>But I want to delve a little deeper to learn more and maybe even be able to "freestyle" in the future.

I'd say the very first thing you need to learn is to grasp & adopt the concept of how you really, truly learn cooking. There's a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that goes, "The most powerful force in the universe is compounding interest." That means that as you do little bits of work on a consistent basis, it adds up to create fluency & accomplishment. Same idea as high school...you show up every day for 4 years & suddenly you have a diploma! If you can buy into that idea, then that will serve as the 'guiding light' for how you approach cooking, i.e. as steady, consistent progress against individual recipes, techniques, and flavor combinations, rather than random shotgun blasts scattered here & there.

In cooking, you can't do all of the processes & understand all of the flavor combinations unless you've studied them & actually done them, hands-on, in-person, and that is a long-term process. Until then, you're just window shopping, you know? I have a few posts here on kind of the basics of cooking that is worth reading through:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners/comments/ajrsio/what_basicgeneral_cooking_tips_and_advice_do_you_think_everybody_should_kno/eeyhpua/?context=3

And in order to do learn those processes & understand the flavor combinations & build up a personal recipe database, you need to cook - a lot! If you're really serious about it, then I would recommend cooking every single day. Not necessarily every single meal, but cook at least one thing a day. In order to do that, you need to do some meal planning, which involves picking out what to cook, going shopping, and planning out what to make & when. I have a few posts on that here as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mealprep/comments/afdqju/meal_prep_ideas/edyhgbu/

Here is what I would recommend:

1. Commit to a plan. I'd suggest cooking just one thing a day. It can be separate from your actual meals, if you'd like, which is how I do it - I cook one meal a day for freezer storage when I get home from work every day. And because my kitchen is organized, I've made a meal-plan for the week, I've gone shopping, I've picked what day I'm going to cook each recipe, I've created a reminder alarm on my phone, and I have the recipe...I mean, it pretty much just boils down to actually doing the work, you know? Which is pretty dang easy, because at this point of preparation, it's like shooting fish in a barrel...I know what to make, how to make it, I have all the ingredients, and I'm only doing just one single solitary little recipe at a time, just one per day.
   
2. "Cook the book" - buy one cookbook & work your way through it. Personally, I'd recommend starting off with Kenji's Food Lab book. He has great pre-vetted recipes & explains them thoroughly. If you prefer baking, then check out Stella's Bravetart book, which takes a similar approach.
   
3. Create a recipe storage locker & a notes locker. I'd recommend Evernote or OneNote. They let you search, tag, and create individual notes, so you can organize things by ingredient, cooking style, and so on. All of the raw ingredients in the world already exist. All of the known recipes that are documented are already written down. There's a tremendous amount of knowledge & resources out there in terms of flavor combinations, tools, and ingredients available at your disposable...but your database is pretty empty right now. The rest of the world doesn't matter...what matters is filling up your personal database so that you can cook & bake & create delicious things for yourself, your family, and your friends. Your job is to build up that knowledge recipe by recipe, technique by technique, ingredient by ingredient. You've tried paprika, but have you tried smoked paprika? You've tried cinnamon, but have you tried roasted cinnamon? Have you used a microplane on a cinnamon stick or a whole nutmeg? You may have used garlic powder or chopped up a clove of garlic before, but have to roasted it to the point where it spreads like butter? Have you fermented black garlic in a rice cooker? That's not stuff you learn all at once, instantly, overnight, and become a pro at...you have to learn the flavors, and the process, and experiment, and see what works & what doesn't, and equally importantly, you need to write that down, because you WILL forget, but having your notes allows you to get inspired & think up great combinations & try new things & fall back on old ones.
   
   I mean, basically that's it - create a plan that involves doing a little bit of work on a regular basis, commit to it, and create some processes & reminders that enable you to easily slip into cooking mode when you want to. It's nothing more than a simple checklist, and you can be all over the map with it - learn how to cook marshmallows, and chicken tikka masala, and how to make your own jello, and what crystals are in chocolateering & how to temper your own chocolate using sous-vide, and how to cook using an electric pressure cooker, and what a good basic kitchen toolset looks like. Imagine if you only learn one thing a day or cook one thing a day...in a year, you'll have 365 new tidbits of knowledge under your belt; in five years, you'll have nearly two thousand bits of information under your belt.
   
   Please feel free to ask questions! To me, cooking isn't about going hardcore every day by cooking lots of stuff for hours & hours, it's about specifically focusing on one individual thing at a time & mastering it so that you "own" that knowledge, you know?
   
   For example, I went through a marshmallow phase. I went to a dessert shop a few winters ago & they had this amazing ultra-premium hot chocolate that was just out of this world, then they topped it off with a giant 2" hand-made marshmallow that they skewered & finished with a torch. It was sooooo good that I HAD to learn how to make it! As it turns out, like with anything else, you can deep-dive into just those two topics alone - hot chocolate & marshmallows. Here's some good introductory reading from one of my favorite hot chocolate shops in NYC, "City Bakery": (I'm pretty sure they just melt a chocolate bar into a cup, haha!)
   
   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4172562/Make-best-hot-chocolate-City-Bakery.html
   
   Four of my favorite NY chefs (Dominque Ansel, Jacques Torres, Maury Rubin, and Michael Klug) have some very different opinions on it:
   
   https://food52.com/blog/15460-how-to-make-the-best-hot-chocolate-according-to-the-experts
   
   part 1/2

I'm sure she has plenty of gluten free books but if she doesn't have these please consider them as a gift! They have been the only ones I've really liked so far.

Some of my favorite gluten free books are the America's Test Kitchen "The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook 1 and 2" and also Russ Crandall's books "Paleo Takeout" and "The Ancestral Table".

These books have helped me so much! I didn't enjoy cooking before but these books helped me and everything I've tried so far has been delicious. My husband doesn't need to eat gluten free and he enjoys these meals so they've made our lives easier lol.

I'm not sure if your mom enjoys cooking or not but even if you buy these for yourself you can surprise her with a delicious and safe home-made meal or even cake! The ATK #2 book has a yummy cupcake recipes in it too! Everything from scratch even the icing! I made some funfetti cupcakes for a friend a week ago and she enjoyed them! She didn't realize they were gluten free lol.

Sure thing. I've been through a bunch of gluten free flour blends already. I like King Arthur and Red Bob's Mill GF AP flour the best so far. If you want different types of GF flours (rice flours, starches, etc) Red Bob's Mill is the place to go. They have everything. Most grocery stores will carry at least some of the line. I've also ordered from Amazon. I keep all my flours (I bake a LOT and stock way more flours than normal) in sterile bins to keep the bugs out. If you get flour beetles or anything like that, you have to purge with fire and depending on your level of interest, specialty flours can get a bit spendy.

Xanthum gum is the glue that holds GF everything together. You don't need much but it is pretty magical stuff. Early on I was like "1/8th of teaspoon won't make a difference". LIES. It makes a huge difference. I *believe* the King Arthur GF AP flour may already have xanthum gum in it but if you are using other flours or experimenting with converting recipes, this is an important addition to your baking.

I pull a lot of recipes (both gluten free and not) from King Arthur Flour. They have been massively expanding their gluten free recipes and they test bake EVERYTHING. I have never had one of their recipes go really south. They have lots of good advice and will help you troubleshoot as well.

If you are a big bread fan but "don't have time", this book is for you. I own both GF and original and use them all the time. They developed a method so you could make the dough/rise when you have time and then throw it in the fridge. When you want bread, you pull it out, shape, and bake. I use mine for pita a lot.

America's Test Kitchen also has a fabulous resource. It is filled with recipes but also the "basics" of gluten free baking, how it works, and what you can and can't substitute. Even if you don't use the recipes (which you probably will), I think it is a pretty valuable resource.

Finally, I troubleshot GF, vegan pasta dough. We made ravioli with it but if you are into pasta, you could probably do whatever with it. I'm pretty proud of it so I'm sharing:

250 grams Brown Rice Flour

100 g Potato or tapioca starch

1 TBSP flaxseed Meal

1 tsp xanthum gum

1 tsp salt

3/4 c warm water

2 TBSP olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in standmixer, add water slowly to form cohesive dough. Rest for 30 mins in plastic wrap at room temp. Roll, fill, whatever your final shape is. Cook for 6 min in boiling, salted water.

​

Best of luck!

For the piping techniques week, I made a simple vanilla cake with Swiss meringue buttercream. I just went with a super simple edge on the top and bottom because I’m way out of practice. It’s a bit rough in some spots, but I was pretty happy considering I haven’t done much piping in a while.

---

Classic Yellow Layer Cake

Recipe from BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts by Stella Parks
Makes one 8-by-4½-inch layer cake

Ingredients

• 3⅓ cups | 13½ ounces bleached cake flour, such as Swans Down
  
• 2 sticks | 8 ounces unsalted butter, pliable but cool—about 65°F
  
• 2 cups | 14 ounces sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1 tablespoon potato flour (not potato flakes or starch), such as Bob’s Red Mill
  
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (half as much if iodized)
  
• ½ cup | 5 ounces egg yolks, preferably organic (from about 8 large eggs), brought to about 70°F
  
• 4½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 1⅓ cups | 13 ounces milk (any percentage will do), brought to about 70°F
  
  

  Directions
  

  
  

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350°F. Line two 8-by-3-inch anodized aluminum pans with parchment and grease with pan spray (the cakes will brown more and rise less in 2-inch pans). Sift the flour (if using a cup measure, spoon into the cup and level with a knife before sifting) and set aside.
   
2. Combine the butter, sugar, baking powder, potato flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low to moisten, then increase to medium and cream until fluffy and light, about 5 minutes, pausing to scrape the bowl and beater halfway through. With the mixer running, add the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
   
3. Reduce speed to low and sprinkle in one-third of the flour, followed by a third of the milk. Alternate between the two, allowing each addition to be roughly incorporated before adding the next. Once it is smooth, fold the batter with a flexible spatula to ensure it’s well mixed from the bottom up. Divide between the prepared cake pans, about 26 ounces each.
   
4. Bake until the cakes are golden and firm, about 40 minutes (or 210°F). A toothpick inserted into the center will emerge with a few crumbs still attached, and your fingertip will leave a slight indentation in the puffy crust. Cool until no trace of warmth remains, about 2 hours.
   
