Baking, but not for beginners?
November 6, 2022 1:12 PM Subscribe
Help me find cookbooks and recipe sources for a couple of *advanced* bakers in my life. People who can easily and joyfully pull-off the Bake-Off technicals (back when they weren't terrible on multiple axes) but want to encounter those recipes in other contexts and from a wider array of cultures. There are three factions of such folks in my life. See inside.
The factions (please specify which you're addressing in your answer) are:
YB: Yeast/bread oriented. This can be savory or sweet.
P: Pastry and patisserie oriented. Viennoisserie as a crossover I'd file here rather than in YB.
F: Variously -"free". Mostly gluten free/wheat free, but also sometimes vegan. Some of the people with this orientation aren't necessarily needing these adjustments for themselves but want to have a rich set of contributions for friend-groups needing accomodations but NOT interested in claggy, dense, crude imitations of tastiness.
In general, there's not much cake-orientation here, and none at all towards cake decoration. And I'm definitely not asking about *gear*. Just recipe-sources and cookbooks suitable as GIFTS please!
Help me please the fancy skilled bakers in my life with interesting, niche, challenging, delicious recipes + resources!
The factions (please specify which you're addressing in your answer) are:
YB: Yeast/bread oriented. This can be savory or sweet.
P: Pastry and patisserie oriented. Viennoisserie as a crossover I'd file here rather than in YB.
F: Variously -"free". Mostly gluten free/wheat free, but also sometimes vegan. Some of the people with this orientation aren't necessarily needing these adjustments for themselves but want to have a rich set of contributions for friend-groups needing accomodations but NOT interested in claggy, dense, crude imitations of tastiness.
In general, there's not much cake-orientation here, and none at all towards cake decoration. And I'm definitely not asking about *gear*. Just recipe-sources and cookbooks suitable as GIFTS please!
Help me please the fancy skilled bakers in my life with interesting, niche, challenging, delicious recipes + resources!
YB: The book Bread Science. My husband makes bread all the time and this book was the key to taking his already excellent bread to a whole new level of perfection.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 2:18 PM on November 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 2:18 PM on November 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Modernist bread covers all three divisions, and is decidedly not beginner material, though I have found many useful sections to a beginner.
It’s also eye-wateringly expensive and best obtained from libraries.
posted by furnace.heart at 2:58 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
It’s also eye-wateringly expensive and best obtained from libraries.
posted by furnace.heart at 2:58 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
For category YB, I like the French Culinary Institute's The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking. It's not strictly a cookbook, but more of a textbook about bread baking.
posted by primethyme at 3:50 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by primethyme at 3:50 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
YB & P: Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho focuses on Cantonese-style baking, both savory and sweet. Lots of favorite Chinatown bakery treats included here (including milk bread, pineapple buns, savory buns, moon cakes).
YB & P: The Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson is beautifully designed and gets into a lot of breads and cookies that I've only seen while traveling in the Nordics.
F: Better Baking by Genevieve Ko uses many types of flours and sweeteners in this book, and there are a selection of vegan desserts (the chocolate chip cookies are a winner). I've baked a lot of recipes out of this book and everything's turned out really well.
posted by profsnaggle at 3:53 PM on November 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
YB & P: The Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson is beautifully designed and gets into a lot of breads and cookies that I've only seen while traveling in the Nordics.
F: Better Baking by Genevieve Ko uses many types of flours and sweeteners in this book, and there are a selection of vegan desserts (the chocolate chip cookies are a winner). I've baked a lot of recipes out of this book and everything's turned out really well.
posted by profsnaggle at 3:53 PM on November 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
If any of those Yeast Bread folks in your life are of the sourdough baking variety, I have a couple of great recommendations for them.
First is the upcoming cookbook The Perfect Loaf, by Maurizio Leo, who runs the website of the same name. I've been baking sourdough for years and I've learned a LOT from Maurizio's site. There's plenty here to make technical sourdough bread bakers swoon.
In a similar vein, The Rye Baker is another excellent, technical book that focuses on baking with rye flour.
And if you are still looking for something, perhaps you could get them a session in an online baking class from the Artisan Baking Center.
I hope these are helpful!
posted by cleverevans at 4:32 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
First is the upcoming cookbook The Perfect Loaf, by Maurizio Leo, who runs the website of the same name. I've been baking sourdough for years and I've learned a LOT from Maurizio's site. There's plenty here to make technical sourdough bread bakers swoon.
In a similar vein, The Rye Baker is another excellent, technical book that focuses on baking with rye flour.
And if you are still looking for something, perhaps you could get them a session in an online baking class from the Artisan Baking Center.
I hope these are helpful!
posted by cleverevans at 4:32 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you can get a copy of the Viennese Pastry Cookbook by Lilly Joss Reich, I can strongly recommend it. There appear to be used copies around for sale. Various recipes in there would cover many of your categories, including almond or hazelnut tortes that were gluten-free before it was cool. Anything I've ever made from this book has been outstanding.
posted by gimonca at 5:07 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gimonca at 5:07 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
P: The Art of French Pastry: A Cookbook by Jacquy Pfeiffer, Martha Rose Shulman
It gets into some very specific details about things like the fat percentage of butter and the importance of reading recipes twice before starting, which makes it hilariously pompous at times. But this is a book that is definitely aimed at the more advanced baker who really wants to perfect their skills, and I love it for that. It goes into detail about the kind of little things that make the difference between good baking and exquisite baking. Plus the recipes are an interesting mix of classics and unusual pastries from his particular region of France.
posted by EllaEm at 6:02 PM on November 6, 2022
It gets into some very specific details about things like the fat percentage of butter and the importance of reading recipes twice before starting, which makes it hilariously pompous at times. But this is a book that is definitely aimed at the more advanced baker who really wants to perfect their skills, and I love it for that. It goes into detail about the kind of little things that make the difference between good baking and exquisite baking. Plus the recipes are an interesting mix of classics and unusual pastries from his particular region of France.
posted by EllaEm at 6:02 PM on November 6, 2022
Definitely Modernist Bread.
posted by turkeyphant at 7:12 AM on November 7, 2022
posted by turkeyphant at 7:12 AM on November 7, 2022
ALL of the above in Modernist bread. Epic. I learned SO MUCH from this book. Eyewateringly expensive, but a major Work.
posted by lalochezia at 5:09 PM on November 7, 2022
posted by lalochezia at 5:09 PM on November 7, 2022
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