This is the classic cake cookbook that enables anyone to make delicious, exquisite cakes. As a writer for food magazines, women's magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, Rose Levy Beranbaum's trademark is her ability to reduce the most complex techniques to easy-to-follow recipes. Rose makes baking a joy. This is the definitive work on cakes by the country's top cake baker.
Mix a buttery, tender layer cake in under five minutes with perfect results every time
Make the most fabulous chocolate cake you ever imagined with just three ingredients
Find recipes for every major type of cake, from pancakes to four-tiered wedding cakes
Extensive decorating techniques for the beginner baker and professional alike that show you how to make chocolate curls, pipe rosettes, crystallize flowers and leaves, and much more?
Amazon.com
Reading about the ins and outs of baking the perfect, flaky pie crust is a little like reading about how to achieve the perfect golf swing: the proof is in the doing. And it often takes a remarkably intuitive reader to understand exactly what the author is getting at. Not so the work of Rose Levy Beranbaum, the author who gave us The Cake Bible. If ever there was a cookbook author who could place her hands on top of yours, putting you through the proper motions, helping you arrive at just the right touch, Beranbaum is the one.
The Pie and Pastry Bible begins with the crust. The author confesses right up front that 21 years ago, when she first began her quest for the perfect crust, "it was a complete mystery to me." She wasn't looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but something she could consistently turn out at a moment's notice. The ideal pie crust, she writes, "has light, flaky layers, but also ... is tender, and nicely browned, with a flavor good enough to eat by itself."
In a book that stretches to about 700 pages long, her favorite pie crust is the first recipe: Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust. Typically, Beranbaum lists the ingredients by measure and weight for three separate sizes of pies, then gives instructions for the food processor or by hand.
After 70 pages of pie crusts, tart crusts, and crumb pie crusts of every imaginable make and combination, Beranbaum starts with fruit pies. Her first (of many) detailed charts shows exactly what her ratios are of fruit to sugar to cornstarch. Then each recipe (start with The Best All American Apple Pie) includes pointers for success as well as several variations on the theme. Under the headline "Understanding," Beranbaum goes that extra mile by taking the trouble to explain just why something works the way it does.
If you are only going to own one cookbook for pie and pastry recipes of every imaginable stripe and combination, you can't go wrong with this one. It's the Bible, after all. --Schuyler Ingle
Customer Reviews:
awesome photos...awesome recipes.......2007-07-08
She is a master of baking. Have tried several recipes...turned out great. With the beautiful photos, I plan to be baking for a long time!
Pie is good.......2007-03-10
And the Lord did sayeth, "Let there be pie", and there was pie, and yea it was good. And the Lord did eateth all the pie, and that did maketh everyone else Angry, and it was all not that good, but nobody did sayeth anything to the Lord because they know that if they Did than the Lord would smiteth them with a Thunder-bolt, and believeth you and me a Thunder-bolt is not much fun.
The Pie Bible doesn't have phrases like that, but when you think about it, it really should. As long as you don't think about it that much.
Excellent resource.......2007-03-10
The flaky cream-cheese pie crust recipe alone is worth the price of the book. Additionally there are other excellent recipes and techniques. Everything is very clear and fail-proof. There are recipes for various types of pie, struedel, danish, and savory pastries like quiche and empanadas.
Perfect !.......2007-01-31
Mme Rose's book is one of the best cooking books around! All is complete: the details are absolutely incredible and all the tips are real and effective. Plus the section "understanding" gives an extra level of comprehension on what you're doing. No wonder why she spent all these years experimenting and trying all the possible ingredient combinations.
If you want to climb up to excellency in pie and pastry standards, it's the guide you need.
Not only HOW, but also WHY.......2006-12-31
I'm new to pastries and have been using this book for about 6 months. It's like having a graduate course in baking and I feel it's the book to buy if you're only going to buy one. And if you're going to buy more than one, it's still the book to buy. I've noticed that some of the reviewers complain that there's too much information. Difficult for me to understand how there can be too much information if your goal is how to make great pastries. The book is complete. You don't need anything else.
Customer Reviews:
Cookies and Cakes and Sweets, Oh My..........2007-01-28
I can't say enough good things about this particular cookbook. I bought one for each family at Christmas and included different flavored cake mixes, chips, and puddings and it was a hit!! The best thing about baking the cookies is that there isn't a huge batch and you are done from start to finish in about 30 minutes with only a few ingredients. If you like chocolate, there are two recipes that are so gooey and chocolately that I can't even eat them but everyone else LOVES them. I love to bake so I am really a critic when it comes to recipes and you won't be disappointed. Every recipe that I've tried has been excellent.
