Professional Baking [Hardcover]

Wayne Gisslen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471783498 | ISBN-13: 978-0471783497 | Publication Date: March 3, 2008 | Edition: 5th Edition, Trade Version

This new edition gives professional and home bakers peerless up-to-date coverage of the theory and practice of baking. Keeping pace with current trends in the field, this edition includes a new chapter on baking for special diets, expanded and detailed information on ingredients and their use in baking, and new sections on sugar confections, as well as 100 new photographs. Complete with more than 775 classic and creative recipes to explore, Professional Baking offers an excellent foundation for mastering the art and craft of baking.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In baking, professionals distinguish themselves by achieving consistently great results. Getting these results takes more than just following recipes. It takes really knowing your ingredients, how to best combine them, and how they perform in the heat of the oven. It also takes understanding such areas as bakeshop equipment and mathematics. So if you're serious about baking, you need a broad, deep knowledge of the craft.

Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking is unmatched in covering the art, science, and skills of baking practice. It has served for many years as the cornerstone guide for baking and pastry professionals, serious home bakers, and culinary students, giving them the know-how and methods to take their technique to the next level. Now in its Fifth Edition, this peerless resource gives you a complete guide to sustained excellence in your baking.

The book gives clear, detailed information on selecting the proper ingredients, mixing and baking techniques, makeup and assembly, presentation, and more. Reflecting current trends, this revised and updated edition includes new material on baking for special diets including low-fat, low-sugar, gluten-free, and dairy-free diets. There's also expanded coverage of professionalism, baking science, and ingredients. More than 775 color photographsillustrate ingredients and step-by-steptechniques as well as dozens of finished dishes.

Inside you'll find an encyclopedic array of close to 900 classic and creative recipes to explore, ranging from basic cr?pes and puff pastry to intriguing variations on the familiar, such as Sachertorte and Peach Napoleon.

Filled with the best practices and techniques that have been used to educate a generation of bakers, and presented in an easy-to-navigate layout, Professional Baking, Fifth Edition is the key to creating consistently high-quality baked goods with the artistry of a true professional.

From the Back Cover

"Classic."—Food & Wine Magazine

The timeless professional baking reference—revised and updated

Covering everything from cakes, pies, pastries, and cookies to artisan breads, fritters, and custards, Professional Baking, Fifth Edition is your essential guide to baking and pastry today. A mainstay on the shelves of serious bakers everywhere, this tested reference showcases the talents of IACP award-winning author Wayne Gisslen in one comprehensive volume.

New features in this Fifth Edition include material on special diets and advanced techniques like pastry, chocolate, and sugar work. Nearly 900 recipes range from the classic to the creative, with more than 775 color photographs illustrating ingredients, step-by-step techniques, and finished dishes. A clear style, engaging presentation, and high level of detail provide you with a full understanding of how to create truly masterful baked goods.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 5th Edition, Trade Version edition (March 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471783498
• ISBN-13: 978-0471783497
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Professional
  • #26 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Baking Book Out There, April 26, 2009

By 

Mark D Burgh "Music, Writing, Art, Film, Hist... (Fort Smith, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Baking (Hardcover)

The new edition of Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking is a make-over, and a good one. Obviously pointed towards the advanced amateur more than previous editions, Gisslen's book gives step-by-step instructions that never fail to produce good product. In older editions, the formulae were professionally scaled, making small batches difficult to produce but not impossible. The new edition starts with small batches, and then provides the large batches in the back. I have to say this new edition is an improvement, with big bright pictures, interesting and complex formulae, and down-to-earth instructions most people can handle. If you buy only one baking book, I think this should be the one.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The textbook for Le Cordon Bleu-USA pastry chef program..., June 28, 2010

By 

PastryChefSuzy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional Baking (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. Many of the recipes are from original the Le Cordon Bleu (Paris)archives. I'm a grad of the Le Cordon Bleu-USA Baking and Pastry program, and this was our primary textbook.

A caveat for the home chef: This book is formatted for the professional pastry chef in that the majority of the recipes give the quantities for the ingredients in METRIC weight, as well as in "baker's percentages" - rather than by quantity (as in: cups/teaspoons/tablespoon/ozs.) - so you'll want to have a kitchen scale handy to make good use of this book, especially if you plan to use it at home.

Also: Le Cordon Bleu's version of "baker's percentages" differs from the version used in some of the Culinary Institute of America (a.k.a)the "C.I.A.")textbooks, AND the C.I.A. textbook also gives their weights U.S. "lbs./ozs.", rather than in metric. This was a surprise to me as well, and so I've learned to double-check...

(SHEESH!: Am I the only one old enough to remember back when the U.S. was supposed switch to metric like the whole rest of the world - or is it just me? ;-)

- The good news is that small kitchen scales are now easily available inexpensively online, in restaurant supply stores, and in some retail kitchenware stores. *Make sure you get one that can be set to metric weight (grams) and not only in lbs./ozs., or it'll make it much more difficult to use this excellent book, especially at home.

BTW: The other great thing about this book is that once you learn the basic principles, as well as the basic master recipes in this book, you can bake like a pro, and you too can have the pleasure of laughing your *whatever* off when "Iron"/"Top"/"Pro"/"Impossible", etc. "savory" chefs on TV cooking shows and contests freak out or cry like babies at the prospect of having to bake a cake or make a simple dessert like a pastry chef - or even like your grandma...

So hey you "pro" TV chef-type guys BobbyMikeyAnthony, and that other guy who didn't cook for the Queen of England after all: How about some props and respect to us pastry chefs - AND to your grandma!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Measurements in grams are incorrect, May 23, 2011

By 

longtimeMacuser - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional Baking (Hardcover)

Required book for my culinary baking & pastry arts program. Unfortunately many of the metric measurements (grams) are incorrect! Since we weigh out most ingredients it caused a huge problem for our class. I would not recommend this book.