This is a cooks cook book.  The pages are full with classic mouth watering receipts but no distracting photo’s. It’s all about cooking not looking. If illustration of a technique is needed it is given with clear simple drawings. It’s a must for anyone who wants to bake and would be a great gift to anyone setting up home or starting to live independently.  Any thanks to the publisher Dover, Nick Malgieri and Net Galley for the advanced publication copy. I’m now off to the kitchen to make my own Danish pastries for the first time ever!

I love, love, love this book.  This is the perfect book for the beginning baker all the way to the experienced baker.  One of the great things about this book is that it gives lots of hints for baking the different recipes and also gives variations on the recipes.  The book does a great job describing the different baking ingredients, equipment, and techniques. The chapters are broken down into very specific categories to make it easy to find the recipe you might want.  There are classics such as cornbreads and muffins all the way to cream puffs and other fancy desserts.  There's lots of explanations of terms so you completely understand how to create your breads and pastries.  The only thing I wish it had was some color pictures of the different baked items.  There are some diagrams of different techniques so that helps.  If you know a beginning baker or someone that wants to learn to bake this is the perfect book for them.  If you know an experienced baker that would like to expand their expertise this is the book for them.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  
From the publisher --- 


One of America's preeminent bakers and baking teachers reveals the secrets behind creating professional-quality confections. Nick Malgieri shares scores of mouthwatering recipes for plain and fancy cakes; breads, biscuits, muffins, and scones; sweet and savoury pies and tarts; brownies, macaroons, rugelach, and all manner of cookies.
In addition to his clear, detailed instructions, Malgieri offers helpful tips for variations on classic recipes as well as suggestions for everything from making a pastry bag to mastering cake and pie toppings. Presented in order from the simplest to the most complex, these recipes from the collection of a great pastry chef will add a whole new level of sophistication to your kitchen repertoire.

I cannot bake.  No, let me change that: I can make baklava (coconut and pistachio? yum) and rustic tortes (|plums and coconut) with pre-made phyllo dough. Sometimes those cookies that you slice and bake work but as my apartment stove does not heat properly (hotter in the back and the outside of the oven blistering hot) I tend to frequent The LIttle Beaver for anything and everything.

I loved that the recipes were easy to understand and that there was so much practical advice plus the book started with easy recipes to help build skills and then on up to things I could only dream of making. A great book for anyone wanting to learnt o bake or for a gift to someone who you know would benefit.