The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own
- ISBN13: 9780307408105
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Amazon.com Review
Book Description
James Beard Award—winner Karen DeMasco, who first came to national attention as the pastry chef of Tom Colicchio’s Craft, Craftbar, and ’wichcraft restaurants from 2001 to 2008, approaches the art of baking in a unique way. Building on the savory cooking philosophy of using seasonal ingredients to create dishes with pure flavors, Karen makes acclaimed desserts that are both simple and elegant. Now, she shares her secrets and techniques in her first cookbook, The Craft of Baking, designed to help home bakers think imaginatively in order to expand their repertoires with new and fresh combinations.
Using the bounty of the seasons as inspiration and Karen’s clear instructions, both beginners and experienced bakers will find it easy to let their creativity take the reins. Learn how to make Karen’s celebrated sweets, such as Apple Fritters with Caramel Ice Cream and Apple Caramel Sauce, White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream, and Raised Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnuts. Then check out the tips on “varying your craft” to transform Grandma Rankin’s Cashew Brittle into Pumpkin Seed Brittle and to alter a cobbler recipe to make Rhubarb Rose Cobbler in the spring or Mixed Berry Cobbler in the summer, for example. Karen’s suggestions for “combining your craft”–such as serving Almond Pound Cake with Apricot Compote and Lillet Sabayon–reveal how easy it is to take desserts to the next level.
Karen’s ingenuity is boundless. All types of sweets, from muffins and scones to pies and cakes to ice creams and custards, are her mediums for exploring flavors. With Karen’s simple techniques, unique flavor combinations, and inventive ideas, The Craft of Baking will change the way you think about baking and equip any home cook with the skills and creativity to create amazing, one-of-a-kind desserts.
From The Craft of Baking: Back-to-School Raspberry Granola Bars
These nutty fruit cookies are perfect for a lunch sack, last-minute bake sale, or early autumn picnic. They are quick to put together with pantry staples and everyone seems to love them.
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
- 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup raspberry preserves
(Makes 16 bars)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
Spread the pecans on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Cool the sheet completely on a wire rack.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, and pecans. Pour in the melted butter, and using a wooden spoon, mix together until well combined.
Transfer about two thirds of the dough to the prepared baking pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan, forming a firmly packed layer.
Using an offset or rubber spatula, spread the preserves over the dough. Evenly sprinkle the remaining dough over the preserves.
Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the top is golden brown and fragrant, about 40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool completely. Then cut into 2-inch squares.
The bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
$20.00
The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own
This is a stunning book — instructive, beautiful, and most importantly, packed full of delicious recipes. DeMasco’s suggestions for improvisation make this the perfect book for anyone who likes to put their own stamp on their baked goods, and her basic recipes are top-notch. If you’ve been lucky enough to visit any of the Craft restaurants, you know she’s got a knack for combining sweet and salt — a winning combination in every case, to my mind. I’ve already baked three cakes (each of them a big hit with dinner guests) from this book and am looking forward to experimenting with the pies and crumbles for Thanksgiving.
Required reading for bakers everywhere!
Rating: 5 / 5
Hello to anyone who is reading this!
Just wanted to post about The Craft of Baking. I purchased the book a couple of weeks ago and am loving it. I have a pronounced sweet tooth and believe that any proper dinner ends with a delicious dessert. The problem for me with desserts cookbooks, though, is that so many of them go for the sugar jugular: recipes for frou-frou items that might look pretty but don’t have much of a flavor profile beyond SWEET. For me, the best desserts are cooked with a savory sensibility–layering flavors and textures on top of one another, showcasing seasonal ingredients, complementing/responding to/riffing off the preceding meal. Karen DeMasco has always taken this approach, and it’s why I’ve long thought she’s one of the most genius pastry chefs in the country (yes, in the country, not just in New York City). The fact that I can now crack open this book and, basically, pick Karen’s cooking brain at will is one of the most exciting things that’s happened to my kitchen in recent memory. And the recipes are all clear, straightforward, easy to follow.
If you have any interest, passing or intense, in cooking desserts and sweets, then this volume should really be in your library! I cannot recommend it highly enough.
And I’ll be putting wrapped copies under more than one Christmas tree this year.
Enjoy, and happy baking!
Meeghan
Rating: 5 / 5
Even before this book was released, I was a big fan of Karen DeMasco’s baking and approach to sweets. A recipe of hers – toasted almond semifreddo – appeared in the online version of Food & Wine magazine earlier in the year and I used it as the basis of a dessert course for a dinner party. It has since become my signature dessert.
This elegant, abundantly photographed and descriptive cookbook is a must for anyone who enjoys the sweet side of the kitchen. There are basic recipes for everything from cakes, cookies, pies and quickbreads to ice creams, sauces, candies, marshmallows, brittles and everything in between. Though I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable in the kitchen, I picked up some new tricks from the book – how to bake in soup cans, making marshmallows without egg whites, and, most exciting to me, making fruit jelly candies.
Written with Mindy Fox, the book contains a helpful and very explicit guide to the sweet pantry and ingredients and how to improvise on a recipe to make it a signature dish.
This is going to be one of my top holiday gifts this year. Love it.
Rating: 5 / 5