How to Cook That: Crazy Sweet Creations (Dessert Recipe Book, Baking Cookbook)

I love this cookbook!!! In addition to some really great recipes Ann's developed over the years, every chapter features a whole section explaining the science, technique, troubleshooting, and tips for each category of sweets. I'm the kind of baker who loves to understand the why, as it makes inventing my own stuff easier when I understand the food science at work in a recipe, and Ann does a really lovely job of doing that, making this both a food science introduction and am approachable cookbook. Skill level required ranges from easy to complicated for various recipes, and with her incredibly descriptive steps I think doing some of the more complicated recipes in here will be a lot easier with her guidance.. I would feel good gifting this book to somebody just getting into making sweets, as well as an experienced home cook. There are sections for fun easy desserts, chocolate (with an intro to tempering), cakes and cupcakes, intro to artistic playing, pastries, and ice creams (both with and without an ice cream maker). All measurements are in US and Metric.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of the book itself. The cover is very sturdy and there are many high quality colored pictures inside the book. As for the content, there are several easier recipes and over half are more complicated recipes. I think this gives the reader a path to try some easy recipes then try to stretch themselves with harder ones. Some of the recipes also have video tutorials available, so if you're unsure about what it should look like during the process, you can always reference the video if it's available. I checked and there are a lot descriptions in the text, but sometimes it is nice to see it in a video as well. There are very nice pictures of the completed product which is helpful when plating. I like how the ingredients are separated out for each step. I noticed this for the mint Oreo mousse recipe. Oreo's are used in both the mousse and the topping, so separating them in the ingredients prevents the reader from adding all of them into the mousse by accident. It also helps separate the complicated recipes into manageable steps. I really like the section which prefaces the cake recipes. It discusses how fats, sugars, and water content can affect characteristics of the cake. This is really helpful to have available in the book because it can help you perfect your cakes and have more intuition about what ingredients to adjust if your product is a little bit off or if you just prefer a more moist/dry cake. I know that different brands of flours can even have slightly different moisture content, so even if you make something exactly as stated in a recipe, your product could be different, so this information is incredibly important. I noticed that a lot of the recipes are probably 3-4 smaller recipes all combined. It looks like the larger recipes were chosen to provide a lot of variety with the smaller recipes. For example the book probably has 4-5 different icing recipes and the cake recipes are the cake section has a variety of very different cakes. I really like the book so far, I'm probably going to make a recipe from this book once a week for a while. I'll start with the easiest ones and work my way up. I prefer this over online recipes because it provides good background information and has a lot of ideas I would not have searched for on google.

This cookbook is jam-packed!!! I am a bit frustrated with some of the reviews saying there aren't many offerings, because while the table of contents looks a little thin, each recipe is really 2-6 recipes. For example, her "spiral chocolate caramel domes" includes recipes for light chocolate cake, vanilla syrup, caramel creme brulee, salted butter caramel, chocolate mousse, chocolate mirror glaze, and instructions for a chocolate spiral. There are so many building blocks in this cookbook that you can use in whatever way you want. You can absolutely use individual components of any of her recipes if you're short on time or just want something simpler. Of course there are full-page spreads with lots of good food science, as well as lots of little blurbs scattered throughout. I also think the recipes are very representative of the content on her channel. I think this is a great cookbook as an intermediate-level baker and am glad for some of the more advanced/fancy recipes, because I'm looking to grow my skills. Her instructions are so detailed and she provides such a wealth of that awesome food science information that I think it's accessible for any level baker. I should also say that there is a video tutorial online available for every single recipe in this cookbook, so there is no reason to be intimidated! She has lots of offerings for beginners to advanced bakers, making this a great addition to anyone's collection, but I suppose if you're against learning and never want to expand your baking skills, this may not be the cookbook for you.

I absolutely love this book and highly recommend it! Ann Reardon is amazing and incredibly knowledgeable. This book not only provides you with delicious recipes, but it also dives into some of the science behind them. She has pages dedicated to showing you how different types and amounts of ingredients affect the same product. For example, on the page dedicated to cakes and cupcakes she shows how the following impact the end results of your product: the amount of fat used, the type of fat used (butter, oil, margarine), the amount of sugar used, the amount of water used, and even how different variations of eggs affect it (no eggs, normal amount of eggs, double the eggs called for in the recipe, all yolks, all whites, whipped egg whites). Included with the pictures are explanations as to why or how the variations affect the recipe. I do agree with some of the other reviews; this book can seem overwhelming at first. It's a lot of information to take in, but if you're truly interested in baking delicious sweets and learning about the science behind the recipes, you should give this book a go! And even if you're not interested in the science, the recipes themselves are incredible! If you haven't done so already, you should check out her YouTube channel (How To Cook That) for additional recipes and more! She posts about how to rescue cake fails, debunking videos, dessert recipes (that aren't in her book) and even has videos dedicated to going over some of the recipes in the book. In fact, she even shows you how you can use different elements from one recipe to make different desserts! If you're unsure about buying the book, or if you're just not interested in buying it at all, at least check out her channel. It's helped me immensely throughout the years and I can say without a doubt that I wouldn't be the home baker that I am today without Ann Reardon and her channel.

