Review: The Fearless Baker

The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads that You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself

About the Book:

What could be more satisfying than presenting friends and family with a perfectly crafted homemade dessert, fresh out of the oven? Yet for many, the idea of baking is intimidating; rolling out pie dough or making a cake from scratch is akin to climbing Mount Everest. THE FEARLESS BAKER is a beginner's baking guide written to empower home cooks with spot-on advice and a cache of go-to recipes. Renowned pastry chef Emily Luchetti guides novice bakers through her amazing recipes to troubleshoot their most common pitfalls. Charming color illustrations and photographs of real-life beginning bakers in action complete the instruction, turning even the most tentative baker into a fearless one.

My Comments:

I haven't made a single recipe from this book, but I think I gained weight just reading it.  Unlike the purported audience described above, I've always enjoyed baking and haven't been afraid to try making anything sweet.  The recipes in this book sound absolutely wonderful and hopefully one day I'll have my weight where I want it and will have the ability to eat such things as Apple Crisp Bars, Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies, Truffle Brownies, Strawberry Cream Cake, Buttermilk Cheesecake, Chocolate Pecan Pie, Dark Chocolate Truffles, and Chocolate Mousse.  

Personally, I found a lot of the hints and directions on the simplistic side, but I guess there are folks who need them.  I wish the book had more pictures of the food, but then I guess I would have gotten even hungrier reading it.  With 175 recipes, I'm sure you could find something you shouldn't eat, but want to make anyway.  If you keep your kitchen stocked with normal baking supplies and equipment, you should be able to make most of the recipes without hunting through gourmet stores for ingredients that cost a fortune and of which you will use only a small portion.  These recipes call for good-quality chocolate, cream, flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, kosher salt, milk, eggs, and other ingredients you will use again.  Grade:  B+

Now, how many more pounds to go???

Thanks to the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.