Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule

Book Description

The hosts of the vegan cooking show The Post Punk Kitchen are back with a vengeance — and this time, dessert. A companion volume to Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is a sweet and sassy guide to baking everyone’s favorite treat without using any animal products. This unique cookbook contains over 50 recipes for cupcakes and frostings — some innovative, some classics — with beautiful full color photographs.

Isa and Terry offer delicious, cheap, dairy-free, egg-free and vegan-friendly recipes like Classic Vanilla Cupcakes (with chocolate frosting), Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes (red velvet with creamy white frosting), Linzer Torte Cupcakes (hazelnut with raspberry and chocolate ganache), Chai Latte Cupcakes (with powdered sugar) and Banana Split Cupcakes (banana-chocolate chip-pineapple with fluffy frosting). Included also are gluten-free recipes, decorating tips, baking guidelines, vegan shopping advice, and Isa’s true cupcake anecdotes from the trenches. When Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, no dessert lover can resist.

Customer Reviews:

I love this book..........2007-10-10

This is a wonderful cupcake book. I am so pleased with it. The cupcakes are delicious. The recipes are easy to follow and the directions are precise.

If I could give it ten stars, I would........2007-10-08

The book sold me on the photos alone, but the recipes do not disappoint. Never has vegan baking been so invisibly delicious, so perfectly dressed up as the richest, most indulgent lacto-ovo baking, totally indetectable to those not in the know. I've made the vanilla (vegan cream cheese frosting), chocolate (peanut buttercream), pineapple (pineapple topping), tiramisu (holy crap), pistachio rosewater (with rosewater buttercream), and dulce sin leche cupcakes (with a squirt of my own coconut caramel in the middle, lemony buttercream, toasted coconut, and caramel doodads on top). Every single cupcake has been moaning-aloud-in-obscene-pleasure delicious. The rise is perfect, the crumb is tender and soft without a trace of the gumminess associated with vegan baking, and the frostings are pure sin (or heaven, whatever). I've had to hide this book from myself to stay focused on school and stop making cupcakes already.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World! They really do!.......2007-10-07

AWESOME book!
The recipes were very easy and I loved that for the few rare ingredients that were needed, easy to find alternatives were suggested. As for the taste? Several of these recipes beat normal cupcakes hands down anyday! If you're vegan, (even if you're not!) and are looking for some sweet treats, this is one sweet book you have to buy.
Very satisfied! Thank you!

I COULD EAT THIS BOOK!.......2007-10-05

Buy this book now! DO NOT HESITATE! It is perfect! I even have a cupcake tattoo of one of the cupcakes! The coconut lime! It's to die for! The chocolate stout cupcakes amazed everyone, and they are perfect if you are in a pinch and don't have time to make frosting! My kids flipped over the cookies & cream cupcakes! I am anxious to try the pumpkin choc. chip for fall. The green tea cupcake would be so perfect for a bridal, or baby shower, they're so elegant. The next one I will try is the Brooklyn vs. Boston cream pie, they have a creamy custard filling! If you LOVE cupcakes YOU WILL LOVE THIS COOKBOOK!!!! It doens't matter if you are vegan or not, that would be a ridiculous reason to shun this book. People CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE!!!! Plus, they are about a million percent HEALTHIER!

Yum.......2007-10-05

This book is fabulous! So far I've only made the basic chocolate cupcakes with the chocolate ganache frosting, but they were awesome. I am looking forward to making all of these cupcakes.

More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen

Average customer rating:

great cupcake recipe and icing
Disappointed
The Best Buy!
Suggestion...
More from Magnolia

More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen
Allysa Torey
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743246616

Amazon.com

Located in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, the near-shoebox-size Magnolia Bakery has become a destination for lovers of all-things sweet. The reason? From the beginning its owner Allysa Torey and her staff have offered cakes (and particularly cupcakes), pies, and other pastries that are utterly unpretentious but deeply satisfying in a grandmother-would-have-made-it-if-she-could-have way. More from Magnolia Torey's second book, adds to her already impressive recipe roster 75 formulas that range from Pear Streusel Breakfast Buns, and Pumpkin Walnut Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting, to Chocolate Pecan Pudding Pie, and Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Included also are recipes for signature specialties like Magnolia's Chocolate Cupcakes and famous banana pudding, plus a section on frostings and sauces. All are easy to do, even for beginning bakers, and all have the straightforward Magnolia appeal. --Arthur Boehm

Book Description

A cupcake can change your life. Ever since Magnolia Bakery opened its doors in 1996, people have been lining up day and night to satisfy their sugar cravings -- patiently waiting in line at the old-fashioned yet funky bake shop to buy cupcakes, layer cakes, pudding, and ice cream, much to the surprise and delight of owner Allysa Torey. Now, from the baker who brought cupcakes to everyone's attention, come even more recipes from Greenwich Village's favorite bakery and her home kitchen.

Whether it's a birthday cake, weekend breakfast treats, or sweets for a bake sale, you'll find simple and delicious recipes to delight family and friends on all occasions in More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World-Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen. Beginning with the ever-popular cupcakes and frostings, you'll find the much-requested recipes for the mouthwatering Magnolia's Famous Banana Pudding and sinfully rich Red Velvet Cake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting, all with helpful hints that let you achieve the same sweet results as the bakery. In the well-loved Magnolia style, Allysa Torey brings you new twists on old favorites, such as Devil's Food Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting, Peaches and Cream Pie with Sugar Cookie Crust, and Apple Tart with Hazelnut Brown Sugar Topping. You'll also find breakfast treats like Cream Cheese Crumb Buns and Blueberry Coffee Cake with Vanilla Glaze; and afternoon snacks like Black Bottom Cupcakes, Walnut Brown Sugar Squares, and Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. From Banana Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing to Heavenly Hash Ice Cream Pie, these are the desserts that Allysa makes for friends and family at home -- unfussy, straightforward, and simply delicious.

