Rating: 
Summary: Nick Malgieri's great
Review: I haven't made anything from this book I haven't liked. I used it to bake bread, muffins, scones, cookies, and cakes, and these recipes are well tested and easy to follow. Many (if not all) of these recipes are used at the Institute for Culinary Education where Malgieri is the head of the baking program. I've taken classes there and received some of the recipes that appear in this book, so you know they work. Although I love to bake, I had never made bread from scratch before (other than using my bread machine) and I was amazed at how delicious and easy the bread was - it was comparable to bread I would have eaten in a fine restaurant. This is a great book that covers all the basics. If you like this, his book on Chocolate is great too.
Rating:
Summary: my favorite baking book
Review: I love the recipes in this book so much that the pages are food splattered. I think Mr. Malgieri is a wonderful baker and teacher, and I wish that he had his own show on the food network. I have made the danish recipe from this book more times then I can remember and it always gets rave reviews. My family loves the cream puffs, cheesecake and just about anything I have made from this book. I will eventually purchase all his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Great bread recipes, terrible cookies...
Review: I must agree with the previous reviewer that the bread recipes in this book make it a worthwhile purchase (especially if you are brand new to baking home-made bread, like I was). But that damn chocolate chip cookie recipe is TERRIBLE!!! I can't believe it was included in the book. Dry, textureless and even tasteless. What a mistake! So all the recipes (except for the superb breads) are quite hit and miss. Perhaps a seperate book of just bread recipes and another with cookie recipes would be the best choice.
Rating:
Summary: Essential for any baker's kitchen
Review: I turn to this book more than any other cookbook in my kitchen. Mr. Malgieri's pastries are spectacular (and the sweet Italian-style pastry is indispensible if you have a problem with pastries being too tough). The pie recipes are delightful, and the breads are excellent, but on the whole, I've found his hints and tips to be as much use, or more, than the recipes themselves--I very highly recommend this if you are, like me, of an experimental bent in the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: Emergency Room for non-Bakers such as I
Review: Nearly thirty years now of gourmet cooking have not seen too many total flops of any dishes, except some of my desserts, especially those that involved baking.Thus, for years I steared away from any recipes that called for too intricate baking requirements. Then, like others, I too saw this guy Nick on Food TV. Said, maybe this is the hospital care poor, nicked non-bakers like me needed to get mended and back on that pastry and floured up rolling pin thing. To be sure, this is first aid of the first class for those of us who would desire to bake better and more frequently if only we could. This bood provides that could. I especially appreciate that each of his recipes has right after each this sequence: Serving, Storage, and the most important for me: Hints for Success. It didn't push me yet to really lean more towards baking than cooking, but now I'm not skittish around consideration of a baked dish for an outstanding dinner, provided however Nick's trusty book is around.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good survey of baking. Not as authoritative as expected
Review: Nick Malgieri's book 'How to Bake' is not perfect, but it is a very, very good survey of baking methods and baking recipes by one of the most widely respected and referenced baking experts in the country. That some reviewers have observed that he is a less than nice man to students and admirers in book signing lines is irrelevant. I have baked several recipes from this book and all have produced very successful products. In each case, I have also baked the same product from an alternate recipe and Malgieri's recipe has produced a superior result. To those who have not had any luck with his recipes, I would suggest they try some of the simpler recipes first. While Malgieri is a widely recognized teacher of baking at some important culinary schools and this book's title may lead you to believe it is a textbook covering all aspects of baking, I believe it does not succeed as a textbook on several counts. The most important is that Malgieri makes several statements, which are scientifically incorrect. One was that glass conducts heat much faster than metal. This is patently false. The odd thing is, he uses this statement to give a false reason for using glass pie plates, which may still be the best choice for other reasons. Another false statement is that yeast is mixed with warm water until it dissolves. Strictly speaking, the proper word should be 'incorporated' or 'combined'. Microorganisms cannot dissolve in water. Again, while the statement is false, it has no effect on the efficacy of the recipe. I only point these out because Malgieri is an educator and should know better. There is another sense in which I believe this cannot be a textbook for baking. This is the fact that I believe the coverage of bread baking is rather light. For breads, I would refer you to either Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible' or Peter Reinhart's 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This doesn't mean you will not find a lot of good stuff here. In fact, I go to this book before any other when I want to bake something (other than bread) to see if Malgieri has a recipe for the product I'm interested in. This book is very similar to the book 'Baking With Julia' in that both are surveys of a lot of different baking techniques giving some very commonly baked goods as models for those techniques. This makes these two books my first and second choices when I want to bake. Therefore, the subtitle on the front of the book, which calls itself a 'Complete Guide', is a bit of a stretch. You should still buy this book if you enjoy baking. In fact, the most accurate reflection of the book's value is in Nick's introduction where he quotes a colleague who says 'Bake something, You will feel better.' This is an especially good book to help you bake something and feel better.
