Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours by Sarabeth Levine

Whenever New Yorkers recommend brunch places, they always suggest Sarabeth, located in the Whitney Museum on the Upper East Side, Central Park South and Chelsea Market, so I thought that she would be a good resource for a baking book, so I picked up Sarabeth's Bakery:From My Hands to Yours.  When Sarabeth rediscovered a  French great aunt's orange-apricot marmalade recipe,she made a big batch as holiday gifts for friends. Then she served it in a restaurant her boyfriend was working on and she tried to keep up with orders from an apartment kitchen.  When she found a location in Manhattan's Upper West Side, she knew she had to offer more than marmalades so she opened the first bakery which she stocked with baked goods using family recipes, especially those from her mother in law.

I was delighted to find out that in this book, Sarabeth didn't skimp on helpful and necessary advice to the clueless baker, like me.  Tips that my be taken for granted by other cookbooks are emphasized here.  She says, "The home baker will find, just as we have at Sarabeth's that there can be no compromises when it comes to quality. It is often said that great food starts with fine ingredients, and obvious statement if there ever was one. However, it is equally important to have excellent equipment and utensils." I often do not want to bother to run to the mall to buy unsalted butter for a recipe, but she points out that, " Salt will bring out the flavor in baked goods, but too much is a disaster. But the main reason is that unsalted butter is fresher than salted because salt preserves the butter and prolongs its shelf life." On eggs" "Room temperature eggs blend well in batters and beat with the most volume, so remove the eggs from the refrigerator 1 hour before using."

She writes for the home baker but often mentions practices done by the professional baker. She tells you a professional baker needs to use a weighing measure for accuracy since they bake large quantities.  She tells you to use the paddle attachment instead of the hook attachment on the electric mixer and why.  I am most tempted to try my hand at a croissant or a pains de matin since she makes it sound so easy but I should just buy my bread at L'artizan.

Instead, I tried her recipe for Chocolate Cloud. Her version is crumbly and crunchy, perhaps the recipe I have been looking for all the past 2 years since I received the perfect chocolate chip cookies for Christmas.

I didn't use unbleached all purpose flour, but my cookies turned out pretty good and the 36 cookies disappeared in less than a week.  The recipe is easy to make and only requires one stick of butter. My daughter patiently sifted the sugars and the flour.  The cookies, when placed three inches apart did not run into each other and did not flatten as much as those with 2 sticks of butter that I've tried.  I was supposed to whack the cookie sheet three minutes before it was done baking to produce the crumbly effect but I wasn't able to do so. I learned some lessons from her tips: let a cookie sheet cool down before reusing and don't remove a cookie while warm.

Maybe I will try more recipes when I am off my diet.  For sure, my next recipe will be Chocolate Souffle Cake (p 127). Anyone want to help me eat it?

Available in National Book Store for P1855.