5. Loosen the cooled cakes from their pans with a knife, invert onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment, and reinvert. Trim the top crust from the cakes with a serrated knife (this helps the cake better absorb moisture from the frosting). Place one layer cut side up on a serving plate. Cover with a cup of frosting, spread it into an even layer with the back of a spoon, and top with the second layer, cut side down. Finish the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting, sculpting it into swoops and swirls with the back of the spoon.
   
6. Under a cake dome or an inverted pot, the frosted cake will keep for up to 24 hours at room temperature. After cutting, wrap leftover slices individually and store at room temperature for up to 2 days more.
   
   

   Swiss Meringue Buttercream
   

   
   Recipe from Serious Eats
   
   

   Ingredients
   

   
   

• 6 ounces egg whites (2/3 cup; 170g), from 5 to 6 large eggs
  
• 11 ounces plain or lightly toasted sugar (about 1 2/3 cups; 310g) (see note)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon (3g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; use half as much if iodized
  
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  
• Scraped seeds from 1 split vanilla bean (optional)
  
• 20 ounces unsalted butter (5 sticks; 565g), softened to about 65°F (18°C)
  
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
  
  

  Directions
  

  
  

1. Fill a wide pot with at least 1 1/2 inches of water, with a thick ring of crumpled tinfoil placed on the bottom to act as a "booster seat" that will prevent the bowl from touching the bottom of the pot. Place over high heat until steaming-hot, then adjust temperature to maintain a gentle simmer. Combine egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla seeds (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set over steaming water, stirring and scraping constantly with a flexible spatula, until egg whites hold steady at 185°F (85°C). This should take only 10 to 12 minutes, so if mixture seems to be moving slowly, simply turn up the heat. Once ready, transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip at high speed about 10 minutes, until meringue is glossy, stiff, and cool to the touch, around 90°F (32°C).
   
2. With mixer still running, add butter, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time. Initially, the volume of the meringue will decrease dramatically; it may even seem soupy along the way, but as the cool butter is added, the mixture will begin to thicken and cool. In the end, buttercream should be thick, creamy, and soft but not runny, around 72°F (22°C). Mix in vanilla extract and almond extract (if using) on low speed until well combined.
   
3. Use buttercream right away, or transfer to a large zipper-lock bag, press out the air, and seal. Buttercream can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks and frozen for up to several months. (The main issue with longer storage in the freezer is odor absorption, not spoilage.) Rewarm to 72°F and re-whip before using.
   
4. Troubleshooting: If warmer than 74°F (23°C), the buttercream will be soft and loose; pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes and re-whip to help it thicken and cool. If colder than 68°F (20°C), the buttercream will be firm and dense, making it difficult to spread over cakes and slow to melt on the tongue, creating a greasy mouthfeel; to warm, briefly set over a pan of steaming water, just until you see the edges melting slightly, then re-whip to help it soften and warm. Full troubleshooting guide and video here.

Firstly: Good luck! You're doing well already, and you'll get to where you want to be in time.

Have you got any vegan recipe books? Easy Vegan and 500 Vegan Dishes both have fairly simple but tasty dishes. I don't think they tend to need very exotic ingredients.

Easy Vegan:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookery-Ryland-Peters-Small/dp/1845979583

500 Vegan Dishes:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/500-Vegan-Dishes-Deborah-Gray/dp/1845434161

And do you feel that vegan meat alternatives aren't as easy to buy, or maybe aren't as good, as the vegetarian ones? You say that you eat the Linda McCartney pies, so I guess you've seen other products in that range too. But Fry's Vegetarian is great, and I've recently heard really good things about Vegusto meat alternatives - their Farmhouse sausages in particular, but also their burgers (you'll probably have to order off their website though).

Fry's Vegetarian:
http://www.frysvegetarian.co.uk/

Vegusto:
http://vegusto.co.uk/

I guess you probably know about Holland and Barrett stores? They're good for getting some of the more exotic ingredients, but they also have meat alternatives and such. Also, they have a few microwaveable meals - pasties and that sort of thing - which are quite nice. You can also often get microwaveable burritos, and probably other similar things, in the frozen section.

Also here are a couple of easy meals I like:

(1) Buy refried beans (http://www.oldelpaso.co.uk/products/refried-beans/975cedfc-f177-4eda-a689-192c4ec346af/) and put it in tacos (along with corn, lettuce, tomato, and whatever else you like). (The refried beans are seriously good.)

(2) You can make falafel easily (http://www.alfez.com/moroccan_lebanese_cuisine/products/all-products/falafel.html) and eat it with houmous, because everyone likes houmous.

If you're mainly looking for sweeter things:
Co-operative custard donuts and jam donuts are both apparently vegan (and delicious). You can buy vegan ice cream in the frozen section of Holland and Barrett (and maybe at Tesco or other supermarkets) - Swedish Glace is pretty incredible, and most people say it's as good as ordinary ice cream. You can also get vegan cheesecake in Holland and Barrett, again in the frozen section. Also buy Lotus Caramelised Biscuit Spread and put it on Tesco Oaties (well, that's a combination I like, but I guess you could mix it up...).

Or if you wanted to bake, these are three really good books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Pie-Sky-Out-This-World/dp/0738212741

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookies-Invade-Your-Cookie/dp/160094048X

(The cookie book is by far the easiest, and uses the least exotic ingredients. On the other end of the spectrum is the pie book, which uses things like coconut oil and agar agar - the first of which you can get at Holland and Barrett but the second of which you'd have to order online.)

Also, just by the way: 'What Fat Vegans Eat', a facebook page, gives you a constant stream of delicious-looking vegan food.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/194567900666819/?fref=nf

I literally googled it:

So you want to start a pizza shop

Hell, maybe you can start by doing it from your own home.

Or start a mobile pizza shop By the way this link is to an actual magazine devoted to the pizza business (the internet never ceases to amaze me.)

or start out at the farmers market (Holy gazebos! Another link to a site devoted to the pizza business. TIL: a lot of people are in the pizza business).


I assume you already know this as a network engineer, but google is your friend.

Ask it lots and lots of questions. Also depending on the state you are in you might have meet-up groups that you can join (small business/entrepreneur). Also look into your local small business/chamber of commerce organizations. They might have seminars or other resources that you can use (especially on taxes).

This guy sounds like he was in your situation, maybe write directly to people like him and ask them. What sources they would recommend you use to get started. It might be that you write 50 people and 2 respond, but hey, they are experts in the field and might have really good advice. Just make the letter sound personal and not copy and pasted.

As far as inspiring you I would recommend you watch the original kitchen nightmares series that was filmed in the UK (US series is horribly over dramatic) you can still find them on youtube (I think). I really believe Gordon drops some really good nuggets of information on how to run and operate a food business, especially from the chef's perspective.


Get the book "The Elements of Pizza". If you are going to make pizza, make it the best possible.

And finally my only real advice is:

1. Location, Location, Location is the most important aspect to opening a shop.
   
   
2. Keep the menu as simple as possible (it cuts down on costs).
   
   
3. Keep the ingredients simple but of good quality (and if you put sugar in your sauce, may you grow up to be the son of a motherless goat).
   
   That is it my friend. Good luck and have fun storming the castle!
   
   e: Couldn't resist two Princess Bride quotes in one post.
   

An alarm clock to get her used to waking up at 2am? ;-)
I'm not a professional baker, but did work as one for several months 20 years ago. Enough to let me know that although I enjoyed baking, I didn't enjoy doing it as a profession. So these suggestions are from a home baker, not a pro.
I would suggest a cookbook or subscription to Cook's Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen.
I bought The New Best Recipe Cookbook ten years ago for myself and have gifted a copy to several friends since. It goes through not only a recipe, but what changing different ingredients will do to the final product. The chocolate chip cookie recipe was quite informative with illustrations showing not only what different sugars would do, but different fats, flours, and the effect of chilling the dough had on the final product.
There is also Baking Illustrated which is just about baking. It's probably going to be hard to find, but if you stumble across it, it's worth it. Some folks complain that it's just the baking chapters from the best recipe cookbook with a few extra recipes, but if your kid is really focused on baking, this may be a better fit for now and then the best recipe cookbook later when she feels like branching out into thing to go with the baked goods.
I do not own the Cooks Illustrated Baking Book but I have several of their other cookbooks and friends who have this one think highly of it. It's been described as a combination recipe book and class in baking. Like the New Best Recipe Cookbook, it includes not just recipes, but paragraphs about what is going on in the recipe and what changes to the recipe will do.
You may also want to look at getting a large vermin resistant container to store flour. I use a Vittles Vault pet food container to store my flour. It allows me to buy 25 lbs of flour for $8 instead of 5 lbs for $4 and not run out in the middle of a baking session.

I don't know if it's heresy, but have you considered a bread machine? I have a Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme (2 lb), and use it 75% of the time for mixing doughs. I make about 5 loaves/doughs a week in it.

It's super since you can program in your knead times/cycles/types (settings for white/wheat, for example), and mine has an automatic 'punch down' action built around its rising times. On mine I believe I can program up to 3 different rise cycles, each up to 24 hours? The enclosed machine works well for proofing between kneads (don't need to worry about drying out etc.), and I've started to plan meals around the timer function so I can have fresh dough ready for me @ 3pm for dinner that day, setting it up in the mornings alongside coffee & breakfast.

I've read many good things about the longevity of Zo's, and in my experience (several month ownership, making ~5 loaves and/or doughs a week) it's solid and reliable. I even like the loaves baked in it for sandwiches/sweet breads (Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook has LOTS of options).

I know it is missing all of the stand mixer pluses, but for me I'm not a baker of sweets/cakes and already own a pasta machine/assorted grinders and Amazon regularly puts it on sale for $200 free ship/no tax for most, sometimes down to $180 (create a pricewatch with camelcamelcamel for the best deal). There are also other machines with different options (timed yeast introduction, french bread cycles, etc.) but I don't know them, just that they're out there.

Good luck in your search! :)

All depends on your experience and skill level in baking. Just pick what you are comfortable doing.

