The Amish Cook's Baking Book [Hardcover]

Lovina Eicher (Author), Kevin Williams (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 20, 2009

For the Amish, baking is an art form, a pleasure, and a way of life. The emotion they bring to baking is at the heart of The Amish Cook's Baking Book. Together, celebrated Amish cook Lovina Eicher and her editor, Kevin Williams, introduce a new generation to Amish baking.

This baking book is filled with 80 beautiful photographs and over 100 classic Amish recipes for sweets that have been handcrafted in Lovina Eicher's Amish kitchen. The Amish Cook's Baking Book includes the following chapters: Pies; Breads, Rolls, and Pastries; Cookies; Cakes; Bars 'n' Brownies; and Special-Occasion Baking. Home cooks get an extra treat with sidebars from Lovina's children as well as interesting insights into Amish life both inside and outside the kitchen.

"Baking is something my mother taught me, much like sewing and ironing, or gardening. Now, as a mother of eight children of my own, I am beginning to teach them how to bake. I have many cherished memories of baking throughout my life." --Lovina Eicher

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Together with editor Kevin Williams, Elizabeth Coblentz founded "The Amish Cook" newspaper column and later coauthored the column's namesake inaugural cookbook. Today, Lovina Eicher, Elizabeth's daughter, pens the column that continues to share Amish culture, tradition, and recipes with a nationally syndicated audience of more than 130 newspapers throughout the United States. Lovina lives in Michigan with her husband, Joe, and their eight children. Kevin lives in Ohio.

Together with editor Kevin Williams, Elizabeth Coblentz founded "The Amish Cook" newspaper column and later coauthored the column's namesake inaugural cookbook. Today, Lovina Eicher, Elizabeth's daughter, pens the column that continues to share Amish culture, tradition, and recipes with a nationally syndicated audience of more than 130 newspapers throughout the United States. Lovina lives in Michigan with her husband, Joe, and their eight children. Kevin lives in Ohio.

Online:

oasisnewsfeatures.com

twitter.com/theamishcook

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; First Edition edition (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740785478
• ISBN-13: 978-0740785474
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 10.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I use it every week! It's a wonderful way to save money and get great tasting food! June 6, 2011

By LadyAtTheGate

Format:Hardcover

I was given this cookbook from a relative who knew that I loved to go get authentic Amish food whenever I visited her in Indiana. While I cannot make these recipes to the caliber of the wonderful Amish ladies up north this cookbook has been really useful in making some lovely dishes.

First a bit of background about this book: Some people have commented on the little stories that are dispersed throughout this cookbook. The reason for this other than obviously providing interest is that these recipes are mainly just a compilation of stories and recipes written by Lovina that are published in various newspapers in the Midwest. From what I was told her mother originally started the column and after she passed Lovina took over the role of writing the column.

As far as the recipes go I feel like they are pretty fool proof. I read one review that complained that sometimes ranges instead of exact measurements were given. I have actually found this to be useful. For example some of the breads may taste better with more or less flour depending upon the oven you are using. Hence, when Lovina suggests 6-7 cups of flour for a recipe you have to either be intuitive enough about food to know when you've used the right amount or you may just want to make up the recipe using various amounts of flour to find what you like best. Regardless of how you make up the recipe though, I have always found that the resulting food is always quite tasty.

One thing I have found is that a lot of the recipes call for allowing the breads to rise multiple times. I have discovered that my recipes often turn out better if you simply place the bread in the proper pan or tin and then let it rise once in the container before cooking. This allows you to get lighter and fluffier rolls and breads. Also, when testing the bread pay more attention to the hollow sound of the bread when you thump it with a knife than the color. Most of these breads remain a very light color even when fully cooked.

As a whole this cookbook has allowed me to save some money by making my own breads every week and I have gotten tons of compliments on every recipe I have cooked from here. The book has great pictures that give you a goal to work toward as you are cooking and the little stories dispersed throughout provide an interesting look at the Amish community. This isn't necessarily a cookbook for a complete cooking novice...but most novices probably shouldn't be attempting baking anyway since it is more of a challenge than other forms of cooking.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious "Dilly Bread" November 23, 2010

By Stephen Jacob

Format:Hardcover

I baked the Dilly bread tonight and it came out perfect. I was so good. I have never cooked with Dill weed, but I loved it.
Thanks for the cookbook.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice looking but LOTS of errors December 31, 2012

By J. L. Estrada

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a beautifully presented and produced book. And, the cultural history aspects make for very interesting reading. However, there are so many major errors in the recipes, themselves, that they should only be attempted by experienced bakers who will be able to spot them and know how to correct them. For example, the Cherry Coffeecake recipe completely omits any liquid of any kind. An experienced baker will know that a cake recipe that calls for three cups of flour will need about 3/4C of milk or othe acidic liquid to activate the baking powder. Otherwise, you are making sugar cookie dough instead of cake batter. Some of the bread recipes say that they make one loaf when they actually make two. These are just two examples of the many erroneous recipies in this otherwise beautiful book. The errors are major and would lead a novice baker into culinary disaster. Best to stick to classic baking books and give this one a pass unless you are already very confident in the kitchen.