Maida Heatter (1916–2019)

Maida Heatter is the grand dame of baking, and her cookbook reminds of trying to read your grandmother's recipes. The instructions are all there, I just think there is more to baking than mixing ingredients. I like books that are more visual, and there are no illustrations or photos in this book. It's not for the social media age group, for sure. I did find it interesting that she had a cake recipe from the Neiman Marcus store. She does include recipes from different restaurants for cakes show more people have raved about, including one from a New York recipe that Robert Redford liked. She admits she was just attracted to the recipe because of his photo. I guess you call that a thirst trap for a baker. show less

This is a fun cookbook of sweet baked things. The illustrations are cute. The recipes are balanced between simple and very involved. What is not balanced, however is the overwhelming amount of chocolate recipes. While I love chocolate, I cannot eat it anymore so this was really problematic for me. Still, there's a handful of recipes I'd like to try before I return this one to the library. Not a keeper though.

If you love chocolate and want to make homemade versions of your favourite treats, this is the book for you. It's incredible comprehensive, covering cakes, cookies, candy, and all kinds of variants in-between - including chocolate bread! The first few chapters set you up for success: talking about types of chocolate and other ingredients and how to work with them, the type of equipment you'll need, and the various techniques required.

While the majority of these recipes are geared towards show more serious bakers, there are some very simple recipes for every the beginning baker. One of the interesting things about these recipes is how many of them feature using a bit of instant coffee in the recipe, something I found very surprising. That is usually the most exotic ingredient, making it easy to make with what you have on hand.. The instructions are straightforward and very precise, pointing out potential pitfalls to make sure that every batch you make is a successful one. This cookbook contains everything you'll ever need to work with chocolate and is worthy to sit on your shelf.. show less

I liked the Dorie Greenspan foreword and the "Before You Bake" section on ingredients, equipment, and techniques (even the ones I won't use).
There seems to be a lot of chocolate.
Also, while I like the look of the illustrations, I prefer photographs.
I'm sure all these recipes do come out perfectly, but my preferred level of baking aims for "yum" and not "perfect" - I'm just not going to sift flour. It's good to know how/why though.