The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "DESSERTS ARE MY LIFE-MAKING THEM, EATING THEM, AND teaching others how to prepare them perfectly..." (more)
Key Phrases: Master Ganache, Creamy Caramel Sauce, Blackberry-Merlot Sauce (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With an air of authority and an enthusiastic tone, Yard sets out to prove that pastry making need not be a complicated affair. Yard, the executive pastry chef at Spago Beverly Hills, has an easy didactic style that comes across in her spunky text and straightforward recipes. She divides her book into 12 master recipe chapters (such as Ganache, Vanilla Sauce and Brioche) instead of sticking to the conventional sections on cookies, cakes and tarts. This refreshing approach brings to light the relationships between certain recipes-how, for example, the chocolate and cream in the Master Ganache can be transformed into Campton Place Hot Chocolate, with minor adjustments in ingredient quantities and cooking methods. Yard also is generous with variations, offering a handful of optional approaches to most recipes. Her desire is to teach the reader the fundamentals, and then apply them to more complicated (but often very doable) dishes. Headnotes are peppered with encouragements like "Remember, whisking by hand burns calories." Sometimes, the text can become cumbersome with scientific explanations, such as the pH scale discussion in the Curds chapter. But as Yard explains in her introduction, "I show you how the ingredients interact with one another, so you'll know the reasons behind the steps you're following." A wide range of recipes makes the book accessible to all levels, allowing novices to become comfortable with pastry basics and professionals to combine multiple recipes to create more complicated impressive confections.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The tone of Sherry Yard's book makes her feel like a new best friend who just happens to be the pastry chef at the most famous restaurant in tinsletown.....she takes the well-codified genre of desserts and sets it down in a new way, using recipes and techniques as building blocks....I'm not a pastry chef, but I find this volume almost empowering" -- Gourmet -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618138927
• ISBN-13: 978-0618138920
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,387 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

187 of 192 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on Baking I Have Seen. Highly Recommended, April 27, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Sherry Yard, pastry chef at Spago Beverly Hills, has written the very best book for the amateur baker. If you bake, I advise you to stop reading this review and order this book from Amazon. Do it now ....

If you are still here, I'll tell you why I believe this book is so good.

First, there is the simple, illuminating organization which breaks major baking products down into twelve master recipes and explains all the things which distinguish each category from others and explains the factors which make these preparations work and which actions can lead to unsatisfactory results. There are so many good books on baking that promise this kind of systematic treatment but don't deliver. I was disappointed, for example, in reading Nick Malgieri's book, `How to Bake' when I saw that it was not much more than an organized collection of good recipes. Another recently reviewed book did an excellent job of presenting `modular' recipes where various preparations could be mixed and matched, yet they failed to advance our understanding of baking technique by proper grouping of, for example, cheesecake with custards rather than with cakes.

The twelve topics in this book are Ganache, Caramel, Curd, Vanilla Sauce, Pate a Choux, Pound Cake and Genoise, Financier, Cookies, Pie and Tart Dough, Brioche, Laminated Dough, and Fruit.

Second, the grouping of recipes makes learning several recipes within a group much easier than if each were tackled independently. The discussion of each preparation begins with a `family tree' which shows the relation between different recipes which fall within that method and the variation to the method which produces the branches to the tree. The first general method, ganache, has three variations. The medium consistency recipes give us soufflé, fondue, truffles, and sabayon. The firm (more chocolate) consistency gives us tortes, frosting, and candy bars. The soft (more cream) consistency gives us whipped cream, hot chocolate, sauce, and mousse. This presentation reveals connections between old favorites and new possibilities. I am particularly fond of making and eating carrot cake, and I have been quite happy with my recipe from Nick Malgieri. But, I was delighted to find that carrot cake is just one species of a baking genus called `financier'. If I were a professional pastry chef and I did not know about the virtues of financier, I may be willing to sign over my next year's salary to Ms. Yard for revealing the secrets of this batter. It seems that financier batter can accept all sorts of leftovers when it is mixed. It can then be stored in the refrigerator for many days, to be pulled out in an emergency to be baked up into a delightfully moist cake. The fact about the recipe that creates this moistness is it's using unwhipped egg whites that have more moisture and relatively more stabilizing protein than either whole eggs or whipped whites.

