- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with over 200 Magnificent Recipes [NOOK Book]
( 22 )
With her years of experience from big-pot cooking for 140 teenage boys and her classic French culinary training to her work as a research biochemist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Shirley manages to put two and two together in unique and exciting ways. Some information is straight out of Shirley's wildly connecting brain cells. She describes useful techniques, such as brushing puff pastry with ice water -- not just brushing off the flour -- making the puff pastry easier to roll. The result? Higher, lighter, and flakier pastry. And you won't find these recipes anywhere else, not even on the Internet. She can help you make moist cakes; flaky pie crusts; shrink-proof perfect meringues that won't leak but still cut like a dream; big, crisp cream puffs; amazing French pastries; light génoise; and crusty, incredibly flavorful, open-textured French breads, such as baguettes and fougasses.
There is simply no one like Shirley Corriher. People everywhere recognize her from her TV appearances on the Food Network and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with Snoop Dogg as her fry chef.
Restaurant chefs and culinary students know her from their grease-splattered copies of CookWise, an encyclopedic work that has saved them from many a cooking disaster. With numerous "At-a-Glance" charts, BakeWise gives busy people information for quick problem solving. BakeWise also includes Shirley's "What This Recipe Shows" in every recipe. This section is science and culinary information that can apply to hundreds of recipes, not just the one in which it appears.
For years, food editors and writers have kept CookWise, Shirley's previous book, right by their computers. Now that spot they've been holding for BakeWise can be filled.
BakeWise does not have just a single source of knowledge; Shirley loves reading the works of chefs and other good cooks and shares their information with you, too. She applies not only her expertise but that of the many artisans she admires, such as famous French pastry chefs Gaston Lenôtre and Chef Roland Mesnier, the White House executive pastry chef for twenty-five years; Bruce Healy, author of Mastering the Art of French Pastry; and Bonnie Wagner, Shirley's daughter-inlaw's mother. Shirley also retrieves "lost arts" from experts of the past such as Monroe Boston Strause, the pie master of 1930s America. For one dish, she may give you techniques from three or four different chefs plus her own touch ofscience -- "better baking through chemistry." She adds facts about the right temperature, the right mixing speed, and the right mixing time for the absolutely most stable egg foam, so you can create a light-as-air génoise every time.
BakeWise is for everyone. Some will read it for the adventure of problem solving with Shirley. Beginners can cook from it and know exactly what they are doing and why. Experienced bakers find out why the techniques they use work and also uncover amazing French pastries out of the past, such as Pont Neuf (a creation of puff pastry, pâte à choux, and pastry cream in honor of the Paris bridge) and Religieuses, adorable "little nuns" made of puff pastry filled with a satiny chocolate pastry cream and drizzled with mocha icing to form a nun's habit.
Some will want it simply for the recipes -- incredibly moist whipped cream pound cake made with heavy cream whipped slightly beyond the soft-peak stage and folded into the batter; flourless fruit soufflés (puréed fruit and Italian meringue); Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, rolled first in granulated sugar and then in confectioners' sugar for a crunchy black-and-snow-white surface with a gooey, fudgy center. And Shirley's popovers are huge
Corriher, trained as a research chemist, is well known as a culinary troubleshooter, and her first book, Cookwise, has become a standard reference. Ten years later, Bakewise expands on the baking information in that book (which does include sections on breads, piecrusts, cookies, and cakes) and goes beyond it, with the focus solely on baked goods, both savory and sweet. The cake chapter explores everything from the science behind different mixing methods to the acidity of cake ingredients to chocolate percentages. Each of the 200 recipes begins with a list of "What This Recipe Shows," and there are dozens of charts, boxes, and sidebars. The organization of the book sometimes seems confusing, and some home bakers will find the sheer bulk of the information overwhelming. However, those who are interested in the science of baking (and who like the Cook's Illustrated multiple-testing approach to recipes), as well as professionals in the field, will find Corriher's latest an invaluable resource.