Beginner-Intermediate home baker: Chewy ginger cookies
Intermediate-Advanced: Religieuses


Ginger Cookies:

(Goes name, weight (g), bakers percentage)

[your going to need to scale this down as its commercially sized. but thats why I gave bakers %. If you have no idea how to do that, congrats you get to research and then fall in love with the science of baking]

• Brown sugar 2267 33.3%
  
• Unsalted Butter 2267 33.3%
  
• Molasses 2631 38.7%
  
• Baking Soda 75 1.1%
  
• Salt 35 0.5%
  
• Cinnamon 65 1.0%
  
• Clove 50 0.7%
  
• Ginger powder 50 0.7%
  
• Allspice 50 0.7%
  
• Strong flour 6804 100.0%
  
• Eggs 1650 24.3%
  
  

1. Mix sugar and butter in mixer until extremely light and fluffy. Scrape as needed.
   
2. Add everything but flour and eggs. Scrape as needed
   
3. Add eggs one at a time waiting for homogeneous mixture before adding next. Scrape as needed
   
4. Add flour. Scrape as needed
   
5. Using a scoop make some nice thick ass mounds of deliciousness
   
6. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes
   
7. Flip like it was a burger patty and bake for another 2-3 minutes or until you deem it done. Be quick with the flip, it will be soft and wanting to fall apart if you go slow.
   
   Religieuses:
   [making the assumption you know how to make choux and pastry cream at this point]
   
   
8. Make choux paste, pipping 2" puffs and 1.5" puffs
   
9. Make pastry cream, flavor as you see fit. Personally I am a huge fan of coffee or chocolate hazelnut creme pat.
   
10. Dip tops into fondant glaze.
    
11. Punch holes in bottoms and fill with pastry cream
    
12. Put small ball on top of large on sealing it in place with the fresh warm fondant.
    
13. Pipe tear drops of pastry cream around base of small one going upwards
    
14. Make a rosette on top
    
15. Have people shit bricks thinking you busted ass but then just laugh as its simple choux.
    
    Since I'm pretty shit at describing how to do it, essentially this is the end product. And if you need recipes for it, well I recommend this book whole heartedly. Its written by one of the guys from Kings of Pastry which if you haven't seen it is one of the greatest documentaries ever.

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Welcome to the hobby!

I like this book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's got a bunch of great recipes and goes over the history of bread and a number of traditional techniques, with pictures! Other popular books are Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast and The Tartine Bread book.

A dough scraper, a lame (it's pronounced"lahhm", it's French), a banneton, some decent size mixing bowls with lids, kitchen scale, measuring cups and spoons, pizza stone/s, caste iron Dutch oven (for no Knead bread, super easy place to start), an oven I suppose would help if you don't already have one (extra points if it goes to 550*F).

And to save your arms, a good quality mixer. It'll be expensive up front, but I would recommend splurging on a good quality, reputable brand mixer and it'll last you 30 years if you take care of it. The purists will tell you you HAAAAAVE to knead by hand, and it's definitely a skill you should develop, but it's not absolutely necessary and some recipes would be nearly impossible without one. It'll save you a lot of time, effort and headache.

Anyway, all that should definitely get you started. Not all of it is necessary to start, but you seem pretty interested and serious about it, so I want to set you up for success.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is my number one recommendation for bread. Im also a big fan of Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. His first book, Tartine is also great btw. I would skip out on Tartine Book No.3 though which seems to have too many errors for my liking. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish is also one of the better bread baking books out there.

For general baking, im a big fan of Bouchon Bakery. And one book that will surely help you improve as a baker and I highly recommend you cook through is The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. Its like a pastry arts class in a book. I am actually cooking my way through this. If you have a serious sweet tooth, Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi will probably be what you're looking for. And as someone else recommended, the Baked books are all great.

For cakes, it has to be The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Bernanbaum. This is probably the best cake book of all time. I would supplement this with Toba Garrett's Professional Cake Decorating book.

For pies, my favorites are Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Hoosier Mama. One that I haven't tried but am planning to buy is First Prize Pies. If the book lives up to their reputation, it should be an excellent book.

For plated, more ambitious desserts, I like Payard Desserts. I refer to this when I want to impress company.

I believe that the best baking book you could start out with is Baking Illustrated. It's done by the same people of Cook's Illustrated, which is an inspirational food/cooking magazine. What's awesome about the cookbook and magazine is that prior to a majority of the recipes they discuss the process of discovering the perfect recipe, which includes common pitfalls of other recipes, a little bit of science and a whole lot of taste tests. In the book they cover techniques, helpful hints and other super useful guides.

Also! A great blog to check out is Joy the Baker the voice in her writing is super friendly and her recipes tend to steer clear of pretentious while still being amazing-- check out these guys! Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. Orangette is also a noteworthy blog. Her writing is stunning, and her pictures are captivating. However, she really doesn't focus on baking (although she manages to toss in a couple recipes here and there.

My workout yesterday was pretty damn good. I officially decided to stop taking hormonal birth control, and I'd like to focus on getting down to 170 lbs sooner rather than later so Plan B can be a real option for me should I need it. I was still in the BC induced depressive funk yesterday, but was mostly able to rationalize my way around it. I went for a 20 minute walk in the sweltering heat during lunch. Everything in me was screaming not to run yesterday, but I did so as usual (Hamilton soundtrack was def helpful there). I also tried upping some of my weights just a tad and cutting down on rests between sets. Since I've been focusing on losing weight for almost exactly a year now, I do a program my friend designed me that's low-to-moderate weight, moderate-to-high rep, doable with mostly dumbbells. Did my squats at 40 lbs for 3 sets of 12, supersetting with 40 lb bench press, with almost no rest. It's been a long time since I felt like a I might vomit during a workout, but for some reason it was really satisfying? And I was done with lifting and cardio in a little over an hour which gave me so much time yesterday evening to get other stuff done. A few months ago, it literally took me 2 hours from the time I walked in to the gym to the time I left. Really excited to be getting more efficient.

​

Unrelated to fitness, I saw over on r/Breadit today that Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast is on sale for Amazon Kindle (don't have to have a kindle, there's a free app!) for FOUR DOLLARS. I've been wanting to get into bread baking for a long time now, and this book is one of the best and most popular to learn all the things about artisan bread baking (and pizza dough!). It's also usually pretty pricey, so I absolutely jumped all over that sale. I even updated my iPad for the first time in... a few years just to download the Kindle app. I'm going to start reading it on my lunch break in an hour. So, you know, RIP my macros.

I love baking bread, omg. I don't even eat it any more but I love to bake it. I bought the book Flour Water Salt Yeast and it is AWESOME and has really great recipes. It's awesome and I love it and I can't suggest it enough.

It's one of those 'personal preference' issues, really.

I've read a lot of the books that others have mentioned, but I haven't bought my own copies, mostly because I'm satisfied with Rose Levy Beranbaum's books, and have stuck with those. She's a good teacher who seems to understand the specific challenges of baking at home with the ingredients I can find. (Lots of other cookbooks seem to be focused on professional type baking situations, and on artisanal baking. Not what I need or want to use.)

Her recipes have been consistently reliable, approachable and the end results have been very tasty.

Some projects are apparently more than I want to manage, so I haven't baked EVERYTHING in her books, but I do own them all, if that tells you anything.

I learned a lot from her Bread bible.
http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0393057941

Her newest, The Baking Bible also looks great (just got it, haven't yet worked my way completely through it.

http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/1118338618/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

There are a lot of different approaches to this kind of project. Along the way in my experiments, I learned that I'm not really all that fascinated with rustic artisanal breads, and that most professional cookbooks just aren't what I'm looking for in the way of specific advice on projects I can manage at home. For one thing, living where I do, finding top quality flours is a problem (i.e., online only).

Editing to add: I think it's probably best to buy a cookbook produced in your own country, whatever that might be. For example, ingredients can be hard to source, and wording can be a confusing issue. (British cookbooks have given me a lot of great ideas, but living in the US, I find I need to double check my understanding of the instructions and the ingredients. Metric measurements are a godsend, though, they simplify a lot. Other measuring standards can be more confusing.)

One of the best things you can do is to train your palate. This way, when you taste something, you can figure out what's in it, and make it yourself if you want. It will also help you to learn what goes with what. For example, dill goes with salmon, lemon with raspberries, tomato with onion and cilantro or basil, etc. That kind of knowledge will help you to invent your own recipes which are catered directly to your tastes.

If you really want to know what makes food do what it does, I would recommend the following books:

• For general culinary science, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. It is one of the best books ever written which actually explains why things happen in the kitchen.
  
• I usually buy a copy of Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise for anyone who says they want to learn to cook. It is perfect for beginners and has lots of very useful recipes. If you watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats", you will see Ms. (or is is Dr.?) Corriher explaining some of the science.
  
• If you want to learn how to bake incredible cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible is indispensable, same for her Bread Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible. I rarely fuck up a cake now, and if I do, I know why. And her cake recipes are brilliant. From learning to make her chocolate butter cake, I also discovered the secret to making the BEST cup of chocolate ever. The aforementioned Ms. Corriher's BakeWise is also excellent for beginners.
  
• The Larousse Gastronomique is probably the most famous book on cuisine. It's an encyclopedia which contains pretty much every cooking term. It's a pretty high-level book, but it is the authority.
  
  Have fun with it! =)

Alright, so the way to get from where you are now to this is to use a cast iron pot and follow Jim Lahey's directions here. Go to the library and get his book, both that one and the new My Pizza are awesome. The cast iron pot traps steam which combined with the high heats lets you get good 'spring' and a nice rich crispy crust. I've done this recipe with lots of diffent flours and they have much less of an effect on the overall outcome than good technique. It can be a bit scary handling a 500 degree cast iron pot but after a few attempts it gets pretty easy. A Lodge cast iron dutch oven like this will work great but I suggest replacing the knob on top with a metal version found here. Good luck!

My mother bought me this cookbook a few years ago and it teaches the actual science of cooking. She also talk some about baking bread in there and about the different flours, how they interact with their ingredients and so forth.

While I don't have this book, the same woman wrote Bakewise. It will also get into the sciences of it and all the "whys". I would bet that once you have some experience with this book that you would be able to start making up your own recipes as well. Once you know the ratio's, you should be golden. (I didn't even know she had done written this book till I searched for Cookwise. I might have to get this one for myself!)

EDIT: Someone else mentioned The Joy of Cooking. My husband is one heck of a baker and he gets a lot of his recipes from The Joy of Baking. They have all been excellent so far.

EDIT II: (Sorry, I love this kind of thing and keep thinking of more stuff). I have gotten a lot of excellent dessert recipes from Southern Living. Before they changed the layout of their magazine a few years back, I would get their magazine. I poured over it for hours. While the magazine isn't as good, their recipes are still excellent. Type in what you are looking for and it will give you several recipes to choose from (the search engine in the middle of the page, not the one in the upper right corner).

My favorite apple pie comes from there. I get wonderful compliments whenever I make it. Don't leave out the brandy-caramel sauce linked in the ingredients!

