Baking Style

On every page of this beautiful and thoughtfully written book, Baking Style: Art *Craft *Recipes (Wiley Hardcover; September 26, 2011; $45.00) is a storybook that invites readers along on a sweet and savory journey to explore homestyle baking in all its buttery glory–from bar, hand-formed, and drop cookies, to breads that are quick or yeast-raised wonders, towering muffins and scones, and lofty cakes and cupcakes. Baking Style is both a how-to resource book on the craft of baking and a literary journal of baking recipes.

A tour through the contents of Baking Style reveals a rich assortment of recipes that display the author’s creativity and good taste in a diary-styled format, inviting the reader to take in the art of baking as the delicious, creative hobby that it is. Lisa’s baking life is presented in many thoughtful, whimsical, and instructional ways. Among them:

 *        in pastperfect, a blushing birthday girl cupcake, complete with swirls and garlands of pink frosting, is presented as her favorite birthday treat and the recipe for “a 14-year-old’s rolls still tasty after all these years” is offered in the essay called learning to knead and describes one of her early kitchen capers (hint: the dough clogged up the dishwasher)

*        in downhome, an all-grown-up Lisa offers two recipes for her best dinner rolls within the essay establishing a tradition and chocolate chip cookies get their loving due in the essay bundles of joy (including a must-bake recipe, “when chocolate chip cookies go butterscotch”)

 *        if you are wondering how many times a favorite brownie recipe can get reconfigured, be sure to read and bake “forever brownies,” a stylemark of perfect texture and chocolatey goodness

*         in verynaughty, Lisa turns the tables on a waffle batter (“cocoa waffles” with “very bittersweet chocolate cream spread”), making it fudgy-to-the-core

*         if butter is your favorite flavor, don’t miss the 4 simple and simply-rich interpretations of shortbread in a delicious crumble featured in the chapter, intensebold

A hallmark of Baking Style is Lisa’s essays that take a magnifying-glass look into how a particular recipe came to be in her hands, framing the recipes that accompany. A comprehensive baker’s guide to ingredients, technique, and equipment rounds out this full-length book, making it a perfect addition to the kitchen library of both beginning and seasoned cooks alike. In addition to detailed information for learning the special techniques of the baking process and recipes that glow with perfectly created flavors and textures, Baking Style is infused with discoveries, inspirations, and exacting but simple confections for capturing the art of baking at home.

Hold on to your whisk – it’s a sweet ride through the pages of Baking Style.