Product Description

A complete guide to flavor-building ideas that bring out the best in baking
Flavor is the very essence of fine baking, the source of wonderful tastes and aromas that tempt the palate and delight the senses. In Baking by Flavor, Lisa Yockelson shares flavor-boosting secrets that can make virtually any recipe burst with new vigor and freshness. This book reveals concepts and techniques for using eighteen basic ingredients-including chocolate, vanilla, apricot, and lemon-to "pyramid" flavor, layer by delicious layer. Two hundred and sixty carefully selected recipes inspire readers with ideas for animating many "old favorite" recipes that may have become more "old" than "favorite." For example, a dormant pound cake springs to life as the author scents sugar with vanilla, creams butter with vanilla bean scrapings, and beats egg yolks with a double-strength vanilla extract . . . dark chocolate brownies become richly sensuous as chopped nuts, lightly coated with cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar, are added to a creamy batter.
Clearly written, easy-to-follow instructions make the book a joy to read and use in the kitchen, while 118 photographs give visual expression to techniques and eighteen color-plated presentations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325474 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 656 pages

From Amazon.com
Chocolate, caramel, vanilla, and lemon--ingredients like these define baking flavor. Placing such flavor-makers at the forefront of her approach, Lisa Yockelson's Baking by Flavor presents a luscious array of desserts while revealing techniques for highlighting and intensifying their taste. How does it work? Double Chocolate Madeleines, for example, get their punch not only from cocoa, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips but from a final cocoa-sugar dusting. Yockelson's flavor-centric approach also leads her to discoveries that can liberate recipe-bound bakers. Add ground spices to the dry ingredients when preparing a sweet yeast dough, for example, and you get a subtly delicious flavor boost. Bakers at all levels of proficiency should enjoy Yockelson's insights and put them to good use.

Beginning with a section on flavor-baking strategies--a chart shows readers that cinnamon's flavor is, for example, intensified when combined with butter, rum, or caramel--the book then provides useful "component" recipes for the likes of lemon-scented granulated sugar. The 250 recipes, arranged by flavor, offer a wide range of sweets, from Cinnamon Apple Rolls and Butter Spritz Cookies to Spiced Banana Breakfast Loaf and Sour Cream Ginger Keeping Cake. The recipes also include useful sidebars (lightly press rather than compress the dough for some cookies, is one), plus tips, variations and still more flavor-intensifying suggestions. Illustrated with photos, and containing detailed storage information, the book should become a true, better-baking resource. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
This excellent roundup of all kinds of delicious deserts is organized by flavor (chocolate, banana, cinnamon, rum, etc.) rather than type of baked good. Yockelson lays out her flavor theory: "Flavor-layering is accomplished by using a combination of compatible ingredients in one recipe." She also talks specifically about methods for enhancing the flavors of various batters and doughs, and provides several charts illustrating flavor compatibility and flavoring agents. Additional chapters on equipment, key ingredients (with instructions for making Clarified Butter, Coconut Streusel and other components) and techniques are invaluable to the serious baker. After all that preparation, Yockelson thankfully writes solid, inventive recipes that clearly illustrate her theory. In the almond chapter, Fallen Chocolate Almond Cake contains almond liqueur, almond extract and almond flour; the lemon chapter offers Lemon-Lime Cake with Glazed Citrus Threads pumped up with juice and zest, and in the chapter on coffee and mocha, Espresso and Bittersweet Chocolate Chunk Torte has espresso powder, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate. Even chapters on butter and vanilla, two flavors that are rarely considered as such, boast such strong selections as Grandma Lilly's Butter Pound Cake, Buttercrunch Flats with toffee, Vanilla Crumb Buns and Vanilla Cream Waffles. Many of the 260 recipes offer variations, which means one could spend many happy days testing Yockelson's theory. (Mar.) Forecast: Joining the recent spate of "big" baking and desert books, this certainly deserves a spot on the dedicated baker's shelf. Yockelson, author of 10 books and frequent contributor to many cooking magazines, has a gimmick, but it's one with substance that should work to push sales.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Yockelson is the author of a dozen or so other cookbooks (Layer Cakes and Sheet Cakes, A Country Baking Treasury), but this impressive work is far more ambitious than any of her previous efforts. A dedicated baker and an obvious perfectionist, she developed more than 250 recipes designed to highlight specific flavors, from almond to coffee and mocha to vanilla. She refers to the process that resulted in her intensely flavorful, irresistible desserts as "flavor layering," and most of the recipes use her chosen ingredient in more than one form or in more than one of the several components involved. Almond Pull-Aparts, for example, are made with a buttery dough that contains almond extract as well as almond flour, a creamy almond filling in addition to an almond paste and an almond crumb topping. Many of the recipes also offer options for adding "an extra surge of flavor" (e.g., adding dried blueberries to Blueberry Coffee Cake) or "an aromatic topknot of flavor" (such as using her "intensified vanilla"). The painstakingly detailed recipe instructions include both what she calls "observations," reassuring tips for success, and sidebars providing her "Best Baking Advice." The chapters devoted to buttercrunch or to caramel and butterscotch (not to mention the ones on peanut butter, chocolate, and coconut) would be reason enough to buy the book, but Yockelson's unusual approach, knowledge, and passion make this more than just a collection of delectable recipes. Essential for all collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Not convinced...
that the recipes are the best. I have only made 1 recipe so far, the Cream Cheese Pound Cake, and that did not turn out well at all. I am not convinced that mixing two different kinds of flour will produce the best texture in a cake. I have at least five other pound cake recipes that I created that would beat this one hands down. I must say, though, that the information on baking in general is very good. As one who is a self-taught baker, I am always open to learning from others who have been formally instructed.

Baking By Flavor
I found this book in my local library and after borrowing it 5 times I finally bought it. This book is great for anyone who likes to experiement with standard recipies by changing some ingredients. In addition, the recipies are anything but the standard that you find in most baking books. After making one of the incredible brownie recipies my husband declared that these are the only kind of brownies he wants, and he will never eat brownies from a box again.

Best Baking Book Ever!
I have been baking and cooking since I could reach the stove and have always enjoyed especially now that I am older. This is the only book you will need to bake whatever your heart desires since the recipes are easy to follow and you can successfully interchange some ingredients and still get the best results!
I love the fact that this book has the recipes in sections according to their flavors and also has a very helpful bakeware, storing and freezing info for all the items. I am espscially pleased about the info on the different flavoring ingredients as to what they are and how they are best used.Everything I have baked from this book has gotten rave reviews from all who have tasted them. I have even gotten orders from people to bake some cakes- they think it's my own recipe!!!! It's the only baking book you'll need!