Baking by Flavor

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Attention, all home bakers: Lisa Yockelson has developed a new technique for baking that can invigorate your favorite recipes. In addition, she will give you 260 new recipes, all based on the concept of packing as much flavor intensity into baked goods as possible. This is quite a deal.

Take lemon cake (please). Yockelson scoffs at those who would add lemon extract to pound cake batter and call it a lemon cake. Her version marinates grated lemon rind in lemon extract and lemon juice before adding it to the batter; uses buttermilk and lemon-flavored granulated sugar to play up the acid taste of lemon; and finishes it off with a soaking glaze and a buttery sweet-sharp lemon topping. Her chocolatey brownies become richer still when chopped nuts (lightly tossed in melted butter and vanilla extract, then coated with cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar) are added.

The theory, then, is to build tiers of similar and compatible flavors within a cake or a batch of scones or cookies. Yockelson boosts batters and dough with extracts, seasoned sugars, nut flours, spices, dried and glazed fruit, citrus juice, and chopped candy. She gilds the lily with icings, frostings, melted butter and spice dips, or brush-on washes. She even intensifies her own store-bought vanilla extract by scraping in the seeds from half a small vanilla bean. I bet that if you analyze the structure of some of your own favorite recipes, you'll realize that they use some of these techniques (and could use even more).

Yockelson's book is divided into 18 flavors, arranged alphabetically: almond, apricot, banana, blueberry, butter, buttercrunch, caramel and butterscotch, chocolate, cinnamon, coconut, coffee and mocha, ginger, lemon, peanut and peanut butter, rum, spice, sweet cheese, and vanilla. Within each flavor section are recipes for cakes, muffins, brownies, cookies, and so forth. Preceding the parade of flavors are charts with flavor-compatible keys, and dominant flavoring agents/ingredients, plus recipes for new basics for your flavor pantry like vanilla- or lemon-scented sugar, almond and mocha syrup. Yockelson has really done her homework, and you will enjoy giving her techniques a workout.

The 260 recipes are illustrated by more than 100 photographs, and the last chapter about freezing baked goods is especially useful. (Ginger Curwen)

Publishers Weekly

This excellent roundup of all kinds of delicious deserts is organized by flavor (chocolate, banana, cinnamon, rum, etc.) rather than type of baked good. Yockelson lays out her flavor theory: "Flavor-layering is accomplished by using a combination of compatible ingredients in one recipe." She also talks specifically about methods for enhancing the flavors of various batters and doughs, and provides several charts illustrating flavor compatibility and flavoring agents. Additional chapters on equipment, key ingredients (with instructions for making Clarified Butter, Coconut Streusel and other components) and techniques are invaluable to the serious baker. After all that preparation, Yockelson thankfully writes solid, inventive recipes that clearly illustrate her theory. In the almond chapter, Fallen Chocolate Almond Cake contains almond liqueur, almond extract and almond flour; the lemon chapter offers Lemon-Lime Cake with Glazed Citrus Threads pumped up with juice and zest, and in the chapter on coffee and mocha, Espresso and Bittersweet Chocolate Chunk Torte has espresso powder, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate. Even chapters on butter and vanilla, two flavors that are rarely considered as such, boast such strong selections as Grandma Lilly's Butter Pound Cake, Buttercrunch Flats with toffee, Vanilla Crumb Buns and Vanilla Cream Waffles. Many of the 260 recipes offer variations, which means one could spend many happy days testing Yockelson's theory. (Mar.) Forecast: Joining the recent spate of "big" baking and desert books, this certainly deserves a spot on the dedicated baker's shelf. Yockelson, author of 10 books and frequent contributor to many cooking magazines, has a gimmick, but it's one with substance that should work to push sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Yockelson is the author of a dozen or so other cookbooks (Layer Cakes and Sheet Cakes, A Country Baking Treasury), but this impressive work is far more ambitious than any of her previous efforts. A dedicated baker and an obvious perfectionist, she developed more than 250 recipes designed to highlight specific flavors, from almond to coffee and mocha to vanilla. She refers to the process that resulted in her intensely flavorful, irresistible desserts as "flavor layering," and most of the recipes use her chosen ingredient in more than one form or in more than one of the several components involved. Almond Pull-Aparts, for example, are made with a buttery dough that contains almond extract as well as almond flour, a creamy almond filling in addition to an almond paste and an almond crumb topping. Many of the recipes also offer options for adding "an extra surge of flavor" (e.g., adding dried blueberries to Blueberry Coffee Cake) or "an aromatic topknot of flavor" (such as using her "intensified vanilla"). The painstakingly detailed recipe instructions include both what she calls "observations," reassuring tips for success, and sidebars providing her "Best Baking Advice." The chapters devoted to buttercrunch or to caramel and butterscotch (not to mention the ones on peanut butter, chocolate, and coconut) would be reason enough to buy the book, but Yockelson's unusual approach, knowledge, and passion make this more than just a collection of delectable recipes. Essential for all collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.