The King Arthur company has produced flour and other baking ingredients of high reputation for over two centuries. Similarly trustworthy, and reflecting their years of kitchen experience, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion offers over 400 recipes for all kinds of basic and up-to-the-minute specialties--from pancakes and waffles to muffins and quickbreads; from coffee cakes, pizzas and crackers, to hearthbreads, cakes and cookies, including two complete chocolate chip recipes, for soft and crispy kinds. This is one of those books that no baking kitchen should lack--not only for its comprehensive repertoire and recipe dependability, but for the intimate ease with which it fulfills its promise. What this means, partly, is that technical information is perfectly pitched to ensure relaxed understanding, offering neither too much nor too little detail. It's the range and quality of these baking "backstories," including, for example, how to control cookie-dough spreading while baking, plus numerous hints and shortcuts, that help make the book so valuable.

Beginning, sensibly, with a concise section on measuring--the authors "first plea" is that readers buy and use a scale--the book then treats breakfast specialties, such as Gingerbread Pancakes and Pumpkin Praline Waffles; pursues quickbreads like Maple Cornbread; cobblers including those made under both cake and pie crusts; Sesame Crisps among other crackers; and yeast breads, such as bagels, a basic White Bread 101, and an exemplary Italian Bread, among others. An entire chapter is devoted to sourdough with instructions for creating your own starter. Readers will also want to try Strawberry-Lemon Chess Pies, Chocolate Lava Cake, and Pumpkin Cheesecake. A concluding everything-you've-always-wanted-to know ingredients glossary includes explorations on flour milling; of "faux fats" and sweeteners; the use of eggs in a dough or batter, in yeast breads and custards; information on the latest in European-style cultured butters, among much else. Color photos and numerous step-by-step technical drawings provide further guidance. With an illustrated section on tools, too, both high-tech and homey, such as the flour wand, the book has it all, for new and seasoned bakers alike. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
The company that makes one of the pantry's most recognized baking ingredients-flour-presents this practical and comprehensive baking cookbook. The book begins, of course, with a no-nonsense discussion of measuring flour, a step in the baking process that thwarts many would-be pastry chefs (the authors urge homecooks to use a scale). Recipes are divided into category-based chapters-from breakfasts (with dozens of derivatives of pancakes and waffles), fried doughs, and quickbreads to yeasted breads, cookies and bars, and cakes. Carb-haters, beware: there's not much protein in these pages. Many recipes are tried-and-true formulas for favorite dishes, such as the Simple But Perfect Pancake, Simple Sugar Cookies, and Classic Blueberry Muffins; others are more daring variations on a theme, such as White Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake, and Potato, Dill and Onion Crackers. Detailed and logical explanations of how baking works, plus an in-depth discussion of baking ingredients make this a valuable guide for beginning bakers and an informative addition for pastry aficionados. 16 pages of color photos. 200 line drawings. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Experienced home bakers now have a new resource, and beginning bakers find constructive encouragement in The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. Long a supplier of professional-quality ingredients and equipment, the Vermont-based company has now produced a comprehensive guide for amateur bakers. The book's no-nonsense approach appears in the very first pages of its introduction, where practical tables of measurements and weight-volume equivalencies provide data that bakers are sure to consult repeatedly. Recipes outline breakfast traditions including pancakes, waffles, and French toast, followed by other quick breads such as crepes, coffee cakes, muffins, biscuits, and scones. A further chapter covers items rarely made at home, such as crackers. Recipes for yeast breads, cookies, cakes, pies, and pastries survey the high points of the baker's art and technique. Helpful hints scattered among the recipes include the advice to freeze biscuits just prior to baking to increase their flakiness. This encyclopedic work concludes with chapters covering utensils and ingredients. Detailed nutritional analyses for each recipe enhance the book's utility. The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion's provenance grants this book authority, and its comprehensiveness makes it a necessary purchase for every culinary collection. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Maggie Glezer, author of Artisan Baking Across America
Home bakers are incredibly lucky to have the King Arthur Flour Company....they truly care about home bakers.

Rick Bayless
Everything you need is in this volume, from classic yeasted wonders and savory treats, to perfect cakes, pies, quick breads...

