Beranbaum Rose Levy - Roses baking basics: 100 Essential Recipes, With More Than 600 Step-by-Step Photos

Copyright 2018 by Cordon Rose LLC

Photography 2018 by Matthew Septimus

Photograph on by Nora Septimus

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-81622-0 (hbk); 978-0-544-81621-3 (ebk)

Book design by Vertigo Design NYC

v1.0818

For David Shamah, my student who became my teacher

In the early 1980s, while contemplating career paths, I became obsessed with the culinary world. I read everything I could get my hands on about the subject, and was constantly playing around in the kitchen.

I developed a particular interest in baking, which led to some great discoveries and also some disappointments. Why did my cake fail to rise? Did using the wrong chocolate really change the outcome of a particular recipe? Did the color or finish of a baking pan really matter?

I discovered Roses first cookbook, Romantic and Classic Cakes, and was amazed at how this small volume explained so much of what I wanted to know. I felt compelled to reach out to Rose and was invited to her place to purchase one of her precision thermometers.

As I was greeted at the door, I couldnt help but notice a plaque from the very prestigious Chane des Rtisseurs, which hangs in some of the worlds most renowned dining establishments, at the entryway. Who could ignore the large battery of copper pots and pans, the enormous assortment of cordials and spirits, and the first authentic brass duck press Id ever seen in person?

I was inspired by Roses passion for the culinary arts and never-ending curiosity about all of its elements. Soon, I began assisting Rose in her cooking classes, testing recipes, and proofreading the recipes and text for the second book that she started working on. It was very intense, but I learned a lot about how Rose did things and why.

We were constantly in pursuit of great presentation, accuracy, and consistent results; yet if I had to distill the most important thing Ive learned from Rose, its the art of intensifying flavors. This principle of taste has followed me wherever Ive gone, and totally changed the way I look at a dish.

Unlocking great chocolate flavor is a good example. Rose achieves this in cakes by boiling the water that is added to the cocoa, releasing the flavor and making it possible to use less cocoa, resulting in lighter texture as well as more flavor. When it came to brownies, unlike most brownie recipes that have a cream cheese mixture swirled through them, when Rose uses cream cheese in a brownie, she beats it into the chocolate batter, resulting in a slight tang that elevates the chocolate flavor and enhances the fudgy texture.

Eventually, The Cake Bible had a name, and a serious focus and deadline. I knew this book was packed with knowledge and inspiration. Still, I was amazed at the overwhelming success and warm reception Rose and the book received. There were many people like me who were hungry to learn and expand their knowledge. And this book finally addressed that hunger. Coming up in the hospitality business, I found myself applying many of the concepts that Id learned from Rose to my work.

One book led to another, and lots of personal appearances and an online blog have led to an amazing community of bakers who follow Roses work. Rose was born to teach, but equally important, she is constantly learning from the challenges and experiences of the baking community.

The book that you are holding represents Roses desire to reach an even wider audience. All the information that you need is included here. Thanks to over 600 excellent step-by-step photographs, the recipes are pared down, streamlined, and easy to follow, using a minimum of specialized equipment or elaborate techniques.

I hope this book inspires you to get in the kitchen and have fun, and learn, as I have, from Roses passion that anything is possible.

DAVID SHAMAH

Chef and caterer

A few years ago, after completing The Baking Bible, team RoseWoodmy longtime collaborator, Woody Wolston, and Iwas gearing up to embark on a wedding cake book when our visionary editor, Stephanie Fletcher, suggested first doing a book for beginners. For a few seconds I resisted, saying that beginners work just fine from all of my other books, even young people who win blue ribbons at county fairs. But as the words were halfway out of my mouth I did an immediate about-face as I suddenly, with lightning bolt clarity, realized the potential. So I said: If we could have step-by-step photos of the recipes and techniques, the book would be invaluable for both the beginner and the advanced baker, and I would have the book of my dreams. And gradually I realized that although all of my books have all the details needed for success, at first glance they may be perceived as challengingperhaps due to so much detailed information. A photo, however, is indeed worth a thousand words and would not give that perception, especially if we changed the formatting of the text to be as concise as possible. It would also serve to show exactly what the various stages of baking are supposed to look like. Videos are great, but carefully chosen photographs, focused on the specific steps needed, are actually far more useful.

I also realized that the recipes would be more logically written in the way I actually make them, so I put any necessary preparation right at the top where it belongs, and call it mise en place, just as the setup for ingredients is referred to in professional kitchens.

At the end of most recipes, I have added Baking Pearls that contain special tips for success and good-to-know information. Ive also added Make This Recipe Your Own, which will give you tested ideas for suggested substitutions and variations.

One of the changes in this book Im most pleased about is that ounces are now mostly eliminated and grams come before volume. This is because most kitchen scales now measure both grams and ounces and switching between the two is easy. Weighing is easier and more reliable than measuring by volume. Ive preferred it since the publication of my first book more than thirty years ago, and by now many people have embraced it. If you havent yet, you should. This is an important step to near guarantee a successful outcome.

Another change that turned out to have huge impact on the complete precision of information is that Woody and I decided to do all the preparation and styling for the step-by-step photography on our own, in my dedicated baking kitchen. We knew that this would give us total control of the recipes, including the ability to enter every tweak and improved technique that would ensue from baking the recipes after they were tested and written up in final form. The next step was to find a first rate photographer who embraced the idea of coming to Hope, New Jersey, for many days, over a period of several months, to achieve the more than 600 step-by-step photos. Matthew Septimus was our man. For the beauty shots, we were additionally blessed to have our dear friend, the talented food stylist and baking author Erin Jeanne McDowell, join the team.