Illustrated with eight pages of beautiful color photographs, as well as black-and-white stills that capture the daily life of the bakery, More from Magnolia is an irresistible collection of new classics that will inspire you to fill your kitchen with sweet things.

Customer Reviews:

great cupcake recipe and icing.......2007-03-28

i made abt 4 recipes before posting - vanilla cupcake, chocolate cupcake, strawberry shortcake, black bottom cupcake, apple cake with butterscotch frosting and vanilla icing/buttercream. great blackbottomed and vanilla cupcake recipe. very good icing recipe. the choc cupcake was dry and tasteless -- rather do the blackbottomed cupcake recipe without cream cheese as choc cupcake. very very basic cake recipes - heavy cakes with no sophisticated tastes. all the cakes rose very well but they were all flour-heavy and came out really heavy. they hold their shape well. i recommend the "cake bible" by rose for cakes instead. the strawberry shortcake in this book called for a 3 layered cake with whipped cream, if served a few hours before eating, the whipped cream does not hold up well. "the cabke bible" will take situations like these under advisement, which i have always appreciated.

very good for beginner bakers, very encouraging results. wonderfully written. it provides me with new ideas on baking :) but for more sophisticated tastes/scents/texture, go for an advanced book. :) the only reason i gave it 3 stars is because the recipes were a bit overly simplistic for my tastes. it is a good book for a quick bake (at nights for tomorrow's events), instead of a nice cake taking a few days to assemble.

Disappointed.......2007-03-09

Based on the reputation of this bakery, I purchased the book. I made 2 recipes from this book so far and have been very disappointed. Looks like this one will gather dust on the shelf.

The Best Buy!.......2007-03-09

This is one of the simplest recipe books that I have ever purchased...AND OFCOURSE THE BEST! I have made several things from it and they have turned out delicious every single time. It is one of my best investments in a cupcake recipe book!

Suggestion..........2007-02-06

I've found that the reviews for this (and other) magnolia books seem to be very polarized. Professional cooks with years of experience getting terrible results and novice bakers getting fabulous results? If you're trying to decide like I was try making the cupcakes before buying the book. The vanilla cupcake recipe can be found on martha stewart's website, just search for magnolia. For me it turned out great, not quite as good as the bakery itself, but as close as I can expect from my junky oven. If you make them and like them, buy the book. If you make them and think they're terrible maybe the book is not for you...

More from Magnolia.......2007-01-23

This is a great cookbook....Everything I've made in this book has been a success .....Everyone needs this cookbook for any deserts they might make...You can't go wrong with it......

Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World

Average customer rating:

Food porn for bakers
great! Great! GREAT!
absolutely amazing
My favorite cookbook
A cookbook of global bread recipes

Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World
Jeffrey Alford , and Naomi Duguid
Manufacturer: Artisan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1579651747

Amazon.com

In books including Seductions of Rice and the award-winning Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid offered a new kind of cookbook--part anthropological portrait, part recipe source, part travel memoir (with photos taken by the pair), and in all, fascinating as well as useful. Their Home Baking is differently pitched. Though the authors have traveled to places including Russia, Hong Kong, and Australia, to bring back traditional baking formulas from their sources, they've also relied on home favorites plus other cookbooks whose recipes they admire. If the book lacks the layered scope, depth, and something of the interest of their former works, it nonetheless delivers unique goods--over 200 accessible recipes for savory and sweet goods like Nigella-Date Hearth Breads, Provincial Quince Loaf, Silk Road Non (a version of nan), Taipei Coconut Buns, and There-Layer Walnut Torte Whipped Cream. Fans of the authors, plus those new to the Alford and Duguid approach, will find much to explore and bake from here, as well as a beautiful, color-photo-studded volume in the A. and D. tradition.

Arranged by concepts such as Family Breads and All-Around-the-World Cookies, the book also offers food and travel asides such as Kisses from Brazil (about the skillet bread called beji, "kiss" in Portuguese), as well as informative headnotes that set each dish in context. (It should be mentioned that these notes and others are written in the first-person singular, but are unsigned or otherwise credited.) There are technical notes like those for bread making that guide bakers in the relaxed Alford and Duguid fashion, and where necessary, useful equipment discussion. There is also an eccentric entry or two, including a high-altitude recipe for chocolate chip cookies. But, ultimately, it's the unusual, traveled-derived formulas that make the book so worthy. --Arthur Boehm

Book Description

Home baking may be a humble art, but its roots are deeply planted. On an island in Sweden a grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to make slagbrot, a velvety rye bread, just as she ws taught to make it by her grandmother many years before. In Portugal, village women meet once each week to bake at a community oven; while the large stone oven heats up, children come running for sweet, sugary flatbreads made specially for them. In Toronto, Naomi makes her grandmother's recipe for treacle tart and Jeffrey makes the truck-stop cinnamon buns he and his father loved.

