The 30 Best Baking Cookbooks for Beginners to Read in 2023

13 min readOct 23, 2023

The 30 Best Baking Cookbooks for Beginners to Read in 2023 — Photo by Andy Chilton on Unsplash

It’s the must-have baking book for beginners who enjoy baking from the masters in the field. For most baking has been a stress buster.

For many baking was a profound personal experience/spiritual/personal in nature.

You could prepare a cookie a cake, or a muffin but the best baking recipe book will save you from a mistake. Baking books are indispensable for cooking.

The editor has recently sorted out baking books in the baking industry and has selected textbook-level books for the French sweet industry.

I recommend them to fans who can’t go out and learn new products. These 30 baking cookbooks are helpful for styling, taste, and theoretical knowledge.

When you develop a cake and mix an excellent flavor, it is a joy to witness its birth.

If you want to make more novel cakes and pastries and bring sweetness and strength to more people, even novices Bai, you can also become a powerful master through your own practice.

When you encounter difficulties when researching flavors, take it out and flip through a few pages. It may bring you inspiration and direction.

Below is our comprehensive guide to the best baking books based on hands-on experience baking from each one.

1. Mary Berry’s Baking Bible

Mary Berry’s Baking Bible: Over 250 Classic Recipes by Mary Berry

This definitive collection from the undisputed queen of cakes brings together all of Mary Berry’s most mouth-watering baking recipes in a beautifully packaged edition. Filled with 250 foolproof recipes, from the classic Victoria Sponge, Very Best Chocolate Cake, and Hazelnut Meringue Cake to tempting muffins, scones, and bread and butter pudding, this is the most comprehensive baking cookbook you’ll ever need.

Mary’s easy-to-follow instructions and handy tips make it ideal for kitchen novices and more experienced cooks alike, and full-color photographs and beautiful illustrations will guide you smoothly to baking success. Drawing on her years of experience to create recipes for cakes, pieces of bread, and desserts, Mary Berry’s Baking Bible will prove to be a timeless classic.

The recipe is very detailed. There is so much sugar that people doubt life. There is more sugar than flour to make a cake. . . The sudden death of an individual. The biscuits are okay, and the reduction of sugar does not affect the effect. It is a baking bible, very detailed and comprehensive.

They are all British-style baking, but they are also very good. Think about it if you can reproduce the Queen’s afternoon tea according to the recipe, is it very cool? There are definitely some recipes that are not available in the kitchen. The dosage steps are very detailed.

2. Tartine: A Classic Revisited

“Tartine: A Classic Revisited: 68 All-New Recipes + 55 Updated Favorites” by Elisabeth M. Pruett and Chad Robertson

This brilliantly revisited and beautifully re-photographed baking book is a totally updated edition of a go-to classic for home and professional bakers — from one of the most acclaimed and inspiring bakeries in the world.

Tartine offers more than 50 new recipes that capture the invention and, above all, deliciousness that Tartine is known for — including their most requested recipe, the Morning Bun. Favorites from the original recipe book are here, too, revamped to speak to our tastes today and to include whole-grain and/or gluten-free variations, as well as intriguing new ingredients and global techniques.

More than 150 drop-dead gorgeous photographs from acclaimed team Gentl + Hyers make this baking and pastry book a true collectible compendium and a must-have for bakers of all skill levels

The recipes produced by the local bakery and dessert shops are beautiful in the picture. The data list of the recipe materials seems to be more scientific, and the next steps are also detailed. The difficulty is finding the graphic and video tutorial directly.

3. BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts

“BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts” by Stella Parks

From One-Bowl Devil’s Food Layer Cake to a flawless Cherry Pie that’s crisp even on the very bottom, BraveTart is a celebration of classic American desserts. Whether down-home delights like Blueberry Muffins and Glossy Fudge Brownies or supermarket mainstays such as Vanilla Wafers and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, your favorites are all here.

These meticulously tested recipes bring an award-winning pastry chef’s expertise into your kitchen, along with advice on how to “mix it up” with over 200 customizable variations — in short, exactly what you’d expect from a cookbook penned by a senior editor at Serious Eats.

Yet BraveTart is much more than a cookbook, as Stella Parks delves into the surprising stories of how our favorite desserts came to be, from chocolate chip cookies that predate the Tollhouse Inn to the prohibition-era origins of ice cream sodas and floats.

With a foreword by The Food Lab’s J. Kenji López-Alt, vintage advertisements for these historical desserts, and breathtaking photography from Penny De Los Santos, BraveTart is sure to become an American classic.

About the author

Stella Parks is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. She was named one of America’s Best New Pastry Chefs by Food & Wine. When not at home in Lexington, Kentucky, Stella can be found at the Serious Eats test kitchen in Brooklyn, New York.

