Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Great Book just made the flourless chcolate cake and it was very good and easy to make.

I bought this book after I saw the owners of the bakery on Martha Stewart. The photos will leave you drooling! The recipes like Pumpkin Whoopie Pies are just one example of the unique creations in the book. I also bought another one to give as a gift. Highly recommended!

I first saw Baked: New Frontiers in Baking while on vacation. My willpower not to buy any more baking books lasted for exactly one week until I swooped into my local bookstore, drooled, purchased, raced home, and whipped up a killer batch of the Baked Brownie. The balance of chocolate (11 ounces), butter (two sticks), a dash of espresso powder, a mix of granulated and brown sugar, and a hefty dose of eggs (five) give this brownie the ideal texture: the perfect marriage of fudgy and cakey without being runny or dense.

The next recipe I tried was the pumpkin chocolate chip loaf (the recipe makes two loaves). A seemingly straightforward blend of canned pumpkin puree, spices (allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg), and chocolate, the complex flavors of spice and pumpkin were complementary without overwhelming. Although the recipe calls for one cup of vegetable oil, you also dilute it with 2/3-cup tap water, so the bread is pleasantly moist without being greasy or oily (I've had that happen all too many times in many quick breads).

Next on my list was the Brewer's Blondie, a hopped-up blend of of malt powder, malt balls, semisweet chocolate, and walnuts. Bars are one of Baked's strengths, including a decadent grown-up Rice Krispy bar, the elegant Honeycomb Bar (sweet tart dough topped with dried fruit, honey, and a shot of booze), S'more nut bars, and the Baked bar. There are also more complicated layer cakes (chocolate malt, chocolate/caramel/sea salt, Whiteout, Red Velvet), cookies, and breakfast treats such as scones, granola (yay, finally a low-oil granola full of fruit!), and quick breads. Pies and tarts? Feast on Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie, Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie, Peanut Butter Pie with Cookie Crust and Easy Fudge Sauce, and Classic Diner-Style Chocolate Pie.

Baked has been featured on Martha Stewart, Oprah (their Baked Brownie had a centerfold spread in O), and on several high-profile shows, but does Baked live up to its claims of being revolutionary? That's a more difficult cookie to crumble. Sure, there are gourmet additions such as matcha, chipotle, and fleur de sel, but most of the Baked repertoire is firmly descended from comfort cooking, such as the Root Beer Cake, a modern update on the Southern staple Coca-Cola (or Dr. Pepper) cake, or the red velvet spiced up with Red Hots. Ditto on the divine Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie. It's still amazing, whether or not it's smashing any new culinary boundaries.

Even if you never cook a single recipe from Baked, the clever graphics (garden gnomes, plastic deer perched on a mound of fluffy coconut snow), useful sidebars (including variations), and notes make this a great investment. This is my favorite cookbook of 2008, and I hope that it will become yours as well.

I do a LOT of baking, and I bought this book after it was recommended on one of my favorite food blogs--I made the recipe that was featured on the blog and I wanted to try more.

When I first got the book, I was impressed with the pictures and some of the new ideas in the recipes. Then, as I started to really consider the book, I realized it doesn't really have as many recipes as I had hoped for. This book is good for a few unique recipes, but if you are looking for a broader baking book or even more of a primer to baking, try Marcy Goldman's "A Passion for Baking" (as a primer) or a Dorie Greenspan book. The recipes in this book are good, but it's just not as expansive I had hoped for--its more of a niche cookbook than an everyday one.

Some people buy cars to impress people and some people bake. I love to bake. These guys were generous enough to share some amazing recipes with the world. Just TRY the sweet and salty cake. Bake it on a Sunday afternoon (it takes awhile) and take it in for your colleagues. That cake has the most amazing ability to create instant popularity. Unfortunately, it has little to do with the baker (me) and everything to do with the recipe. I can't wait to explore the rest of this book. I'm a ATK faithful, but this brings an edge to the traditional recipes from ATK. Also, it makes me feel inspired-- as if I could forge my own frontiers in baking and experiment with some of my own recipes.