The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients
Starred Review.Bloom, the author of eight cookbooks whose work has appeared inBon Appetit,GourmetandFood +  Wine, adopts an unusual approach in this exhaustive and tantalizing  look at baking. Instead of categorizing recipes by food type, she organizes  them by primary ingredient—a useful approach for the baker with a craving or  surplus of one ingredient. Sections include fruits and vegetables; nuts and  seeds; chocolate; dairy products; spices and herbs; and coffee, tea, liqueurs  and spirits. The recipes themselves are uniquely formatted in a table layout  that lists the ingredients across from their steps to help with organization.  Bloom includes a list of equipment needed for the dish along with instructions  on storage, streamlining, altering the recipe and recovering from mishaps. The  collection covers the gamut with 225 recipes, including such delectable gems as  Pear and Walnut Layer Cake with Maple–Cream Cheese Icing; Coconut Biscotti;  and Cranberry Nut Tea Loaf. Other highlights range from Chocolate Chip Cookies  and Macadamia Nut Blondies to Malted Milk Chocolate Cheesecake and Carrot Cake  with Cream Cheese Frosting. Bloom also provides valuable instruction in  sections on essential ingredients, equipment and supplies, and techniques. 32  full-color photos.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.