5 of the Best Baking Books for Home Bakers

“Baking” covers such a wide range of recipes and techniques that require skill and knowledge to master.  If you are a home baker who wants to learn how to do it all (like me!), it helps to have some high quality baking books at your fingertips.  Here are my five favorite baking books that have helped me grow as a home baker.

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Baking Books are Life

 

I looove finding recipes online.  Heck, I’ve got a baking blog, so I would hope that you also enjoy searching the internet for new flavor combos and beautiful decorating ideas.  But when I want to really tackle a new subject, nothing beats a comprehensive baking book.

And I’m not just talking about a cookbook.  I’m talking about the books that actually teach you something.  These are the books that I frequently page through and keep right next to me, just in case I can absorb the information by constant proximity.  (You never know…)

 

 

5. The Baking Bible

 

Okay, the title of this book kinda says it all.  Rose Levy Beranbaum is a crazy talented baker who is also known for The Cake Bible and The Bread Bible, both books are on my wish list!  The Baking Bible includes chapters about cakes, pastries, breads, and more.

Each chapter and recipe is full of useful information.  My Mixed Berry Buckle was based off of the recipe in this book.  This is a great all purpose baking book that touches on a wide variety of subjects.

 

4. The New Best Recipe

 

If The Baking Bible is a great all purpose baking book, this gem is a great general cookbook.  In fact, I wrote a full review of this cookbook in case you want even more information.  I think this is a great choice for anyone just starting to build up their cookbook collection.

The team over at America’s Test Kitchen goes in depth and explains how they created each recipe so that you understand how the ingredients work together.  This information makes it easy for you to tweak recipes to suit your preferences.

 

 

3. Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices

 

My husband bought this for me as a gift and I burst out laughing when I saw the title because I used to get so angry when my bakes would come out as blunders.  But this cookbook actually uses baking as a way to raise up women’s voices.  All proceeds go to Emily’s List, a non-profit organization.

Unlike the other baking books on this list, this one might not teach you how to be a better baker.  But with chapters like “Bake Down the Patriarchy: Cakes” and “No More Humble Pie: Crumbles, Pies, and Tarts”, I guarantee you will be inspired and empowered.  This book is also full of powerful photography and personal stories.

 

2. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

 

There are no recipes in this book, but you will learn so much!  This resource covers the science behind cooking and baking.  Now, there’s a chance that diagrams of proteins and reading about the Maillard reaction sound a bit boring, but hear me out.

Reading the chapters on eggs and dairy have been so helpful to me.  Now I understand what is happening a bit better when I’m whipping a meringue or cooking a custard.  That knowledge means I feel more prepared to tackle any of these types of recipes.

 

Related Reading: 10 Best Basic Baking Tools

 

1. Flavor Thesaurus

 

Y’all.  This book.  It is like a giant list of flavor pairings divided into different flavor profiles.  Each pairing comes with an explanation of why these flavors work together and sometimes you’ll even find recipe ideas.

Read the Introduction as soon as you get it.  Niki Segnit explains that this list is not exhaustive, because it is impossible to include every flavor and every combination.  But it is such a great resource!  If you want to try new flavors, this is the perfect source of inspiration.

 

Update: In 2023, Segnit published a second Flavor Thesaurus!!! I recently got it and have been loving it as much as the first one. This book has some of the original flavors (like chocolate, almond, etc), but has new ones as well (like pistachio, lentils, etc). Together, both books are a massive resource for creating limitless flavor ocmbinations.

 

Bonus Round

 

So, there’s actually another baking book that I love, but I don’t know where you can find it.  My friend lent me her pastry school textbook.  It is ah-mazing!  Since it is a textbook, each chapter goes into detail about the techniques and includes dozens of recipes.  

The only issue is that it’s for commercial kitchens, so I sometimes have to scale down the recipes to make them manageable.  Luckily, the techniques are pretty much the same, no matter the size!

 

 

Save Some Money

 

Okay, if you’re as cheap as I am, you’re probably looking at all of these giant baking books and thinking, that’s too much.  I strongly recommend buying used!  In fact, I actually bought The Flavor Thesaurus used on Amazon.  But you can also check out local used book stores.

I should also tell you, I didn’t get these all at once.  Actually, the only one I bought was The Flavor Thesaurus.  All of the others were gifts.  Make sure to not so subtly tell your loved ones that you want these baking books.  Heck, just send them this blog post and just say “hint, hint”.  

 

Which One?

 

So, which one are you most interested in?  They are all worth their weight in gold, so I promise you are going to love each one.  Go ahead and save this list on Pinterest so you can find it easily in the future!