I really like that Ann specifically listed out each step of the recipes with lots of detail in both metric and imperial (as you would expect of a good cookbook!) but she has always several pages that list common baking mistakes as well as a color and texture chart of when you use too much/not enough sugar or water or fat, etc. VERY handy for newbies. This book also has, hands down, the nicest photography of any cookbook I have ever seen. The images are all high resolution, brightly lit, with crystal clear detail. My daughter wanted macarons for her birthday and I think I am going to give those a try! Excellent book and a great value. EDIT: I would like to address some of the things I see from other reviewers. To the one who says the book is full of just ice cream and chocolate, she must have only skimmed a few pages only seeing the sections "fun easy desserts" where it is about modifying ice cream and milkshakes and the ice cream section later in the book which literally explains how to make your own ice creams. Its not "jUsT iCe CrEaM" read further on and let me know about the chocolate dome and the gelatina spiders and flowers. For cakes she has a two page spread with very informative pictures explaining what can go wrong with cakes which is incredibly helpful. The cake section is about 20 pages and they all look great. To the one that says it is intimidating, I think Ann breaks the steps down for the more complicated desserts rather simply and logically. If you can read and have a 10 second attention span you can easily follow her step by step directions. Start at the easy stuff and work your way in once you get some experience and confidence. The VAST majority of the recipes are only one page, with a select few having 2 or more but that is because it involves techniques that need to be explained clearly with specific times and temperatures and descriptions of what it is going to look and feel like when it is done and for you to move onto the next step.

It's very high quality and has a huge range of recipes, from very simple desserts anyone could make to hugely elaborate pastries for experts and the adventurous. I love how much detail there is, how every recipe includes multiple forms of measurement so you don't need a kitchen scale, the information about video tutorials, and the snippets explaining different aspects of the science behind different parts of a recipe. I'm a new baker and I really can't wait to get started with this.

This book is beautiful and so informative. I especially love the experiments and other food science info included (like how cake texture changes with different amounts of sugar/eggs/oil/etc). As someone who has been baking for a while, I’m comfortable following recipes, but I’ve always been too nervous to modify them much. Thanks to this book, I know what I can (and can’t!) change in recipes to perfect the recipes I already have and to analyze ones I haven’t tried yet. The book is helpfully sectioned out, with easier/quicker desserts in the first section and more complex desserts later on. I assumed the “fun easy” desserts would be unappetizing and unimpressive, but they are actually quite beautiful and creative. The recipes are detailed and the pictures are elegant and are helpful in visualizing the more complex recipes.

I'm a fan of Ann Reardon so i got this book because i trust her content. WOW am i glad i got it! It is such high quality -- beautiful high quality pictures for every recipe, feels and looks good, so neatly organized. It is a very attractive book so it makes for a good gift as well. Everything is incredibly easy to find and there are snippets of her food science knowledge in there, too. I love that the units and measurements are listed so cleanly and in multiple ways. Easy to follow. I've made 4 recipes so far (2 ice creams, lemon cupcakes, raspberry tart) and they have all turned out lovely. Now i'm waiting to get molds to make some of the entremets... Anyway, Ann knows what she's doing and i recommend this book.

Professional bakery level recipes made home-cooking available! Beware; contains the secrets to obtain the best chocolate cake. In case you don't know the author; be sure to check their YouTube channel: how to cook that. If you are into cooking, or into science projects or just a big-Corp.'s ad-Algorithm fighter, you won't regret it!

This book is great! I own a huge collection of cook books, a lot of them are desert themed. This one outshines them all! It is well writen and well constructed, the deserts are categorized by circumstance rather than by type, which makes choosing much easier. Author Ann Reardon, whom I love dearly, explains some of the science behind cooking and enjoying sweets in a clear accessible language. But mostly, the recipes are scrumptious! The book itself is well made; the size, the feel of the pages, the colors and beautiful pictures are top notch! I strongly recommend it to anyone, even beginners! Ce livre est splendide! Je possède une grande collection de livres de cuisine, dont plusieurs livres sur les desserts. Celui-ci les surpasse tous de loin! Il est bien écrit et bien construit, les desserts sont catégorisés par occasion plutôt que par type, ce qui aide à choisir lequel essayer. L'auteure Ann Reardon, que j'adore, explique clairement dans un langage accessible la science derrière la pâtisserie et le plaisir qui y est associé quand on en mange. Mais par-dessus tout, les recettes sont succulentes! Quant au livre lui-même est de bonne qualité; le format, la texture des pages, les couleurs et le superbes photos sont excellents! Je le recommande chaleureusement à quiconque, même les débutants!

My daughter and I love to watch her videos, so we bought this book. We have tried 2 recipes and both have been failures. The lemon blueberry cake has a mistake in the recipe. It tells you to add an ingredient that is not listed in the ingredients sections. I am a decent baker. I've been baking for over 40 years. I do not like this book. One recipe called for 1 kg of powdered sugar and 12 eggs. It cost me almost $100 for the ingredients and the cake was a complete flop. It tasked grainy and it would not cook well. It outside started to burn before the inside even started to cook. I do not recommend this book. My daughter, who loves baking, has been very discouraged from using this book.

Wer Backen und Nachspeisen liebt, wird dieses Buch lieben. Ann Reardons Youtube Kanal ist meiner Meinung nach einer der besten Back-Channels. Viele ihrer Rezepte aus dem Buch finden sich auch auf ihrer Website oder auf YouTube, aber sie direkt aus dem hochwertigen Backbuch nachbacken zu können, ist ein tolles Gefühl. Die perfekten Vanille-Cupcakes mit Zitronenfüllung sind zum Beispiel nicht auf YouTube. Das Nachbacken ist mir super gelungen (obwohl ich kein Profi bin) und sie schmecken wirklich himmlisch! Das Buch ist auf Englisch, aber alle Rezeptangaben sind in Gramm, amerikanischen Flüssigkeitsunzen (oz) und Cups angegeben, sodass man je nach Wahl mit Cups/Spoons oder der Waage arbeiten kann.

Bel prodotto