The baking season

REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT

Our bread basket runneth over and our cookie jar explodeth! There's a wonderful new batch of baking books this fall, great for the holiday season both as gifts and as guides for making everything from bagels, boules and baguettes to pies, pain au chocolat, panettone and so much more.

Culinary curiosity has taken award-winning cookbook authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid to the four corners of the earth. Home Baking: Sweet and Savory Traditions From Around the World , their latest, gloriously illustrated collection of unusually enticing recipes, extends the boundaries of "home baking." Included are twisted, golden Ukrainian Christmas Bread, Vietnamese Bread Pudding made rich with coconut milk, Olive Panini from the heel of Italy, Greek Biscotti with Wine and Spices, as well as Naomi's grandmother's Treacle Tart and Jeffrey's mother's Buttermilk Fruit Cake. A joy to cook from, to read and to look through.


Learning the basics

The "essentials" offered by Williams-Sonoma, a name long synonymous with the best in cookbooks and cooking equipment, in their lavishly produced Essentials of Baking are anything but bare. Nothing in the baking process is left to your imagination: ingredients, tools and techniques are detailed and illustrated; the well thought-out recipes for all kinds of breads—yeast, flat and quick—pies, cakes, cookies, crackers and beyond (think custards, soufflés, sauces, toppings and fillings) are explained step-by-step and the luscious, lush color photos throughout are instructional and absolutely inspirational.

Another grand compilation of recipes for both sweet and savory baked goods comes from James Barrett and Wendy Smith Born, who share recipes from their super-successful Philadelphia bakery business in The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook. Along with the basics are fabulous finds such as Caramelized Onion-Thyme Bread, Blood Orange Eclairs and fresh ideas for the spreads, salads and sandwiches that have added to the bakery's popularity.


Sweet sensations

For those of us in the "eat dessert first" category, there's a sensational sweet treat created by Sherry Yard, the talented, innovative executive pastry chef at Spago. A practical paean to premier pastries, The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts is built around 12 "Master" Recipes, each explicating a technique that allows you to make a host of related recipes. For example, "Master Ganache" (chocolate and cream) turns into Truffles, Frozen Chocolate Parfait, Chocolate Soufflé and Deep, Dark Chocolate Tart; "Master Pāté à Choux" miraculously morphs into profiteroles, Chocolate Banana Beignets and Cherry Almond Fritters. Once mastered, the master recipes reveal a whole world of divine desserts for you—and your lucky friends and family—to revel in. Feeding your inner Cookie Monster is a snap and a pleasure with Carole Walter's Great Cookies, wherein she, too, reveals her "secrets," these for perfect cookies every time whether they be dropped, piped, pressed, rolled, hand-formed, cold cut, molded, filled or frosted. The cookie compendium continues with bars—from beloved Brownies to exotic Coconut-Crusted Key Lime Napoleons—rugalah, strudelettes, biscotti in myriad variations, meringues, macaroons and an international array of global goodies including Sicilian Wine Cookies, Athena's Baklava and Petite Lavender Madeleines. Cookies are fun, festive and de rigueur during the holidays to serve and to give as gifts.


Bread winners

If it's bread alone you want to celebrate, Celebration Breads by Betsy Oppenneer is a perfect choice for an international sampling of breads that are "traditional at heart, but modern in technique." Moving around the world from Egypt to Switzerland, Betsy includes over 75 recipes, each embellished with its own tales and traditions. Basic info on equipment and techniques is included so that you can easily follow her call to "celebrate, rejoice and bake bread."


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