The Baking Bible

Starred review from July 21, 2014
Beranbaum, a veteran cookbook author and baker, divides this worthy tome into four sections: Cakes; Pies, Tarts, and Other Pastries; Cookies and Candy; Breads and Yeast Pastries. All recipes include weights and volume for ingredients, and the author’s “Golden Rules” give readers essential baking information, such as why one should always use fresh baking powder and high-quality unsalted butter. “Highlights for Success” boxes are filled with inventive and helpful tips including freezing berries on branches. Classic recipes—think pumpkin pecan pie—are aplenty, but first-time recipes and unusual selections such as the author’s Pink Pearl Lady Cake, Cadillac Café’s milk chocolate bread pudding, and an Amish BlueRhu pie make this title a must-have gem.

October 15, 2014
One of the year's most hotly anticipated baking books, from one of the giants of the home-baking category, most definitely lives up to the early enthusiasm. Beranbaumauthor of award winners like The Cake Bible (1988), The Pie and Pastry Bible (1998), and The Bread Bible (2003), among othershas created an indispensable tome for bakers with her latest effort, which covers everything from cakes to pies to cookies to breads. She gently guides readers with dozens of helpful tips and bits of troubleshooting advice. And she provides a minicooking school experience with her Golden Rules of baking that tell readers which ingredients, cooking tools, and practices are best. No book can guarantee kitchen success, of course, but whether you're making her Mango Bango Cheesecake, her Sugar Rose Brioche, or her Sour Cherry Pie, Beranbaum has set readers up for blue ribbons with this all-encompassing guide.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2014

Twice winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year and of the James Beard Award, Beranbaum is your go-to author for baking; her first book, The Cake Bible, is in its 47th printing. Here's a comprehensive guide to baking cakes, tarts, cookies, bread, and more, ranging from Gooseberry Crisp to Mango Bango Cheesecake. With a 45,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2014

Readers expect perfection from Beranbaum (Rose's Heavenly Cakes; The Cake Bible), whose award-winning cookbooks are known for their foolproof recipes and rigorous testing and development. Her tenth cookbook--a timeless collection of all-new cakes, pastries, cookies, candies, and breads--blends American and European traditions and thoroughly explains the hows and whys of baking through commandmentlike "golden rules" and meticulous instructions. Novice bakers can start out with easy choices (blueberry buckle) and work their way up to more complex recipes (prune preserves and caramel cream cake roll) that can have as many as five homemade components. Like Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions, the book contains some unique desserts (pomegranate winter chiffon meringue pie) that won't be found elsewhere. The ingredient glossary, equipment list, resources, and appendixes are excellent. VERDICT Berenbaum successfully bridges the gap between popular home baking collections and professional texts, and her recipes will endure long after novelty baking trends have tired.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.