Third, the book explains virtually everything important about the science of baking. It has quite effectively done for baking what Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher have done for savory cooking in providing a roadmap to baking technique. This is not mere handwaving. Most culinary authors make reference to acidic (vinegar, citrus, buttermilk, cream of tartar) versus basic (baking soda) ingredients. Some advanced writers may refer to the fact that untreated chocolate is acidic and this needs to be balanced by baking soda in recipes. Ms. Yard gives us the whole 14 yards, covering the entire pH scale from battery acid (1) to Drano (14) and how all of this is relevant to baking. One most interesting fact is the relative acidity of lemon juice to orange juice. The two practical advantages of this presentation is that it gives you the means for rescuing recipes from problems and it gives you a safe path to developing your own baking recipes.

Fourth, the book explains the reasons behind small differences in technique. I have read a dozen recipes for the pair of doughs, pate brisee and pate sucree and perfectly good explanations for what the two different doughs are best used. No one, up until now, has given me a really good explanation for the difference in technique based on the fact that the sugar in the pate sucree is replacing part of the LIQUID ingredients in pate brisee. My hero Alton has often explained that sugar is treated as a liquid ingredient, but he has never explained in such depth what it is that makes both sugar and butter act like liquid ingredients and not like solid ingredients.

After you contemplate dealing with all these details, you may fear that Ms. Yard's recipes will be more complicated than others. The opposite is true. After a dozen recipes for pate brisee have advised me to add water to flour and butter as if I were working with explosives, I am surprised to see Ms. Yard splash all the water into the blender in one fell swoop and pulse away with abandon. On the other side of the coin, her discussion of pate brisee versus pate sucree points out that the resting time in the fridge must be longer for the sugar dough than for the dough without sugar, due to the hygroscopic nature of sugar. Ms. Yard's recipes are no more complicated than any others and, by providing an understanding of what is going on, they can be done with more confidence in the success of the outcome.

The final chapter gives the reader recipes for combining preparations like puff pastry combined with vanilla sauce to give Mille-Feuille Napoleon for example. The book ends with superior appendices on baking terms, tools, and ingredients.

The book does not deal with every baking subject in detail. Only an excellent chapter on brioche represents bread baking. But, there are several excellent books on bread. Ms. Yard would be sure to recommend the book by Nancy Silverton.

If you bake, buy this book. You will not be sorry!

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget Culinary School - buy this book and save the tuition!, February 19, 2003

By A Customer

Sherry Yard, 2002 James Beard winner for Best Pastry Chef and Executive Pastry Chef for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide has absolutely scored an A+ with this book. Forget everything you know about cookbooks - chapter after chapter organized by type of dessert or flavor with little instruction or explanation of the science involved and the inspiration behind the dish - this book is a revolution. She has organized the book in chapters based on the basics that every pastry chef needs in their repetoire. She teaches you those basics (master recipes as she calls them) and then lets you vary and combine them to make signature desserts of your own. She throws in a few signature desserts of her own just to get you started. Beautifully photographed by Ron Manville (James Beard and IACP Winning photographer) and expertly explained in terms that normal folk will not only understand but absorb. Her generous personality and infectious charm are evident throughout. The recipies are simply explained and all totally do-able. She is cheeky, irreverant, fun and entirely dedicated to her craft. I can't wait for another book from this author!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars She kept the secrets to herself... thoughts from a Culinary School Grad/ Professional, January 7, 2009

By	Alicia Johnston "Lish786" (Bloomington, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I used this book before I attended culinary school in New York, studying pastry arts. This book pulls a trick common to celebrity chefs- intentionally not revealing the complete/accurate recipe (insecurity? job preservation?). During school, after learning techniques that are not explained adequately (or at all), I was able to achieve better results on those recipes lacking technical instructions. Others (lemon pudding cakes) I remade over 6 times to ensure it was not my fault, since I really wanted to make that recipe. The end result was always a flop.

I understand that most home cooks don't use mass metrics (grams) to measure ingredients like Europeans do (which is much more reliable and convenient), but since these are "pro" style dessert platings, she could have included the mass metrics. I do think the flavor combinations are appealing and the designs are attractive, so, since I couldn't sell this book on Amazon after waiting 3 months or so, I kept it. I can look at other trustworthy recipe books (e.g. Rose Levy's The Pastry Bible) to prepare the components to be used in one of Chef Yard's completed desserts. Hopefully the second book will be more helpful in technique, utility, and accuracy.

Truth be told, I have a massive cookbook collection and this is the only one I have ever tried to get rid of.