Baking Hardcover – September 29, 2009

Get all his cookbooks. Well explained and the author is a chemist...what's to add? Many, many pictures! Plus, I bought all of them at discount prices!

I purchased James Peterson's brand new humongous tome on BAKING a few days ago. It is wonderfully illustrated and clear in its instructions. It's got me thinking I can do far more baking-wise than I've ever attempted before because the processes are so clearly broken down in steps. (Which reminds me of something often attributed to Julia Child: There are no such things as difficult recipes. Some just have more steps.)The one complaint I have about the book - and to me it's a substantial one - none of the measurements for the recipes are by weight. I believe this is a big mistake when so many recent baking books (including this one) talk about the precision of baking. There can be a meaningful lack of accuracy when doing measurements solely by volume.To finish on the positive, I am eager to start working my way through all Peterson's recipes and increasing my baking vocabulary and technique. There's a huge amount to learn here and it all looks delicious!

I love this book! I have made at least 10 recipes from it, and all were very successful.My favorite thing about this book is the very thorough explanation of technique together with excellent pictures.I love the apple pie recipe, my wife asks me to bake it all the time. The pie crust recipe in this book is the one i always reach for, even when cooking pies from recipes in other books.I am puzzled by the negative reviews i have seen. The only explanation I can think of for them is that either the reviewers did not read the material describing technique and jumped straight into the recipes, or that their ovens are not heating up to the correct temperature (be sure to check your oven temperature with an over thermometer, many ovens are off by 50 degrees Farenheit or more, which can make a big difference for some recipes.

To begin I never thought of myself as much of a baker. After a solid 9 months tromping through a sizable chunk of this book I feel I'm actually fairly competent. Even bread is demystified in a fairly organized and effective manner. I think the sections on cakes and breads are probably the best, though the others are not bad.That being said I have 2 major complaints:1st everything is measured in volumes such as cups. In particular, I'm not actually certain how he measures a cup of flour (scooped, sifted, etc). It would be wonderful for those of us who have invested in quality kitchen scales to get some use out of them with this book.2nd: There are some serious, recipe-ruining typos in here. In addition there have been 1 or 2 recipes that just don't seem to turn out well (I cannot recall which but one of the cookie recipes has, after 2 goes, been right bland and awful both times. I apologize for not being able to recall which).I feel like you may be able to do better, but I feel like many of the basic recipes and techniques I've gained from this book have contributed significantly to both my understanding and capabilities when it comes to baking.

I took this book out of the library for 3 weeks before purchasing it. I wanted to test a few recipes and see if I would find it useful. After a week, I ordered it. The book covers a wide range of recipes and pictures to go with them. At this point, it's the only baking book I need. It covers breads, desserts, cakes, pastries and more. I am not an expert or experienced baker, but I found it to be very easy to follow and everything I have tried actually works, which I could never say of many other recipe (baking) books.

I must say that this book is gorgeous. I received the item as a gift and sat looking through the pictures the whole first night I ordered it. It wasn't until the following day that I had the opportunity to read through the recipes. The recipes can be intimidating on the read through, some being very complicated. Yet the author seems confident that all of them can be attempted by the home chef and ending in success. I found this book to be informative as well as beautiful. If you are a baker, you won't go wrong purchasing this book.

If you are an industry professional or home cook this is definitely a book that you want for your collection. James Peterson broke down baking in this book to the essentials that will make your projects a success. He describes the technique behind producing successful baking products, and that is what cooking is all about technique is what leads to success. He covers more pastry than bread baking but, in the bread baking section does going to decent detail. If you're looking for a good bread baking book I recommend starting with “the bread Baker's apprentice “written by Michael Reinhardt

Even if you have never baked, this book will teach you the fine art. with step by step recipes that are easy to follow..This makes a great gift for beginners or to add to the collection of a seasoned baker. A must for anyone who loves to cook!