From savory pies to sweet buns, from crusty loaves to birthday cake, from old-world apple pie to peanut cookies to custard tarts, these recipes capture the age-old rhythm of turning simple ingredients into something wonderful to eat. HomeBakingrekindles the simple pleasure of working with your hands to feed your family. And it ratchets down the competitive demands we place on ourselves as home cooks. Because in striving for professional results we lose touch with the pleasures of the process, with the homey and imperfect, with the satisfaction of knowing that you can, as a matter of course, prepare something lovely and delicious, and always have a full cookie jar or some homemade cake on hand to offer.

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid collected the recipes in HomeBaking at their source, from farmhouse kitchens in northern France to bazaars in Fez. They traveled tens of thousands of miles, to six continents, in search of everyday gems such as Taipei Coconut Buns, Welsh Cakes, Moroccan Biscotti, and Tibetan Overnight Skillet Breads. They tasted, interpreted, photographed and captured not just the recipes, but the people who made them as well. Then they took these spot-on flavors of far away and put them side by side with cherished recipes from friends and family closer to home. The result is a collection of treasures: cherry strudel from Hungary, stollen from Germany, bread pudding from Vietnam, anise crackers from Barcelona. More than two hundred recipes that resonate with the joys and flavors of everyday baking at home and around the world.

Inexperienced home bakers can confidently pass through the kitchen doors armed with Naomi and Jeffrey's calming and easy-to-follow recipes. A relaxed, easy-handed approach to baking is, they insist, as much a part of home baking traditions as are the recipes themselves. In fact it's often the last-minute recipes—semonlina crackers, a free-form fruit galette, or a banana-coconut loaf—that offer the most unexpected delights. Although many of the sweets and savories included here are the products of age-old oral traditions, the recipes themselves have been carefully developed and tested, designed for the home baker in a home kitchen.

Like the authors' previous books, HomeBaking offers a glorious combination of travel and great tastes, with recipes rich in anecdote, insightful photographs, and an inviting text that explores the diverse baking traditions of the people who share our world. This is a book to have in the kitchen and then again by your bed at night, to revisit over and over.

Customer Reviews:

Food porn for bakers.......2007-09-13

I kind of have to take exception to the previous review that described this as a good introduction to baking; in some ways it's a mile wide and a foot deep, covering baking from all over the world without really going in depth. I don't see anything wrong with that, but it does change the apparent focus of the book. Now, the review.

Alford and Duguid first came to my attention as contributors on Julia Child's last great series, Baking with Julia, in the late 1990s. For the most part, they were her flatbread specialists on the show, and while it's hardly their focus, flatbreads do get a whole chapter in this book (along with an entirely different chapter on skillet breads). What this book excels at is the startling variety of baking-related cultural microcosms it presents, in the form of recipes, essays, and photography -- as I type this sentence, for example, two facing pages present a roomful of loaves proofing in a bakery in Crete and a series of salt evaporation pools in France, and other parts of the book include authors' remniscences of growing up and their travels, as well as product shots of styles of baked goods as varied as Amish pies, Montreal bagels, French pissaladière, and Vietnamese baguettes.

The necessary technical data is all there, but also an entire specialized recipe index with the recipes categorized by occasion. The downside here, if there is one, is the above-mentioned diversity -- by showing a couple recipes from here, a couple recipes from there, the book does not wind up going in depth into any particular style of baking. To the extent that this is true, it doesn't really represent a real problem, except perhaps to a beginning baker who might need more of a focus on the basics. There is a lot of material in this book, and really it's all good.

So for a beginning baker, you may wish to have something else to teach you all the basics... but you'll want this eventually. It's just that good, especially if you like stories and pictures in your cookbooks.

great! Great! GREAT!.......2007-03-18

I have been working my way through this book, page by delicious picture page. The recipes and stories make me feel like I am with the author on their travels. I will definitely be getting the hot, sour, salty book from these authors. They really know food, true foodies! Not a Hollywood chef, real, substantial...a must read! One of the best cookbooks in my library of over 100!

absolutely amazing.......2006-12-02

Beautiful food, beautiful book. Try the Beirut Tahini Rolls - and everything else.

My favorite cookbook.......2005-06-24

This is a beautiful cookbook. The recipes are wonderful, and the stories and photographs that accompany them convey deep respect for the local culture. I have given four copies as gifts so far, and they have been very well received. The Russian apple pancake and Persian cardamom cookies are particularly outstanding.

A cookbook of global bread recipes.......2005-04-10

Home Baking: The Artful Mix Of Flour And Tradition Around The World is a cookbook of global bread recipes, from sweet pies and tarts to festive breads, bagels, flatbreads, a variety of cakes and cookies, and much more. Full-color photographs of not only the treasured recipes, but the daily lives of people worldwide who make them add a delightful visual dimension to this down-to-earth presentation, which walks novice bakers through the basic steps and processes involved in various types of bread preparations. An enriching contribution to any homemaker's kitchen and especially welcome for aspiring bakers who want to see, sample, and create a wide variety bread cuisines.

A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World

Average customer rating:

Bread as a religious experience
Inspiring and incredibly thorough.
Learning about the world from this book in your kitchen
A Blessing of Bread has changed my life.
Excellent Bread Making Book

A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World
Maggie Glezer
Manufacturer: Artisan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Kosher | Special Diet | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 1579652107

Book Description

A Blessing of Bread grew out of an interview that author Maggie Glezer conducted with a rabbi's wife about the symbolism of challah, that bakery staple deeply rooted in Jewish traditions. Captivated by the myriad meanings in every twist of the bread's braid, she spent years doing research and recipe testing. The result is this landmark guide to the amazing variety of Jewish breads found in communities all over the world, from Guatemala to Russia and everywhere in between.

