Tuesday, March 31, 2020

How to Bake for Beginners by Mahy Elamin, Rockridge Press, Callisto Publishers, 158 pages

“As you read this book and try the recipes, things will connect 
and your baking skills will grow. 
Baking has brightened my life, and I hope this book brings you 
the joy, happiness, and love baking offers.”
Mahy Elamin, Introduction, page ix

How to Bake for Beginners by Mahy Elamin starts with in-depth information regarding how to bake, and what you should know about the needs of your pantry and refrigerator.  Kitchen tools, baking equipment, and how to use recipe and baking lingo are also included.

Instructions were organized and easy to follow with no hard to find ingredients. The sidebar tips are helpful, but clarity was sometimes confusing with missing information such as, “coat another large bowl with olive oil” when there was no earlier mention of coating anything.

This book has achieved its goal because of the in-depth information in Chapter 1: Welcome to the World of Baking, and Chapter 2: Fundamental Skills. There are a few very useful photographs showing how to separate eggs, cutting in, and folding.  Both novices and seasoned cooks and bakers can enjoy the information and recipes.

I am not a baker but using this cookbook was very helpful in my attempt to prepare the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies and Easy Garlic Parmesan Knots recipes. The cookies were not done completely in the middle, which will not stop me from attempting to bake them again. The Easy Garlic Parmesan Knots were almost perfect, except for the bottoms. They burned a little because I did not have the parchment paper called for in the recipe.


I recommend this cookbook for beginners learning to bake for the first time and for seasoned bakers to add a few new baking recipes to their collections.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.