Cookbooks for the Baking Beginner

I have to have about 100 recipe baking cookbooks, and almost half of them have to do in some form with Chocolate. And half of those are all about chocolate chip cookies, and YES, there are a lot of chocolate chip cookie cookbooks. My son absolutely loves chocolate cookies, so I spent time looking for cookbooks for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Now you have to watch what you buy, because, as I found out, some chocolate chip cookie books, even though the name is different, have the same recipes (actually by the same author). Yes, I did happen to buy two chocolate chip cookie books, from the same author, with different titles, but the same recipe. They were both by author Gwen Steege, and one was titled: 101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, the other was titled: The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. The recipes themselves were excellent, and I ended up giving one away to my neighbor, so it wasn't such a bad story.

Now, lets get to some good beginner cookie recipes books:

If you like chocolate chip cookies, then take a look at: 101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies. This cookbook is perfect. This cookbook has an excellent discussion on basic cooking tips as well as an education about what the ingredients do for the cookie. Did you know that cornstarch can be used in place of some recipes and makes for a wonderfully crisp cookie?

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The recipes in this cookbook are easy to understand and easy to make. I wish there were more pictures, but the recipes themselves are excellent. I have made 11 out of the 101, and the Prize Winning Double Chocolate Chip Cookie is my favorite.

One More Cookie Cookbook:

Another one of my favorites cookie cookbooks is; The Golden Book of Cookies with 330 cookie recipes. The recipes are quite simple, but you have to be careful not to skip a step, as the recipe instructions are written in a single paragraph separated with a star.

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I love the Glazed Orange Crisps. The Double Chocolate Cheery Cookies are awesome and one of my favorites from this cookbook. However, my all-time favorite (and I have made over 50 different cookie recipes from this cook) are as simple as the Lemon Drops. They are amazingly light and more than tasty. I can make a batch of 30 and they will be gone in 3 days.

You can only eat so many cookies before you want to venture out into other things, like cakes, pies, brownies. the cookbooks above focus on just cookies. Let's take a look at a combination book;

One of the first dessert books I purchased was Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts (recommended by a good friend). The introduction is excellent, talking about ingredients and how they work, equipment and what you will need for the book (if you make all of the recipes), and then my favorite part, and I read this often, techniques. I had always wondered how to "Fold" ingredients together and her explanation is SPOT ON.

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One of my first ventures into this book was a Boston Cream Pie, it was amazingly easy and a hit at the party. Then one after another, New York State Apple Cobbler, Kentucky Cake, The American Chocolate Layer Cake, The Chocolate Moose Pie, Savannah Crisps, and my favorite Apple Cream Cheese Pie. One look at this recipe and I had to make it, Cheese cake on top, cinnamon apple pie on the bottom, and delicious. 

The book has sections for; Pies, Tarts, and Turnovers, Layer Cakes, Cakes made with Fruits or Vegetables, Chocolate Cakes, Other Cakes with my favorite - Oreo Cookie Cake, Sweet Breads, Yeast Pastries, Muffins Cupcakes, and Tassies, Shortcake, Cobblers, Pandowdy, etc, Mouse, Flan and Puddings, Cheesecakes, Brownies, Chocolate Cookies, Other Cookies, Fresh Fruit Desserts, Ice Cream, Candy, and Sauces. 

One wish for this book would be to have a table of contents for just the sections, however, and I remind EVERY beginner to do this, Mark your favorite recipes with a piece of paper slipped between the pages, or write it down in a log. I don't know how many times I have searched for a recipe, paging through book after book, eventually finding it, so NOW I write them in a cookbook log. If you happen upon any of Maida Heatter's cookbooks, buy it, they are an excellent collection of phenomenal recipes that will make you the hit of every party you bring a dessert to.

Now that you have just picked up some of the basics and musts for every kitchen, let's talk about some other cookbooks.

If you are a chocolate lover, are married to a chocolate lover, know a chocolate lover, Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and I am repeating myself because I happened upon my favorite chocolate cookbooks of all time;

Marked, sticking out of the top, are 18 pieces of paper of recipes that I have made, I have loved, everyone has loved them, and I make over and over again. My neighbor begs me to make the White Chocolate Cheesecake, his kids the Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies. I made the Chocolate Strawberry Moose cake and I could bet Marcel sold 25 books to the people that at that cake. I made the Chocolate Espresso Fudge Cake and I believe my next doors neighbors kids were in a chocolate coma.

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The recipes in these books are easy to make, the instructions are excellent (I wish there was some BOLD to mark steps, but you can follow). Not only is there an ingredients section, but there is an "equipment needed" section, as well as "The Chef's Touch". The Chef's Touch section talks about what wine goes with the dessert, or how expensive it might be due to a certain ingredient, or how long they last in the refrigerator (if they last). I find the Chefs Tough quite interesting and sometimes even funny or sentimental. 

