The Grand Central Baking Book: Breakfast Pastries, Cookies, Pies, and Satisfying Savories from the Pacific Northwest's Celebrated Bakery

I have eaten at grand Central for years and this was a great gift to recieve. The soda bread, jammers and blue berry muffins are worth the entire book. I also made the the hand pies for fun last night, and they were a sucess. The rescipes are very heavy on butter, I found I can leave off the round up, on the butter and they turn out fine, 1 stick, not 1.4 sticks of butter. Also baking time in the books is a little long, the muffins took 25 -30 mins, not 50 mins. the hand pies took 40 mins, not 1 hour. I am an experienced cook, so I have no trouble adjusting time. The directions work, are easy, practical, informative and fast for an experienced cook. Blue B muffins went toghter in a flash. If you don't know a few shortcuts, then this could be a frustrating book,, can you make buttermilk? This is the sweet, pastry, cookie and savory part of the bakery. The bread rescipes are not included, except the fast breads, pumkin and cranberry. Sure wish I had this book for the last 5 years since I live so far from Grand Central now.

Having had fun READING The Grand Central Baking Book (not many cookbooks are "a good read"), consequently finding answers to questions I've collected from baking over the years, it was time to try some cookies -- the cookie jar was empty! The ginger molasses cookies are my newest addiction, and it is serious. Having replenished the inventory at least four times in as many weeks, I have them perfected -- chewy in the middle, crisp on the edges. (Am puzzled that a reviewer finds the ginger molasses cookies flat when removed from the oven. I wonder if reviewer read the introductory comments that accompany this recipe -- chilling the dough before baking is essential. I find the dough easiest for working when chilled an hour or two.) I've not tried the larger version as per cookbook, preferring to end up with more cookies (4 doz. plus) by shaping balls from a heaping tablespoon of dough. DON'T over-bake -- they won't look done in the middle, but when edges are brown, remove from the oven; that convex dome will collapse when it hits cooler temps, as it should -- that creates the wrinkled top, the chewy middle and the crunchy edge. Needing to break my ginger/molasses addiction, I turned to the shortbread-like ginger oat and the cocoa nib cookies. Alas, they are equally addictive. Best I break my addiction by turning pages beyond cookies, to try other treats from Grand Central that one friend making her way through the cookbook claims "best ever" -- blueberry muffins, biscuits, and corn bread. GCBB is destined to become one of the few cookbooks on my shelf with book jacket tears, and pages smudged with butter stains -- a very few cookbooks get that way, for a reason. [ASIN:1580089534 The Grand Central Baking Book: Breakfast Pastries, Cookies, Pies, and Satisfying Savories from the Pacific Northwest's Celebrated Bakery]

I have NEVER been to GCB, BUT I was told I HAD to have this book! I bought it right away and made the jammers & the kuchen - TO DIE FOR! What I love most about this book are the tutorials. For years, I have cook and baked and served, yet I am not sure I could explain to you why I do the things that I do......WELL, this books helps explain it ALL! THANKS!!!!!!!!!

Grand Central Bakery has so many delicious baked goods, I'm surprised they'd share their recipes--but they did. I've read the book from cover to cover and it's fabulous. Nearly all of the recipes are for items made at the bakery--scaled for the home baker. Piper shares all her tips and techniques for delicious, rustic pastries and baked goods. She gives you lots of information to make home baking easier and more efficient--tells you which items to freeze before baking so you can always have ready to bake items on hand--where to follow the recipe exactly as written and where you can be creative. The book is written in Piper's voice--when you read it you'll instantly understand that she's passionate about educating and sharing her baking secrets as well as those of the other pastry chefs she's worked with. The book is a fun read--no fussy, overly complicated recipes here. I've made the Apple Tart Tatin and the Apple Bundt Cake and they both received rave reviews from my guests. I can't wait to try the Irish Soda Bread--which is my favorite treat from the bakery. The book is printed on high quality paper, beautifully bound with artist quality photos of most recipes and several step-by-step photos to walk you through more complicated processes such as making "ruff puff" pastry--similar to puff pastry. I highly recommend this baking book for the novice and experienced baker alike. I'm an experienced baker and wish I'd have had this information starting out.