In it are more than 60 impeccably tested recipes both old and new, for challah and other Sabbath and holiday loaves and an exploration of the rich symbolism of their hisory, the rituals governing their baking and eating, and the sacred texts and commentaries from which these rituals derive.

There are best-ever recipes for babka and honey cake, bagels, matzot, crackers, and everyday breads such as Jewish-deli rye. It is also loaded with totally unexpected breads that thrill, such as anise, almond, and sesame-studded Moroccan Purim bread; the spiced and leaf-wrapped Ehtiopian bereketei (whole wheat Sabbath bread); and the pitalike nooni honegi of the Bukharan Jews. Oral histories, ancient legends, shtetl folktales, aphorisms, and proverbs delight and inspire, and stories of grandmothers and great-grandmothers that recall life as it once was complete this volume, the most in-depth and wide-ranging one ever published on the subject.

Customer Reviews:

Bread as a religious experience.......2007-06-15

Maggie Glezer's labor of love "A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around The World" is truly that: a blessing. Not just a survey of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, North African, and Near Eastern breadmaking traditions, she also sprinkles in family stories, folktales, Yiddish proverbs, and prayers, including a section on the mitzvah of challah.

In accordance with Jewish law, bread that is baked with 2 pounds 10 ounces or more of wheat, rye, barley, spelt or oats must be separated and blessed, with a portion of dough, the challah, to be burned as an offering to G-d. For observant bakers, Glezer has included two versions of most recipes, a regular one that yields 1-2 loaves and a recipe calling for five pounds of flour so that the dough may be separated and blessed (depending on which Talmudic authority you follow, the required amount for the separation / blessing of challah varies from 2 pounds 10 ounces to over 5 pounds).

In addition to providing the blessing for Challah, Glezer also includes the Hebrew Shabbat blessings of the washing of hands and Hamotzi (Blessing of Bread).

On to the recipes themselves: divided by region, there are numerous challahs, from the relatively plain Lithuanian Challah (no sugar or eggs) to Doris Koplin's Sweet Challah, liberally glazed with confectioner's sugar, maraschino cherries, raisins, and pecans. My first challah from this book was the Russian Challah, and I plan to try a new challah recipe each Shabbat until I find a new family favorite. For those of you who enjoy working with sourdough, nearly every recipe has a sourdough version available. Although I've yet to experiment with sourdough starters, I appreciated the versatility.

In addition to challah, there are also yeast breads like the Polish coffeecake Babka, an onion and poppyseed Purim ring, onion rounds, bagels, and Hungarian walnut and poppyseed pastries. From the Sephardic tradition, we have the Churek, Greek walnut and currant rolls, and the intriguing Pan de Calabaza (Pumpkin bread). North African recipes include whole wheat Sabbath Bereketei, the incredibly ornate Chubzeh, and Rarif (Egyptian Cheese Rolls). From the East, Persian and Iraqi flatbreads, pitas, several Yemenite recipes for pancakes and smoked preserved butter, Israeli matzoh, and Syrian and Iraqi pastries.

The preface also includes an incredibly detailed guide to braiding challah, from a simple single strand braid to a challenging nine-strand compound braid, along with folkloric shapes like little birds, braided wreaths, pinwheels, key challah, ladder challah for Shavuot, and hand challah.

Inspiring and incredibly thorough........2006-10-08

Wow, this woman has really taken the time to research and record everything you could want to know about Jewish baking. She takes baking to a whole new level. So far I have made one challah recipe two times, and it was absolutely fantastic. She details all sorts of different types of challot based on regions. I plan to make one that would have originated from my grandparent's region back in Eastern Europe. Who knows if they would have made this challah, but it's fun to feel the connection. The recipe for bagels is not for the faint of heart! My only criticism, and it is slight, is I wish she had a couple of recipes for some of the other baked goods. She has one honey cake recipe, but I would like 2 or 3 to choose from. But I am so glad this book is in my collection. Even if you don't bake a thing, you will find it inspiring!

Learning about the world from this book in your kitchen.......2006-03-22

Other reviewers have written in glowing terms about the results of using the recipes in "A Blessing of Bread:...," and while I agree with their conclusions, I feel obliged to comment on another aspect of the book that impresses me. I am impressed--make that amazed, at how Ms. Glezer has traced so many of her recipes' histories back to their origins. Reading her book is almost like getting an insider's view of Jewish kitchens around the world. Another thoughtful part of the book is the list of sources for unusual or hard-to-find ingredients used in many of the recipes. Such a list might not be particularly useful to readers in New York or Los Angeles, but for me, a resident of greater metropolitan Boise, it is a must-have if I want to actually make some of the more esoteric offerings of this great book. All I can say is "Thanks, Maggie Glezer!"

A Blessing of Bread has changed my life........2006-03-21

I use A Blessing of Bread every week when I bake challah, something I never did before I received this book. The instructions are clear and the recipes produce the most divine bread I've ever eaten. Family and friends rave about the bread I bake, and I know it's not because I have a special talent; I have this very special book that I adore using. In addition to wonderful recipes for breads from around the world, the book tells the stories of the people whose recipes fill the volume. History, tradition and a large cup of love accompany every page.

Excellent Bread Making Book.......2005-08-14

I really enjoy this book. I like the sourdough section in it. There's a comprehensive making a sourdough starter from scratch section along with 9 sourdough bread recipes.

