I didn’t really mean to become a food photographer. But with the first photo that I took of a batch of homemade raspberry scones, I knew I found something special. And then, I didn't really mean to become a cookbook author. But photos led to recipes, which led to this crazy notion that the world needed a cookbook dedicated to doughnuts! I’ve since written five more cookbooks and have a bit of an obsession with beautifully designed and photographed baking books that can fuel my project baking and cooking fascination. The books on my list continue to inspire me, and hope they inspire you too.
The recipe I’ve probably made most out of anything that I’ve baked originally came from the Macrina cookbook.
It’s the currant anise scone recipe that makes the lightest and fluffiest scones and has pretty much ruined all other scones for me. It’s a scone recipe that makes me think I should go into the bakery business (in some other town than Seattle, which already has Macrina scones).
The book is worth buying just for the look you’ll get when you make these scones for the people you care about. Of course, there are also a lot more amazing recipes in the book, such as the morning buns, a mash up of croissant meets cinnamon roll which take 3 days to make but are worth every minute. This book is a treasure.
Leslie Mackie offers a treasury of recipes from Seattle's beloved Macrina Bakery. From breads to salads, pies to sandwiches you are sure to find a recipe in this attractive collection that will become a tradition at your house. Clearly written instructions and tips on everything from equipment, ingredients, and techniques will let you see for yourself why her breads and other baked treats are favorites in restaurants and homes across the Puget Sound region.
I didn’t really mean to become a food photographer. But with the first photo that I took of a batch of homemade raspberry scones, I knew I found something special. And then, I didn't really mean to become a cookbook author. But photos led to recipes, which led to this crazy notion that the world needed a cookbook dedicated to doughnuts! I’ve since written five more cookbooks and have a bit of an obsession with beautifully designed and photographed baking books that can fuel my project baking and cooking fascination. The books on my list continue to inspire me, and hope they inspire you too.
I fell in love with Maurizio’s The Perfect Loaf blog which is dedicated to natural leavened baking well before the Great Pandemic Lockdown Sourdough Extravaganza happened.
His detailed instructions and beautiful photography grabbed me immediately, not to mention his recipes just work. The Perfect Loaf cookbook brings everything from the blog and is much easier to work with in the kitchen when my hands are covered in flour.
I wasn’t very confident in my sourdough skills before this book, but quickly found that I’m able to make impressive loaves, and other baked goodies like amazing sourdough waffles, for my friends and family.
JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • IACP AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A dynamic, authoritative sourdough baking bible for those looking to build confidence in the craft with a wide range of foolproof recipes, from pan loaves to pizza to doughnuts, by the beloved blogger and resident bread baker at Food52
“Maurizio Leo has given all bread-heads, whether newbies or experienced bakers, the ideal gift.”—Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and host of Pizza Quest
ONE OF SAVEUR'S BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR
Maurizio Leo’s blog The Perfect Loaf is the go-to destination on the internet…
I’ve loved cooking and baking since I was a little girl. I attempted to bake a chocolate cake when I was nine without a recipe and put the resulting glop in a plastic bowl in the oven. Luckily, I forgot to turn the oven on and my mother discovered it later, no harm done. I was always a foodie but also a tremendous reader with a great love for the English language, so food writing marries my two passions. My published works include The New York Timesbestselling The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (over a million copies sold), and I write a food column for a women’s magazine.
I know, I know. America’s Test Kitchenagain. But seriously, these are the two most used cookbooks in my house, and their tattered condition testifies to that. Nearly everything I have tried from the Baking book has turned out delicious, and I have enough confidence in these recipes to try something new even for company.
Featuring more than 700 kitchen-tested recipes, 800 step-by-step photos, opinionated product ratings, and at-a-glance tutorials that guarantee success every time you bake.
A companion to the bestselling America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (with more than 550,000 copies sold), this comprehensive cookbook delivers the foolproof recipes, step-by-step instructions, and troubleshooting guides that have become the hallmark of every book published by America's most trusted test kitchen. For anyone who has made pie dough that seemed impossible to roll out, bread that failed to rise, or a birthday cake that couldn't be served, this book will be a lifesaver as well as…
As a child, I desperately wanted a pet. Even if it maybe wasn’t a “real pet” like a rock or an egg. I used my imagination for pet possibilities. When I was researching If You Want A Friend In Washington I was constantly in awe of the strange and unusual pets of the White House. I wanted this list of pet books to be as diverse and unusual as the Presidential Pets. Maybe a Glacier is the perfect pet for you?