Well it will depend on the recipe and type of crust you’re going for, but the salt and yeast amounts are going to be much smaller, in the single percentiles and even into tenths of a percentage with the yeast sometimes.

As for type of yeast, everything’s gravy — meaning you’ll find people using each and any kind. I think the easiest to start out with are the ones using instant yeast.

I first scratched my pizza itch the same way many around here probably did, with Kenji’s Foolproof Pan Pizza
It’s a great place to start and is still my favorite kind of “home pizza” so far tbh. I also like to start new projects with a book if possible, and while we can debate their techniques up, down, and sideways, I think Forkish’s Elements of Pizza would still be my go-to for just starting out. Beddia’s Pizza Camp is also a strong contender, but personally I think his ideas play in better after you’ve tried a few others first.

And don’t be fooled! I’m by no means any kind of master and would still consider myself “in training,” but I am a good researcher, so I sound like I know what I’m talking about.

Edit: a word

So first things first, no baker whose work I respect uses measuring cups. Volume measurement is an anachronistic method of measurement. The reason is that baking is based on ratios of the mass of products to each other, and something like flour can vary by about 50% if you're going by volume. I.e. a cup can weigh between 4 and 6 ounces. What that means is that you need a scale. The good news is that scales are fairly cheap. It's like 30 bucks to get a good one. I like oxo 5 pound scale with the pull out display.

The next thing is that I tend to stay away from all of the cookbooks written by people who don't work in the industry. Chefs have had to stand up to years of criticism and constant learning to get to a place where they can even begin to think about putting out a cookbook. The two pastry cook books that I like the most are Thomas Keller's book, Bouchon bakery, and Christina Tosi's book, milk bar.

Bouchon bakery is a super French book (as is the bakery), so I would recommend getting it if your son is interested in making things like bread, croissants, eclairs, Madelines, macarons, cakes, etc. Things that you would think of coming out of a traditional patisserie. The book is fabulously written and gorgeous. It is incredibly approachable and in my opinion, doesn't require any outside knowledge of baking, although being a good baker certainly helps. If I were to go solely based on what I thought was the best book, I wouldn't go any further than this one

That being said, I love Christina Tosi's milk bar. Her style is more of a traditional American style, so lots of cookies, cupcakes, pies, etc. Her book isn't as well written, not as pretty, and requires a bit more knowledge of baking (but certainly not a ton). It is, however so warm and inviting and reflects her personality so much that you can't help but smile add you read her expositions about some of her recipes and past. Her cookies are so crazy awesome and delicious, that the single method alone is worth the price of admission.

The one caveat I would say is that both books will STRONGLY suggest you get a stand mixer. While neither book requires it, there are some recipes that will be very daunting without one; I sure as hell wouldn't want to do Tosi's creaming method (for making the aforementioned cookies) by hand, that's for sure. That being said, though, people baked for millennia without one, so if you don't have one, you certainly don't have to buy one before making most if not all of the recipes in either book.

NINJA EDIT:
Links to the books
Bouchon Bakery
Milk bar

It depends entirely on your needs and your standards. We bought this inexpensive Oster last summer and love it. Our motivation was that our kids are getting older and starting to devour a lot of bread. Going through 3-4 decent loaves of bread each week at $3 a pop adds up. Is the bread machine loaf as good as what I can make by hand? No. But it's still pretty tasty, a basic recipe costs about $1 in ingredients, and I can pop out a simple sandwich loaf with about 10 minutes of hands-on time, including cleanup. You can't touch that hands-on time by hand, even with a stand mixer (which we also own). And if you're willing to test and tweak recipes a bit and willing to manually intervene at times (shaping the final loaf, for example), you can turn out some darn good bread with it.

The big question in buying a bread machine is how big you want your loaves to be. Specifically, 1.5 lb loaves vs 2 lb loaves. Most machines can make 2 lb loaves, but doing it well really requires a two-paddle model, which are larger, significantly more expensive, and more prone to breakage. If you can live with 1.5 lb loaves, you can get a smaller, cheaper, more durable single-paddle model like the one we have. A 1.5 lb loaf is basically a sandwich for all four of us plus a couple end hunks to gnaw on or a couple extra toast slices. So we make 1 or 2 of those loaves a week and supplement them with store-bought loaves. Still a decent cost savings - I suspect we've already paid for the $70 cost of the unit.

If you get a machine of any type or price, I strongly recommend buying this cookbook along with it. There will be recipes included with the machine, but they don't go into much detail and avoid specifying slightly hard-to-find ingredients like SAF yeast or vital wheat gluten that can really help you get better loaves. Just a little bit of knowledge and investment in the ingredients and technique yields much better results.

Thank you, I"m so glad that you love Baking From My Home To Yours- I've got a special place in my heart for that book. Not surprisingly, I'm a fan of homemade brownies I love that making them from scratch means that I can use the cocoa and the chocolate that I love best. But, I think that brownies are one of those desserts that's subjective - it's the cakey vs fudgy thing. Maybe you haven't found the right recipe for your particular taste? That said, you know, you really don't have to - if you love boxed brownies, keep making them. Dessert is all about pleasure and there are no right or wrong answers.

For those asking, here is the recipe ive modified from the Baking Illustrated Cookbook which is where I get most of my clever tricks from!

https://www.amazon.com/Baking-Illustrated-Best-Recipe-Classic/dp/0936184752

Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

The Dough
• ½ cup milk
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
• ½ cup warm water, about 110 degrees
• 1 envelope instant yeast
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 large egg, plus two large egg yolks
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 4 to 4 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

The Icing
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 2 tbsp corn syrup (or light corn syrup)
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 cup powdered sugar (sifted, helps create smooth glaze)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

The Filling
• ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp ground cinnamon (the fresher, the better)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt

Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan on low heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside until lukewarm, about 100 degrees.

Use a paddle mixer to mix together the water, yeast, sugar, egg and yolks at low speed until well mixed. Add the salt, warm milk mixture, and 2 cups of flour. Mix at medium speed until thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Switch to the dough hook and add the other 2 cups of flour, and knead at medium speed (adding up to the last ¼ cup of flour, 1 tbsp at a time if necessary) until the dough is smooth and freely clears the sides of the bowl, takes about 10 minutes. Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm, draft free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 ½ to 2 hrs.

While the dough rises, combine all of the icing ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and blend together at low speed until roughly combined, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to high and mix until the icing is uniformly smooth and free of cream cheese lumps, about 2 minutes. Transfer the icing to a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate.
After the dough has doubled, press it down and turn it out onto a very lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, shape the dough into a 16 by 12 inch rectangle with the long side facing you. Try to roll the sides as straight as possible to get a uniform roll which will be easier to roll and cut into individual rolls later. Mix together the filling ingredients in a small bowl removing lumps. Use a small amount of butter with an icing knife and spread a very very thin layer of butter onto the 16 by 12 sheet of dough which will ensure the filling sticks to the inside of the dough. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough, leaving a ½ inch border at the far right edge.

To roll the dough, start at the left edge and begin rolling the dough using both hands and pinching the dough with your fingertips as you roll. Moisten the right border with water and seal the roll. Very lightly dust the roll with flour and press the ends if necessary to make uniform into a 16 inch cylinder. Grease a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with a small amount of butter. Cut the roll in half using a sharp, un-serrated, thin knife while holding the dough. Then cut each half in half again, then cut each piece in 3 rolls for a total of 12 rolls. Place the rolls, cut side up in a 3 by 4 pattern in the 13 by 9 dish. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft free place for 1 ½ hours.

When the rolls are almost fully risen, adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350. Bake the rolls until golden brown, or until the center reads about 185 degrees, which takes about 25 to 30 minutes. However, I recommend checking them after 15 minutes and going from there as some people like a gooey roll. Invert the rolls onto a wire rack after taking out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Turn the rolls back upright, on a serving dish or back into the cooled 13 by 9 pan and spread the icing evenly on the rolls. Serve immediately.

Someone gave me Baking:From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, which I thought was a fantastic book with some good pictures. I also like books by David Lebovitz. He has a great blog about his life in Paris and he used to be a pastry chef here in the States. Fante's Kitchen Shop always looks like they have interesting things too. I love to browse there for ideas. Hope that helps a bit.

I'm in the exact same situation, about a year and a half removed. For a while I put up with a diet lacking baked goods, but eventually I decided enough was enough and bought this: https://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Baking-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/1598696130


That book is amazing, and costs $4 after shipping for a used copy on Amazon. I use it all the time and it was well worth the cost. Additional advice:


Aldi, the grocery chain, has lots of gluten-free items. In particular, their pasta is pretty good, and more important is the cheapest we've found thus far ($1.25/lb).


If you do get the above book and make the flour blends (not as hard as it sounds), try to get the rice flour and tapioca starch from an Asian grocer or even a Woodman's with a good international aisle - since those make up the bulk of the flour blends, it brings the cost down to the point where you never have to worry about messing up a recipe.

I hands down strongly recommend How Baking Works (for the science behind baking and ingredients used) and Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft (for recipes and methods). These two books will literally cover almost everything you need to know in detail and are awesome reference books for learning methods and recipes. I use them daily.
I would also add The Professional Pastry Chef : Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry as a third book if you are willing to get it, but the first i mentioned are better to start off with.

They might have copies available at your local library, but if they don't you can always go down to Barnes and Noble if you are in the US and find them there for free reading. I think amazon/half.com has the best prices though.

They are a bit expensive new, but used on amazon/half.com or buying older issues is really reasonable in my opinion. You can get the older issue copies without missing out anything important. They really only do minor changes to the new issues. The core of the book doesn't change much. I can't recommend these books enough for people who want to learn baking in depth on their own.


http://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405381058&sr=1-1&keywords=science+behind+baking





http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Pastry-Mastering-Art-Craft/dp/047005591X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405381103&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=cuklinary+instute+of+america+baking

This was my first attempt at it – and I'm not much of a baker myself. I think it turned out wonderfully though. The blog, linked below, does a great writeup on the process. Highly recommended!

Basic No-Knead Bread from Frugal Living NW


slightly adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread

• 6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
  
• 1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast
  
• 2 1/2 t. salt
  
• 2 2/3 c. cool water
  
  

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
   
2. Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
   
3. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
   
4. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
   
5. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
   
6. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Good luck. We're here if you need it. In the meanwhile, here are some good vegan cooking starters:

Chloe's Vegan Italian Cookbook
Some are simple, some less so. All so far have been fantastic.

