Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

An Essential Primer of Techniques, Tools, and Recipes

Aug 19, 2009 Carrie Prefontaine

Filled with tips, advice, and 200 scrumptious recipes, Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is indispensable for every baker, whether novice or seasoned veteran.

In her introduction to the book, Martha Stewart writes, “baking, you will find, as you indulge in this home art, offers comfort and joy and something tangible to taste and savour.” The same could be said of this book. It is packed with classic recipes. Moreover, in keeping with the emphasis of her other cookbooks, the Baking Handbook provides clear and reliable advice about baking that provides a useful primer for new bakers and a helpful review for experienced ones.

A Dazzling Array of Recipes

Martha’s fans have come to expect only the best and most elegant recipes from her books, and this one does not fail to deliver. The recipes themselves are organized into six chapters: Simple Baked Goods; Cookies; Cakes; Pies, Tarts, Cobblers and Crisps; Yeasted Baked Goods; and Pastries. Some of the highlights include:

• Baking Powder Biscuits, a perennial favourite
• Irish Soda Bread, absolutely delightful for St. Patrick’s Day, and very easy to make
• Crisp and Chewy White Chocolate-Butterscotch Cookies
• Elegant and rich New York-Style Cheesecake
• Three-tiered Mocha-Pistachio Wedding Cake, a beautiful complement to any wedding
• Brioche, a delightful addition to any Sunday breakfast
• Scrumptious Cinnamon-Pecan Sticky Buns

As in her other books, the recipes in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook are unfailingly reliable.

An Indispensable Instructional Guide

For the novice baker, the most useful sections of the book are those that are chock full of tips and advice about techniques and tools. There are discussions of general baking tips, general baking equipment, and general baking techniques. In addition, each focused chapter includes a discussion of baking tips, equipment, and techniques specific to the recipes in that chapter. For example, the Cakes chapter opens with an explanation of the different kinds of cake pans and their respective uses, as well as illustrations of some basic but essential tools specific to cake making and decorating.

A Work of Photographic Art

What makes Martha Stewart’s books such special additions to the home cookbook library, in addition to the reliable, elegant, and delicious recipes, is that each is carefully and beautifully photographed. The Baking Handbook is illustrated with gorgeous photographs that help the reader visualize what she or he is preparing and evoke the scent of the most mouthwatering baked goods fresh from the oven. The photographs also help emphasize the importance of presentation, a maxim for which Martha Stewart is well known.

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook is another successful addition to the Martha Stewart library. Every baker should have this book on his or her cookbook shelf.

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Clarkson Potter

416 Pages, Hardcover

Suggested Retail Price: $50.00 CDN

The copyright of the article Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook in Baking & Desserts is owned by Carrie Prefontaine. Permission to republish Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Classic favourite New-York Style Cheesecake