The Baking Bible

Absolutely beautiful

Packed full of easy to follow step by step recipes. My wife loves it!

My "verified purchase" states I have the Kindle edition of this book when, in fact, I actually have the hardback edition.I might have died and gone to Heaven. Dorie Greenspan and Rose Levy Beranbaum both released baking books this fall. Forget Christmas. I have everything I need to be happy for the rest of the year.The Baking Bible is a massive anthology of recipes to satisfy your baking needs. It runs the gamut from cakes to yeast breads and hits almost everything in between. This is an impressive collection of recipes that you will use for a long time. One of Rose's birthday cakes as well as her prosciutto loaf from her bread cookbook have been favorites in my home for over ten years now. The book will stay open to cook from, without the aid of a cookbook stand, from the first page to the last. The only downside to this (and it is my ONLY criticism of the book) is that this type of sewn binding is likely to cause you to have pages fall out later if you use the book often (and you will).The chapters are divided as follows: cakes; pies, tarts and other pastries; cookies and candy; and breads and yeast pastries. Each chapter is further subdivided into specific categories. For example, the cakes chapter is subdivided into butter and oil cakes, cupcakes, sponge cakes, and cheesecakes. The book opens with Rose's Golden Rules of Baking. Then each individual chapter has a lengthy introduction that helps the cook troubleshoot common baking problems and includes more "golden rules" for being a successful cake baker, pie baker, etc. If you know Rose's recipes, you know she is a stickler for weights, measurements, and following directions. Each recipe begins with a chart that clearly delineates measurements for volume and weight. In many instances there will not be a listing for volume as weight (which is included in ounces as well as grams) is more accurate.I am pleased to say that the book is as lovely as it is useful. There isn't a photograph for each recipe, but the photographs that are included are absolutely gorgeous. Most of the recipe is printed in black, but the headings are done in shades of burgundy that I didn't have any trouble reading. There are asides called "Highlights for Success" through many of the recipes that give you additional information to make your recipe a smash hit. I also add that the index is also problem free. It was done with a lot of thought in order to maximize usefulness.I would like to recommend this book to everyone, and for the most part, I do. I recommend to beginners with caution. I was a young bride with no cooking experience when I purchased The Cake Bible and The Bread Bible. I had no trouble because the author is so specific in her directions. However, novices should be able to follow multiple, detailed steps and use their five senses plus be able to make judgment calls regarding a recipe. If you are a moderate level or advanced baker, you will be pleased with this newest addition to the Beranbaum library and probably won't be able to put the book down for more than five minutes at the time.The ingredients and basic recipes section at the end of the book will demystify basics such as making chocolate curls, clarifying butter, and making ganache and whipped cream as well as lending Rose's personal insights on what ingredients to buy. I feel that this book is the home equivalent of a culinary school course in baking. You will love the appendix that lists quick and easy recipes as well as recipes that are flourless, mostly flourless, as well as lactose free. If you have egg issues, the author lists which recipes include only yolks or whites. She bends over backwards to make this book easy to use!But enough of my detailed book tour, you want to hear about recipes! I took a change of pace from the usual cakes and loaves for my initial foray into this impressive book and went with the French toast. It was magnificent, so good that I felt it didn't even need the additional suggested décor of powdered sugar or maple syrup.Don't hesitate to add this book to your library. If you are new to Rose Levy Beranbaum, know that if you follow her directions to the letter you will have baked goods that taste as though they couldn't possibly be made by human hands. The precise directions are absolutely worth it!

Book as described, super fast shipping A+Seller

It's a tough call for me to rate this 4 stars because I've only made one thing so far. So it could really be 3 stars, or 5. But I give it a 4 because of a couple important and off-putting things. I read through a lot of the cookbook before deciding on what I would make first and I noticed that she doesn't necessarily bake in standard baking yields. For example, the recipe for the Kouign Amanns yields 8. What? A recipe for coffee cake muffins (what I made) yields 6 and is made using larger than normal sized muffin tin cups. When do I ever only need 6 muffins? Why would I only want to bake 8 Kouign Amanns (the beautiful pastry pictured on the cover of this cookbook)? What happened to a dozen which is the standard? And there is no note or information about whether you can just double the recipe despite this yields not being normal. Nor was there information for making the coffee cakes in standard size cups if you don't have extra large cups. So I had to adjust it on my own and take my chances. Turned out fine but the recipe was also very time consuming and I feel like I used every baking utensil in the house! Too many different sized measuring spoons and cups, my food processor, a whisk, a rubber spatula, a spoon, 2 knives, a lemon juicer, apple corer, two bowls, two mini bowls, and my standing mixer! All this to yield 6 muffins? They were good, but at that rate, they should've been outstanding. I've made better coffee cake using a different recipe that I'll stick to. That said, what I do like is the variety of interesting recipes. When there are pictures (because many desserts are not pictured) they look beautiful and tempting. I'm an experienced home baker and from what I can see, the instructions are very detailed and probably will turn out nicely. Whether they will be delicious or not I can't say. I have to try a few more recipes before I make a final decision on how much I will ultimately use this book or whether I will continue to. Also, the recipes are more complicated than average. I had to take off at least one star based on how complicated it was to make the recipe I made, the unusual yields, and the taste of the coffee cake not being exceptional, just good. It would be best for you to look at the book in person before purchasing to see if it's right for you. I purchased it based on reviews that, now that I'm rereading them, I see how many are not useful and just say things like "great cookbook" or "she's the best!" They don't talk about their actual experiences using the book which is what's important. Ultimately, I bought it because of the Kouign Amann on the cover that I want to make. But now that I see her recipe yields only 8, I might not even bother. It's too time consuming a recipe to only get 8 when I can find a recipe to yield 12. I hope this helps you.