The Lotus and the Artichoke
Lots of restaurant favorites and a good way to get your feet wet on things like tofu, seitan and tempeh.

Joy of Vegan Baking
Hands down the best vegan cookbook I've ever had.

I would recommend Baking Illustrated. They do an awesome job explaining why the recipe is as is it. They test and re-test to make sure that home bakers will have great results. That cookbook also provides a lot of "standard" recipes, like chocolate chips cookies, pie crust, banana bread, etc.

I think starting with cookies is a great place. You will get a feel for baking times depending on your oven, how room temperature butter and melted butter react differently, how the ratio between sugar and brown sugar changes the texture (more chewy? more crisp?). Regardless, don't be afraid, have fun, and you will find that you will never be short of taste-testers!

I suggest you guys buy the book "The Elements of Pizza" by Ken Forkish, and check out some of his recipes.

He explains the how and why for every recipe, and you get really delicious results. I was amazed at what I was able to make, being generally pretty terrible at baking.

I made my own sauce because I quite like that one. It's essentially a marinara sauce. I just used some good canned tomatoes, but I crushed them in a colander to get rid of some of the liquid, because I wanted a less runny marinara, to help ensure the pizza dough didn't get soggy.

I topped it with whatever I wanted that day. As I recall, I went with black olive, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella slices, grated parmeggiano reggiano, and I seem to recall some shallot sliced in thin rings.

One of the best pizzas I ever had, honestly.

>Vegans can't even easily pick a fucking box of cookies at a store.

Not true! Plus vegan baking is very popular; I recently checked out this highly-rated book from my local library and plan on buying it because the cookies are amaaaaazing. (And, methinks, easy to "spice up" with some herb... ;)

>And vegans need to take Vitamin B12 as a supplement.

Vegans definitely should take B12 supplements, but the scientific literature shows that omnivores should too! Check out this section of the Wikipedia article, with studies suggesting that about 39% of the sampled group was deficient in B12. Also note that the study concerning vegetarians and vegans which is cited was performed in 1982, before foods were commonly fortified with B12 and veg folks were not warned as often about deficiency. There are more recent studies showing deficiency rates in line with the omnivorous population's rates. :) Education truly helps all people be more healthy. The more you know!

Take a look at the following books which your local library may possibly have. All deal with whole grain breads and breads made using non-standard flours.

Tartine Book No.3: It's the Tartine round loaf in a million whole grain variations, while also including some interesting pan loaves.

Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: Recipes for pretty much every type of whole grain bread. Uses a lot of specialized ingredients, and complex multi-stage recipes, and contains a ton of information.

Peter Reinhart's Bread Revolution: Not familiar with this book but it looks neat, probably advanced if you're just learning about using alternative grains to white flour but still interesting.

Home Baked: Nordic Recipes and Techniques for Organic Bread and Pastry: This is a personal favorite book, and the vast majority of the recipes use whole grains. Everything I've made out of this has been excellent, although some recipes are lacking in how-to type details that might not be obvious to a novice baker.

A lot of the top line ones have covered the good ones so a few niche ones I’m digging right now:

Flour by Joanne Chang

Really great bakery in Boston opens up some of their best recipes (and there is a sequel if you dont love the recipe mix)

Eat What You Watch

Because /u/OliverBabish is the best and it’s an insanely fun book (a friend is currently doing a recipe/movie weekend every month)

You should try the recipe for brioche from this book! It takes two days total to make, but it is soooo delicious and absolutely worth it. He also includes a recipe for cinnamon rolls using this dough and they are easily the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. :)

Martha Stewart, Dorie Greenspan, and Rose Levy Berenbaum are my go-to's for classic recipes with none of the low fat/no sugar/no gluten stuff.

Any classic French basic pastry recipes like for pastry cream, choux, croissants, etc, are always going to be chock-full of butter and sugar and the good stuff, too. Check out Eugenie Kitchen on YouTube for some very easy, classic French recipes (by a very sweet Korean woman).

Here are my favorite baking cookbooks:

Rose Levy Berenbaum - The Baking Bible

Rose Levy Berenbaum - The Cake Bible

Dorie Greenspan - Baking: From My Home To Yours

Martha Stewart - Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Martha Stewart - Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

Smitten Kitchen is also great for desserts that are a bit fancier, but still classically rich/traditional ingredients.


I LOVE BAKING.

Don't forget the stuffing. Stuffing is the best thing about Thankgiving and it's easy to make vegan. This one is delicious and simple to veganize:

https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/11/kale-and-caramelized-onion-stuffing/

Looks like you got some other great suggestions. My whole Thanksgiving is vegan, other than a turkey for the in laws, and no one even guesses.

The Vegan Pie in the Sky book has some great pie recipes too. The cappuccino mousse pie is always a big hit.

How Baking Works by Paula Figoni really helps break how individual ingredients react to heat and to other ingredients in baking.

Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Formulas by Jeffrey Hamelman is the bible of bread baking. There are other bread books out there, and many of them are good, but if you only buy one this one should be it.

The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is a great home baker's guide to traditional baking, but almost every bakery I've worked in had a copy of this laying around. It's a great reference, and the fact that every recipe is broken down into weights makes it possible to convert many of her recipes into professional production, with tweaks.

Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller is a great supplemental baking book and worth checking out.

Find a good vegan cookbook. Heck, find three or four of them. I like the Veganomicon, which is a great general reference, but you can find one for everything, from pies to soul food to sandwiches.

Cookbooks will do two things for you. First, they'll provide a resource if you start to feel cravings for food you used to rely on: if you get desperate for burgers, or chicken parmesan, or mousakka, you'll find a great alternative that scratches that itch. Second, they'll provide an excellent resource to browse through and find recipes you'd never have thought of on your own. Expanding your palate is a surefire way to improve your diet.

honestly, I had to learn to make my own GF breads and doughs. This is a great book if not a bit complex - but the bread turns out the best from the recipes I've tried.

Incidentally, Buddha's Belly (there's one on Beverly) has a great GF menu if you ask your server for it.

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish was my gateway bread book. Pretty straight forward technique/recipes - good stuff.
Also:
/r/breadit or/and /r/breaddit are amazing.

Good luck!

Baking Illustrated has a lot of great recipes and cooking tips for baking! Not only that, they go into some of the history of each baked good (my fave is the Classic NY Cheesecake) and the chemistry behind how/why you do certain things while baking. I love this book, and use it often!

My latest NY Cheesecake

Link to cookbook on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1579654355?pc_redir=1396133599&robot_redir=1

A quick Google search also found a blog post with the recipe:
http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2013/01/traditional-croissants.html?m=1

This is a very time consuming recipe - it took me an entire day to make these. The time and patience is totally worth it, especially if you love croissants!

Side note, I did not use European butter nor did I use the diastatic malt powder and they still came out great!

Hope you guys try it!

Jim Lahey's book my bread is fantastic. He uses the basic no-knead recipe but tweaks it in fantastic ways. He also goes into some different styles (ciabatta, baguette, foccacia, etc.) and some great go-withs (like homemade aioli for sandwiches). Highly recommended to advance from where you're at right now.

My family is going to have a really financially tight Christmas this year, and I want to make everyone bread and lots of goodies. Especially my cousins, they are going through more rough stuff than they should have to. Last Thanksgiving their mom (who I am not directly related to) sent them to their dad's house, for what was supposed to be the weekend, but told them not to come back because she didn't want them anymore. How messed up is that?? Anyway, their dad has 2 prior convictions on his record and is having a hard time finding work, so the extended family has helped a lot keeping the boys clothed and fed and all that good stuff.

So, even though my money is tight, I want to make the boys holidays as awesome as possible, and one of the ways I can think of to do that is bake. So I would really like The Baking Bible.

I made Stellas chocolate chip cookies - the brown butter version and used toasted sugar. These might be the best cookies I've ever eaten. 😳

My fam loves these cookies and they were devoured the day that I baked them.

Recipe I used was from her book! I will keep recommending friends to buy this book because I've seen a lot of success with it.

buy her book!

Edit: added link to purchase book (and only just figured out how to hyperlink on mobile 😯)

I'm not a very big cookbook person, but I have a couple that I really like:

Cooking for Geeks

Baking: From My Home to Yours

With both, I like the way they address cooking/baking, as experimental, and encouraging people to make substitutions or try different things. The writing styles are very different, but they both seem to have that core value.

I first learned to make traditional bread that required kneading, but I don't bother with that anymore. Now I just follow Jim Lahey's no-knead method of using extra hydration and lots of time. That's the most significant technique recommendation that comes to mind.

Here's the basic workflow:

1. Mix flour, salt, yeast, and water in a bowl and cover it; let it sit for ~14 hours.
   
2. Shape it, cover it, and let it rise/"proof" for ~2 hours.
   
3. Preheat an empty Dutch oven inside an oven at around 450F.
   
4. Once the Dutch oven is piping hot, drop the bread dough inside and put the lid on to trap the moisture. Put the Dutch oven back in the oven and bake the loaf for ~40 minutes.
   
5. Take the lid off and bake until the top is acceptably dark, and then pull the loaf out and let it cool.
   
   From what I can tell, a crispy crust comes from baking the loaf at a very high temperature with moisture, like when you drop the dough into the hot Dutch oven and close it. When I drop the temperature, the crust is usually softer. I also proof my loaf in the Dutch oven so I don't lose volume in transit and I get a taller loaf, and I just stick the Dutch oven in the cold oven and let them heat up together. I'm not sure what effect that has on the crust crispiness, though; I bake mine at ~375F because I want a softer crust.
   
   I'd recommend starting with 25% whole wheat flour. In my experience, anything beyond 25% yields a noticeably denser bread, which isn't bad, but it's worth starting lighter so you can learn the difference. At 50%, I'd recommend adding vital wheat gluten to add some volume, but that's personal preference.
   
   If you're looking for a basic recipe, try this:
   300g white flour
   100g whole wheat flour
   8g salt
   1g yeast
   300g lukewarm water
   
   Follow the numbered directions above and see how it goes. Also, if you don't have a Dutch oven, any oven-safe covered vessel will work. I've used regular steel pots before. In a pinch, a plain baking sheet will work.

http://www.amazon.com/The-French-Pastry-Jacquy-Pfeiffer/dp/030795935X
This by far. He is the co-owner of arguably the best pastry school in the USA and has had his family and friends test these recipes in their own kitchens to make sure they are easy to follow and yield excellent results.