Cake Mix Bible book.......2006-07-05
This is book provides a wide variety of receipes for all types of bakers, from the expert to the beginner. Also has recepies for treats for young children. This is also a very nice for a gift to someone.
Colorful cakes, if that's what you want.......2005-12-13
This cake mix book is based on the concept of creating beautiful cakes using prepared cake mixes. It is a nice idea, especially for those who would be willing to sacrifice a bit of taste for convenience.
However, many of the recipes in this book are little more than your cake mix with some fruity/sugary sauce or colorful icing decoration slathered on it. The icing designs look cute in a crayon drawing, but look a bit scary on a food item. Since since these designs are targeted for kids, this is a bit worrisome because that is a lot of food coloring for a little kid's liver to process, not to mention the amount of sugar in that much icing. Just be sure to read up on diabetes before you crack open this book.
Health aside, the book does have colorful photos. The photos illustrate the main focus of the book - few of the cakes actually look exquisite, but they're all cheerfully colored and cute looking. The book is perfect for those who don't mind their cakes ending up with similar taste but enjoy just a moment of sugar high amid the cuteness. For those who relish the freshness and tenderness of a real chocolate cake, who possess a more nuanced ability to distinguish the sweetness between fruits and high fructose corn syrup, prepare to look elsewhere.
Amazon.com
Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible introduced readers to a newly illuminating baking-book approach--a precisely detailed yet accessible recipe format emphasizing baking science. The Bread Bible follows the same plan, offering 150 recipes, arranged by type, for a great variety of baked goods--from muffins, popovers, and English muffins to sandwich loaves, focaccia, rolls, hearth breads, rye bread, challah, and more, with a particularly vivid (and passionate) stop at sourdough loaves. Instruction is abetted by 32 pages of photos plus 300 step-by-step illustrations that depict, for example, bagel forming, in exact, imitable detail. In addition, an introductory section, "The Ten Essential Steps of Making Bread," includes a particularly lucid discussion on the way yeast works plus an invaluable comparison of kneading methods. Like the book's final look at ingredients, these "mini-texts" provide information uncommon to most home bread books, rendered in simple language that allays fears of putting one's hand in the dough.
All this is impressive indeed, and readers bitten by the bread-baking bug will welcome the ultra-thorough Beranbaum approach. The less committed may find her technical demands too painstaking (her baguette recipe requires two starters, for example; though simpler loaves are, of course, offered) or even impractical (ingredient quantities using grams are sometimes given in minute fractions, requiring a special scale). The frequent inclusion of alternate mixing methods and equipment options can also make the formulas unwieldy. On the other hand, features like Pointers for Success and Understanding often yield exciting discovery as well as rewarding results. In short, this Beranbaum bible answers virtually every bread-making question, as well as providing exemplary formulas. It's the real deal for those willing to bake along with Rose. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
The new baking masterwork from the author of The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible.
The Bread Bible gives bread bakers 150 of the meticulous, foolproof recipes that are Rose Levy Beranbaum's trademark. Her knowledge of the chemistry of baking, the accessibility of her recipes, and the incomparable taste of her creations make this book invaluable for home cooks and professional bakers alike.
Recipes include bread made with yeast starters, quick breads, flatbreads, brioche, and much more. From ciabatta, semolina, rye, and sourdough breads to bagels, biscuits, crumpets, and pizza dough, The Bread Bible covers all the baking bases.
"Understanding" and "Pointers for Success" sections explain in simple, readable language the importance of various techniques and ingredients demonstrated in a recipe, providing a complete education in the art of baking, with thorough sections on types of flour, equipment, and other essentials. Easy-to-use ingredient tables provide both volume and weight, for surefire recipes that work perfectly every time. 225 line drawings and 32 pages of color illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
The BEST book on bread!.......2007-09-12
Rose Levy Beranbaum has done a magnificent job with this book. Her instructions for each loaf are perfectly detailed, and I've yet to have one of her recipes fail. Some here have faulted her recipes for being repetitive in their details. However, I see this as a positive. I would rather not have to flip to five different parts of a book in order to make a loaf of bread. Provided that repeating a part of the instructions doesn't take up large amounts of space, it's worthwhile. I also really appreciate the introductory descriptions and stories she writes for the various breads. They really get you excited about making the various loaves of bread. You have to try making the pita bread, as watching them puff up in your oven is amazing. Her pizza crust is also the best I've made. Oh, and if you try the rosemary foccaccia, be patient, and magic will happen! At just over 20 minutes in the mixer, a wonderful dough ball will form. I suggest you watch the process, as you can see the gluten forming before your eyes. I can't recommend this book highly enough, and if you've ever got questions, check out her blog, Real Baking with Rose, where she answers reader questions all the time!
