The Baking Answer Book (49 page)

Authors: Lauren Chattman

Tags: #Cooking, #Methods, #Baking, #Reference

Resources

Mail-Order and Online Resources for the Baker

These days, finding equipment and ingredients that aren’t available locally is simply a matter of an Internet search. But even this step isn’t necessary if you already know where to go. Here is a list of my favorite online purveyors of everything from buckwheat flour to cardboard cake circles, to make your shopping fun and easy.

Bob’s Red Mill,
www.bobsredmill.com

If you can’t find this brand of organic flours made from buckwheat, corn, spelt, and many others in your local natural foods store, you can order from the online store.

Crate and Barrel,
www.crateandbarrel.com

The online store has a good selection of high-quality kitchen knives, colorful mixing bowls, and an array of fun kitchen gadgets helpful to the baker. This is where I found flexible grip mats that I use as cutting boards and also to help with rolling out pastry doughs evenly.

Hodgson Mill
,
www.hodgsonmill.com

Hodgson Mill is a widely distributed brand that also sells stone-ground and certified organic grain online.

House on the Hill
,
www.houseonthehill.net

House on the Hill has an incredible selection of cookie molds and carved rolling pins for making springerle and speculaas, as well as a lot of advice about making these special cookies.

King Arthur Flour Company
,
www.bakerscatalogue.com

The Baker’s Catalogue is one-stop shopping for most bakers. Almost any piece of equipment you might need is here: KitchenAid mixers, digital scales, Silpats, parchment paper by the sheet, disposable pastry bags, Kevlar and terry oven mitts, instant-read and candy thermometers.

They sell a great selection of bread-baking ingredients and equipment, including SAF yeast (the brand preferred by many professionals),
dehydrated sourdough starter, baker’s peels, baking stones, lames for slashing dough, bench scrapers, bannetons, and clear-sided rising containers.

The Baker’s Catalogue is also the place to look for high-quality flour, including organic all-purpose and bread flour. And they sell a wonderful variety of other baking ingredients, including chocolate and cocoa powder, meringue powder, fleur de sel and Malden sea salt.

King Orchards
,
www.mi-cherries.com

Contact King Orchards to order Michigan sour cherries in water for making cherry pies and cobblers.

Smucker’s,
www.onlinestore.smucker.com

Smucker’s is a division of Pillsbury, which owns and distributes White Lily self-rising flour. If you want to make traditional Southern biscuits, and can’t find self-rising flour in your grocery store, order this soft, low-protein flour here.

Williams-Sonoma,
www.williams-sonoma.com

This well-known chain sells high-quality baking and pastry tools, including a wide selection of Nordicware Bundt pans, Chicago Metallic nonstick bakeware, cookie cutters, silicone oven liners, and OXO’s easy-to-use cherry pitter.

Wilton Industries
,
www.wilton.com

Here you will be able to find everything to bake and decorate a cake: specialty pans (if you are having a NASCAR-or teddy bear–themed party), aluminum cake strips, plastic-coated pastry bags, couplers, pastry tips sold individually or in deluxe 26-piece sets, cardboard cake circles, food coloring sets, and a great selection of fondant, sprinkles, sanding sugar, and other decors. There are also wonderfully detailed instructions on this website for using a pastry bag and tips to decorate cakes and cookies.

Books for Bakers

Among the hundreds of books on baking that I have in my collection, the following are the ones I turn to most often when I have a baking question or need a foolproof recipe. Without them, I could not have answered many of the questions in this book! Every one of them is a classic, and worth owning as part of your baker’s reference library.

Baking Science Books

Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
by Shirley O. Corriher (William Morrow, 1997) and her follow-up
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
(Scribner, 2008). Corriher, a food scientist with a natural gift for explaining complex scientific ideas in understandable terms, reveals the science behind flaky piecrust, moist pound cake, and puffy cream puffs.

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
by Harold McGee (Scribner, 2004). The revised and updated edition of this classic is a must-have for the curious baker. Of particular interest are the chapters on eggs, sugar, and pastry doughs.

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained
by Robert L. Wolke (W. W. Norton, 2002). A question-and-answer book that is especially interesting in tackling technology and baking tools, including explanations of how a microwave oven really works and what makes a nonstick baking pan nonstick.

General Baking Books

Baking Illustrated: The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker
by the editors of
Cook’s Illustrated
(America’s Test Kitchen, 2004). An essential reference, packed with descriptions about the many kitchen experiments leading up to the magazine’s best recipes for biscuits, croissants, chiffon cake, and many more.