"Crack" pie is pretty good. It's kind of like a pecan pie without nuts, so a custardy sweet filling.

I'd also recommend the book "Pie" , which my friends and I have taken to calling the Pieble. It's quite the tome and has a bunch of good recipes.

Here are some vegan baking tips from Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Pink Kitchen: Vegan baking 101 from PPK.

Another good vegan baking primer from the Kitchn.

I'd say Isa and her co-author Terry Hope Romero are the authorities on vegan baking. Check out their baking cookbooks on cupcakes, cookies, and pies.

For a 1-volume comprehensive vegan baking cookbook and traditional recipes, check out Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking.

For a vegan baking cookbook with unique and creative flavors, try the Cheers to Vegan Sweets cookbook.

Hope this helped! Happy baking!

My own search ended with Shirley Corriher's Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake recipe from BakeWize: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking. The only thing I've changed from her original recipe is an increase in oil.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

2 1/3 cups sugar (463g)
3/4 tsp salt (5.4g)
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder (69g) 
1 tsp baking soda (5g)
1 cup water
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (218g)
4 large egg yolks (74g)
2 large eggs (99g)
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place baking stone in center of oven if you have one.
   
2. Generously spray cake pan(s). Line the bottom of the pan(s) with parchment paper that has been cut to size. Spray top of parchment paper.
   
3. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the sugar, salt, cocoa, and baking soda. In another pan, heat water to boiling. Stirring constantly, pour boiling water a little at a time into cocoa mixture, mixing well. Place on heat and bring back to a boil. Turn off heat and allow to stand in pan for at least 10 minutes.
   
4. Pour cocoa mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the oil and vanilla and beat on low for 10 seconds. On low speed, beat in the flour and then, with minimum of beating, beat in the yolks, eggs, and buttermilk.
    5. Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Place in oven on the stone and bake until the center feels springy to the touch, about 25 minutes for round layers or 35 minutes for a 9x13 sheet cake. (I use an instant read thermometer and call it done when the temp reaches 206F) Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a rack. Run a thin knife around the edge and jar the edge of the pan to loosen. Invert onto the serving platter. Cool completely before icing.

I would suggest reading more about the science of baking - this book is helpful and I got it out of my library.

So you can read about the science behind baking in there. But I've found that the best way I've learned is by following recipes from cookbooks/reputable websites and then slowly learning to tweak those recipes to my liking, and then completely creating my own recipes. Don't just jump in and start throwing random things into a bowl, because while you may get lucky once or twice, you don't want to get burnt out on failing.

I'm a big cake/cupcakes/pie/cookies type of gal - so if that's the sort of baking you're interested in, I would look at these cookbooks:

• Vegan Pie in the Sky
  
• Miette
  
• Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
  
  
  PS: Bread is tricky. I have barely gotten into the "follow the recipe" stage. So if you're asking about bread, don't follow the above advice. Because I know shit about bread. From what I can tell, the science is imperative and...I know none of it.
  
  Good luck! Keep us updated!

Years ago, I bought a used Breadman bread maker off Craigslist for $10. It's an old model, but I think it's fantastic. I just recently bought used from Amazon The Bread Machine Cookbook. Also fantastic.

My News Year's resolution was to cook every recipe in this book and it's been a delicious new treat every week. The recipes also switch up on types of fat and egg replacers, so I'm finally learning how to expand on vegan baking without feeling intimidated.

It's been a very fun mad scientist journey. Enjoy!

I don't know any recipes off the top of my head but this cookbook was written by Chef Coppedge at the Culinary Institute of America, he specializes in Gluten free cooking. He's also hilarious, lanky over 6ft and can do the splits like they're nothing.

I used the recipe in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook by Thomas Keller - best of luck, happy baking!!

Bouchon Bakery

Heh, Artisan Bread Steve! Best old bread making dude in the business. /u/icyblack introduced me to that recipe! I make that no-knead bread all the time. I also make the Serious Eats pizza dough. I've made both over 20 times each.

Not to get too technical about it, but they are different recipes. The hydration is different and the pizza dough uses oil.

Pizza dough requires more time for gluten production and TBH, flavor production.

If you use the bread process (which is SUPER short for any risen dough) you will get dough that will not be spreadable to fill the pan, it will lack gluten production. It will also lack flavor. The pizza dough needs at least 8 hours. I think the 24 hour dough is even better.

TLDR: No, you can't. You need the 8-24 hours for pizza dough. Sorry.

Also, someone else mentioned /r/Breadit which is an excellent resource.

If you want a real technical explanation of gluten production and baker's percentages, read Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.

You the guy who bought the bench from amazon the other day? Nice croissants by the way. May I suggest you try and find Rose Levy Bernbaum https://www.amazon.com/Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/e/B000APEDSA/ref=ntt_aut_sim_6_2/163-1711285-2211169 and Flour cookbooks by Joann Chung https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Spectacular-Recipes-Bostons-Bakery/dp/081186944X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474851190&sr=8-1&keywords=flour+cook+book and try Gaston Lenotre as well for classic french style https://www.amazon.com/Gaston-Len%C3%B4tre/e/B001K7WQWW. I'm not advocating amazon by any means but while you may have heard of Rose you might not have of Gaston. I have a few of his books and when I was running my own kitchen I was happy to get his company's stuff flown in frozen and baked off fresh. I watch this for inspiration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q89O0x4Mlm8&index=31&list=PLaFS8pB0obRCsHQ2voyS0wf5WV5xFCRAH

America’s Test Kitchen creates some amazing cooks books. Check our the first gluten free one https://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Revolutionary-Groundbreaking-ebook/dp/B00IPPIETG. They also have a second volume for next years gift

r/vegan and r/veganbaking may be able to help you with this. Vegans don't eat eggs (among other things) and we have to get really good at replacing eggs with other things.

First off: cook as much as you can from scratch; this way you know exactly what is going into your son's tummy.

Secondly, here is a list of things that you can use to replace an egg:

• 1 mashed banana
  
  
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
  
  
• 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water - mix and let sit for five minutes
  
  
• 1/4 cup silken tofu - soft tofu also works
  
  
• EnerG Egg Replacer - this stuff is a little more expensive (about $7 a box, but it lasts forever). I don't use it for everything, but there are some recipes that will only work with EnerG.
  
  
  This is an excellent cookbook. If you don't want to use vegan margarine and soy milk, I'm sure that butter and cow milk would work too.

I love this one!

The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets https://www.amazon.com/dp/1592332803/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_whyjxbMB5V038

And the PPK book is supposedly super rad.

sorry, switched to laptop now so here's the page link without Pinterest

https://www.frugallivingnw.com/amazing-no-knead-bread-step-by-step-recipe/

Basic No-Knead Bread

Slightly adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread

Ingredients

6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 c. cool water

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
   
2. Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
   
3. Place a full sheet/large rectangle of parchment paper on a cotton towel and dust it with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the parchment paper as it rises; place dough seam side down on the parchment paper and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Pull the corners of parchment paper around the loaf, wrapping it completely. Do the same with the towel. Let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
   
4. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Unwrap the towel and parchment paper from around the dough and slide your hand under the bottom of the dough ball; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Pull the parchment paper off, scraping any stuck dough into the pan. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
   
5. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
   
6. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Anything written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is fantastic, the Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance are already mentioned. Here are her two dessert books as well.

• Vegan Cupcakes Take over the world
  
  
• Vegan Cookies invade your cookie jar
  
  Also, you can buy egg replacer, which is often just tapioca flour, for using in any waffle, pancake, french toast or baked recipe.
  
  Soy Milk can be used in place of cow milk almost 100% of the time, only if whipping the milk does it not work.
  
  Margarine sticks can be used in place of butter in every recipe I've ever seen, I don't want to say its infallible, but the dishes have at least turned out fine, if not identical.
  
  One of my favorite meals, and my own recipe:
  
  
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  
• take a block of very firm tofu, cut it lengthwise, then cut the lengths into 1/8" slices. Brush with your favorite cooking sauce. I'm a fan of Hoison, but sweet chili, plum sauce, ponzu or even just soy sauce can do.
  
• Bake for 5 minutes, then pull it out, flip the slices, brush the othersides with sauce
  
• repeat flipping and brushing with sauce if needed until both sides get 2 rounds
  
• Broil for 5 minutes to crisp everything up, though not really necessary.
  
• Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed greens

These flours should certainly be considered. Regardless, they are rather esoteric. Bean, nut, and grain flours are more commonly available, or have the potential to be made in a home kitchen. My favorite reference for gluten free baking is "Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America". I say this not only because I am a CIA alumni. It explains how to make your own gluten free flours (I'm sorry to inform you that there isn't one universal replacement) and has a variety of common baked goods converted to use these flours.

From Isa Chandra's cookie cookbook, recipe also found here.


For the topping:

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


For the cookies:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cayenne


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.


Comments:

I couldn't find chocolate extract, so I used extra vanilla, they were still very chocolaty. I baked them for 10 min, they do spread a lot (mine all ran into each other). The end result was crispy on the outside and fudgey in the middle, with the heat from the cayenne coming in at the end. They were really good! My only suggestion is: depending on how you feel about cayenne, you might want to cut it in half.

I love my bread machine. I don't even like to eat bread that I didn't make anymore (unless from a legit bakery).

This cookbook has been so fun to go through! And informative for the bread making newbies - The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker's 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread-From Every Kind of Machine https://www.amazon.com/dp/155832156X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fb0SCbS9Z29T2

I used the "fancy chocolate chess pie" recipe from Ken Haedrich's "Pie", which I love.

Someone else has already transcribed and published the recipe: https://pieadaygiveaway.com/tag/chocolate-chess-pie/

Good luck!

I have this cookie book and the recipes are so good that when I make them for people, they can't tell there's anything different about them. And here is someone's blog with my favourite recipe in the book. My friends like these cookies so much they call then "crack cookies".

Don't forget to roast the almonds before chopping them up. It makes a huge difference in taste and texture. Also, you may want to omit the almond extract and use all vanilla. Some people think it tastes funny.

Stella Parks new book for pastry. I haven't read it but if it anything like her serious eats articles it will be what you are looking for. For that matter, Kenji's "The Food Lab" is an excellent resource for savory food. It puts the why and how right out front.

The FAQ on the side bar has a ton of suggestions. Some may be from older posts but worth checking out.

Yes, I believe you should knead it more.