A Baker's Tour: Nick Malgieri's Favorite Baking Recipes from Around the World

Average customer rating:

Very pleased with this purchase.
Great Cookbook
Excellent Selection of Interesting Baking Projects. Buy It.

A Baker's Tour: Nick Malgieri's Favorite Baking Recipes from Around the World
Nick Malgieri
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060582634
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Amazon.com

Nick Malgieri, James Beard Award-winning author of How to Bake, is first and foremost a teacher. He directs the baking program at New York City's Institute of Culinary Education, so he knows the questions before they are asked--a neat trick when you sit down to write a cookbook for a general audience. With A Baker's Tour Malgieri presents over 100 recipes for breads, cookies, cakes, pies and tarts, puff, savory, and fried pastry, even dim sum from around the world. What might normally be an alarming proposition, baking the unfamiliar in an American kitchen, becomes a journey of discovery in Malgieri's capable hands. He answers the questions before they are asked.

A Baker's Tour is divided into chapters based on the kind of baking, not the country of origin. After brief words on ingredients and equipment that will come in handy, Malgieri opens with Breads followed by Yeast-Risen Cakes, Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Tarts, Savory Pastries, Puff Pastry, Strudel and Filo Dough, and finally Fried Pastries.

You'll find Ligurian Focaccia you can bake in your oven, not a wood-fired brick behomoth, or Naan for the oven or grill for those who don't have a tandoori oven at home. Prune-Filled Buns, kolache, from eastern Europe and Honey Cakes from western Europe shouldn't be overlooked. Norway's Princess Cream Cake demands an exercise regimen all its own. Egypt's Spicy Meat Pie in a Filo Crust with Yogurt Sauce is as captivating as China's Barbecue Pork Buns (cha shao bao).

There's a world of baking between the covers of A Baker's Tour. Your tastebud-driven curiosity is your passport. Let Nick Malgieri be your guide. --Schuyler Ingle

Book Description

Nick Malgieri has journeyed far and wide during his thirty-plus years working as a professional baker. His experiences abroad have always informed the flavors and techniques of his recipes. Now the award winning master baker transports the world's greatest kitchens and bakeries to your home with this inspired gathering of more than one hundred cookies, cakes, breads, sweet and savory pastries, pies, and tarts, from the baking traditions of thirty-nine countries.

Look no further for chewy naan from India, rich chocolate Millennium Torte from Vienna, and crisp cannoli from Sicily. With A Baker's Tour at your fingertips, you don't have to tour Monaco for Prince Albert's puff pastry cake, Poland for the lightest, most flavorful babka, or Argentina for perfectly seasoned beef empanadas -- you don't even have to go to country-specific cookbooks.

The recipes here range from casual to sophisticated, and all have been adapted for American use, ensuring consistent, delicious results without sacrificing flavor. Supplemented by illuminating food facts and anecdotes, and illustrated with gorgeous full-color photographs, Nick Malgieri's A Baker's Tour is a satisfying and educational international collection of inviting, delicious recipes for home cooks and food lovers everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

Very pleased with this purchase........2006-03-02

This is a lovely book with lots of information. I can see that I will be spending many hours reading and enjoying this book, plus Baking! I only purchased this book about a month ago, however, the three recipes I've made have been delicious.
The photography makes you want to start baking and not stop. There's been a lot of work put into this book and it is lovely.

Great Cookbook.......2006-01-13

I attended this class at Sur La Table and Nick Malieri was a guest baking things from this cookbook. I purchased the cookbook and have really enjoyed the recipes. Most of them are easy to make, very user friendly. This is a very nice cookbook.

Excellent Selection of Interesting Baking Projects. Buy It........2005-12-07

`A Baker's Tour' by noted baking author and teacher, Nick Malgieri is the answer to the question `What does a baking writer write when they have already written major books on cookies, chocolate, pastry, and `how to bake'. I suppose that like Rose Levy Beranbaum, you could write a book on bread baking, but bread doesn't seem to be Nick's main thing, so he writes a book on his favorite recipes from around the world.

Malgieri is one of the very best writers from which to learn basic techniques, especially from his book, `Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry', but if that is your primary objective, this book may not be the volume to buy. That is not to say that this is not an extremely well written book. Only that it is designed to present very good recipes for `favorite recipes', where the favorites are not only Nick's favorites, but I suspect that most of these could count among favorites of many people who bake.

One sign that this book is not written for pedagogical effect is the fact that recipes are not organized by similar technique, but by style and use of the final product. For example, recipes for yeasted doughs are spread across the first two chapters instead of being presented together as a basic technique.

This book is comparable to `The best short stories of 20xx' or `The Oxford Book of yyyyy'. It is a collection of recipes into which you will dip when you want something special for entertaining. It is also a great read for people who love to bake. And, it is certainly not without substantial teaching value, except that it should not be your first book on baking.

Malgieri's most important lesson in the book is that baking is an activity in which you really want to take your time, especially if you are an amateur who may be making a recipe for the first time. The next best instructional value to the book is the fact that there is a great variety of different variations on a few basic techniques. While pastry dough is pretty basic, and Malgieri does much to coach you into believing that working with pastry is not a major challenge (Note that I really believe it is a major challenge for those of us who may make a pastry crust once or twice a month.) he also shows us many different variations on the basic French pate brisee. Another major contribution to our baking praxis is his insistence on using the specified size of baking pan. Everyone stresses careful measuring, but too few baking writers stress using exactly the right baking equipment. While none of this is new to me, I did find one genuinely new piece of information on using baking powder in pastry doughs to save the work of prebaking crusts. I have seen baking soda added to pastry, but I have never until now heard the reason why. Note that many recipes include vinegar in pastry doughs and I will offer the opinion that vinegar and baking powder will cancel one another out and potentially make a mess of your dough, so don't mix the two in the same recipe.

