the simpler recipes first.

While Malgieri is a widely recognized teacher of baking at some important culinary schools and this book's title may lead you to believe it is a textbook covering all aspects of baking, I believe it does not succeed as a textbook on several counts. The most important is that Malgieri makes several statements, which are scientifically incorrect. One was that glass conducts heat much faster than metal. This is patently false. The odd thing is, he uses this statement to give a false reason for using glass pie plates, which may still be the best choice for other reasons. Another false statement is that yeast is mixed with warm water until it dissolves. Strictly speaking, the proper word should be `incorporated' or `combined'. Microorganisms cannot dissolve in water. Again, while the statement is false, it has no effect on the efficacy of the recipe. I only point these out because Malgieri is an educator and should know better.

There is another sense in which I believe this cannot be a textbook for baking. This is the fact that I believe the coverage of bread baking is rather light. For breads, I would refer you to either Rose Levy Beranbaum's `The Bread Bible' or Peter Reinhart's `The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This doesn't mean you will not find a lot of good stuff here. In fact, I go to this book before any other when I want to bake something (other than bread) to see if Malgieri has a recipe for the product I'm interested in. This book is very similar to the book `Baking With Julia' in that both are surveys of a lot of different baking techniques giving some very commonly baked goods as models for those techniques. This makes these two books my first and second choices when I want to bake.

Therefore, the subtitle on the front of the book, which calls itself a `Complete Guide', is a bit of a stretch. You should still buy this book if you enjoy baking. In fact, the most accurate reflection of the book's value is in Nick's introduction where he quotes a colleague who says `Bake something, You will feel better.' This is an especially good book to help you bake something and feel better.

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.

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.

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!

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."

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.

I descend from a long line of Sicilian cooks. I bought Nick's book to help refine techniques when I opened my Cottage Tea Room last July (after having retired from teaching 46 years) which serves traditional English Cream Teas with an "as my Wimsey takes me" flight into cakes, cookies, pastries, candies and other delights not particularly English. However, I did need a perfect Scone recipe - rich, light and moist. I was joyful to find several recipes in Nick's book. I tried the basic recipe and it delighted me and my clients! Of course, I made several modifications as all of us who love to cook do. Imagine my mischievous delight to be able to tell my clients who were certain I had brought back the recipe from England (where I have studied and which I visit as often as I can) that my scone recipe is based on that of a Sicilian culinary genius. Bravo Nicola! This June I am expanding to a lunch service. You can bet I am purchasing more Malgieri cook books. Maybe I can find a caponata or a gemelle recipe to match my late mother's. And yes, I find all the recipes a joy to follow. I especially like the fact that Nick adapts recipes to be made by food processor, mixer, blender or the old way - by hand and strong arm.

Caterina Musso Lacey The Cottage Tea Room Moriah, N.Y. 12960 mussolacey@mindspring.com

Nick Malgieri, renowned Peter Kump cooking school teacher, has put himself on the line by entitling this cookbook "How to Bake." The good news is: he knows how! The even better news is: he's a master at teaching and coaxing you along gently so that before you know it, you'll be baking better than you ever have in your life.

Although the title makes this sound as though it's perhaps aimed at beginning bakers, it's really for intermediate or advanced bakers--or beginners with a lot of werewithal and confidence. Malgieri doesn't spell every tiny little thing out for you (there's very little of the hand-holding and overly detailed directions that are in most cookbooks nowadays). Where he excels is in making you feel that, you, too could turn out the gorgeous baked goods in the book with a little bit of effort and a minimum of fuss.

Especially fine are the recipes for Raspberry and Almonds Tarts and Chocolate Chestnut Buche de Noel. I also loved the Scottish Shortbread, although I rolled it thinner than he called for AND baked it longer. All in all an excellent guide to baking by an accomplished master baker.

I love the recipes in this book so much that the pages are food splattered. I think Mr. Malgieri is a wonderful baker and teacher, and I wish that he had his own show on the food network. I have made the danish recipe from this book more times then I can remember and it always gets rave reviews. My family loves the cream puffs, cheesecake and just about anything I have made from this book. I will eventually purchase all his books.