The main purpose of kneading a bread dough is to develop the gluten which works like a web to trap the gas bubbles that the yeast produce to give it a rise. If you don't knead enough, there will not be enough gluten to trap the gas bubbles and it won't rise properly. Make sure your dough passes the windowpane test (image) before you are done kneading. It is unlikely that you will over-knead a bread dough.

High protein content in your dough is very important for making bread. If you are able to determine that, you should be able to figure out if you need to add any vital wheat gluten to your dough.

Also, you say you are using whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour contains bran which is sharp and actually cuts the gluten, making it more difficult to make whole wheat bread than white bread. Peter Reinhart has a book that I would highly recommend if you are interested in making whole grain breads.

Good luck!

I moved to a new apartment a couple of weeks ago and still haven't finished unpacking the kitchen. Nevertheless, the hazelnut (gluten-free) variation* of Glossy Fudge Brownies from Stella Parks' BraveTart was a wonderful way to christen the oven.

I've made the original version in the past. Both are the best brownies I've ever had.

My coworkers could not stop raving about how moist and decadent they are.

​

*"Replace the all-purpose flour with 7 ounces (1 3/4 cups) hazelnut flour or an equal weight of toasted, skinned hazelnuts pulsed with the cocoa in a food processor until powdery and fine, about 1 minute."

If you haven't checked it out yet, America's Test Kitchen's GF cookbook is just amazing. My mom can't have gluten either (or dairy), and the gastroenterologist recommended this book. Their recipe for a GF flour is a perfect (imo) substitute for all-purpose flour for like, everything. :)

I'm a big fan of the recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They taste like classic Tollhouse cookies - definitely a good recipe to do the "surprise, it's vegan!" thing with.

Here's a link to the recipe.

I typically use Earth Balance original spread to replace butter in recipes; for eggs, it depends. You can use oil, flax seed, Ener-G egg replacer, soy yogurt, etc. I really like the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar cookbook for making cookies. The recipes are great, and it goes into all of the different substitutes for non-vegan ingredients!

The Joy of Vegan Baking is pretty comprehensive

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone one of my earliest veg cookbooks and i still use it often as a vegan
  
• Passionate Vegetarian this is one of those cookbooks that's enjoyable to read.
  
• The Joy of Vegan Baking for baking, i've never been disappointed with any of these recipes

for starters, you can take any crust recipe and substitute 1/3 of the white flour with whole wheat and be pretty confident that all will be well. beyond that and you need some new technology, such as adding gluten or peter reinhardt's epoxy process (http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Reinharts-Whole-Grain-Breads/dp/1580087590).

I make all my own bread. Organic WW bread here costs $5/loaf. I buy 25 kg (55 lb) of local organic WW flour for $32. The recipe I use (from this ) makes 1 loaf/lb (though I make smaller loaves, 4 per 3 lbs), so about 60 cents/loaf for flour. The recipe also calls for ~75 cents more worth of ingredients (milk, oil, sugar, yeast). All told, it's under $1.50/loaf. I make 4 at a time, and freeze 3 to eat during the week.

However, even if quality store-bought bread was a similar price, I would still make my own, because it's fresh and tastes fantastic.

If you're more of an academic learner, I'd definitely suggest How Baking Works in addition to the above books. I have it and love it. It breaks down baking fundamentals by chapter and there are practical exercises and review questions at the end of every chapter.

The Pie and Pastry Bible is good. "Pie" is good as well and has less complex (but still great) recipes.

This is considered a classic cookbook:
http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1450780613&sr=8-4&keywords=vegan+cookbook

The definitive vegan cookies cookbook:
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cookies-Invade-Your-Cookie/dp/160094048X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1450780650&sr=8-6&keywords=vegan+baking

I really can't think of cooking or baking equipment that vegans in particular would need (?) more than an omni kitchen would. Maybe a vegan themed cooking or baking something? I'm sure a set of spices would be very appreciated.

Yes, the no knead bread recipes calls for the bread to be covered for the first half hour of baking. Baking in a pot or dutch oven this way mimics a commercial steam oven. The higher humidity inside the pot is what allows this bread to bake so nicely in your home oven. I imagine that the bread would be quite dry if you didn't bake it in a pot. Here is an excellent, inexpensive dutch oven that would be perfect for the no-knead recipe. If you are seriously interested in this also have a look at this article and this recipe. And this Book is fantastic, but not necessary to get started.

It depend on the pie wether or not I blind bake. The sugar only goes on the rim and top crust.
If I blind bake I usually brush with egg white to not allow the filling to seep into the crust and make it mushy.
If you want the best resource for pie baking I would totally recommend this book
pie by Ken Haedrich

Someone asked about this a few months ago, and I seem to remember that the answer was no, none of the actual culinary schools officially offered GF programs; however, I might try The Culinary Institue of America. They have a GF cookbook on Amazon, so they might be open to tailoring a program to someone who is gluten free. It's worth looking into!

Also, have you thought about skipping cooking school entirely and trying to get a job at a gluten free-friendly restaurant in your town? A lot of great chefs never went to school, but just got started cooking in kitchens. If you could find someone near you who did GF cuisine, it might be worth seeing if they would hire you on. Just a thought!

Try r/breadit for your bread baking questions.

It's not clear what you are trying to short-cut in doing this - if you want to salvage a sourdough culture, then most store bought bread won't work because it's made using yeast only. Much of the quality in breadmaking is in the process for making it - mixing, kneading, proofing, shaping, baking. Excellent quality breads can come from simple flours, water, and salt because the baker's technique is good.

I talked about this method in another thread. My Bread by Jim Lahey

it's full of easy, hard to screw up, and great tasting bread recipes.

Try Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From my home to yours"
It's a real gem (:
her recipes are almost foolproof!

Pretty sure Bouchon Bakery has a croissant recipe too, it's a great book. I feel like I should make croissants from scratch sometime just to say I have, but I really don't want to..

The dye is powdered food colour, liquid food colouring doesn't give the same results (too diluted).

The frosting is a simple buttercream recipe also found in The joy of Vegan Baking It's made with non dairy butter (or non dairy margarine, as there is no butter substitute here in France), vanilla extract, icing sugar and a tiny bit of non dairy milk.

I was skeptical to try it, but I was asked to make it for a childs birhtday party and took the plunge. You can use any white cake recipe with the food colour (which you can buy on amazon too)

check out this book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160774838X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can make pizza that IMO tastes better than what they serve at the locally owned wood fire pizza shop in my town

Ken Forkish revolutionized home bread baking with FWSY, now he's taken on pizza, a man after my own heart

It's actually a pretty solid read.
http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Revolutionary-Groundbreaking-ebook/dp/B00IPPIETG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395337779&sr=8-1&keywords=test+kitchen+gluten+free

Amazon lets you read the first few pages. Give it a shot.

I've used more recipes out of Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic than any other cookbook, and I worked at a bookstore for years, so I know about going through cookbooks!

Thanks!, its the glorious Flour Water Salt Yeast book by Ken Forkish: https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B007SGLZH6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523906966&sr=8-1&keywords=FSWY

I'll try to remember to dig it up when I get home, but I'm going to a concert tonight and liable to forget, so PM me tomorrow if I don't get it to you by then.

It was the first ice cream we've ever made and it comes from a cookbook written by the owner of our local bakery cafe: Joanne Chang - Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe

I did some research about how to get the best ice cream consistency out of a home ice cream maker (we have the KitchenAid attachment), so I used a lot of the process suggestions from Cook's Illustrated.

A really good I would recommend in the book How Baking Works. It gives you the explanation you need without feeling like a textbook. I have an AOS degree in baking and I had this as one of my school books. It's not too expensive either. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470392673

If you liked FWSY and you like pizza, you need Ken's second book, The Elements of Pizza:

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Pizza-Unlocking-Secrets-World-Class/dp/160774838X

I recently started with Bakers Illustrated. They go into a lot of detail on how and why to do stuff. Buy it used for under $20.

Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic https://www.amazon.com/dp/0936184752/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_J4y4BbC0F13S5

http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Home-Yours-Dorie-Greenspan/dp/0618443363

Note, many of the recipes on the Great British Bake-Off are very British. They won't be in a standard baking book not from Britain.

Look at Bakewise by Shirley O. Corriher. She explains the science and math to her recipes, and then gives options on how to modify them. Its a great way to learn baking science, and to learn how to construct your own recipes.

This book is great: http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Lovers-Machine-Cookbook-Perfect-Every-Time/dp/155832156X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343517142&sr=8-1&keywords=bread+machine+book

To: Wyman Manderly

From: Secret Santa

Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie

I recently bought myself this and have been enjoying it! But it's more like... why you need to do the things you do than recipes for beginners.

Yes, definitely mass. You can get even more than from your cast iron buy placing a sheet pan at the bottom with bricks (as mentioned above) or, as in Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, rocks and chains on it. Not that you may want to do this, but they also use a stream machine (water gun) to shoot water onto the preheated tray (at a safe distance) in order to get a ton of steam in the oven right at the start of bread baking.

I couldn't find the recipe on Ken Headrich's site, but it looks like it's from his book Pie. Here is the filling recipe from a blog I found!

Thanks! Pulled it from a French pastry book - https://www.amazon.com/Art-French-Pastry-Jacquy-Pfeiffer/dp/030795935X

Still learning how to “prettify” things though!

I have it too, it's called Gluten Free Baking with the Culinary Institute of America

You might want to check out Jim Lahey's book, if you haven't already. He suggests using a much smaller quantity of yeast, and a longer room temperature rise of 10-12 hours. No kneading, just a few folds, rest for an hour and bake. I've had great results with this method for years. The book is here: https://www.amazon.ca/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-work-No-knead/dp/0393066304

You should get Ken Forkish's (the author of FWSY) book about pizza. Just as good!

The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774838X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_8gqUCbP2BHMRJ

Bakewise is awesome, the author is a chemist and really delves into the science behind ingredients, techniques, etc.

From amazon: "It's not surprising that James Beard Award-winner Corriher (CookWise) once worked as a chemist. Her no-nonsense approach to cakes, muffins, breads and cookies shows her deep knowledge and understanding that baking is, above all things, a science. This hefty collection of more than 200 recipes offers amateur and expert bakers alike clear, numbered steps and a plethora of information on ingredients, equipment and method. Invaluable troubleshooting sections solve pesky problems on everything from pale and crumbly cookies to fallen soufflés."

Dave's killer bread, the power seed one in particular. Really good stuff.

You could also make your own. Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor had some really good formulas. You can find some of the formulas on various blogs as well.