Rating:
Summary: Very good survey of baking. Not as authoritative as expected
Review: Nick Malgieri's book `How to Bake' is not perfect, but it is a very, very good survey of baking methods and baking recipes by one of the most widely respected and referenced baking experts in the country. That some reviewers have observed that he is a less than nice man to students and admirers in book signing lines is irrelevant. I have baked several recipes from this book and all have produced very successful products. In each case, I have also baked the same product from an alternate recipe and Malgieri's recipe has produced a superior result. To those who have not had any luck with his recipes, I would suggest they try some of the simpler recipes first. While Malgieri is a widely recognized teacher of baking at some important culinary schools and this book's title may lead you to believe it is a textbook covering all aspects of baking, I believe it does not succeed as a textbook on several counts. The most important is that Malgieri makes several statements, which are scientifically incorrect. One was that glass conducts heat much faster than metal. This is patently false. The odd thing is, he uses this statement to give a false reason for using glass pie plates, which may still be the best choice for other reasons. Another false statement is that yeast is mixed with warm water until it dissolves. Strictly speaking, the proper word should be `incorporated' or `combined'. Microorganisms cannot dissolve in water. Again, while the statement is false, it has no effect on the efficacy of the recipe. I only point these out because Malgieri is an educator and should know better. There is another sense in which I believe this cannot be a textbook for baking. This is the fact that I believe the coverage of bread baking is rather light. For breads, I would refer you to either Rose Levy Beranbaum's `The Bread Bible' or Peter Reinhart's `The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This doesn't mean you will not find a lot of good stuff here. In fact, I go to this book before any other when I want to bake something (other than bread) to see if Malgieri has a recipe for the product I'm interested in. This book is very similar to the book `Baking With Julia' in that both are surveys of a lot of different baking techniques giving some very commonly baked goods as models for those techniques. This makes these two books my first and second choices when I want to bake. Therefore, the subtitle on the front of the book, which calls itself a `Complete Guide', is a bit of a stretch. You should still buy this book if you enjoy baking. In fact, the most accurate reflection of the book's value is in Nick's introduction where he quotes a colleague who says `Bake something, You will feel better.' This is an especially good book to help you bake something and feel better.
Rating:
Summary: You can't have a better teacher than Nick Malgieri
Review: Nick Malgieri, renowned Peter Kump cooking school teacher, has put himself on the line by entitling this cookbook "How to Bake." The good news is: he knows how! The even better news is: he's a master at teaching and coaxing you along gently so that before you know it, you'll be baking better than you ever have in your life. Although the title makes this sound as though it's perhaps aimed at beginning bakers, it's really for intermediate or advanced bakers--or beginners with a lot of werewithal and confidence. Malgieri doesn't spell every tiny little thing out for you (there's very little of the hand-holding and overly detailed directions that are in most cookbooks nowadays). Where he excels is in making you feel that, you, too could turn out the gorgeous baked goods in the book with a little bit of effort and a minimum of fuss. Especially fine are the recipes for Raspberry and Almonds Tarts and Chocolate Chestnut Buche de Noel. I also loved the Scottish Shortbread, although I rolled it thinner than he called for AND baked it longer. All in all an excellent guide to baking by an accomplished master baker.
Rating:
Summary: You can't have a better teacher than Nick Malgieri
Review: Nick Malgieri, renowned Peter Kump cooking school teacher, has put himself on the line by entitling this cookbook "How to Bake." The good news is: he knows how! The even better news is: he's a master at teaching and coaxing you along gently so that before you know it, you'll be baking better than you ever have in your life. Although the title makes this sound as though it's perhaps aimed at beginning bakers, it's really for intermediate or advanced bakers--or beginners with a lot of werewithal and confidence. Malgieri doesn't spell every tiny little thing out for you (there's very little of the hand-holding and overly detailed directions that are in most cookbooks nowadays). Where he excels is in making you feel that, you, too could turn out the gorgeous baked goods in the book with a little bit of effort and a minimum of fuss. Especially fine are the recipes for Raspberry and Almonds Tarts and Chocolate Chestnut Buche de Noel. I also loved the Scottish Shortbread, although I rolled it thinner than he called for AND baked it longer. All in all an excellent guide to baking by an accomplished master baker.
Rating:
Summary: a good book, but the cake recipes are a let-down
Review: The strength of this book is the breads section. The pizza recipes are great, and the scones and yeast breads are delectable. But I don't feel that I can always count on Mr. Malgieri's selection of recipes, and I find Maida Heatter, for example, to be much more reliable and careful in both her choice of recipes and in her instructions. The Chocolate Chip Cookies are, hands-down, the worst I've ever made: I was skeptical when I noticed that his recipe didn't include vanilla or even a pinch of salt. The resulting cookies were lackluster --not good enough to serve to company. The Coconut Layer Cake yielded too little batter for the 9" layer cake pans that were called for, leaving me with two VERY thin layers, and the directions for the accompanying coconut buttercream frosting weren't helpful enough. Although the Apricot Crumb Cake was outstanding, a Hazelnut Gugelhupf was just okay, the Banana Cake was ho-hum,and the Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake was dry and dull. The cheesecake recipes are very good, though. Also, I feel that the title "How to Bake" is misleading. This is a big collection of recipes, and there are tips for success included with each, but I haven't found this a manual to learn by.
| 