My husband cooks from this book..........2007-08-31
...and although he's an accomplished cook already, the recipes are easy to follow, with perfect results.
The Best.......2007-08-14
If you want to learn how to bake bread, you must get this cookbook. Some other reviewers have complained that the book is too long, the recipes too complicated, or the author is too scientific. I disagree. To me, having this cookbook is like having a brilliant teacher in your kitchen--one who explains what you are doing, offers encouragement, and tells you why things might have gone wrong. In a yearlong project, I baked every loaf of bread in The Bread Bible, and the quality of what I--a novice bread baker--was able to turn out was extremely gratifying to me. I had only one mishap (the rosemary focaccia, the bread I started with and one of the more difficult ones in the book), but when I made it a second time, carefully following every instruction, it was wonderful. If your method of cooking is to add a little of this and a little of that and see what happens, this is probably not the book for you. But if you want to bake perfect bread, guided by one of the best bakers on the planet, buy this book.
The last word in bread making..........2007-07-16
I just adore Rose Levy Bearnbaum's style of writing cookbooks. While, it is certainly not for the occasional baker, enthusiasts will hang on ever word. My first Rose book purchase was the Cake Bible about 12 years ago. The Cake Bible is still my go-to for cakes and now the Bread Bible is the same for my bread baking endeavors.
Rose is a passionate baker and it shows in her books.
Excellent Book.......2007-06-09
I really enjoy this book. It has everything from everyday recipes to special occasion breads and everthing in between. It has great illustrations and the recipes cover all skill levels.
Book Description
The Bread Bible is the one book on the subject no kitchen should be without -- and now it's available in paperback. A trusted authority on baking, Beth Hensperger has brought together hundreds of time-tested recipes, both classic and intriguingly original, from Gruyere Pullman Loaf and Farm-Style White Bread with Cardamom to fragrant Tuscan Peasant Bread and Classic Buttermilk Biscuits. And don't just think loaves. Steamed Pecan Corn Bread, pancakes, golden brioches, flatbreads, focaccia, pizza dough, dinner rolls, dessert breads, strudels, breakfast buns -- the choices are endless. The recipes are foolproof, step-by-step, and easy-to-follow. Busy bakers will also appreciate the excellent selection of recipes for bread machines and food processors. With a glossary and easy-to follow tips such as how to store and reheat bread, The Bread Bible is "a keeper for anyone who likes to bake or plans to get started." -Chicago Tribune
Customer Reviews:
A definite favorite.......2007-10-04
I have collected hundreds of cookbooks over the years - bread and baking books in particular. This one definitely rates as one of my all time favorites (if not THE favorite) and most used bread books.
What a wonderful bread baking experience.......2007-09-09
This book is just wonderful! I have been baking bread by hand for several years now and have thouroughly enjoyed it, but this book has helped me to stretch beyond the recipe and try some new things. In the past 2 weeks, I think I have made 7 recipes out of this book. I just can't seem to stop. The Bulgur Oatmeal bread, I think, is the best bread I have ever tasted. Absolutely AMAZING! I also made the Sesame Burger Buns, Whole Wheat Long Rolls, Vienna Bread, Pain Campagne and Farm-Style White Bread with Cardamom. I have probably 200 cookbooks and this is my new favorite! A must read!
Bread Bible is Worthy.......2007-07-19
This is a fine cookbook. It explains in detail the ins and outs of yeast and flour. The recipes are good, but I was expecting a little more pizazz, a little more creativity and a few more fundamental recipes. I would like it if next time they include more "bread machine" recipes for a 2 pound loaf, and a few more bagel recipes.
If you need a basic bread book, this one will do nicely.
It's a Long Time 'n Holy Art as It's Hearty 'n Full of Loving Warmth.......2007-03-09
As a milleniun over another pratice which became an basic 'n essential for feeding mankind, the art of bread making, as shown in The Bread Bible, is as lovelier at It's best as ever.
yummy!!!!!!.......2007-02-17
Terrific book on the basics. My husband is getting into baking bread and the family is psyhed!
