How to Bake Everything

July 18, 2016
Prolific author and food writer Bittman (How to Cook Everything) brings the joy of baking to life in this comprehensive collection of 2,000 recipes demystifying the baking process. He explains its fundamentals, simple techniques, and foundation recipes that serve as springboards for “a number of easy twists” on from-the-oven homemade treats. Bittman is big on improvisational embellishments, adaptability, and recipe flexibility for every diet, and he creates useful “mix-and-match” charts for substitute ingredients, innovative variations, and add-ins. Sidebars contain advice on topics such as the advantages of milling nut flours at home and the importance of cooking with kids. There’s the lowdown on gluten, 18 flour types, sweeteners, fats and oils, dairy options, and types of chocolate. Flowcharts, lexicons defining baking terminology, and recommendations for tools and core items to stock in a baker’s pantry are also included. The marvels of eggs and every genre of pastry dough, especially puff pastry, are celebrated. This tour through the world of baking doesn’t skimp; it has 15 pages on pancakes alone, charts showing ways to dress up cookies, and 10 varieties of fritters. A section on savory baking features cabbage strudel and corn-filled chicken chile cobbler. There’s nothing half-baked about this impressive omnibus as Bittman delivers the promised “everything” in an epic homage to baking. Agent: Angela Miller, Miller Agency.

Starred review from October 15, 2016

Though Bittman's classic How To Cook Everything includes a sizeable selection of breads, cookies, cakes, and candies, home cooks will spring for this expanded, baking-focused follow-up. Early chapters provide indispensable advice, particularly in the areas of ingredient selection and substitution. Readers will have no trouble finding vegan egg substitutes, all-natural food colorings, and methods for making any quick bread recipe whole grain. Thousands of simple dishes (e.g., crepes, chocolate chiffon pie, butterscotch rice pudding, grilled Lebanese flatbread) invite creative tweaks and variations, and Bittman is quick to point out when modifications will negatively impact the finished product. All the sweets readers will expect are present, accompanied by innumerable savory and international treats. VERDICT An incredible value in an up-to-date, all-in-one volume. Essential for baking collections. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/16, p. 26.--Ed.]

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
Bittman's latest tome cements his position as encyclopedist of modern cooking. Here he focuses on the process of baking, presenting more than 2,000 recipes. It surprises no one that he inventories cakes, cookies, pies, breads, and all manner of pastries, but Bittman delves deep into less expected crackers and their cousins, flatbreads. He also gives instructions for fillings and frostings to top those baked items. Other nonbaked recipes embrace frozen desserts, sauces, and even some candies. Bittman's gift is the ability to share myriad intelligent approaches to basic recipes, making one formula yield multiple results and encouraging readers to use their own imaginations. Tables and sidebars throughout offer equipment and technique tips. He even shows how to reformat standard recipes into vegan-friendly alternatives. In his quest to leave no baking question unanswered, Bittman advises how to repurpose burned cookies to ensure that even disaster can be salvaged. This compendium is the next best thing to having the master himself in the kitchen, and should be a staple for all public library collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)