Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
by Martha Stewart
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Book Reviews of Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
Book Review: Hits and Misses
Summary: 3 Stars
I absolutely adore the pizza crust recipe, and now make pizzas almost weekly. I have adjusted it slightly to double the olive oil and a tsp of cider vinegar but great. Everytime I make the olive oil bread though, it browns up at 20 minutes instead of the recommended 35 minutes, and yet again the dough was raw in the middle. Now I will have to correct the book for 425 instead of 450 degrees. Also way too much salt for this recipe and the course salt hurt my husband's teeth.
I found the carrot cake recipe flawed, the cake part is absolutely delicious, but the icing is down right gross. After shredding 2 cups of carrots by hand I was very upset to throw it out, but had to... The icing is 3 packages of cream cheese with 2 cups of butter and like a cup of powdered sugar. Well, it tasted just like cream cheese, raw, with a hint of ginger and vanilla. Nobody would eat more than one bite!!! But asked my grandma and she said one pkg of cream cheese with whole package of powdered sugar, and one stick of butter. So, I made another correction.
The sugar cookie recipe is really good, and other breads I have had good success. Another pet peeve of the book is PREP TIME?? The recipes are so involved you have to read and reread to figure out how much time to allocate for the recipe...
I hope the rest of them turn out, and it's been fun trying different things to make them work so I can't totally complain... And the pizza dough is fabulous, so I keep trying new things.
Book Review: This book changed my life
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, I mean what I say in the review title, corny as it may sound. I had never watched a Martha show or read a Martha magazine before receiving this book as a holiday gift. My baking experience was limited to the Toll House recipe on the back of the gold grocery store bag of chocolate chips. Then I moved from the big city, where great bakeries were an elevator ride away, to the mountains where the closest store required a 20+ mile drive. It was either Pillsbury dough tubes for life, or teach myself to bake. Within a year of receiving the book, I would have to agree with the reviewers who say it was like I went to pastry school. I just cannot believe how much I have learned and how much more I appreciate the art of baking -- honestly, until I had no choice but to learn, it was something I had never considered, but now I think we all owe it to ourselves to learn more about how our food comes together. When you compare what McDonald's calls a "turnover" to the real deal made with Martha's puff pastry, you will want to weep. The photos and explanations in the book made it easy even for a beginner like me. I cannot say enough good things about this book. As a final bonus, when the economy got worse, my baking skills have been helping me cut back on my grocery bill -- I can stock up on ingredients on sale or at the warehouse clubs -- I may pay one tenth the cost of retail for what I bake at home if I am careful, and the taste and quality are much better.Book Review: Excellent cookbook, but not a true handbook
Summary: 4 Stars
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is an extremely well produced cookbook for bakers. There is excellent advice on baking equipment as well as technique. My only complain about the introductory section with this general information is that it is too brief. From there, it's straight into recipes. They are loosely categorized in chapters for Simple Baked Good, Cookies, Cakes, Pies (including tarts, cobblers, and twists), Yeasted Baked Goods, and Pastries. There were some odd omissions including chocolate chip cookies and a classic chocolate cake. I realize that neither is difficult to find elsewhere but I would have expected to see both presented here. All of the recipes are very well written with clear concise language. The finished dishes are shown in photographs of the highest caliber.
My biggest complaint is that this is more of a cookbook than a true handbook. While there are certainly tips and advice, it is not comprehensive and it is assumed that the reader knows many basic techniques already. Unfortunately for this beginner, that wasn't the case and I had to find another book to help me learn some of the building block skills that every baker must have. I would expect a true handbook to offer more in this regard. Having said that, this is an outstanding cookbook that includes some useful information and advice. I have no problem recommending the book to anyone who understands that this is not a comprehensive "how to" guide.
Book Review: Not Perfect!
Summary: 3 Stars
i love martha stewart and in many ways i love this book. there are some great & very good recipes here. my personal favorites are the linzertorte, the fruit gallette & the flourless chocolate.
BUT all is not well in the land of all things Martha. speaking as a pastry chef myself, some of these recipes are not complete and if you don't know what is missing you will follow these recipes to the letter & think YOU messed up. for instance--the mexican wedding cookies on page 96. why is the cookie dough so dry you may ask? becuz the recipe is missing eggs. whoever heard of a cookie recipe w/o eggs? baking soda is also missing from this recipe as well. after i added all the necessary things they were perfect but i had to do some serious testing first! some of her cakes & icings have no vanilla in them--most do some do not. a cake w/o vanilla extract? the linzertorte is good but its too sweet w/ the jam included, so cut the sugar in half, add your favorite jam & you'll have a perfect linzertorte. im careful about making too many things from this book becuz i dont always have time to test things so i tend to look at her recipes & then compare them to the tried & true ones i already know.
there are very few recipe books particularly by celebrity chefs who's recipes i trust 100% so i ALWAYS test things before i make it for others. you should always do the same. this book unfortunately is no expection.
Book Review: Super-sized portions
Summary: 3 Stars
The emphasis of this book seems on Martha herself, when the emphasis should be on baking. Her massive (some might say, excessive) collection of baking pans and other items in every shape and size are displayed more for us to marvel at Martha's penchant for acquisitions than to provide any realistic goal as to what baking pans are truly useful.
In the baking category, I found several things about this cookbook to be notably unusual. It is assumed that everyone bakes the same items repeatedly, in large quantities, and frequently. For example there is a recipe for a coffeecake directs the reader to a back section to obtain the directions for the streusel, which is prepared in giant (4 c) portions, only some of which is used in that particular recipe. It would have been more useful to give the amount actually used in the individual recipes, as not everyone bakes often enough to have a stash of streusel in the freezer.
Also, don't buy this book if you're on a diet or prefer to consume only moderate amounts of fat and sugar. Martha's biscuits call for 4 c of flour, 1 c butter, loads of cream, and only make 12 biscuits. They must be enormous! Martha's lemon bars are also scaled for a bake sale, baked in a jelly roll pan, and requiring pounds of butter to complete. These things are really hard for me to fathom, and I found this book to be rather out of touch with my baking, and health, needs.