Once I bought one "Death by Chocolate" by Marcel Desaulniers, I had to have them all:

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For even the beginning baker, I would recommend these cookbooks, or if you love chocolate! they are well written and the recipes are easy to make. Once you have tried one recipe, you will want to make another and then another......ask my neighbors, I don't eat my baking (yes, that's weird), but I enjoy baking so much, I make it and drop it off at my neighbors.


How about a few more beginner cookbooks, and let's stay away from chocolate a bit. Let's talk CHEESECAKE! I love cheesecake, so much, that I buy every cheesecake book that I can find. The White Chocolate Cheesecake in the Death by Chocolate book is by far my FAVORITE (and everyone else's), but man can't live on just one cheesecake. 

I picked up the Joy of Cheesecake from a very large city-wide garage sale. I was surprised because most of the baking cookbooks usually disappear before I arrive. I flipped through the cookbooks, and there it was, The Joy of Cheesecake ($3.00). It was a bargain at $3.00 and would be a bargain at any price. 

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There are a ton of cheesecake books, and this may just have been the one I picked up that I enjoyed, however, there is something in this book that I truly needed, A PIE CRUST section. This section has saved me several times when I had to come up with a pie crust or cheesecake crust. Although there are no pictures, the instructions are numbered and the ingredients are separated by functionality (i.e crust, filling, topping, etc), and this is one of the easiest cookbooks to use. I also recommend finding the hard-cover, as I am not a fan of paperback cookbooks, as they it is too easy to flip them over or flip the book closed.

Other then that, my favorite cheesecake from this book is the Lemon Meringue Cheese Pie. However, the Sour Cream Cheesecake, the Hazelnut Cheesecake, and the Chocolate cheesecakes are excellent (still working my way through the book).


I am not a fan of Best recipe books, however, I decided to pick up this cheesecake cookbook, The 50 Best Cheesecake Recipes in the World, Winning Recipes from a contest.

I made the mistake of picking up the paperback and the book is very small  (not quite sure why they make COOKBOOKS like this because you have to figure out a way to keep the book opened to the recipe you are making at that time). I end of taking another cookbook and flattening out the cheesecake book with it (laying it across the top of the book).


That being said, the Chocolate Orange Cheesecake and the Mocha Rum Cheesecakes are awesome!!! There is a Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake that is, as my niece would say, "to die for" and of course my son's favorite, the Snicker's Cheesecake. The recipe book itself is easy to read and the instructions are good, just make sure you get it in hardcover.




Ah, the Sweet Melissa baking Book.... one of my all time favorites, well except for the Death by Chocolate series and Maida Heatter's series of books. If you are looking for something DIFFERENT, but easy to make, and the instructions are easy to read and numbered, pickup this cookbook. I love layered cakes and the front of the layered cake sections talks about how to put together a layered cake including crumb coats and stuff like that. My first cake was the Sweet Almond Cake with Lemon Curd and Lemon Mascarpone Frosting, not only was it easy to make but it was absolutely delicious. Then the Brooklyn Brownie Cake, OH and my favorite, Carrot Cake (for all of you Carrot Cake Lovers!!!) with fresh Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. No pictures in this book, but a good baking cookbook for the beginner.



 

There are a couple more baking cookbooks that I would like to mention, and the only reason being that I purchased these books and got more than recipes out of them. The first is The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The recipes are NOT easy, in fact they are downright hard to make, but when you get done, not only do you have a delicious baked good, but you also might get an education. For me, It was like going to baking college by reading this book. Every detail is covered on how to make, bake, cut, ingredients, cooking times, etc. 

The ingredients and equipment section is over 40 pages with details not found in many cookbooks (especially all in one book). The section for professionals and passionate amateurs is over 40 pages and talks about wedding cakes and decorating.

If you want a baking education, buy this book! It is well written and an excellent baking resource guide.

This is another book by Rose, and once you step past beginner, buy this book. You can even buy it now, because baking is NOT THAT HARD!!! My favorite in this book is the baby Lemon Cheesecakes. WOW, everyone gets their own lemon cheesecake. Trust me, they will come back for seconds. My second favorite is the red velvet cake. I had never had red velvet cake or made it until I purchased this book. It is pretty dang delicious.

Rose's books are said to be for the expert, however, I have found that if you take your time, and read carefully, even the beginner can make everything in this book (and I am going to try).

Remember, baking is just a state of mind, if you believe you can do it, you can. I do warn you though, taste testing every recipe will make you exercise a little more. Make sure you don't taste AFTER you put in the raw eggs though.