Baking: From My Home to Yours Hardcover – November 1, 2006

There is no other word for this work of art for all the "little" people of the baking world who don't have restaurant-grade kitchens yet want to bake as if they do!!

Dorie Greenspan is my brand new baking buddy!! The way that she speaks to you as you're reading the recipe introduction, you feel as if she's right in the kitchen with you, right next to you, just talking and spending the time showing you a fabulous recipe that will make you feel like a baking diva (or divo)!! I think that it's the secret to her incredible success and since she's written over nine books, you got to figure that she knows what she's doing.

I first learned of Dorie specifically when she worked with Julia Child in making "Baking with Julia"; probably my favorite Julia book. The character of her writing is that of someone who has come to know and love the kitchen as much as yourself. She seems to gravitate to baking and make it as much a love of art as it is a love of creating. No wonder that you feel so comfortable attempting these desserts since Dorie makes them so accessible without feeling the need for intense training or bizarre ingredients.

The book itself is a grand adventure, as is its size; big and sturdy and printed just right with smooth pages holding glossy photographs and temptng treats of what will be; they are large and detailed so you know what to expect.

Her book is broken into:

Introduction

Breakfast Treats

A Cache of Cookies

Cakes of All Kinds (this was by far the BEST chapter; these are awesome with the "Celebration Cakes" called Devils Food White-out, Perfect Party Cake, Big Carrot Cake, Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake, Black and White Chocolate Cake, Tirmisu Cake, Berry Surprise, Chestnut Cake, Amaretti Torte, Chocolate Armagnac Cake, Ice Cream Torte, Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, Coconut Roasated Pineapple Dacquoise, etc)

Pies and Tarts

Spoon Desserts

Indispensables (basic recipes)

A Dessert Makers Glossary of Ingredients, Tools, and Techniques

I would love to print every recipe in this book but the index alone is over 17 pages of luscious and decadent desserts!! So for an example, I give you "The Perfect Party Cake" on page 250. Holy cow!! Wow!! More adjectives please!! It turned out EXACTLY as she promised and when you are first hit with the visual impact of this cake, you realize how important the right photography style is to any cookbook author. To feel that something that gorgeous can come from your kitchen and to actually be able to make it, does wonders for your zeal for baking. Every luscious layer of fluffy white cake that is followed by a delicate, thin layer of raspberry filling followed by fluffy frosting, you see it begin to take shape and height. You wonder if it really will be as good as it looks. But as you get to the end of the layers and you put on that last layer of frosting, then cover it in snow-flaked fresh coconut, you realize that you are one awesome baker and Dorie will be your new best baking buddy too!! It was a hit for its beauty and taste because when you cut into that first piece and see it in its red and white party glory.....wow!!

Yes, I know............it's just a recipe but is Michelangelo's "David" just a piece of clay to art lovers? Baking makes you want to please the eyes as well as the palate and if you want to do it right, you want to learn from those who are the masters. Dorie is just that, but without all the pretensions and fanfare. She just loves to bake and this book is the epitome of her passion.

Dorie, Julia will always be the Queen Mother of the kitchen, but your pedestal is right by hers!! Thanks!!

`Baking From my home to yours' by leading professional baking writer, Dorie Greenspan, fits very comfortably into that niche defined by one of her earliest, and most successful, books, `Baking With Julia'. Another major recent book in this category is `A Baker's Tour' by noted baking author and teacher, Nick Malgieri. In fact, Greenspan cites Malgieri, and collaborator Pierre Herme, as her primary inspirations and sources when she has a difficult question on baking.

This sub-genre is very personal in that it reflects the recipes that happen to have meant a lot to the authors over the years. It also covers a broad range of recipes, hitting virtually every major type of baking, including pastry (pies, tarts, shells), cookies (drop, roll, sheet), cakes, yeast breads, and quick breads (muffins, biscuits, scones, fruit and vegetable breads) and cooked sweets (puddings, flans, custards). In spite of this wide coverage, there is no concerted effort to touch every little corner of baking lore or professional genre. This sets it apart from `Baking With Julia' which made a point of bringing in experts in literally every baking discipline, including some of the more esoteric topics such as artisinal (natural yeast) bread baking and wedding cakes. It also sets it apart from the excellent books done by both baking teachers (Malgieri, Flo Braker, Rose Levy Beranbaum) and leading restaurant pastry chefs (`The Sweet Life' by Chanterelle pastry chef, Kate Zuckerman and `The Secrets of Baking' by Spago pastry chef, Sherry Yard) which delve deep into the whys and wherefores of baking techniques.

