Rating: 
Summary: The pefect tone for aspiring bakers
Review: For somebody who already spends a lot of time in the kitchen, this book is a revelation. I own several good baking titles, but Baking Illustrated just runs circles around them. The book is literally packed with tips and information. Even the areas I thought I knew something about were covered in such exquisite detail and straightforward instruction that I have all but stopped making the usual dumb mistakes which torpedoed my many attempts at pies, tarts, cakes, brownies, etc. And as always, the folks at Cook's Illustrated have filled the book with clear, simple illustrations that show exactly how to do it--a difference between this and other titles that makes ALL the difference. Baking Illustrated is a gem; it will find a prime spot on my bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book to keep
Review: I got this book in Costco because it was on sales. I thought since it is so thick and it only cost me $20. I thought to give is a try. But Wow... I so gald I bought it. This book gives you all details on how to baking in a more efficient way. Shorter time but still give you the quality. Although I only used three recipes from this book but they all come out good. This book is the one you want to keep in your libary for reference if you are serious in baking. But if you are a beginer this is one of the book you must have. Since it give you a detail explanation on each recipe and facts about it. If you follow the step carefully even you are new to baking you should be able to make a acceptable quality.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book, But there's an error
Review: I like the way Cook's presents recipes. They tell you how they experiment which give you, the home baker, the skills to experiment on your own! This is great. There are a lot of recipes here and they are all well-written. Please note, there is an error in their Basic Pie Crust recipe. It should be 1/2 cup of shortening rather than one cup. This was sent to me in an email from the America's Test Kitchen website.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must have for any baking enthusiast!
Review: I've been a subscriber to "Cooks Illustrated" for a few years now and love it for all of it's great recipes and tips. I received this book as a gift and since I am a baking maniac I was thrilled to have received such a tremendous resource. Within the first week I went absolutely nuts and baked about 5 things from it, each recipe I tried was outstanding and won HUGE raves from all who tasted! I really do encourage any of you who have a passion for baking/desserts to pick it up. It is also a must have for those of you who are aspiring bakers. You can't beat the tips and detailed information, valuable things when you are just starting out... I truely believe that this cookbook is truely the only baking book you will ever use again!
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must have for any baking enthusiast!
Review: I've been a subscriber to "Cooks Illustrated" for a few years now and love it for all of it's great recipes and tips. I received this book as a gift and since I am a baking maniac I was thrilled to have received such a tremendous resource. Within the first week I went absolutely nuts and baked about 5 things from it, each recipe I tried was outstanding and won HUGE raves from all who tasted! I really do encourage any of you who have a passion for baking/desserts to pick it up. It is also a must have for those of you who are aspiring bakers. You can't beat the tips and detailed information, valuable things when you are just starting out... I truely believe that this cookbook is truely the only baking book you will ever use again!
Rating:
Summary: watch out for repeats
Review: If you already own The New Best Recipe, this book isn't required. What I mean by that is that at least 80% of the recipes in Baking Illustrated is already in The New Best Recipe, if not more. I didn't do a thorough count-through but a lot of the recipes are repeats. Of course, I give 5 stars because I love the explanations and the layout of the book.
If you absolutely don't need the few extra recipes Baking Illustrated offers extra from The New Best Recipe (and you already have The New Best Recipe) then go for another cookbook.
Onto the cooking aspect, the explanations are a plus. The instructions are clear and I've made a couple of the recipes so far and they came out great (even with a mess up on my part)!
Rating: 
Summary: Temperature and cooking duration
Review: The book is excellent from the point of view of explaining ingredients. However, I think they really blew it in the sense that they do not provide any information whatsoever with respect to various oven heat choices...convection, surround, top, bottom etc. The result is that unless you are an experienced cook, you still are faced with a lot of experimentation to get a reliable satisfactory baking outcome. Just think how helpful it would have been to have an matrix of oven setting choices and cooking duration accompanying each recipe.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Cookbook!
Review: This book is great! I have made about 8 of the recipes and each and everyone of them has turned out amazing!! The recipes are really quite great! I plan on giving this book to friends as gifts, it is that good. I trust that every recipe will be a success!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Cookbook!
Review: This book is great! I have made about 8 of the recipes and each and everyone of them has turned out amazing!! The recipes are really quite great! I plan on giving this book to friends as gifts, it is that good. I trust that every recipe will be a success!
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST IN BAKING
Review: This book made my lemon pies into ones that not only compete with my mother in-law's but ones that my husband PREFERS. (yeah, I know!)
The trials that they put the food through is amazing and quite often I've sat down just to read the things they tried out. Most times the corrections they have to recipes make sense but sometimes they pull a wild one out of the hat.. but they always work. I like that someone else has done all the messing up for me, too.
Directions are easy to follow, but are more helpful if you read the intro to each food first so that you know the critical points.
Overall, it's just a fantastic book that is worth the price and covers most major sweet and savory fixes.
:O)
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