Bake Anything: Essential Recipes and Techniques to Build On for Endless Possibilities

For a limited time we have copies signed by Erin Jeanne McDowell.

Erin Jeanne McDowell sets out to help home bakers be more creative, and her starting point is eleven basic recipes. With the impressive array of techniques she teaches, bakers can adapt each one to their own tastes or turn it into a dessert that may seem far removed from where it began.

Her chocolate cake recipe, for instance, yields simple cupcakes, a fudge-glazed bundt cake, and a birthday cake covered in whipped ganache.

There are eleven base recipes in all. Sugar cookies, biscuits, and pudding are within reach of beginners. Macarons and yeasted puff pastry are better suited to more experienced bakers. Pâte à choux, crème anglaise, sponge cake, puff pastry, and brioche round out the set.

McDowell, a recipe developer, food stylist, and author of the New York Times bestseller The Book on Pie, encourages bakers to stretch themselves. Every chapter opens with detailed instruction in its base recipe, supported by step-by-step photographs and QR codes that link to video demonstrations.

Sections called “idea sparkers” suggest further variations in flavor, color, or shape, depending on the recipe.

Many recipes for components, the kind bakers may want for desserts of their own design, come in small, full, and big batches for easy scaling. Throughout, she adds notes on storing, refreshing, and making baked goods ahead.

A strong foundational book.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.