A Good Bake

May 1, 2020

In Pieometry, internet baking sensation Ko of the popular Instagram account @lokokitchen offers recipes and 100 photographs to show off her pastry creations, as much art as food (50,000-copy first printing). Chief baking officer at famed Magnolia Bakery, Lloyd adds to the stack of best-selling Magnolia cookbooks with The Magnolia Bakery Handbook, all about having your cake and instructions, too (40,000-copy first printing). Weller, chef-partner at New York's High Street on Hudson, and three-time James Beard nominee Carre�o get together for A Good Bake, offering groundbreaking savory and sweet treats for our time.

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Starred review from August 3, 2020
Weller, a chemical engineer-cum-baker who worked at Babbo and Per Se before opening Sadelle’s in New York City, takes a scientific approach in this tight collection of intriguing recipes. A clever format separates tips and instructions with various font colors in running subheads along the left margin, making recipes exceptionally accessible. Instructions are professional—ingredients are measured in both volume and weight—and bullet-pointed. Numerous master class and tutorial sections transform this from a cookbook with excellent recipes into a series of baking lessons. Weller underlies each decision with logic: strawberry jam and hazelnut rugelach are rectangular rather than triangular because they bake more evenly, and a pâte brisée contains less water than the standard version to stem shrinkage. Each chapter includes recipes both traditional and experimental: one on cakes offers yellow layer cake with chocolate buttercream, as well as an artful stack of orange-scented crepes interspersed with green tea pastry cream. Weller takes every opportunity to fine-tune the process for even the most familiar options: chocolate chip cookies, for instance, incorporate confectioners’ sugar along with granulated and brown sugar for improved texture. This will thrill home bakers who want to bake like the pros.