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Book ReviewsFannie Farmer Baking Book |
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Book: Fannie Farmer Baking Book
Written by: MARION CUNNINGHAM |
Publisher: Gramercy
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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Wonderful book for anyone who wants to bake
Rating:
5 / 5
I stumbled upon this book years ago when I was in school and wanted to improve my baking skills. My friends and their mothers gave some friendly suggestions and recommendations, but I found that this was the best book to hone my baking skills.
The minute I clapped my eyes on the book, and browsed through it I knew that this was going to be a good book. I was not disappointed with the results when I tested my first recipe, then my second, third and so on. The baked goods turned out great and tasted great. I have baked muffins, cakes, pies, breads etc and they all work.
This is a no-frills book that does not have any fancy colorful pictures. But, what it has are great recipes and lucid directions on how to bake.
I would strongly recommend this book if you are either exploring to hone your baking skills, or are an expert baker that can cojure up baked goodies at the drop of a hat. This is a wonderful book to have in your library. Nothing like eating a fresh slice of coffee cake (recipe in the book) with a cup of coffee on a Sunday afternoon.
Moose Head Gingerbread a BIG hit
Rating:
5 / 5
This is a wonderful book, if for no other reason other than that it has the recipe for Moose Head Gingerbread, made with black pepper and mustard. It is a baker's handbook, and has many of the basics that you will need. It is a great companion to Marion's other book the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Recommend that you buy the pair.
Great Baking Book, Lousy Format
Rating:
5 / 5
Whenever I need a baking recipe at home, this is the book I usually get it from. Here is where one will find shortbread, pancakes, biscuits, devils' food cake, apple pie, and muffins. I use it more often than the rest of my baking books put together. If there is only one baking book on your bookshelf, this is one to have. The author understands what the average home baker is and is not capable of. She also seems to understand that the best recipes are those that have the fewest ingredients. All things considered, it is the baking book I recommend the most often. I find it to be reliable and useful.
In recent years, there has been a plethora of snazzy dessert books. They have beautiful, glossy pages, top notch food styling, a famous name, and a smiling face on the cover. Problem is that the recipes are, at heart, ordinary recipes; they also feature sophisticated techniques and skillful decorations. Worse, they are often poorly edited, and many have not gone through a test kitchen. If you are a professional or advanced amateur pastry chef, they are a treasure trove; for the rest of us, they are useless. The Fanny Farmer Baking Book is entirely different: you will find several hundred classic, easy to do recipes that will become regulars in your home kitchen for years. I was impressed by both the quantity and quality of the recipes.
My main problem with this book is the poor organization. Some of the chapters are 150 pages long, but the table of contents merely lists the chapter title, and there is no other detail. The Pie chapter, for example, has the following sections: Types, Crusts and Toppings, Cooling and Storage, Freezing, Ingredients, Equipment, Dough, Rolling and Shaping, Storing, Basic Master Recipe, more than two dozen crusts and doughs, puff pastry, Toppings, and recipes for pies with: fresh fruit, preserved fruit, deep dish, classics, sweet cheese, cream, chiffon, custard, breakfast, translucent custard, candy, mincemeat, turnovers, dumplings, not to mention a whole section devoted to tarts. Yet, by looking at the scanty table of contents, you would never know this. Likewise the cake chapter: it is thoughtfully organized by cake type, but you would never know this by looking at either the table of contents or chapter head. More than once I have found myself puzzling over the confusing index, and then having to flip through more than 100 pages of text to get the information or recipe I need. Each chapter starts with a master recipe that explains all the tools and steps in excruciating detail that takes several pages; all the of the rest of the recipes in the chapter use that master recipe as the basic technique. Of course, you will never find them unless you take the time and patience to physically leaf through the whole chapter. The last part of the bread chapter features several detailed, reliable recipes for puff pastry and danish.
It has the following chapters: General Information, Pies and Tarts, Cookies, Cakes, Yeast Bread, Quick Bread, Crackers.
There are a few losers (Curry Refrigerator Cookies, Rosewater-Almond Pound Cake, Linzer Torte where the jam is like leather, a one bowl Lemon Pudding Cake that requires two bowls; chocolate cakes using cocoa powder that do not taste all that chocolaty). I object to the name of this otherwise wonderful book. Fannie Farmer never wrote a baking book, and her name does not belong in the title. The author is wrong about her Danish recipe being better than a commercial bakery, and also about storing Irish Soda Bread for 8 hours before eating. In general, however, I have remarkably few quibbles with the information presented.
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