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Summary: Encyclopedia of Baking
Review: After seeing this text book of baking and the delicious photos
I want to start baking. I have been a long time fan of Sherry's "inventions" tasting her "creations" since she began her run at Spago Hollywood over ten years ago With the information in this "Bible of Baking" now I have the "Secrets" too.
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Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: Everyone has pretty much expressed the same glowing reviews for Ms. Yard's first tome of pastry excellence...............I just want to add my name to the list! This reference guide/cookbook/culinary encyclopedia is an absolute must for those of us who value an excellent education in the art of desserts. It is extremely detailed in the essentials, yet very encouraging, because it breaks down the steps needed to perfect your skills, while not overwhelming you in the process. She has broken down pastry/dessert knowledge into several main groups, then taken those groups into subgroups from which all other sweets are built. I own many cookbooks and I consider this to be one of my top 5 for it's ablity to impart knowledge, education, and skills.
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Summary: Kicks your baking up a notch
Review: I love this book! I am an experienced nonprofessinal baker, but felt something was missing, my stuff was always good, but ordinary. This book has the classic sophisticated techniques and recipes to get me to the next level, and most of the tools and equipment is pretty standard (except for the ice cream maker and acetylene torch!) But most recieps don't require anything special at all. It is not for the beginner baker; if you are a beginner the Cooks' Illustrated books are better. But if you know the basics want to "kick it up a notch" and make ordinary desserts into showstoppers this will do it. Some of the recipes are classic Frnch, but once you've mastered these building blocks you can certainly make "down home" desserts as well as fancy "high falutin'" ones. My first try at Brioche was delicious, perfect!I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to take it to the next level.
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Summary: Way to go, Sherry!
Review: I love this book. And I've read it cover to cover. I'm an amateur baker, this book had given me a lot of tips that no other books had detailed. If you're a baker and would like to get serious with your baking skill, this is the book for you! The only negative comment I have for this book is; the book is organized in such a way that if you'd like to bake a fruit tart, you have to look up sweet dough, and pastry cream in different chapters. You have to really have to figure out what exactly you'd like to bake and find the pieces of puzzle in the book and put them together. That's why I've given it a 4 stars instead of 5!
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Summary: Forget the Cake Mix Doctor...This Is It!!!!!
Review: I love this book. Fellow chocolate lovers, just look at the ready to eat cover! I was hooked when I viewed the Buttermilk Birthday Cupcakes...so simple, yet so inspired (p. 156). They look like fairy cakes. My daughter's birthday is fast approaching and I have been looking for a fast, simple dessert with panache! This is the best dessert book for the cook who wants to make an impact on her guests without disrupting her busy schedule.
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Summary: Great book!!! Must keep
Review: I love to buy and keep books for cooking, bread making, pastry, tart, pizza...etc. I bought this book because of the review I read from other reviewers. I am glad I did. This is a great book to keep because it teach me a lot of techniques on how to bake at home. For exsample how to create your own proof box by using a garbage. I tried and it works excellent. I make my croissant(not the recipe from this book. I use sourdough starter to make the croissant). In normal case if I need to proof the croissant it is very diffcult since sourdough starter need to take longer time for proofing and if I put it into the oven and add a little heat the butter will melt due the heat. I had a hard time to make it work. But after I got this book and I use her technique and now my croissant come out perfect and double to 2.5 size in a much shorter time. I haven't try her ceripe yet because I am favorite in sourdough baking. But I still recommand to buy this book. It is a great book for the specail techniques for home baker. Worth for the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly overrated
Review: I ordered this book because the ratings were so good - and I love baking. This book did not match my expectations: Recipes are too complicated and way too european. Usually after getting a new book I don't know what should be the first recipe I bake. This problem does not occur, there is nothing I would like to try. Nevertheless, it is interesting to read...
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Summary: Get this book!
Review: I own a fairly extensive baking library and believe that this book one of the best I have. The book is fascinating and fun to read. More importantly I believe that the layout of the book helps to provide a firm foundation for a better understanding of how complex desserts are created. The explanations for how and why steps are done in a certain way and in a certain order are clear and concise and make sense. And the recipes just plain work. But the biggest benefit I personally derived from this book is that I'm feeling much more confidant about creating my own desserts, which is something I always wanted to do but was too intimidated to try before.
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Summary: From a student-Chef : two thumbs up for Sherry!
Review: I own quite a few cooking books (close to 90!) and I rate The Secrets of Baking among the best! Recipes are easy and written in a simple, yet well organized way. And I really appreciate how willing she is to share many of the baking little secrets with the readers. I truly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: A great resource
Review: I'm an enthusiastic amateur baker willing to take the time to try demanding recipes if they are well explained. This book is perfect for my needs. As other reviewers have described, the book is broken into chapters that systematically discuss a single topics, such as caramel, in detail showing related recipes in a structured way. This allows you to quickly understand what key factors (such as the balance between ingredients, or temperature) in a given recipe make it come out the way it does. Many recipes also have additional variations described that you can use to alter the flavor or style of a base recipe. And there is a chapter that combines base recipes from the other chapters to inspire our creativity.
In my rating this book loses one star because, as with many cookbooks, the publisher has done its best to ruin the excellent content with poor design. The (otherwise attractive) photographs are grouped together in no order and rammed into the book in arbitrary places, so there is no way to find a picture if you are looking at a recipe. Even though the organization of the book begs for a master table of contents outlining all the variations, there isn't one. The hardcover book only barely lies flat, making it less practical to use in the kitchen.
But don't let any of that deter you -- this book is an excellent, engagingly written teacher and resource that you are likely to refer to often.
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