Dessert University
by Roland Mesnier and Lauren Chattman (Simon & Schuster, 2004). Of course, I am biased, since I helped Mesnier (who was the White House pastry chef for 25 years) write this book, but I
learned such a tremendous amount from him about every aspect of baking, from puff pastry to making the perfect génoise, to decorating with chocolate, that I can’t help but mention it as a resource.

How to Bake
by Nick Malgieri (William Morrow, 1995). One of the best clear and simple guides, by a master teacher who has trained a generation of professional pastry chefs.

In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker’s Companion
by Regan Daly (Artisan, 2001). An International Association of Culinary Professionals award winner for good reason, this is an exhaustive compendium of information about ingredients, equipment, and techniques essential for good baking.

Quick Breads, Muffins, Biscuits, and Scones

Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes For Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes
by James Villas (Harvard Common Press, 2003). The most complete guide to the subject, by an expert on Southern food.

The Best Quick Breads: 150 Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Shortcakes, Gingerbreads, Cornbreads, Coffeecakes, and More
by Beth Hensperger (Harvard Common Press, 2000). An in-depth resource for making superb quick breads, with many inspiring recipes that will help you put into practice what Hensperger teaches.

The All-American Cookie Book
by Nancy Bagget (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Bagget takes a regional and a historical approach to cookie baking, so if you are interested in how cookie baking has evolved in this country since Colonial times, but are also looking for a volume full of great contemporary recipes, this is the book for you.

Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets
by Carole Walter (Clarkson Potter, 2003). Any book by Walter is worth owning (she’s also written with great authority on cakes, pies, and quick breads), but this one is my favorite, because it’s the rare cookie book that takes the subject seriously enough to explain how to roll cookie dough balls into
perfect spheres or argue on behalf of vegetable shortening when baking chocolate chip cookies.

Cakes

The Cake Bible
by Rose Levy Beranbaum (William Morrow, 1988). After 20 years, still the definitive volume on the subject.
The Cake Bible
explains the kitchen science behind every recipe. The recipes themselves range from the simplest beginner’s pound cake to large-yield recipes for elaborate wedding cakes.

The Cake Book
by Tish Boyle (Wiley, 2006). Tish Boyle’s reputation as a baker’s baker is hard-earned (she is the longtime editor of
Chocolatier
magazine) and well-deserved. In this book, not only will you get a terrific variety of creative cake recipes, but information about cake baking that Boyle has gleaned from years in the kitchen, including why you should toast your walnuts and almonds at different temperatures and why puréeing bananas will produce a lighter cake than mashing them with a fork. A must for the serious baker.

Pies, Tarts, Cobblers, Crisps

Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie
by Ken Haedrich (Harvard Common Press, 2004). The 300 recipes in this wonderful book represent the author’s lifelong obsession with baking fruit pies, cream pies, nut pies, icebox pies, and many more. Haedrich devotes 50 pages to apple pie alone. Irresistible.

Layered Pastry Doughs

The Classic Art of Viennese Pastry: From Strudel to Sachertorte—More than 100 Traditional Recipes
by Christine Berl (Wiley, 1998). Although written with the professional pastry chef in mind (most of the recipes yield 8 or so cakes!), this is a wonderful book full of great information for ambitious home bakers interested in classic pastry techniques for making strudel, cream puff pastry, Danish dough, and much more.

Puff: 50 Flaky, Crunchy, Delicious Appetizers, Entrées, and Desserts Made with Puff Pastry
by Martha Holmberg (Chronicle, 2008). Holmberg is a veteran food writer and former editor of
Fine Cooking
magazine who has put together a terrific collection of recipes as simple to make as they are impressive to look at. If you are intrigued by the possibilities of puff pastry, check this one out.

Yeast Breads

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
by Peter Reinhart (Ten Speed Press, 2001). This is the most thorough and absorbing exploration of bread-baking out there, with enough detailed information to interest the professional as well as the passionate amateur.

Local Breads
by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman (W. W. Norton, 2007). Dan is a superb teacher of sourdough baking techniques. Using his clear and reassuring instructions, I successfully cultivated a wild yeast starter 5 years ago, and it’s still going today! I use the recipes he has collected in his book to bake heirloom breads from Italy, France, and Germany.

High-Altitude Baking

Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes
by Susan G. Purdy (William Morrow, 2005). Cake expert Susan Purdy tested and retested recipes at sea level, 3,000 feet, 5,000 feet, 7,000 feet, and all the way up at 10,000 to figure out how to bake successfully at any altitude. An invaluable resource for people in need of high-altitude baking advice and recipes that work in the mountains.