Baker Bettie’s Better Baking Book: Classic Baking Techniques and Recipes for Building Baking Confidence (Cake Decorating, Pastry Recipes, Baking Classes) (Birthday Gift for Her)

I bought this book for myself, but I can't wait to share it with others! It covers so many beginner topics and has so many great recipes! I can't wait to make them all!

So far the only thing I’ve made from this book is the cheesecake and it’s convinced me to use a scale more for baking. Good book for those looking for more baking techniques.

I've been baking for a little while now, but I never learned the why with a lot of the steps. I have so many ideas on how to customize recipes and make them my own, but I had no idea how to actually do that without ruining it. This book is makes all those little steps make so much more sense. You won't regret it!

My boyfriend, who it seemed had never set foot in a kitchen before a couple years ago, has been trying to learn how to bake. He has been attempting all of the "technical bakes" from the Great British Baking Show - and he's improving quite a lot! I got this book because the author organized it in a special way - she starts with "Master Recipes" that are basically like a solid blueprint for a specific type of food item - like a flaky pastry crust, a buttercream frosting or a hand roll. She explains the master recipe in a way that actually teaches you what makes that recipe so useful and versatile, and what popular dishes you can make with it. She then lists a huge variety of ways that you can ALTER or ADD to these master recipes in order to turn them into unique, more specialized dishes. This way, you're not just following along with a different recipe each time you want to make, say, a savory pot pie. You always go back to the MASTER recipe for that type of dish and then experiment with different fillings, binders, shapes, etc etc. It really helps you learn the true fundamentals of baking and cooking in a way that most recipe books don't, and in a way that most instructional textbooks don't, either. Truly awesome gift for the budding baker or chef!

I'm the type of person who always wants to know *why* things are done a certain way. This book does a great job and not just teach skills, but also teaching the how's and why's behind everything.

I love this cookbook. The information given, the recipes, the photos - It’s like having a baking class at your fingertips.

I love how she gives you tips on mixing and then gives you a base recipe. It allows you to be more creative with different ways to make it. She lists those options too. Really upped my muffins. Thank you.

