Attractively designed and "extensively" illustrated with color photographs, numerous recipes and formulas, line drawings, charts, and sidebars, this "contemporary" introduction to baking and pastry arts focuses on information that is relevant to today's baker. Comprehensive and well-written, it emphasizes an understanding of baking fundamentals, explores the preparation of fresh ingredients, and provides information on other relevant topics, such as food history and food science. This introduction to baking outlines professionalism, tools and equipment, ingredients, mise en place, bakeshop principles, healthful and special needs baking, desserts. It contains over 615 recipes/formulas and 700 photographs and line drawings. For Chefs, Bakers, Restaurant Managers and others in the food service industry.

Sarah R. Labensky, CCP, Director of the Mississippi University for Women Culinary Arts Institute and co-author of On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals

Eddy Van Damme, Pastry Chef and Director of the pastry arts program, Houston Community College

Priscilla Martel, food writer and baking instructor, co-author of The Best Bread Ever, and contributing editor of The New Cook's Catalogue

Klaus Tenbergen, CMB, CEPC, ASBPB, German Master Baker and Chef Instructor at The School of Culinary Arts at Kendall College

Building on the successful approach developed inOn Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals, On Bakingis a carefully designed text intended to teach both the principles and practices of baking and the pastry arts. Although it contains more than 600 recipes for a wide range of traditional and contemporary bakeshop items, the focus of this book is on the underlying baking principles and skills necessary to produce a wide array of baked goods and confections. Throughout the text, we discuss both the how and why of baking. Extensive step-by-step photographs help you visualize the techniques used to form bread dough or shape cookies or temper chocolate, for example, while recipes illustrate the baking principle and procedures. Throughout the book, we also provide extensive illustrated sections identifying bakeshop ingredients and equipment. We believe that a thorough understanding of the function of ingredients will serve you well throughout your baking career. Numerous professional bakers, pastry chefs and educators throughout the country contributed recipes to this book, usually illustrated with a photograph of the item as it was actually prepared in their kitchens. These recipes and illustrations allow you to explore different techniques and presentation styles. As inOn Cooking,informative sidebars provide background on the rich historical and cultural traditions of the bakeshop. And professionals share their insights and technical knowledge in brief comments scattered throughout the book. Chapter 18 is devoted to alternative baking for consumers with special dietary needs in the hope that today's well-trained baker will understand how and why to adapt formulas to this clientele. As a working professional, you may encounter convenience products in use in many restaurants, hotels or institutions. Therefore, each chapter ofOn Bakingincludes practical information on convenience products, providing information on the selection, storage, handling and use of these items. We wish you much success throughout your professional career and hope that this book serves to inspire and inform you for many years to come. A NOTE ON RECIPES AND FORMULAS Recipes throughout this text are designed to reinforce and explain techniques and procedures presented in the text. Recipes intentionally produce lower yields used typically in small schools and teaching kitchens. Volume measurements are provided only when the quantity of an ingredient would be difficult to weigh without specialized equipment--less than 1/2 ounce of salt, leavening or spices, for example. All ingredients are listed in both U.S. and metric measurements. In most instances the metric equivalents are rounded off to even, easily measured amounts. You should consider these ingredient lists as separate recipes or formulas; do not measure some ingredients according to the metric amounts and other ingredients according to the U.S. amounts or the proportions will not be accurate and the intended result will not be achieved. Baker's percentages are also included for many of the recipes in this text. Widely used in the professional bakeshop, baker's percentages are very useful for increasing or decreasing yields as needed. Yields are provided in either total batch weight or total yield, offering suggested portion sizes where appropriate. Detailed procedures for standard techniques are presented in the text and are generally not repeated in each recipe (for example, "apply egg wash" or "divide the dough"). No matter how detailed the written recipe, however, we must assume that you possess certain knowledge, skills and judgment. Variations appear at the end of selected recipes. These variations enable you to see how one set of techniques or procedures can be used to prepare different dishes with only minor modifications. Variations also provide the advanced baker or pastry chef the opportunity to customize reci