The extensive bibliography at the back of the book makes it seem that our Nick culled these recipes from his library, but his headnotes clear this up and offer ample evidence that Malgieri literally collected these recipes, or at least the inspirations for these recipes from actual travels around the world.

A glance at the list of recipes by country amply confirms the fact that mainland Western Europe, specifically France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy are the world's `baking central' as almost half of all recipes come from these four (4) countries.

Incidental tips and pep talks are not enough to convince me to buy this kind of book. I will take the tip about baking powder in crusts to my grave, as it easily fits into all I know about pastry, so it will not be forgotten, and I don't need a copy of the book to remind me of that. On the other hand, the book has an excellent chapter on savory baking recipes and this is why I would buy this book. I would even buy the book for the single Chinese recipe for `Cha Shao Bao' (Barbecued Pork Buns). These little bundles of goodness are absolutely the most outstandingly yummy finger food I can imagine. But they require quite a bit of time and expertise to make. So, having a recipe by an expert baker for this appetizer is a real plus. Accompanying this are savory recipes for both Mexican and Argentinean empanadas, Australian sausage rolls, Japanese salty and sweet rice crackers, Italian ham and cheese filled brioche, Italian salty ring biscuits, Russian cabbage pie, Spanish fish pies, Egyptian spicy meat pies, Italian zucchini pies, Italian ham and cheese pie, French onion tart, South African curried beef tart, and Swiss cheese tart. There is even a recipe from the very difficult to find cookbook of Alice B. Toklas of hashish brownie fame.

One reason an inexperienced cook may want to put this book on the back burner is the fact that I detected a few minor lapses in the cooking instructions. Fortunately, they were in the preparation of savory ingredients rather than in the baking. There was a time when I would literally gig a book an entire star for such a lapse, but I have seen it so often in otherwise excellent books that I simply warn readers to keep their mind thoroughly engaged when following cooking instructions. I have always had success with Malgieri recipes and I go to his books first when looking for a recipe for a new preparation.

Highly recommended as reading and recipe source for the baker with some experience.

Country Breads of the World: Eighty-Eight of the World's Best Recipes for Baking Bread

Average customer rating:

The best multigrain bread book I own
One of the best books on country breads!
A Definite Must Have for Your Bread-baking Library
Excellent bedside bread book
10 star must own bread book

Country Breads of the World: Eighty-Eight of the World's Best Recipes for Baking Bread
Linda Collister , and Anthony Blake
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585741124

Book Description

A beautiful full-color guide to country bread making.

Customer Reviews:

The best multigrain bread book I own.......2007-05-15

This book inspired me to buy a grain mill and start pestering my local natural-foods store to carry whole grains. I baked good bread before, but freshly ground grain makes a huge difference. The profiles of the bakers here are fascinating, the pictures are enticing, and the recipes and techniques really work. Too bad the book seems to be out of print; I hope it is reprinted soon.

One of the best books on country breads!.......2007-05-12

This book contains great photos and great recipes! I am an artisan bread baker and this book comes off my shelf again and again. The recipes are all hearty country loaves from around the world. Its a great read with interesting profiles on bakeries - and breads from around the world. From New England USA to Germany to India. There is not a lot of extra info in this book, Linda gets right down to the stuff we want to know about - baking bread! Buy it - you won't be disappointed!

A Definite Must Have for Your Bread-baking Library.......2005-03-20

This is a beautiful book and contains a very eclectic mix of recipes. The directions are clear and concise, the pictures are beautiful and provide some visuals for those who like to see what things should look like. I do wish that Collister had provided a dry yeast alternative in some of the recipes that call for cake yeast, but that's not major enough to downgrade the book. Collister concentrates on English mills, but again that's not a big deal. I'd definitely recommend this book as a wonderful addition to your baking library.

Excellent bedside bread book.......2004-10-15

After having been initially inspired to bake bread by Jamie Oliver, I progressed to this book. I have spent many hours digesting the wealth of interest and information in "Country Breads", and have had many successes with the recipes, I have actually had many requests to bring bread to work. My only complaint with the book would be that it is a little England-centric. It goes on and on about the Shipton Mill and its flour, and some of this flour is specified in recipes. Shipton Mill is a little far away from Melbourne, Australia! My favourite recipes are: the rye "Pain de Reucht", the baguettes made from a 'poolish', and the San Francisco Sourdough. I would certainly recommend the book as it has taught me a great deal, although only as a third or fourth book purchase on bread baking, not as a 'Bread Bible'.

10 star must own bread book.......2002-12-06

I own and use a variety of cookbooks almost daily since we have eclectic international tastes. And baking bread is something I do the old fashioned way a few times per week. There is nothing as sumptuous as the smell of bread baking or the taste of a warm piece of bread slathered in real butter. And the heartier the better. None of the light as air no substance white bread for me.

And this book is a bread bakers delight and a big book packed with luscious photos as well as step by step directions for breads from dozens of countries. They even have glutten free bread recipes.