Book Description
From Christmas cookies and pancakes to chocolate cake and sandwich bread, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion will be there to guide home bakers every step of the way. Every kitchen comes equipped with a fundamental, dependable cookbook classic such as Joy of Cooking or Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. Now bakers have a modern classic of their own. From leavening, mixing, proofing, and kneading, through shaping and baking, the experts at King Arthur Flour lead you through hundreds of easy and foolproof recipes—from tricky yeast breads and sourdoughs, to trendy flatbreads and crackers, to family favorites such as pancakes and waffles. They also present fried doughs, quick breads, batter breads, biscuits, quiches, cobblers and crisps, cookies, cakes, brownies, pies, tarts, and pastries. For more than 200 years King Arthur Flour has been in the business of making the highest quality key ingredient in all of baking: flour. They've done decades of experimentation and research in their famous test kitchens on how the various ingredients in baked goods behave and why. The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion now brings you more than 350 recipes that will teach you which ingredients work together, as well as what doesn't, and why. It is this knowledge that will allow you to unleash your own creativity and to experiment in the kitchen. You'll get a complete overview of ingredients in chapters on flours, sweeteners, leavens, fats, and more. You'll find information on substitutions and variations, as well as troubleshooting advice from the pros at King Arthur. Recipes are enhanced with sidebars that share baking secrets and provide clear-step-by-step instructions, and each recipe is accompanied by a detailed nutritional analysis. Techniques are further explained with easy-to-follow illustrations by culinary illustrator Laura Hartman Maestro. The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion is the definitive kitchen resource. Exhaustive in scope, authoritative in style, and offering clear, practical, and encouraging instruction, it is the one book you'll turn to every time you bake. Like your set of measuring cups and favorite wooden spoon, it will become an essential kitchen tool. No kitchen in America should be without a copy. Two 8-page color inserts; 150 b/w illustrations; glossary, resources , index.

About the Author
King Arthur Flour is the largest single educator of bakers in the world. More than one million students have gone through King Arthur's seminars, hands-on classes, and online courses. The company is recognized as the home baking authority by nationally recognized food writers, cookbook authors, chefs, food personalities, restaurant owners, and home bakers. These recipes have been created by the many experienced bakers at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont, and are the final result of decades of development and adjustment. Every recipe has been thoughtfully created, then rigorously tested and retested in King Arthur Flour's kitchens.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For More Than 200 Years, the King Arthur Flour company has been providing America's bakers with the highest quality flour available, the preferred choice of professional bread bakers, pastry chefs, and culinary professionals. Now, in The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, the bakers at King Arthur have assembled more than 450 recipes and complete instructions for preparing a mouth-watering, soul-satisfying variety of professional-quality baked goods at home.

From mixing and rolling, proofing and kneading, through rising and baking, icing and garnishing, King Arthur's baking experts lead you through hundreds of tested and foolproof recipes. Here you'll learn how to make every kind of baked good imaginable, from comforting yeast breads, tricky sourdoughs, and artisanal loaves; to international flatbreads and unusual crackers; to family favorites such as pancakes, waffles, and muffins.

In addition, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion draws on the company's decades of research and experimentation in its test kitchens. You'll find a complete overview of essential baking ingredients in a chapter explaining the makeup and chemistry of flours and grains, leavens, sweeteners, fats, dairy products, and flavorings, and the science of how these ingredients work together in baking. You'll also find information on substitutions and variations; the most effective techniques for measuring and weighing ingredients, and tips for high-altitude baking. Recipes are enhanced with sidebars providing hints, shortcuts, and troubleshooting advice, and each recipe is accompanied by a detailed nutritional analysis. Illustrations throughout the text provide clear step-by-step instructions. Finally, a comprehensive illustrated chapter describes the essential baking tools you'll want to have on hand.

Armed with the knowledge and inspiration found here, home bakers will be able to unleash their own creativity in the kitchen. Exhaustive in scope, authoritative (but relaxed) in style, and offering clear, practical, and encouraging instruction for recipes that work, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion is the one book you'll turn to every time you bake.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal