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BakeWise

the Hows and Whys of Successful Baking With Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of King County Library System.
Apr 02, 2017MartineVK rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The author is one of the countries leading food chemists and she knows her subject. This book however, is badly edited, and the recipes are not the definitive ones you'd expect from the title and marketing behind the book. So many recipes are overloaded with ingredients. I was interested in making espresso brownies, but after reading the list of things you'd need, I decided that Corriher was making these more like an over-stuffed candy bar, rather than simple brownies. In fact, few of the recipes are simple and most of them seem overly rich and sweet. Don't get me wrong, I'm a baker, I like sweet things, but I like recipes that let you concentrate on one or two ingredients, not six or seven (not including things like flour and sugar) like in these recipes. Another example is one for chocolate chip cookies. Does Corriher give you the lowdown on the original Tollhouse Cookie? No. The only recipe she offers is made with tons of pecan flour (you must roast your own pecans). So, not only expensive, but overly complicated as well. And speaking of expensive, Corriher also recommends using a baking stone for nearly all the recipes except the cookies. If you want to bake something from this book, you'd better be willing to shell out a lot of dough before you've even cracked an egg. By all means, read this book for the food science, but if you are looking for simple, classic recipes on baking, try The Best Recipe series from the folks at Cook's Illustrated instead.