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!
