I Love Desserts: Baking Unplugged

the appetizer:

Learn classic but simple baking techniques with Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees, including recipes for Pie Pastry; Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Milk and Rum; Buttery Jam-Filled Linzer Thins; and Caramel Turtle Bars.

I Love Desserts

Baking Unplugged

by Nicole Rees

Click to Buy Baking Unplugged

In her new book, Baking Unplugged, Nicole Rees, a former pastry chef and recipe developer with a self-proclaimed sweet tooth and baked goods obsession, shows that with a good grasp of basic proportions and some simple techniques anyone can become a great baker.

If you're tired of difficult baking recipes that call for expensive equipment, complicated techniques, and hard-to-find ingredients, then this is the cookbook for you. Baking Unplugged comes to the rescue with a collection of 114 simple, back-to-basics recipes for everything from muffins and breakfast pastries to cookies, pies, cakes, and puddings. These are baked goods just like grandma used to make, made from scratch without all the fuss. Rees offers a primer on ingredients, and instructs readers how to set up an "Unplugged Kitchen" with minimal equipment—with items like sturdy measuring cups and spoons, balloon whisks, and inexpensive stainless steel mixing bowls. She also mentions a few extras—items that, while not essential, can make a big difference with little effort and expense.

Sprinkled throughout are Rees's own tips and tricks for baking success—for instance, because scones and biscuits tend to brown faster on the bottom, be sure to bake them in the top third of the oven where the heat rises and hovers.

Recipe chapters include Treats for the First Half of the Day; Cookies and Bars; Cakes; Fruit Pies, Fruit Tart, and More; and Creamy Desserts. Among the delicious recipes included are:

Morning favorites like Blueberry Muffins, Southern-Style Pull-Apart Biscuits and Caramel-Pecan Sticky Buns will give everyone an excuse to wake up early.
Easy-to-make drop cookies like Chocolate Fudge Cookies, Espresso Gingerbread Cutouts and Caramel Turtle Bars.
Rewarding cakes like Moist Vanilla Pound Cake (including five variations!) and Golden Birthday Cake with Fudge Frosting.
Home-style fruit pies and tarts like Peach Pie and Fresh Berry Tart plus a fool-proof pie pastry recipe that can be used again and again.
Elegant creamy desserts like Classic Tiramisu and Chocolate-Banana Cream Tart provide stunning results with less effort than you'd think.

No matter what your level of baking experience is, Baking Unplugged will help simplify and improve the baking process—and provide soul-satisfying results that every sweet-tooth will enjoy!

About the Author

After training in New York as a pastry chef, Nicole Rees got her start in food publishing as an editorial assistant for Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines. Since then, she has worked as a freelance recipe developer, the Test Kitchen Director of Woman's World magazine, and an Associate Food Editor for First for Women, and has written a newsletter and a weekly baking blog on the Better Homes & Gardens website, BHG.com. In 2002, Rees completely revised and updated two of Wiley's technical baking books (Baker's Manual and Understanding Baking by Joseph Amendola), which are still widely used in culinary schools and universities. Rees continues to write and develop recipes for publications including Fine Cooking and Portland's Oregonian, and works as a research baker, serving on the Milling and Baking advisory board for the American Association of Cereal Chemistry and developing products and overseeing Research & Development for an ingredient company.