Comments on: Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes

By: Eduardo Tenenbaum

Eduardo Tenenbaum — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:28:06 +0000

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Creative baking book, but lacks weight measures, October 27, 2011

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This review is from: Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes (Hardcover)

Baking books may be roughly divided between those that stress the science of baking and those that stress the art. Baking Style definitely belongs to the second group--the book plays with you, it stirs your imagination, engages your senses and makes you get into the mood of whatever you are about to bake. To achieve this ambiance of playfulness and delight, the author divides her chapters not into conventional categories such as breakfast treats, cookies, cakes, pies, iced desserts, etc., but into flavors and moods: "past perfect," "very naughty," "dreamy regal," "texture exquisite," "comfy cozy" are examples. The book could be subtitled "Know your mood and pick your recipe." I'm not sure, however, that the mounds and mounds of pink type and pink paper were necessary to create this sought-after ambiance, at least not for those of us who don't think baking is all about pink. Yet the wealth of original recipes and much other information more than compensate for this visual shortcoming.

A shortcoming that cannot be overcome, however, is the lack of weight measures. As a home baker, I have found that ever since I started weighing ingredients, the results have been much more successful and consistent. So I was very disappointed when, on browsing this interesting and creative book, I noted that none of the recipes included weights. This explains my rating of three stars, though it otherwise would deserve five. Is it really so difficult to write "1 cup (200g) sugar"? This lack of weight measures is compounded by the fact that the instructions on measuring are somewhat contradictory. On p. 14 we are instructed to use a dip and sweep method, but on p. 20 we are instructed to use a lightly spooned method, and on that very page the author herself talks up the convenience of using a scale. Go figure.

I almost returned this book because I didn't see myself making any of the recipes--I've proven to myself way too many times that I cannot measure by volume. What to do? I wrote the author for a table of equivalences and she graciously supplied me with the weight measures of some of the basic ingredients. While this helps, it will nonetheless be time consuming to convert the recipes, and then I still won't have the weights for many of the other ingredients. If ever a second edition of this book is published, please author, please publisher, turn this book into a five-star winner and give us weight measures. The art of baking depends on getting the science right.

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By: anna saint john

anna saint john — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:31:46 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

baked to perfection!, October 28, 2011

anna saint john (washington, dc/suburban maryland) -

This review is from: Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes (Hardcover)

lisa yockelson has added another gem to her -- and our -- culinary and literary larders. baking style is lisa yockelson's 3rd and latest book through publisher john wiley & sons, following on baking by flavor (happy 10th anniversary!) and chocolatechocolate (2005).

not only does this book have the same extraordinary number of recipes the previous two had, each recipe is accompanied by the author's personal thoughts, notes, observations, feelings and cultural-take on everything she baked in the book. baking style is more than a collection of recipes or a how-to book. it is a deeply personal offering which gives insight into how and why we form an intimate relationship with the foods we know, the foods we love, the foods we grew up with and the foods that grow with us.

baking style is a lot more wordy than you may be accustomed to in a cookbook; but if you allow yourself to delve into the words and thoughts and experiences that lisa is sharing with you about her own baking life, you will come to understand that each recipe presented is, and i say this with no understatement, PERFECT. and they are perfect because they work wherever you are in the u.s.a., with your local ingredients, whether you are using volume or weight measurement.

the book may seem a bit femmy -- it is unabashedly pink. it's just a hair this side of over-the-top -- yet, it's very attractive! photographer ben fink has done an outstanding job, as is tradition. the endpapers alone are fabulous. there are 40 different photos on each endpaper --- that's 80 photos -- of all lisa's equipment, select ingredients, utensils, etc. the endpaper being the traditional place in a book to put a bookplate and/or inscription, the location of all those photos makes the book seem soooo personal -- from beginning to end.

if you don't know, lisa styles all her photographs and everything shown in each photo is something that she has made and set on something she owns. the equipment and the food are beautiful! and they aren't beautiful because they have been photoshopped: this is beautiful food beautifully photographed.

so, get into it! whether you want plain old fashioned, dreamy regal, polished sophisticated, intense bold or texture exquisite, there are cookies, cakes, pies and breads aplenty for you to bake and explore and rebake and re-explore, over and over again. this book will last you a lifetime and you will happily pass it on to your baking heirs.

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By: SSL

SSL — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:02:21 +0000

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Permission Granted, September 28, 2011

SSL -

This review is from: Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes (Hardcover)

What I love about this book is that despite the gorgeous pictures of perfect cookies, cakes and breads, the author gives you permission to "lighten-up" and think outside of the box, to enjoy EVERY moment of your baking and to make those footnotes why a recipe worked, what you loved about the results, to go ahead and try it before it has cooled properly, serve it on a plastic plate, break it into pieces rather than forming a perfect bar cookie. How much more fun is that! I finally feel like my baking experiments and presentation attempts have been vindicated. Here is a master baker guiding you... imploring you to get down and "dirty" and to just savor every moment along with every morsel. Thank you Ms. Yockelson for releasing me from cookbook intimidation and helping me approach my novice baking with a new confidence. And, thank you for the detailed instructions to help me build that confidence. This weekend? Maybe those cinnamon popovers and served in that chipped but much loved bowl that was my Nana's.

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