Amazon.com
Weighing almost as much as a small child, Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible contains 300 recipes, plus slice after slice of baking wisdom. Hensperger certainly knows her bread: she is the author of several other yeasty numbers, including the mouthwatering Bread for All Seasons and the feisty Breads of the Southwest. Her Bible features simple, basic breads, such as White Mountain Bread, French Bread, and an Old-Fashioned 100 Percent Whole-Wheat Bread, as well as fancier breads such as Brown Rice Bread with Dutch Crunch Topping and a tangy Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese. Not forgotten are scones, biscuits, pizzas, croissants, waffles, muffins--and even coffee cakes. As can be expected from such a hefty, all-encompassing volume, many breads demand the skills of agile and able bakers. Crescia al Formaggio, an aesthetically pleasing savory cheese bread, requires scrupulous time-keeping and copious amounts of elbow grease and patience. Of course, the rewards are high. Happily, many other loaves can be whipped up in a bread machine, and are equally satisfying. An Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Bread using Irish oats makes everything good with the world with its rich, nutty texture. Hensperger's sweet treats are also a delight--the Blueberry Gingerbread works wonders with vanilla ice cream, and won't take up your whole day slaving over a hot stove.
Although The Bread Bible would have benefited from color photographs to tease the taste buds, Hensperger's latest ode to bread will still prove invaluable for both new and seasoned bakers. --Naomi Gesinger
Book Description
The last word on every kind of bread imaginable, The Bread Bible is the one baking book no kitchen should be without. A trusted authority on baking, Beth Hensperger has brought together hundreds of time-tested recipes, both classic and intriguingly original. The Bread Bible represents the cream of the crop culled from her substantial repertoire of recipes. It covers all the traditional favorites from airy wheat to savory rye, plus regional specialties from around the world, extravagant pancakes, golden brioches, flatbreads, focaccia, pizza dough, sourdough, dinner rolls, dessert breads, strudels, breakfasts buns, herb baguettes, peasant breads.... Name your favorite specialty, The Bread Bible offers a foolproof, step-by-step, easy-to-follow recipe for it. Busy cooks will also appreciate the excellent selection of recipes for bread machines and food processors. Nothing says home like fresh bread warm from the oven, and until now, no book has offered so many delightful ways to say it.
Customer Reviews:
Yum.......2007-07-25
These are great breads: relatively simple to make with absolutely great doughs. If you bake much bread, you will recognize the wonderful quality of her dough - firm, easy to handle, with that wonderful yeast tang.
This book belongs in the kitchen of every serious baker. New to breads? This is a great place to begin.
Be a hero..........2005-11-13
...bake the pumpkin bread for your next group meeting.
I'm not kidding. I've seen people's eyes roll back in their head eating this bread. Or the scones.
beautiful bread.......2005-08-26
This book is a favorite in my collection. As a professional chef I saerch out and use the recipes that provide dependable results. I have yet to be let down by this book.
My favorite bread cookbook.......2004-07-20
I really enjoy this cookbook; I cook the banana bread recipe from this every time I get 3 mashy bananas. I keep running through different recipes, and I've still not gotten a bread disaster. I tend to mostly use my bread machine's dough cycle, and form the bread myself, but since I got a higher quality bread machine, the recipes are also working fabulously in the various machine cycles. I highly recommend this book; lack of illustrations seem to bother some, but it's not really been an issue for me.
A Bible for the Home, but not for the Seminary.......2004-01-17
This is the first of two books by the same name `The Bread Bible' written by Beth Hensperger and published by Chronicle Books in 1999. The second book with this title, written by Rose Levy Beranbaum and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2003 I have reviewed earlier, before I discovered this title.
This occurrence is actually a rare good fortune, as it gives us a chance to compare two essays of exactly the same subject and pick that effort which does the better job on the subject. Both authors appear to have ample credentials for the chuzpah required to write a book with such a pretentious title. Ms. Hensperger has written five other books on bread baking and Ms. Beranbaum has written three other large, well received books on baking, two of which are also `bibles' on their topics.
Ms. Hensperger gives us 473 pages of text and 21 pages of index at $32.50 while Ms. Beranbaum gives us 608 pages of text and 21 pages of index for $35.00. Ms. Hensperger gives us 25 very useful introductory pages on equipment, flour, and general techniques. Ms. Beranbaum gives us 62 pages of what I considered to be a model of culinary writing on the ten essential steps to making bread. This is the first sign that Ms. Beranbaum is aiming at a much more sophisticated audience than Ms. Hensperger.
Ms. Hensperger gives us no color photographs or diagrams illustrating techniques. The few line drawings seem to be primarily for decoration. Ms. Beranbaum's book provides four sections of full color photographs of the baked products essayed in the book. She also provides many pages of expertly done line drawings illustrating baking techniques such as the `business letter fold', layering foccacia with herbs, and making sticky buns. Other line drawings give very good pictures of baking equipment.