I've had this book for a couple of months now and have baked several recipes from it. At this point I'm going on nearly ten recipes directly from the book, and a few recipes in this book inspired me to look up other recipes and assemble my own idea of what I wanted to do. This review will cover only those recipes that I took directly from the book.My experience level is mostly beginner, though I am not a complete novice. I have baked on and off through the years, mostly from box mixes and sometimes from scratch. Until buying this book, it had actually been several years since I'd made anything from scratch, so anything I might have once known about baking science was pretty much out the window. As a result I was glad to read through the parts at the beginning where the book covers the roles of different ingredients in a recipe and ingredient temperatures. The equipment section I found somewhat helpful, though after baking a lot lately I don't fully agree with all of the recommendations (why is a sieve marked "optional" equipment?). One area the book doesn't cover much, but should, is how different brands of ingredients can make a difference in a recipe. Salt, for example, is difficult to measure by weight (more on that later) and thus typically has to be measured by the teaspoon or fraction of a teaspoon. Not knowing that Morton kosher salt is much saltier than Diamond Crystal, for example, can lead to a saltier-than-intended outcome. Flour brand is another that matters. King Arthur AP flour is quite high in protein and can produce different results than, say, Gold Medal. The book does call out the difference between American and European butter, which I appreciated.Now, as for measuring by weight: It can be misleading. I measure larger quantities by weight and enjoy not needing to dirty a lot of dry measuring cups as a result. The fact that despite being an American baker, she provides metric measurements, is a plus. However, measuring very small quantities on the inexpensive kitchen scales most of us will have, if we have one at all, is not as accurate as the book leads us to believe. At times she provides pretty small weight measurements for things like salt (2 grams is a measurement I see a lot). Unfortunately inexpensive home kitchen scales may not measure all that accurately. With larger volumes, it might not make such a big difference to be a couple of grams off. But with smaller measurements, if my scale is off by even a gram, it could throw off the flavor of the recipe substantially. It would have been better if she had explained this, as I didn't learn this fact from her but from other sources as I began intensely researching baking techniques recently.Other areas I find lacking:1. A beginner book would also benefit quite a lot from including recipe troubleshooting and comparisons of what might happen if something is done differently or incorrectly. What happens if I am too aggressive with my folding for angel food or chiffon cakes? What if I don't cream my butter and sugar long enough? What does bread look like if it has been over/underbaked or over/underproved?2. Meringue methods specified by name are limited to the Swiss method. French meringue is created for certain recipes without being mentioned as such (like angel food cake), but given how straightforward it is to make, it would have been nice to have a basic recipe for French meringue cookies with an explanation of stabilizers, what types of extracts to add and what to avoid, etc. (Is it going to ruin my meringue if my extract contains oil, such as peppermint extract?)3. There are some basic techniques the book doesn't cover but should. Tapping or even banging a cake pan to get rid of air bubbles, for example. The pound cake I made from this book had a horrible tunnel going through it that I learned was because I should have banged the cake pan on the counter to get rid of excess air bubbles before putting it in the oven. Through this research I also learned that the density of the cake will determine how forceful this banging/tapping should be.4. I have found that her mix-in recommendations can be overboard. I made the sweet bread with 2 cups of chocolate chips as suggested, and it was a ridiculous and overpowering amount that could have been scaled back. The garlic cheddar variant of the biscuit recipe was much too salty, which may have been because of the cheese I was using or because I used Morton instead of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or because the recipe simply calls for too much salt. Hard to say without running a lot of comparison experiments.However, I have had success with several of the recipes so far. The cheddar dill variant of the savory bread turned out well for me, though I did substitute mild cheddar for sharp and dried dill for fresh. The fudgy brownies, spiced variant were amazing, and I appreciated the note on blooming the cocoa powder, as I wouldn't have otherwise known why the recipe was asking me to use hot butter. The biscuits would have been fine if it weren't for the salt factor, so the quantities of everything else were solid. My pastry cream turned out well; however, I had to turn the heat up on my stove well beyond "low" heat to get the pastry cream to come to a boil in step 4. (I was standing over the stove for a good 10 minutes before deciding to ignore the recipe and turn the heat to medium high. I've only made it once and am not sure whether going with medium high to begin with would have been better.)Overall I would recommend this book but don't find it comprehensive enough, even as a beginner resource. I do look forward to continuing to try recipes from the book but may deviate from it more often than not as I use the recipes in the book as inspiration to find a stronger recipe elsewhere. I also don't think this book will be terribly useful for more experienced bakers unless they are not familiar with some of the base concepts covered at the beginning. The recipes are basic for a reason, and if you want a large number of more intermediate/advanced recipes, or greater variety, other books will serve these purposes better.

I discovered Baker Bettie through this book and now I regularly peruse her website for baking ideas as well.The template recipes are simply awesome. Making these recipes teaches you to design your own as you move from your first simple modifications to the template towards adding new ingredients not listed in the book. I have fallen down so many baking rabbit holes thanks to this book.You can use the quick bread recipes in this book to bake loaves and muffins with the recipes as written, or you can add a few tablespoons of flour to the dry ingredients and make baked donuts! Every recipe is so versatile.People compliment my baking all the time thanks to this book. My most complimented recipe is a variation of the fruit and veg quick bread made with apple as the base ingredient, warm spices, and raisins that have soaked in dark rum for weeks.If you are a gluten free baker I recommend you measure your flour by volume rather than by weight as gluten free flour has a different weight to volume ratio than regular flour. That is the one criticism I have of this book, it suggests replacing regular flour with GF but does not specify that the weights will be all wrong.

This book is so comprehensive in its instructions, that you feel Bettie is right by your side. I've tried many of her recipes and they are now my go-to. If you like baking, you should have this book.

So detailed, and simply worded for the novice baker. Never knew the fundamentals/master recipes. Thank you so much Bettie, I now have baking in common with my mother in law <3

Followed Baker Betty on Youtube for a while. She is a very good teacher. Teaches what makes recipes tick and how to adjust them to suit. Book continues this instruction.

A masterclass in baking. techniques explained so well and recipes progress so it's like taking a class in baking if you work your way though the book.