Cats, dogs, hamsters, fish, but what about a less expected pet? Maybe sourdough starter as a pet is the perfect start to caring for pet!?! The main character, Cora, promises her uncle that she will keep the pet alive. She does not anticipate how fast her pet will grow. How will she come up with a solution? And fast? This charming unexpected pet book also includes recipes.
Cora promises to keep Uncle JB's Bread Pet alive but didn't anticipate its exponential growth! She needs to come up with a solution -- and fast! This whimsical STEM story of family, creativity and community will inspire young makers to experiment and share their gifts with others. Includes sourdough starter and sourdough bread recipes.
I write books for children of all ages but I began with picture books, and they will always have a special place in my heart. I like all different types of picture books. Sometimes we read for pure entertainment, and sometimes to find out about the world, but the books on this list hit the sweet spot between the two. They are all books that will inspire further conversation and might even lead to related projects at school or home.
This book was a real favourite when my children were small, and like all favourite books, I probably read it about a million times. It’s a simple story about two brothers baking bread. The children loved the rhythm of the text, the repeated refrain, and the gentle ‘twist’ at the end. Like some of my other book picks, this one has facts at the back: this time about different types of bread from around the world. There’s also a recipe. Did we ever bake Zed’s bread? Of course we did! It was delicious.
Six brand new titles in the exciting new pre-school reading programme. Reading Together is a hugely successful learn-to-read series of high-quality picture books for young children and parents to enjoy together. There are four levels, each consisting of six books and offering a variety of reading experiences: stories, poems, rhymes and songs, traditional tales and information books, created by top authors and illustrators. Each book contains its own set of illustrated support notes - at the front and back - outlining qualities in the text, giving reading pointers and suggesting a range of follow-up activities. More detailed guidance is available…
Whenever I’m asked about when I knew I wanted to be a pastry chef/baker, I always answer, “birth!” My maternal grandmother lived with us and she loved to bake; I was playing with dough as soon as I was old enough to stand on a chair next to the kitchen table. After college I faced a crisis: graduate school or culinary school – I chose the latter and I’ve never looked back. Adding teaching and writing to my love of baking led me to travel, taste, research, and learn new techniques and recipes to share. It’s a passion from which I’ll never retire.
I first met Ciril Hitz at a pastry chefs’ conference in Las Vegas where he was conducting a demonstration workshop on laminated doughs like croissants. Swiss-born and American-educated, his articulate explanations of this complex branch of pastry-making, helped me to understand them more fully than ever before.
I rejoiced when I received a copy of his first book about bread with a unique approach: Ten master formulas, each elucidating a different type of bread dough, cover the main techniques for producing delicious – and beautiful – breads accurately every time.
Baguettes, focacce, brioches, croissants, whole grain breads, pizzas, bagels, sandwich bread, and challah, are all here with further variations on shapes and flavors. Having started my career with an exclusively pastry background, I had to learn about bread on my own.
This book gave me a firm foundation of knowledge that enabled me to create my own individual approach to…
Bread enthusiasts are more aware of the diverse array of high-quality breads than ever before and are seeking out handmade artisan products at local farmers' markets, organic grocery stores, specialty shops...even the Internet. "Baking Artisan Bread" will show that finding these specialty breads is as easy as looking in your own kitchen! "Baking Artisan Bread" provides a simplified, formula-based approach to baking bread at home, making the mixing, the rising, and the baking itself more approachable and less intimidating. With step-by-step full-colour process shots and clear directions, chef Ciril Hitz will show you how with just 10 formulas you can…
I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I'm the head behind DGPH illustration and design studio. I'm
also an illustration professor of the illustrator major at Palermo University
(UP). My passion for kids books and illustration turned me into a full time
illustrator combining both passions, illustration, and design. And with
time, I started writing my own stories too.
