The Fearless Baker

September 15, 2017

In her debut cookbook, McDowell, a veteran food stylist who writes a biweekly baking column for Food52.com, warmly relays key concepts and techniques, referencing just enough food science to inspire confidence. Her easygoing approach will persuade readers to try her recipes, even daunting ones like puff pastry and croissants. With three levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard), recipes include such seductive offerings as peachy coconut macaroons, chocolate cream pie with whipped peanut butter cream, lemon ricotta turnovers, and frozen pomegranate souffles. The book is packed with useful features, including decorating guides, pan-size conversion charts, make-ahead and storage instructions, and presentation tips. While the recipe instructions and weight/volume measurement conversions are occasionally unclear, McDowell's professional tips are indispensable. VERDICT This all-purpose baking collection will help anyone improve both the taste and appearance of their baked goods.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 2, 2017
In her first cookbook, McDowell, a baking columnist for Food52, endeavors to make baking easier and more understandable for home cooks. She distills the professional tips she’s learned over the years and offers advice that both new and experienced bakers will find indispensable. Her recipes run the gamut from simple chocolate chip cookies to the more involved chocolate palmiers, made with homemade puff pastry, and chocolate cream pie with whipped peanut butter cream. Her sense of fun is felt throughout the book with recipes such as PB&J Whoopie Pies and a caramel corn layer cake. She adds twists to recipes to make them her own, such as with salted caramel-swirled meringues; grapefruit meringue pie; and raspberry-ripple crunch bars, an innovation that she explains came to her in a dream. Comprehensive tips on baking and decorating cakes and pies accompany tempting recipes, including for pound cupcakes made with honey-caramel glaze, mocha cake with a coffee and white chocolate ganache, and a simple cider caramel apple pie. Her clearly written recipes and tips, explained in a friendly, encouraging voice, will inspire confidence in experienced and novice bakers alike.

September 1, 2017
According to Food52 columnist McDowell, knowing the whys in addition to the hows of baking is the key to confidence in creating the cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, and custards that can seem intimidating in their exactitude. Thus, her introductions to the book and each of the above baking categories are full of how-to's, pro tips, diagrams, explanations, and variations to help demystify the process. Top matter for each recipe contains an at-a-glance list of expected quantities, difficulty level, and shelf life that will help make bakers' decisions easier; measurements are given in both weight and volume; steps are detailed but not overwhelming; every recipe is accompanied by a photo. McDowell's takes on evergreen and familiar recipes, like croissants, pastry cream, pumpkin pie, and rice pudding, are nicely complemented by her more inventive offerings, like tomato upside-down cake, frozen pomegranate souffles, and lemon-ricotta turnovers. McDowell's book will give home bakers encouragement and tools they can use to become fearless, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)