The Art and Soul of Baking
Author: Sur La Tabl
"I've been using high-quality baking tools from Sur La Table for years, and now I can add their all-purpose baking book, with delicious and easy-to-follow recipes, to my collection. The photos alone are worth the price, but Cindy Mushet's clear recipe descriptions and nurturing voice make this a book everyone will want to actually use and not just look at." --Peter Reinhart, author of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor
As the second title in Sur La Table's namesake cookbook series, The Art and Soul of Baking focuses on the largest specialty demographic within the culinary market--baking.
The Art and Soul of Baking guides readers through the world of baking, where alluring aromas of chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon fill the air and tempt the palate. Culinary authority Sur La Table teams with professional pastry chef and baking instructor Cindy Mushet to create the ultimate book for bakers. The Art and Soul of Baking demystifies the friendly science of baking through delicious recipes and photography sequences that illustrate proper techniques for carmelizing sugar, or working with croissant dough.
From tantalizing tarts, decadent cakes, and delicious cookies, to more complex creations like crusty breads and flaky pastries, to melt-in-your-mouth meringues, and lighter-than-air souffles, The Art and Soul of Baking offers the instruction of a private baking class at home. Beautiful photographs and more than 250 fool-proof recipes, as well as information on over 100 popular baking ingredients and more than 50 pieces of baking equipment, ensure that Sur La Table's The Art and Soul of Baking isdestined to inspire passion in any baker and make the craft of baking not just accessible, but a true passion.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
Veteran pastry chef Mushet puts her decades of experience to work in this dense, informative baking guide from Seattle-based gourmet cookware retailer Sur La Table (thankfully light on advertorials), opening with a comprehensive overview of crucial equipment and a 30 page guide to pantry stocking (butter, flour and sugar get three pages each, chocolate gets five). Covering all aspects of the baking spectrum, Mushet gives yeast-based breads, quick breads, cookies and bars, layered pastries and other specialties their turn, doing admirable work with standards like pizza dough and dinner rolls, as well as trendier riffs like pesto rolls and rustic olive and thyme bread that give cooks room to stretch in each category. Mushet's invaluable lessons in ensuring oven accuracy, incorporating butter into dough for layered pastries (with step-by-step photos) and the causes of falling soufflés will get novices up to speed, and experts ready to tackle Mushet's compelling cheesecake batter-in-a-food-processor technique will find her inventive hors d'oeuvre Stilton Cheesecake with Port-Braised Pears a big hit at the next cocktail party. Those already comfortable with baking will get the most out of the book's 250 recipes, but there are plenty of dishes well within the reach of those new to Crème Brulee and lemon bar construction, making this a great volume to learn and grow with.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
Malgieri is director of the baking program at New York's Institute of Culinary Education and author of numerous other cookbooks, including How To Bake , in many ways the predecessor of this ambitious new title. He begins with an introduction to ingredients, equipment, and techniques and follows with eight recipe chapters. Chapter introductions provide helpful general tips on the various techniques involved, and recipe headnotes offer more specific information. Despite the subtitle, streamlined techniques do not seem to be a major focus, as many recipes rely on classic, time-tested methods. The recipes, many shown in color photographs, include both traditional favorites like Date Walnut Bread and more contemporary creations such as Smoked Salmon Mille-Feuilles, with ethnic specialties from a wide range of cuisines. For most baking collections.
Mushet, a talented pastry chef, cooking teacher, and author of the excellent Desserts: Mediterranean Flavors, California Style , presents the latest book from the Sur La Table team, following Things Cooks Love . Like Malgieri's book, it covers both sweet and savory baking, but it includes far more information. Two lengthy introductory chapters cover techniques, equipment, and ingredients, and dozens of sidebars on "Tips for Success" and "What the Pros Know" offer further helpful insider advice. Recipes range from basics such as Quick Puff Pastry and Classic Sugar Cookies to unusual and appealing treats like Malted Milk Chocolate Tart; most of them include make-ahead information, and many also have variations. There are striking color photographs throughout, as well as step-by-step technique photos. Mushet's style isengaging and never intimidating. Essential.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Author: Marcella Hazan
With more than 100 illustrations by Karin Kretschman.
Publishers Weekly
In the language of cookbooks, the word ``classic'' is bandied about nearly as frequently as the terms ``low-fat'' and ``no-cholesterol.'' In this case, however, the estimable Hazan ( More Classic Italian Cooking ) does indeed contribute a classic to the ever-increasing literature of Italian cuisine. A revision and update of her two previous ``classic'' Italian cookbooks (with more than 35 completely new recipes), this one includes recipes not ``in pursuit of novelty, but of taste.'' As Hazan puts it, the book ``is meant to be used as a kitchen handbook . . . for cooks of every level . . . who want an accessible and comprehensive guide to the products, the techniques, and the dishes that constitute imperishable Italian cooking.'' From marinated carrot sticks to sweet-and-sour tuna steaks, Trapani style, to tortellini with fish stuffing and polenta shortcake with raisins, dried figs and pine nuts, the outstanding recipes--many of them poetically simple--are too numerous to do justice to in few words. Included is a spirited discussion of squid and the essentials of preparing fresh pasta, gnocchi (potato dumplings), authentic risotto, frittate and polenta dishes. While writing from Venice, her home for much of the year, Hazan never fails to consider the availability of ingredients in the U.S., and never assumes that all readers understand complex methods or exotic terminology. This volume is the perfect gift for a new homemaker, a seasoned chef and all lovers of good food. Illustrated. 40,000 first printing; Home Style Book Club main selection, BOMC alternate. (Nov.)
Library Journal
Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook (1976) and More Italian Cooking (1978) are the standards in the field, and now, almost 20 years after the publication of the first title, they are available in a single volume, completely revised and updated. A few recipes have been cut, about 50 new ones added, and just about every recipe from the originals has been rewritten and, where deemed necessary, revised. Italian cooking, as opposed to the Italian American fare passed off in so many restaurants, has become all the rage here in the last several years; with the reappearance of Hazan's classics, it's strikingly apparent how far ahead of their time they were the first time around. The only disappointment is that the lengthy, thoughtful menu suggestions with each recipe have been dropped. An essential purchase. HomeStyle main selection; BOMC alternate.
BookList
A compilation of her "Classic Italian Cookbook" (Knopf, 1973) and "More Classic Italian Cooking" , Hazan's latest could readily assume the mantle of "the" definitive resource for Italian cuisine. There are many new recipes and revisions of older ones throughout, and Hazan also now incorporates forcaccie, pizzas, food processors and reduced-fat dishes, emphasizing Italian produce because of its current greater availability. Moreover, while Hazan explains the fundamentals clearly, she also describes regional specialties at length. Ambitious cooks and culinary zealots need look no further for a comprehensive course in Italian cookery.
Table of Contents:
| Preface | ix | |
| Introduction | 3 | |
| Fundamentals | 7 | |
| Appetizers | 52 | |
| Soups | 84 | |
| Pasta | 126 | |
| Risotto | 242 | |
| Gnocchi | 260 | |
| Crespelle | 267 | |
| Polenta | 273 | |
| Frittate | 278 | |
| Fish and Shellfish | 288 | |
| Chicken, Squab, Duck, and Rabbit | 327 | |
| Veal | 351 | |
| Beef | 385 | |
| Lamb | 408 | |
| Pork | 417 | |
| Variety Meats | 437 | |
| Vegetables | 451 | |
| Salads | 543 | |
| Desserts | 570 | |
| Focaccia, Pizza, Bread, and Other Special Doughs | 618 | |
| At Table | 649 | |
| Index | 667 |
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