Some of my favorites are the Sunflower seed and olive bread on page 20, mixed grain sunflower loaf on page 19,Huron or whole wheat berry bread on page 27, rye bread with dry fruit on page 43, the various rye breads, stout and oat bread, and the green tea bread. And I really love the Lincolnshire recipes from England and of course Lusesekatts from Sweden which we will be savoring this week during celebration of St Lucia.

This is one of my all time favorite sit in a comfy chair near the fire with candle burning and plan for my next bake bread day books............. And it would make an excellent gift for any bread baking novice or master baker.

Average customer rating:
A World of Breads a Most Complete Guide to the Making and Baking of Good Breads, in Six Hundred Recipes From the World Over

Manufacturer: david white company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H70O5C

Average customer rating:

The Story of a Snack That Continues to Endure

Fun Fun Fun

Buy this book and give it to all your friends for Christmas

MoonPie: Biography of an Out-of-This-World Snack
David Magee
Manufacturer: Jefferson Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
South | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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The South Is Round: Contemplations of a 21st Century Redneck

Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class

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ASIN: 0971897484

Book Description

The story of the iconic MoonPie provides the framework for this unusual historical biography of the South and its most revered snack. Developed in 1917 in response to coal miners' request for a filling—yet portable—snack, the MoonPie quickly became a favorite treat countrywide, with particular appeal in the South. This clever narrative chronicles the long and arduous path the lunar confection has traveled during the past 75 years—including bouts with economic depression, war, recessions, conglomerate competition, and changing generational tastes—and its enduring popularity almost a century later.

Customer Reviews:

The Story of a Snack That Continues to Endure.......2007-04-20

Growing up in New England, I had never heard of a Moon Pie. It wasn't until I met my wife some 25 years ago that I was introduced to the tasty little snack treat that is revered by Southerners. When I found the book on Amazon, I knew I had to buy and read the story of a snack that is so well loved.

The book is an interesting mix of Moon Pie lore, legend and manufacturing information, which is extremely readable and very enjoyable. I learned more about Moon Pies than I think I ever could have thought possible, but like a Moon Pie, I was disappointed when it ended.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves snacks and their histories; particularly the old time snacks found in penny or country stores. This book would make an absolutely wonderful gift to a Southerner who has grown up with this delightful treat!

Fun Fun Fun.......2007-02-03

Fantastic entertainment int the persona of a culture that thrives today. Better than a hybrid of Deliverance and The Coal Miner's Daughter. If you have ever been a fan of an RC Cola and a Moonpie, this is a great read. By the way, Moonpies are still available in stores but also by web order in a variety of flavors and two sizes. RC Cola can be a little harder to find.

Buy this book and give it to all your friends for Christmas.......2006-10-17

This is a book that any fan of Southern cooking would be thrilled to find wrapped under the Christmas tree, maybe next to a box of MoonPies and a case of RC (in glass bottles, of course). The MoonPie is iconic, and Magee tells the story very well. It's a fun book and Magee is an interesting character as he delves into all things MoonPie. It's also a beautifully made book--like the MoonPie itself, it's small enough to hold in your hand and pretty enough to display. It's a pleasure to set a spell with David Magee and the Chattanooga Bakery. Check it out.

1000 Chocolate Baking & Dessert Recipes From Around the World

Average customer rating:

Delicious Recipes
1000 chocolate baking and dessert recipes from around the world
Beautiful Picture Book of Recipes -Suitable for Coffee Table
Let your tastebuds decide
1000 Untested British Recipes

1000 Chocolate Baking & Dessert Recipes From Around the World

Manufacturer: Parragon Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1405401877

Customer Reviews:

Delicious Recipes.......2006-03-16

I really like this book because it has very practical recipes. There is something for everyone in this book & not everything is made with chocolate. There are a lot of fruit desserts.

1000 chocolate baking and dessert recipes from around the world.......2005-06-25

This is a great book,full of many yummy treats and surprises!!! From old fashion chocolate chip cookies to chocolate moose!! Some for the hoildays or just for fun!!! :-) So gets yours NOW!!!!!!

Beautiful Picture Book of Recipes -Suitable for Coffee Table.......2005-02-20

A really beautiful picture book of recipes I wish all cookbooks provided. But as others have said, it is NOT all chocolate. Title should read "1000 Chocolate, Baking and Dessert Recipes." Notice the comma after chocolate. To be honest I knew this before I bought the book. Looked inside the book at a local bookstore before buying. But I didn't look closely at the recipe ingredients before buying.

This cookbook is definitely a compilation of recipes "From Around the World". You will need to have a conversion chart for quantities and volumes. You will also need a translation for ingredient names or a convenient World Market type shopping area to find the ingredients. To be fair, not all recipes require all the work of conversion and translation. Just more than I would like.

The cookbook's content is ALL recipes. No instructions on techniques etc are included except in the recipes themselves. There is a small four page intro and basic recipe discussion but nothing you can call in-depth coverage.

All in all, I would still recommend the cookbook for its cost/value ratio. A thousand recipes with pictures and over one thousand pages should make it worthwhile. Size warning and shipping. Shipping cost is NOT free on this book and it is quite heavy.

Let your tastebuds decide.......2005-01-21

This book is absolutely wonderful!!! As soon as my mother received it as a christmas present, we perused through the pages and were amazed to find that EVERY recipe had thorough directions as well as a colorful glossy picture to show you what your dessert should look like. There is even a quide at the bottom to suggest different replacement of certain ingredients and recommendations.