One sure sign that this book has no intention of being `politically correct' with its organization is the fact that cheesecake (100% American cream cheese recipes here, thank you) recipes are grouped with cakes, rather than with custard pies. And, since this is how most people think about cheesecake, this is just fine in a book aiming at the experienced home baker who doesn't have the `baking nerd' gene inhabiting people such as Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher.

This is also not an elementary cooking manual. For that, we now have the superb `Martha Stewart's Baking Manual', a true amateur's introduction to all the basic equipment and techniques. That doesn't mean you need to be an experienced amateur to work with this book, but it helps. Like `Baking With Julia' before it, all of Miss Dorie's recipes are painstakingly thorough and well written, so you really don't need the sidebars on basic techniques which Greenspan does provide. Unlike other books such as Maida Heatter's (quick genuflection here) big books on cakes, this is not an encyclopedic collection. There is no flourless Hungarian nut cake; no crepes, pancakes, or waffles; no Tarte Tatin; and no gingerbread cookies or houses. On the other hand, there are plenty of major standards such as buttermilk biscuits, blueberry muffins, cheesecakes, scones, banana bread, chocolate cake, apple pie, and lemon meringue pie.

Looking at two of the most basic recipes in the book, buttermilk biscuits and pastry dough (pate frisee), I find Ms. Greenspan is a bit different from my usual recipes, but entirely on the side of the angels in her insisting on butter and cold, cold, cold technique. She even calls for more butter than I'm used to in my Susan Purdy standard. And, like Martha Stewart's authors, she does not add in a lot of extras such as egg, vinegar, or baking soda into the pastry dough. While I use the extras, I really like the emphasis on simple ingredients and skillful technique.

If this book were nothing but a collection of superior recipes, it would be worth the somewhat higher than average list price of $40, but Madame Greenspan brings a charm to her writing that is strongly reminiscent of her distinguished colleague of years gone by, Julia Child.

The superior writing may be enough added value, but Miss Dorie also adds really useful tips to each recipe, which I immediately put to use in a task I have in hand now. I need to bake some things for a post-Sunday service Fellowship at my church, and I was planning to make muffins, but muse Dorie accurately points out that practically all muffin (and biscuit and scone) baked goods are best when eaten the day they are baked! On the other hand, sweetbreads made with virtually the same ingredients as muffins are much more robust, until they are sliced. The perfect example of this is a comparison of buttermilk biscuits and Irish soda bread. Biscuits mutate into hockey pucks around 8 hours out of the oven, while uncut soda bread, especially if it includes raisins or other moist fruit, will comfortably hold its interest for a day or more. Slightly less useful, but not common in other books is Miss Dorie's serving suggestions, which make each entry a perfect starting point from which to build an afternoon tea or dessert menu. There is also a sidebar on many of the recipes labeled `Playing Around' that identifies methods for tweaking the recipes, to make them a bit different the next time you bake them. Some of these variations may show little difference in the end product, such as the difference between biscuits based on baking powder and biscuits based on buttermilk and baking soda. But, if you happen to be a buttermilk and baking soda traditionalist, its good to know some options (as when your megamart is out of buttermilk).

If you are an inveterate cookbook collector, this one is a keeper, good for both baking and reading. If you are just starting out, this is probably even better than `Baking With Julia' as a collection of really useful recipes.

Highly recommended for its excellent recipes of standards.

It's a beautiful book, with a lot of great, interesting recipes, but my main beef is with her baking temperatures--for a lot of the smaller cake/muffin recipes, she advises baking at 400 degrees, which is a lot higher than the usual recommended baking temperature of 350. I gave her the benefit of the doubt (I figured, maybe her technique is better?), and I ended up with grotesquely overbaked things. And it wasn't because there was anything wrong with my oven's internal temperature.

So proceed with caution...if you find a recipe here that you'd like to try, it's worth investigating similar recipes from other sources to see if the baking times and temperatures are similar.

But with a book like this you really shouldn't have to take this sort of precaution.