This book marked my childhood in the '80s (there is a modern version but
the original is the one), being one of the main reasons I do what I do. This is the story of an astronaut that lands on a planet far far away, after running out of fuel. Somehow everyone on earth can hear his loneliness and
tries to help. It is a beautiful story about self-understanding and helping others, that mixes
illustrations and photographs, allowing children's imaginations to flow: the
little planet is represented by an orange photo and the rocket is just a
regular bread piece, which as a kid blew my mind.
Cierta vez enviaron a un hombre al espacio en dirección a un planeta perdido. Era un planeta tan distante que el combustible se terminó cuando llegó por fin a destino. El astronauta quedó atrapado y solo en su nuevo mundo.pero por algún extraño fenómeno de sintonía su voz se escuchaba claramente en la tierra... Una historia de amor diferente simple y conmovedora.
I am the daughter of a health food fanatic whose admonitions about what to eat manifested in my early attraction to all food junky. Later in life, I became a bit of a food snob, shopping regularly at the farmers’ market for the freshest and most delicious fruits and vegetables I’ve ever tasted. My love of both good food and sharp analysis came to shape my career as an academic. Food became the object of my analyses, but always with an eye toward contradiction. I’ve written several books and articles exploring how capitalism constrains needed food system transformations, bringing me to my latest fascination with the tech sector.
Against the backdrop of today’s obsessions with homemade, artisanal bread, Bobrow-Strain uses the most prosaic of foods—the industrially produced loaf of white fluff—to ask hard questions about race, class, gender, war, and modernity itself.
With so many food books falling into food porn mode, I can really appreciate a book that reminds me that the technologies of stripping wheat of its bran and germ were founded on ideas of racial purification. There’s plenty to chew on in this book.
The story of how white bread became white trash, this social history shows how our relationship with the love-it-or-hate-it food staple reflects our country’s changing values
In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirty” bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfood” and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.
So how did this icon of American progress become “white trash”? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders,…
I’ve always been interested in food, even as young as 3 years old I remember wanting to taste everything, and I found the process of cooking fascinating. But I really got interested in food as a topic for research during my time studying Greek culture for my PhD thesis. People on the island of Kalymnos, where I’ve conducted research for 30 years, made a strong connection between food and memory, but it was a connection that few scholars have written about until recently. So I’ve been excited to participate in a new field reflected by all of these books, and hope you will be as well.
This book really debunks many of the myths about how and whether Americans cook today.
I loved the way that the author took us into the thoughts and practices of contemporary home cooks going about their daily cooking. I also found fascinating the comparison and contrast with those who have taken up artisanal production of sourdough bread and other skilled food products.
Home cooking is crucial to our lives but it is not necessary to our survival. Over the past century, it has become an everyday choice even though it is no longer an everyday chore. By looking closely at the stories and practices of American home cooks-witnessing them in the kitchen and at the table-Amy B. Trubek reveals our episodic but also engaged relationship to making meals. Making Modern Meals explores the state of American cooking across all its varied practices, whether cooking is considered a chore, a craft, or a creative process. Trubek challenges current assumptions about who cooks, who…
I'm a cartoonist, animator, and Oscar-nominated film director who's worked and continues to work in the mediums of books, film, and video games all the darn time. When I think about great stories I've had a chance to read, the element of friendship always stands out for me. When there's a special, authentic bond between characters that you feel with every page and frame there's nothing better! You live the moments in the story and they stay with you forever. Like a true friend would.
It's a book more centered on Frances and not so much on friendship but I live for the moments between Frances and her friend Albert in this story. Because Frances has foolishly committed to eating just her favorite lunch every day, bread and jam, she listens with great interest as Albert lays out his entire elaborate midday meal at school. I used to always read this story aloud to my two boys doing my best Jack Nicholson impression for Albert's voice. I don't have a specific reason for why I did it but it really felt like it added to the whole experience.
The classic funny story about a stubborn little badger with very particular tastes in food.
Frances is a fussy eater. In fact, the only thing she likes is bread and jam. She won't touch her squishy soft-boiled egg. She trades away her chicken-salad sandwich at lunch. She turns up her nose at boring veal cutlets.
Unless her parents can come up with a plan, Frances just might go on eating bread and jam forever!
Join the generations of families that have laughed along as Frances sings "Jam on biscuits, jam on bread, Jam is the thing I like most, Jam…