There are plenty of recipes and styles from different ethnic backgrounds for you to generously try and tips on how to create great decorative accents to your dessert. It has everything from cookies, cakes, pastries, puddings, pies, candies, and even ice cream and drinks. Its amazing to find out how many ways you can use or cook certain foods to come up with a myriad of tasteful treats.

The only thing that may be a bit misleading is the fact that not every recipe uses or has chocolate as an ingredient. And I personally did try the peanut butter cookie recipe and it turned out not so great tasting while following the exact directions in the book.

Overall this book is exactly what the dessert loving person who lacks creative ideas needs. This is a lovely full color book and about 6 inches thick (no joke). Just a quick hint of advice: experiment with the recipe before you bring it out to friends and family members...just in case.

1000 Untested British Recipes.......2004-09-14

If there were a truth in advertising law for cookbooks, this one would be in jail; more than half of the recipes do not contain any chocolate. I give it a very low mark because the title is deceiving and extremely dishonest; chocolate lovers will find slim pickings. In general, I was more impressed with the quantity rather than the quality of the recipes; I would recommend it mainly for fans of British desserts. In spite of the tremendous number of recipes, there are not that many truly useful recipes. The caliber of the recipes was aimed at the average home cook. Even so, one must be careful in choosing recipes, since they are of variable quality. Note that this book was written in Britain, so you have to work your way through things like superfine sugar, palm sugar, whole wheat self-rising flour, Set honey, gelozone, Quark, Ogen melons, elderflower cordial, fruit malt loaf, caster sugar, curd cheese, chopped suet, no-soak dried apricots, ready-to-eat dried apricots, fruits of the forest, dessert apples, smetana, light muscovado sugar, and canned cream rice. The subtitle is "From Around the World", but all of the recipes are certifiably British.

The format of the book was outstanding. Each recipe has its own page, meaning that this weighty tome has more than 1000 pages. Each recipe has a difficulty rating (I disagree with many of them, but at least it has them), execution times, and a picture. The pages are glossy, 4 color affairs. The table of contents is barely there, which is a significant failing in a book where some of the chapters are more than 200 pages long. The index is of no help either, as it is not properly cross referenced, and only lists the full recipe names. One good point, however, is that the photos appear to be genuine attempts to execute the recipes; some have mistakes that probably should have be re-done (the Pithiviers and Creme Brulee are burned; the pictures for Chocolate Shortcake Towers and Tiramisu Layers have an odd, greenish tinge; the meringue for Satsuma & Pecan Pavlova is broken).

In the cookie chapter, a substantial portion of the recipes contain oats. The cake chapter for the most part reflects British fondness for adding fruit (juice, dried, fresh, canned, jam, marmalade) and/or spices (often in excessive amounts) to baked cakes. Typical recipe: Eggless Sponge ("This is a healthy, but still absolutely delicious, variation of the classic sponge layer cake and is suitable for vegans"). This chapter has a few dozen recipes for fruitcake and its cousins. The chapter on Crepes, Loaves, and Pastries is over-laden with fruit-stuffed crepes, fruit-stuffed tea breads, and fruit-stuffed tarts (not to mention the cheesecakes made with tofu). It is especially useless unless you are serving an English High Tea, and virtually devoid of chocolate to boot. The Hot Desserts chapter is mainly for aficionados of fried, boiled, grilled (how many fruit kabob recipes do you really need, anyway?), or baked fruit (yuck; what is wrong with just eating fresh fruit?), and is also devoid of chocolate (from this chapter I conclude that the quality of British fruit is frighteningly low; I live in California, where the fruit quality is some of the best in the world; good quality fruit does not need cooking). This chapter also features a full panoply of rice and British puddings (double yuck), and disappointingly few souffles; the editor could learn a thing or two about fruit crumbles from American cookbooks. The quality of the recipes in the chapter on Cold Desserts is appallingly low and features several trifles; it is also devoid of chocolate. Confusingly, some recipes from this chapter are not served cold out of the refrigerator or freezer, but to be served "cold" at room temperature after cooling off, as opposed to hot out of the oven. The last chapter on confectionery and beverages is the best of the lot.

The results were variable. Some worked perfectly, whereas in others the liquid/flour balance was clearly off. There is no indication as to what measuring method was used for the flour, nor are equivalent weights listed. The instructions to the recipes were a mixed lot: some were OK, while others were clearly wrong. There did not seem to be much testing of the recipes. In general, the instructions were brief and not very helpful. The recipe for Pains au Chocolate is laughably short (similar comment applies to the Pithiviers recipe). The recipe for Spun Sugar Pears is downright dangerous; it recommends making caramelized sugar in the microwave, a big safety no-no.

Average customer rating:

Fifty-Five Best Brownies in the World
Honey Zisman , and Larry Zisman
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Cakes | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Cookies | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312058624

Book Description

Picture a plate of your favorite brownies. Are they packed with milk chocolate an walnuts? Dates and molasses? Peanut butter? Are they covered with chocolate strawberry glaze--or baked into a luscious pastry shell? These and other unspeakably rich, extravagant versions of the traditional chocolate-and-nut classic are the winners of the Nationwide Great American Brownie Bake and have been declared the 55 Best Brownies in the World.Only the author of The 47 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World could have compiled this unbelievable brownie bonanza. With more than 3,500 delicious and imaginative recipes to choose from, they've selected the most heavenly brownies bakeable, all made with back-to-basics ingredients that are both wholesome and outrageously delicious.

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