TLDR Review: The King Arthur Baking Companion
Pros
- •Offers a massive collection of 450 welested recipes spanning breads, cakes, pies, intricate desserts, and traditional favorites suitable for all skill levels.
- •Recipes are straightforward, clearly written, and produce excellent results such as moist brownies, soft Japanese milk rolls, and an amazing tres leches cake.
- •Includes precise measurements in grams, which promotes consistency and easy customization in baking.
- •Provides a comprehensive baking education with detailed techniques, ingredient tips, alteration tables, and a strong focus on foundational skills.
- •Serves as a valuable everyday baking companion frequently referenced by both beginners and experienced bakers.
- •Contains useful beginner information on equipment, mixing, measuring, troubleshooting, and kitchen math, encouraging confidence to try more complex projects.
- •Beautifully illustrated with about twenty color photos and many blacnd-white illustrations clarifying steps and tool usage.
- •Updated with 15 new chapters and an emphasis on accurate measuring, including a dedicated chapter on using kitchen scales.
- •Balanced combination of classic fundamentals and modern updates makes it a versatile resource for expanding baking skills.
- •Includes an iepth ingredients dictionary, glossary of tools, and indexes, making it useful far beyond just recipes.
Cons
- •Printed on thinner paper that may not hold up well near messy food prep or frequent reference in the kitchen.
- •Fractional measurements are printed very small and can be hard to read, though weight measurements are clear.
- •Alteration tables include volumnly measurements, requiring extra conversions if you prefer weighing ingredients.
- •Cookie section is rather short and relies on less appealing ingredients like margarine and corn syrup; better cookie recipes are available on the publisher’s website.
- •Limited color photography with most images being blacnd-white might be challenging if you prefer vivid, full-color visual guidance for every recipe.
- •Some repetitive remarks about the cost of ingredients and potential weight gain from baking indulgences, reflecting a passionate but cautionary tone.
Bottom Line
*The King Arthur Baking Company’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion (Revised and Updated)* is a comprehensive and reliable baking bible that welcomes novices and challenges seasoned bakers alike with its clear recipes and in-depth baking knowledge. While its thinner paper and smaller fractional measurements might test your patience, the book’s vast recipe range and useful baking tips make it a standout kitchen companion you’ll likely refer to daily. If you’re primarily focused on cookies, consider supplementing it with recipes directly from King Arthur’s website or specialized cookie cookbooks for a better experience. Overall, this book is a smart investment for anyone serious about mastering baking fundamentals and exploring diverse recipes.
How we researched this
About this review: We pulled together findings from professional reviews and hundreds of user reviews, and cross-referenced them with ShopSavvy's pricing data from 40 retailers to give you the short version.
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