Ms. Hensperger's Table of Contents with the name of each and every recipe spelled out is much more to my taste than Ms. Beranbaum's simple chapter headings. Fitting Ms. Hensperger's home baker orientation, she has two whole chapters devoted to using a food processor and a bread machine for bread recipes. Ms. Beranbaum discusses bread machines, finds useful things they can do, but ultimately keeps them on the sidelines due to their small capacity and the tendency of most to heat the dough, causing a too fast rise in the dough for optimum taste. Rose is certainly not a Luddite, as she makes extensive use of the KitchenAid stand mixer and its big brother the Hobart stand mixer. I prefer to not use bread machines. If you are comfortable with them, Ms. Hensperger may have more to offer you.
It is no surprise that both authors deal with brioche. Ms. Hensperger includes four recipes for brioche and three variations. All are embedded in a chapter on egg breads including Challah. Ms. Beranbaum devotes a whole chapter of 45 pages to brioche, including Challah, cinnamon buns, panettone, and a provocatively named `stud muffin'. Lots of variations on each recipe are given. As with all recipes, Ms. Beranbaum's approach is much more detailed and precise. The most obvious sign is that all of Rose's recipes give ingredients in both volume and weight in imperial and metric units. This feature alone would swing my choice in favor of Ms. Beranbaum's work. Another example of Rose's precision is that she specifies the high gluten brands of all-purpose flour rather than simple `all-purpose flour. I am constantly amazed at the variety in recipes for brioche. Like every other authoritative recipe, both recommend an overnight rise, but the two recipes start the sponge in much different ways, with Ms. Beranbaum using a much more finicky approach, being very careful to avoid exposing the yeast in the sponge to salt than Ms. Hensperger. When separating the dough to be put into molds, Ms. Hensperger is unconcerned about differences in size. Ms. Beranbaum is not compulsive about same sizes, but does recommend a scale to achieve uniform amounts of dough in the molds.
Neither author oversimplifies her procedures, but Rose Beranbaum consistently gives a much more professional instruction and a deeper understanding about what is going on along the way. Both have an ample amount of passion and love for what they are doing. If you are a home baker and can find Ms. Hensperger's book at a good discount, you will not go wrong. If you are a baking hobbyist or even aspiring to being a professional baker, then Ms. Beranbaum's book is the one you want. Both are excellent. Ms. Beranbaum and her publishers seem to have invested much more energy, money, and precision into their volume.
Judging from other reviewers comments, some errors have been detected in this book. The same is true of Ms Beranbaum's book. This issue is a wash and I have stopped holding a small number of minor errors like that against cookbooks.
Book Description
The ultimate guide to bread baking from around the world, including a unique directory of the breads found in every country, and with over 100 easy-to-follow recipes to make at home, from authentic French baguettes and Italian ciabtta to Irish sourdough.
Customer Reviews:
The Best for th accomplished cook.......2006-08-11
I received this great publication from a Pastry Chef friend who, although offering some reservations, said it is not for the common household cook and would not be #1 for a Pastry chef, it is excellent for those who are passionate about correct recipies. It is short on full descriptions because the author assumes you know the basics about pastries and do not need to be re-introduced to proper "Kneading" and "raising climate". If you need that, buy a basic Julia Child publication. If you want a truly indepth Baking journal that is designed for those who are already accomplished cooks, you will never find one more complete and accurate.
Not really a Bible.......1999-12-29
I just received this book as a Christmas gift and I can't really say that I'm impressed with it. The recipes sound good, but the instructions aren't that great. I think they could be a lot more descriptive. Also, it doesn't seem to be edited really well, a lot of the phrases are disconnected and make the directions or ingredients hard to understand. Luckily I have "Baking with Julia" so I can get the instructions from that, and use the ingredients from these recipes. All in all, I wouldn't have paid for it, but it's not a totally bad book, but you have to either know what you are supposed to do, or have another book to look it up. I would definately recommend the "Baking With Julia" instead of this one.
Book Description
Indulge yourself with this sumptuous book of all things chocolate.
Book Description
Over 300 delicious, easy-to-make recipes for fabulous home baking. Teatime cookies, kids' party cookies, chocolate indulgences, healthy options and no-bake treats, all shown step-by-step in over 1500 gorgeous colour photographs.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT AS ALWAYS:.......2007-08-21
I just love shopping at Amazon. I have always received my purchases fast. They are in excellent condition. They are true to their sellers discriptions. If you have never shopped with Amazon, you are missing out on a truly reliable and reputable site.
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Cakes
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
The Pie and Pastry Bible
The Bread Bible
Cakes to Dream On: A Master Class in Decorating
Wedding Cakes You Can Make: Designing, Baking, and Decorating the Perfect Wedding Cake
Rose's Christmas Cookies
