Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Great as Gift for New Bakers!	Customer Rating:
This is a fabulous book with wonderful recipes. I have made many of them with unusual (for me!) success! It is the perfect new bride, new apartment, or engagement gift. I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Disappointing.

Customer Rating:

I've made three things from this book so far, and it's highly unlikely I'll be making any more. The Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream was excellent, but the instructions were not. It's amazing that Dorie left out the most crucial step in making any kind of custard. She failed to note that the custard needs to be strained before adding to the melted chocolate. Now since I've made custards and custard-based ice creams before, I was fully aware of the necessity of that step, but I'm sure there are lots of other people who are not. If they're not aware of the necessity to strain out the custard, they will be left with little pieces of scrambled eggs in their ice cream. Real appetizing. The Cinnamon Squares were very good, but too cinnamony, even for me, and I'm a cinnamon lover. That wasn't really a problem, however, since I could always cut it down the next time around. But... something very strange happened after I froze the leftover pieces. When I defrosted them, they were absolutely gooey, sticky, and inedible. Needless to say, they went into the garbage. Now, that has NEVER happened before with any other cake recipe at any time in all the years I've been baking (this is actually a regular cake, not a typical bar or square, even though the title says "squares"). So, why didn't Dorie simply indicate that these don't freeze well? Another real irritation. And lastly, the Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies were very good, but nothing outstanding, and probably not something I'd make again. As usual, the instructions were terrible. Overall, this book is a real disappointment. The best part is the beautiful photography.

excellent cookbook for beginners	Customer Rating:
baking from my home to yours is great. i've used a couple of recipes from it already and so far all's good. one gripe that i might have is that im in singapore and certain ingredients are not easily available (like buttermilk) but i can't blame it on anyone! overall an excellent buy.

Disappointing results, way too sweet

Customer Rating:

I had high hopes because I've loved so many of the other books that Dorie has worked on, especially the Pierre Herme books and Baking with Julia. I had expectations that her book would be full of chic but accessible version of "home" baking. My first complaint is that there are very few compelling recipes here. The cake chapter, for instance, just isn't that inspiring. Likewise with the cookie chapter. There are many good-looking recipes recipes, but very few that would send me into the kitchen. My second complaint is that the recipes I've tried have been a bit lackluster and/or exceedingly sweet. I tried the most classic brownie recipe and did not like it at all, the texture was almost sandy, hard to explain. Pierre Herme's brownie recipe blows it out of the water, and it's really not anything complicated. I also tried the perfect party cake and the black and white cake from the cover. Again, both were way too sweet and little else. The other day I tried a batch of the dulce de leche cookies, which I hoped to bring to work. The cookies, plain, tasted okay but not so special--they need something, maybe some cinnamon, I don't know. Once they were filled and sandwiched, they went overboard with jaw-clenching sweetness. The next day they were mush, and 3 days later they are still sitting on the kitchen table, waiting until I can allow myself to throw them out. The World Peace cookies didn't impress me much either, and I much prefer the chocolate sables from the Herme book. Like the black and white cake, it suffers from the chocolate chip bits. I was really surprised to notice this trend with her book, and I still haven't given up on it. But I have to admit that, were it not for the esteem I have for Greenspan, I would have quit this book a while back. It seems like she was aiming for as large a book as she could put together, and it shows in some of the uninspiring recipes. I would have much preferred a book half the size with a more discriminating choice of recipes.

So far, so good

Customer Rating:

So far I've only made a couple of recipes from this book (shortbread cookies, cheesecake, brown sugar blueberry cake, brioche, and pecan honey sticky buns). Cheesecake and brioche are two of my favorite things to make (and consume) and the cheesecake and brioche I made using Dorie Greenspan's recipe were the best I've ever had. The shortbread cookie dough was simple to make. I used it as the base for my cheesecake and got rave reviews. The pecan honey sticky buns and brown sugar blueberry cake were made for a bake sale and sold out. One lady bought a bun in the morning and came back a couple of hours later for a second. The brioche is hard work but so worth it. I think next time I'll make a big batch and freeze it. Besides the recipes, I like that Dorie Greenspan includes a section on how to make slight variations. I will definitely be trying more of the recipes from this book.