Paving the way for bakers, no elbow grease required

Cookbook Review

August 10, 2011|By T. Susan Chang, Globe Correspondent

THE FEARLESS BAKER: 175 Surprisingly Simple and Utterly Indulgent Recipes By Emily Luchetti and Lisa Weiss

Little, Brown, 288 pp., $29.99

I’ve been a fan of Emily Luchetti’s ever since I read her “A Passion for Desserts,’’ an elegant book that was her first foray independent of Stars, the San Francisco restaurant where she served as head pastry chef. It’s the rare restaurant chef who can speak directly to the home cook or baker in her recipes; and it is clear Luchetti has a gift. She uses everyday equipment, combines accessible ingredients in interesting ways, and her recipes work.

Now executive pastry chef at Farallon and Waterbar restaurants in San Francisco, Luchetti is back with a new volume. Her ability to relate to the very new baker is on full display. But this book is different. It’s a gateway book for bakers, written with Lisa Weiss, with simple line drawings, basic recipes, and tips in the form of dialogue balloons between Luchetti and “FB’’ (Fearless Baker, a stand-in for Dear Reader). I’m pretty sure it’s the only baking book I’ve ever read that actually has a chapter called “No Oven Required.’’

These are basic recipes - cookies, pies, cakes, bars, and fruit-based “rustic’’ desserts. Yet, as Luchetti demonstrates again and again, it pays to have an experienced mentor to show you the ropes, even on the basics. Did you know you can core a pear with a melon baller? That it’s better to crack an egg on a flat surface than on the side of a bowl? That you can almost always improvise a double boiler rather than buying one? Maybe you knew the answers are yes, yes, and yes. It’s still nice to hear them confirmed by an expert.

Luchetti is also good at telling you exactly what you need to know in a recipe. Chocolate orange crinkle cookies, for example, should be firm on the edges, and soft in the middle; Luchetti warns that “although they may seem underdone, don’t be tempted to let them bake longer.’’ The hazelnut gives them texture, and the orange gives them a sprightliness that makes it hard not to wolf them down two at a time.

Lemon blueberry tart is a four-step recipe, if you’ve already baked the tart shell (a pretty easy little task; Luchetti offers a couple of machine methods, and the most tedious part is waiting for the dough to chill). It comes out looking like something you could buy in a pastry shop, only now you don’t have to.

She makes a virtue out of necessity with her odd but charming Key lime pudding cakes. They’re based on a thin batter leavened with egg whites, which separates in the baking. You could think of them as failed souffles, but Luchetti describes them as a hybrid: spongecake on top, custard on the bottom. Either way, their tropical tartness makes refreshing, biting sense.