With these baking skills you going to be staying a girlfriend. May i recommend? https://www.amazon.com/Baking-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/1118338618/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=baking+book&qid=1570313851&sr=8-1

Buy this book. You're welcome.

How Baking Works is a good one.

This is a good book about the science of baking

https://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673


And this infographic explains things if you are more of a visual person http://imgur.com/FE4N4iT

Baranbaum is always a good resource and this is literally a Baking Bible.

The Baking Bible

Check out Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads

I'm working through it right now and it's all about getting a good, flavorful whole grain bread. This guy wrote some of the bibles of modern bread baking.

I used the recipe from Flour Cookbook, which is a collection of recipes from Joanne Chang's Flour Bakery in Boston. I also recently attended her croissant making class, so I got to see the laminating technique first-hand which was very helpful. Unfortunately, I can't find the recipe online (probably because it's like five pages long).

I quite liked Bakewise by Shirley O'Corriher. She goes into how ingredients will affect the finished product, how to spot cake recipes that won't turn out well (and how to fix them), and why technique matters.

It's a popular book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SGLZH6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

> http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785
This is looks like what I am looking for. Off to see if they have it at the library.

Agreed. If you must only own one, go for Bread Baker's Apprentice. If you want an intro to whole-grain baking (the reason I started making my own bread a few years ago), go for Reinhart's other book Whole Grain Breads.

For those reading this, you actually want his second book, The Elements of Pizza. In this one he talks about how he went to talk to the best pizza makers (Naples, etc) and realized he was wrong, because he had been treating pizza dough the same as bread dough.

I am not sure of what you already have or what you would need, I am listing a few things on top of my head:

• Crock pot
  
• Cast iron skillet
  
• Dutch oven
  
• Victorinox chef knife
  
• Microplane zester
  
• Bread maker machine
  
• Mandoline
  
• Mortar and pestle
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza
  
• Tartine bread
  
• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
  
• Espresso maker
  
• Cookie Sheet and cooling racks
  
• Meat Thermometer

You won't find a website/blog like that because the KitchenAid is too widely-used of an instrument to be the focus of a decent blog. It's like starting a blog based around ovens and everything that you can do with ovens -- just too broad.

My suggestion would be to try to cook your way through a baker's cookbook, such as Baking Illustrated, or google "baking blogs". There are a ton of those, and bakers use KitchenAids very heavily.

Just a some that likes cooking alot here. Maybe pick one of these bad boys up and start playing.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355

http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-2&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-3&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-4&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Pressure-Cooking-Sous-Vide/dp/1579653510/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-6&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-9&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373678139&sr=8-1&keywords=ratio

If you're looking for variety in your bread machine baking I recommend

The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/155832156X

Tons of interesting recipes and I don't recall any that didn't come out as intended.

At some point I got bored with the bread machine because of its limitations but I'll still use some of the variations from this cookbook when I bake sourdough now.

Any of the Thomas Keller books, French Laundry, Ad Hoc at Home, Bouchon, and Bouchon Bakery. The only one you'd probably want to avoid is Under Pressure.

Also, Heston at Home and In Search of Perfection are great books.

If you're into southern food, check out Sean Brock's Heritage and Ed Lee's Smoke & Pickles.

Finally, I'd suggest Modernist Cuisine at Home if you're up for splurging.

May I suggest a few books then?

The Big Book of Bread has 365 bread recipes.

My Bread by Jim Lahey, which is current favorite technique.

I highly recommend bread-making as a hobby; but I am quickly learning that I have to match that with regular exercise :-/

Recipe was from Ken Forkish’s Elements of Pizza and the “I slept in but I want pizza tonight dough”


Makes 3-5 pizzas
Water 350g at 100f
Salt 10 g
Instant dried yeast 0.5 g
Flour (00 if possible) 500 g

Hydrate yeast in salt water mixture.
Mix in flour and wait 20 mins. Knead and place dough ball in oiled container. Wait 1.5 hrs
Divide and shape, place on floured pan for rise. Wait 4-6 hrs. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Pull it out an hour before cooking.

I'll have toDM it cause it's out if a book :)

Edit to say: I lied, I can't attach a word document in a reddit DM. You can either DM me your email address and I'll send it OR purchase this book https://www.amazon.com/Art-French-Pastry-Jacquy-Pfeiffer/dp/030795935X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jacquy+pfeiffer&qid=1557018828&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Not Julia Childs but this is a great book

https://www.amazon.com/Art-French-Pastry-Jacquy-Pfeiffer/dp/030795935X

https://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473095030&sr=8-1&keywords=the+science+of+baking

How Baking Works - this book is basically a textbook and it will take you through everything you need to know. It even includes experiments you can do to really explore how different ratios, temperatures, ingredients, etc. can impact your baking.

Can't say it enough- Cook's Illustrated guide to baking called Baking Illustrated. A hefty tome that is part science book, part recipe folio and part how-to. It is a must!

https://www.amazon.com/Baking-Illustrated-Best-Recipe-Classic/dp/0936184752

Bakewise
http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785

https://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785/ref=cm_rdp_product

I've decided on this book.

Beth Hensperger's Bread Machine Cookbook

The only dessert book you'll ever need.

Edit: Well maybe this one too.

Also, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has some no-bakes. Plus I've used random recipes from vegweb.com for no-bake stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cookies-Invade-Your-Cookie/dp/160094048X

I got the Elements of Pizza by Forkish for Christmas and its taken my pizzas to the next level. He keeps referencing Salt, Water, Flour, Yeast and it might be time to up my bread game.

Its a book, also
https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B007SGLZH6

direct link, just in case

Does she have this book? http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B007SGLZH6

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SGLZH6

You think Pinterest stuff is hard https://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller-Library/dp/1579654355

Outro detalhe engraçado é que "pão de campanha" é uma tradução muito metida a besta de "pain de campagne". "Campagne" em francês significa "do campo", no sentido de "do interior" ou "do meio rural". A tradução correta em português seria pão de camponês ou pão rústico.

Se for feito do jeito certo é um pão que tem uma fermentação mais demorada que o pão normal e usa fermentos selvagens e é exposto ao ar para pegar mofos e bactérias, intencionalmente. Conforme os mofos e fermentos usados ele tem um gosto diferente, em geral mais fermentado e com uma textura mais dura que o pão normal. Em inglês é chamado de Sourdough.

Mas chamar de pão rústico iria pegar mal quando você cobra R$ 24.00 por ele.


Edit: Existe gente que leva pão muito a sério:

• tem umas 3 sub-reddits obcecadas com padaria amadora: /r/breadit, /r/ArtisanBread, /r/Sourdough
  
• tem site que vende fermentos das mais variadas culturas milenares do Oriente Médio (com fermentos bíblicos, para fazer o famoso pão ázimo) até o Leste Europeu
  
• tem sites, livros e filmes ensinando a fazer forno de pedra e barro, para assar como se fazia nos tempos antigos
  
• a receita que revolucionou o "movimento" dos padeiros amadores é de um americano de Nova York, Jim Lahey. Ele criou uma receita que faz um pão excelente com quase nenhum esforço, nem sequer precisa amassar a massa. O livro do cara é um best seller.

Ok, I may be violating the theme here, but my favorite cookbook isn't vegan - it's Jack Bishop's "Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen." It's not exclusively vegan, but contains many vegan recipes or recipes that can be easily made vegan. Ingredient lists are short, no faux meat (includes tofu and tempeh, though I don't consider those faux meat), mostly very quick, filling, cheap, and damn good. I'm completely vegan and find more recipes in this book than most exclusively vegan books.

I own lots of vegan cookbooks, but too many rely on whisking nutritional yeast with arrowroot powder to make cheese and other chemistry experiments trying to approximate omnivorous cooking.

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "Joy of Vegan Baking" kicks ass too.

recently bought this book: The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Pizza-Unlocking-Secrets-World-Class/dp/160774838X/ref=asc_df_160774838X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=247543540793&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17729693536674990723&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032144&hvtargid=aud-466346205544:pla-433791154243&psc=1

. the author goes over the history of pizza and various recipes. deep dish is in his book

. from Wiki: The bottom of the pizza, called the 'crust', may vary widely according to style; thin as in a typical hand-tossed Neapolitan pizza, or thick as in a deep-dish Chicago-style.

• if you want to get technical then Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana that aims to protect the integrity of “true Neapolitan pizza” that published an 11-page manuscript full of regulations a pizza must fulfill in order to earn their “true Neapolitan pizza” badge of honor. And, in Ward’s words, they’re real tight-asses about it, from defining acceptable dough pH ranges to requiring that your pizza spatula is made from steel, with a wood handle made of either beech or acacia wood. Oak or maple spatula handles simply will not do
  
  
• “The minimum threshold of ‘pizza’ is ‘crust, tomato, salt, and oil,’ and the maximum is ‘that, but with one kind of cheese and some garlic.’ No oven-cooked pizza. No meat pizza. No cow's cheese. Cheese wasn't even an ingredient in pizza until 1889, around 20 years before the first American pizzeria cropped up.
  
  
• based on a strict standard then all American pizza is not pizza
  
  
• We are Americans - so if you put sauce and cheese on it, then its pizza. if you take an english muffin and put pizza sauce and cheese on it, its pizza

You should buy this cookbook and start making your own!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155832254X?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

I've made probably 15-20 different pies out of it, and haven't found a bad one yet. You'd have to convert all the measurements, though :/

It's Jim Lahey's No Knead. He wrote a book about it: http://www.amazon.com/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-Work-No-Knead/dp/0393066304


Here is the original recipe, along with a step by step demo by a food blogger.

https://www.amazon.ca/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B007SGLZH6

4 ingredients, no bread machine.

With a no-knead recipe it could be that your loaf is rising but then collapsing in the oven.

Is your dough rising properly during the bulk fermentation phase?

Have you ever tried one of Ken Forkish's recipes? https://www.amazon.ca/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B007SGLZH6

1. I cut out meat first because I was a vegetarian for a while, then the most expensive stuff (cheese and other dairy) except butter, then last was eggs and butter when I realized that you can bake without eggs and butter.
   
   
2. For a while I tracked everything in Excel but it was a pain in the ass and I realized I mostly have it all in my head anyways.
   
   
3. All over, but good places to start are Bryant Terry's books,, Alternative Vegan, Decolonize Your Diet, The Lotus and the Artichoke books, Mango and Mint, and for deserts, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and Vegan Pie in the Sky.