Frisbeesage
Posted November 22, 2008
Bakewise was a winner! I don't have Cookwise so I wasn't quite prepared for the level of detail! This lady has covered every aspect of baking you could ever have questions about. Want to know all about chocolate, where it comes from, different types, and how it works in baked goods - check! How about the science behind a flaky pie crust, a perfect meringue, or the emulsion process involved in making a buttercream frosting? That's all here too. Just want some good recipes? So far I've made:
Shirley's Crazy Cake - this recipe intrigued me. No eggs and you mix all the ingredients in the pan you bake it in! Literally no clean to clean! It turned out very good with a nice light crumb and a mocha flavor from the cocoa and coffee. She has a similar recipe called Serious Stuff Gingerbread that is on my list to try.
E-Z Delicious Peanut Butter Cookies Another interesting recipe technique-wise, no flour! This recipe is just peanut butter, brown sugar, an egg, and some toffee bits. These are the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had! They had an intense peanut butter flavor and a sort of soft, chewy texture almost like a chewy chocolate chip cookie. I took these to work and got numerous requests for the recipe.
Rooster's Famous Fire Crackers - This is the only one I've made so far that I didn't care for. It's essentially saltines with red pepper and cheese baked. She explains why they get really crispy and cheesy and I though the idea sounded intriguing, but the end product didn't do it for me.
Simpley Wonderful Strata - Brownes Billows of Cheesy Puff - wow! This was great! I've never had a strata puff up this much. It was cheesy and puffy and delicious! It would be a perfect Christmas morning meal.
There are so many other recipes in this cookbook I want to try! I have marked Take-Your-Breath-Away Lemon Pound Cake, Sweet Pears and Crunchy, Roasted Walnut Muffins, "Touch of Grace" Southern Biscuits and a bunch of others!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.SpockMN
Posted September 12, 2009
I Also Recommend:
I got the book so I could hopefully solve the mystery/science of baking, not that I was ever bad at it but...wanted to know how it all worked. This book did that, but I have to say that I don't really want to cook any of the recipes. The only recipe that I felt the urge to make was the biscuits--and I don't generally eat biscuits.
Overall the book answered my questions, however as a cookbook it is not that interesting. Maybe if there were more pictures of the finished product I would have found inspiration.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.cfrankread
Posted December 28, 2011
Exceptional book with detailed science behind the recipes that can make you a better cook. If you buy it, get the hardcover. The Nook book while containing all the text lacks all of the pictures. 5 star book worth only 3 stars in Nook form.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.WordsofTruth
Posted April 20, 2011
This book has only 5 chapters, but they are stuffed with recipes and information you can't get many other places. Shirley explains almost exhaustively, the whys & how-to's of baking. Her scientific explanations are concise and easy to understand, broken into short segments of reading. Her 'What This Recipe Shows' boxes are the academic objectives, several of which are the same in like recipes. For anyone who likes to ask, 'Why?' or anyone needing to answer the 'Why?' questions, this book is an indispensable resource. It is also an excellent gift for anyone wanting to produce professional, 'culinary-degree-looking' finished baked goods. It would be tedious for someone who wants recipes with which to 'just get cooking.'
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.cook4luvTX
Posted April 20, 2009
This is one of the most prized of all my collection of cookbooks. I will continue to go to it and re-read, learn and enjoy it. There were tips and information that were new and some were reminders. It might be a bit over whelming to a new cook at first, but it would be a wonderful gift and well worth giving. I was a little intimidated by the "mathamatical" information/equations, it was pretty in-depth in some areas but overall it was a wonderful read and an awesome baking tool!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 6, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 20, 2008
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 8, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 29, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 9, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 27, 2008
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted January 16, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 18, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 27, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted June 6, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 14, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted June 4, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 16, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 13, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 16, 2008
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Great day in the morning, BakeWise is out! You are holding the book that everyone has been waiting for. Sure enough, Shirley did not hold back -- it's all here. Lively and fascinating, BakeWise reads like a mystery novel as we follow sleuth Shirley while she solves everything from why cakes and muffins can be dry to génoise deflation and why the cookie crumbles.
With her years of experience from big-pot cooking for 140 teenage boys and her classic French culinary training to her work as a research biochemist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Shirley manages to put two and two together in unique and exciting ways. Some information is straight ...