The Fearless Baker: Simple Secrets for Baking Like a Pro

Top food beautician and Food52's famous heating feature writer shares her preparing privileged insights.

At the point when individuals see Erin McDowell ice an ideal layer cake, weave a cross section pie outside layer, or pull a rich portion of brioche from the broiler, they frequently go about just as she's performed culinary enchantment. "I'm not a cook," they advise her. Yet, indeed, master heating isn't at all unreachable, nor is it as unbendable as a great many people accept. The way to opportunity is to comprehend the standards behind how fixings communicate and how great strategies work. When these ideas are aced, most loved plans can be adjusted and customized interminably.

With the affirmation resulting from long stretches of understanding, McDowell shares insider tips and strategies that make sweets taste in the same class as they look. With plans from flourless cocoa treats and strawberry-filled popovers (simple), through apple juice pie and dark base crème brûlée (medium), to a graceful layer cake delegated with caramelized popcorn (troublesome), and "Why It Works," "Star Tip," and make-ahead sidebars with every formula, this energizing, cautiously curated assortment will speak to starting and experienced bread cooks the same.

About the Author
ERIN JEANNE MCDOWELL is an author, recipe developer, and award-winning food stylist with specialized focus in baking. Her first book, The Fearless Baker, was named one of the Best Baking Books of 2017 by The New York Times. She's a regular contributor to New York Times Cooking, Food52 (where she also serves as Baking Consultant at Large), and PureWow. She hosts weekly baking classes on Food Network Kitchen and the series "Bake It Up a Notch" for Food52. Erin has been featured in The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Food and Wine Magazine, Food Network Magazine, and Rachel Ray Magazine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, Fine Cooking Magazine, Bake From Scratch Magazine, and Sift Magazine. She lives and works in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Sometimes a cookbook comes along and completely surprises you. I confess, I had low expectations for this cookbook. Not because I don't love Food52 or Erin's writing, but because it's difficult to do this kind of "instructive baking for the home cook" well. I've purchased a lot of duds that skewed towards too simple/dumbed down and/or too boring (the world needs only so many recipes for the basic sugar cookie, brownie, yellow cake, etc). Erin's cookbook is everything an informative cookbook needs to be for the home baker. Inside this squat but many-paged tome, Erin has included recipes for a few basics, along with explanations for why they work (like the high ratio cake - aka why commercial bakeries use shortening in their cakes and why you might want to too). Beyond explanations of recipes themselves, this book is stuffed with tips for keeping your brown sugar soft, fixing a broken buttercream, etc as well as lengthy explanations and detailed photos for different pie crust styles, lattice weaves, weighing out crumb crusts for your pan size, etc. The vast majority of Erin's recipes are either a spin on well loved classics or something you're unlikely to find in most/any other baking cookbook. I'm not sure I'll ever try her lemon-licorice meringue pie, but only because I'm not sure I like licorice that much. Her peppermint fluff cupcakes and butterscotch blondies however are going to become a part of my baking rotation.-Kat L

Conocí este libro a través del blog de una chef pastelera australiana, lo busqué en amazon y estaba disponible y en entrega inmediata. Puedo decir que sin dudas este libro vale la pena para todos los interesados (principiantes/intermedios) en la pastelería. Su autora, Erin Mc Dowell explica cada uno de los procesos resolviendo las dudas del ¿porqué? y ¿cómo?. Principiantes: no teman, con este libro cualquiera puede hornear -Soonja

I love the way this is written and the good tips and ideas. However, this book needed further editing, as there are some mix-ups. At the end of page 15 a new sentence begins -- but it does not continue on page 16 - instead a whole section is on that page. Instead, the sentence (and the rest of the section it goes with) picks up again 2 pages over. The sections of the chapter are simply mixed up. Additionally in the Resources section, the website recommended for buying cookie scoops no longer exists. These are silly mistakes that should have been caught before publication -- especially from as well-known a publishing house as Houghton Mifflin.-lmcf