Baking Illustrated

I have been baking for a long time, to varying degrees of success. I like baking mainly because it is methodological- this ingredient is whisked then, these ingredients are then mixed for instance. I find cooking a little chaotic, but baking I get for some reason. Not that I am some sort of master baker, but I do quick breads, cookies, cakes, brownies, and a few other desserts (chocolate mousse for instance) fairly well. I also make meringue really well :) Now that I have a good food processor, I am probably going to move on to pie crusts.

I have found that baking recipes for the same item vary widely not necessarily in terms of ingredients, but rather actual instructions. The worst ones are the vaguest: "Beat eggs and sugar"; "Whisk ingredients"; and my favorite: "Bake until done". I was using mainly Better Homes and Garden cookbook for a while, but my salvation has been found recently in Baking Illustrated.

This book is incredible! It has everything one needs to be a decent baker from breads to cookies to pies, quiches, tarts, pizza, focaccia, muffins, biscuits, scones (of course), pastry, cakes, ... and the list goes on and on. This book is published by the same group that does Cooking Illustrated (which I also love). The test kitchen goes through dozens of recipes until they settle on the best way to make each item. So, everything I have made so far tastes great.

But, the real reason I love it is the detail of the instructions. Fantastic! No ambiguous "Mix well" instructions; they tell you what to look for (e.g., beat sugar and eggs until creamy, fluffy, and almost white). Baking requires that you pay attention to the details. Please, go buy this book if you are interested in baking in the least.