Baking: From My Home to Yours
by Dorie Greenspan
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Book Reviews of Baking: From My Home to Yours
Book Review: Mom Loves It!
Summary: 5 Stars
My mother loves cookbooks, so I bought her this one for Christmas. She's an amazing cook and baker, and is always looking for good new recipes. (She actually received an award in high school for her skills in the kitchen.)
After receiving this gift, she took it home and looked it over. Shortly thereafter, she called me to say "there's a problem with the new cookbook. I can't decide what to bake, there are so many good recipes to choose from."
Now whenever she has an excuse to bake, she gets excited about trying another new recipe. Not only is she baking one item for family functions, potlucks, baby showers, etc., but multiple items. So far she has had nothing but good to say about the book and the results of the recipes it contains.
I hope everyone enjoys this book as much as my Mother does.
Book Review: Great tasting recipies clearly communicated
Summary: 5 Stars
My daughter first borrowed this book from the local library and using it she and my wife made some great desserts, for the next two weeks! My personal favorite is the pound cake that turned out golden brown and delicious each of the four times it was tried. After returning the book she tried several other books from other authors but with no particularly good result. The books looked good, the pictures were nice, the credentials of the authors were excellent but the results in our home were poor.
I bought Mrs. Greenspan's book on Amazon for my wife for her birthday and when she opened it the whole family rejoiced to know that good baking times had returned! I think Mrs. Greenspan has the gifts of exquisite taste, great recipies and very clear writing style and this book demonstrates all three very well.
Book Review: Watch out for the whipped cream recipe!
Summary: 3 Stars
Watch out for the black and white cake recipe on p. 258 - the white chocolate whipped cream recipe does not work at all. I spent hours making all the parts for this cake only in the end to have the whip cream separate after I added the white chocolate. After looking around the web for other recipes, I think her instructions forgot to include that the cream and bowl need to be chilled for whipping, not just sitting on the counter at room temperature as the recipe suggests. I did not have enough white chocolate nor the energy to make a second batch, so I ended up just making vanilla flavored whip cream, after running to the store for more whipping cream of course! Lots of the recipes in this book are good, but every once in a while you run into one that does not have very accurate/complete instructions.Book Review: A Baker's Must Have
Summary: 5 Stars
I adore this book. The photos, the writing, the recipes are all superb. I read this like a novel when I received it and have used it many, many times since. The standard pie crust she includes in the book is now my go to recipe and gets so many compliments. Do yourself a favor a buy this cookbook. Some of my favorites have been the World Peace cookies, Double crusted blueberry pie and a delicious apple cake. This is a great addition to any collectors shelf and would make a great start for any beginner. The recipes are so clear and detailed...which helps you know what to expect. Dorie offers many suggestions on how to alter the original recipes which is great when you don't have all of the listed ingredients. It really teaches you how to create your own recipes. This would be a great gift for a new bride.Book Review: Not as good as I had hoped
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a beautiful book, with a lot of great, interesting recipes, but my main beef is with her baking temperatures--for a lot of the smaller cake/muffin recipes, she advises baking at 400 degrees, which is a lot higher than the usual recommended baking temperature of 350. I gave her the benefit of the doubt (I figured, maybe her technique is better?), and I ended up with grotesquely overbaked things. And it wasn't because there was anything wrong with my oven's internal temperature.
So proceed with caution...if you find a recipe here that you'd like to try, it's worth investigating similar recipes from other sources to see if the baking times and temperatures are similar.
But with a book like this you really shouldn't have to take this sort of precaution.