Favorite Books: Baking Illustrated

At the cafe, we have a resource library that we use for both unusual catering requests and standard cooking issues.  I picked up Baking Illustrated: The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker as something to look through during a short break, and now it's my new favorite baking resource book. 

The people of Cook's Illustrated have put together a collection of their best baking recipes (which is nice) along with a brief, and sometimes not so brief, synopsis of why that recipe works better than other variations (which is even nicer).  I don't always use the recipes out of the book, but I do read up on it before working on new recipes.  This is because the book tells you not only what does and does not work--but also WHY it does or does not work.  This is what makes Baking Illustrated an important book for people who like to tinker with recipes.

 

 

Sadly, I don't own this book yet.  Amazon.com has it for about $11 less than the bookstore, but snarkyboy won't let me buy it until I unload some stuff on ebay.  I guess I need to start rummaging through my geek collection and find something to let loose.