4. My Bread

“My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method” by Jim Lahey

Jim’s breathtaking, miraculous, no-work, no-knead bread’ (“Vogue”) has revolutionized the food world. Inspired by the ancient art of Italian bread making, he developed artisanal bread that is entirely his own and soon can be yours.

The method, which captured worldwide attention, is practically foolproof and allows the home baker to let the dough rise slowly, without any kneading or fuss, and then bake it in a heavy, preheated pot.

In “My Bread”, Lahey also shares the fun of making his inventive recipes for classic pieces of bread like the rustic Italian baguette, the strata, and his famous pizza Bianca.

With step-by-step instructions and full-color photographs of finished loaves, “My Bread” is perfect for home cooks who have always wanted to make beautiful, deeply flavored bread but found traditional recipes dauntingly complicated.

5. The Cake Bible

“The Cake Bible” by Rose Levy Berenbaum

Cake Baking Originator Book Classic Hot Selling 26 Years Reprinted 51 Times

Won the International Culinary Professional Association Cookbook Award, and James Beard’s Most Useful Book Award.

Exclusive offering of more than 200 formulas

The Cake Bible changed the way Americans bake

“If you ever bake a cake, this book will become your partner in the kitchen.” — from the foreword by Maida Heatter, This is the classic cake cookbook that enables anyone to make delicious, exquisite cakes.

As a writer for food magazines, women’s magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s trademark is her ability to reduce the most complex techniques to easy-to-follow recipes. Rose makes baking a joy.

This is the definitive work on cakes by the country’s top cake baker. The Cake Bible shows how to: Mix a buttery, tender layer cake in under five minutes with perfect results every time Make the most fabulous chocolate cake you ever imagined with just three ingredients Find recipes for every major type of cake, from pancakes to four-tiered wedding cakes Make cakes with less sugar but maximum flavor and texture Make many low- to no- cholesterol, low-saturated-fat recipes.

6. Chocolate

“Chocolate: Recipes and Techniques from the Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts” by Ferrandi Paris

“The Chocolate Collection of the Paris Ferrandi Institute” is a chocolate teaching textbook for the Paris Ferrandi Institute, a French high-level vocational public college known as the “Harvard in the gourmet world”. Its content is classic and unique. This book introduces various chocolate-making techniques from basic to proficient in detail.

The introduction is mainly from two aspects: skills and recipes. The skills part includes detailed graphics and text step-by-step explanations. The recipe part is developed with exquisitely finished pictures and text steps.

There are also advanced tutorials for professionals and food lovers to learn, master, and read. This book presents to readers his decades of domestic and international chocolate delicacy production experience and the cooking skills of top chefs. It is a chocolate treasure not to be missed.

Artist and chocolate lover John Q. Tullius said: “Nine out of ten people love chocolate, and the one who says not to love it must be lying!” There is no food like chocolate. Tempt our taste buds and stimulate our creativity.

The fascinating combination of textures and flavors makes chocolate appear in all kinds of delicious desserts-cakes, bars, sandwich candies, etc., and all these are the complex results of terroir, year-round knowledge accumulation, and expertise.

“The Paris Ferrandi Academy Chocolate Collection” introduces detailed basic knowledge about chocolate from cocoa to tempering. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate have different suitable temperatures. This book will reveal the correct blending of chocolate. Wen’s judgment method, as well as common problems and solutions in the shaping process.

Tempering and dipping of chocolate, chocolate ganache and truffles, chocolate puff pastries and candies, chocolate ribbons, and other various chocolate decorations… This book presents 41 essential chocolate baking techniques at once. And is equipped with high-definition step-by-step diagrams, hand-by-hand with you to make it.

The book introduces 76 recipes for chocolate desserts, including molded and hand-dipped chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate-flavored drinks, chocolate classics, small cakes and desserts, celebration cakes, plated desserts, ice points, etc. Each recipe is equipped with details The recipes and production methods of the materials, them is an amazing masterpiece.

In short, this book covers all aspects of chocolate. With this book, you will feel like you are in the palace of the Paris Ferrandi Culinary Academy. We invite you to share your superb cooking skills!

Reason for recommendation:

1. This book presents to readers decades of domestic and foreign chocolate gourmet production experience of the Paris Ferrandi Institute and the cooking skills of top chefs. It is a chocolate treasure book not to be missed!

2. “Institut Ferrandi Chocolate Collection” is a chocolate teaching textbook from Institut Ferrandi, a French high-level vocational public school known as the “Harvard of the Gourmet World”. Its content is classic and unique.

7. The Art of French Pastry

“The Art of French Pastry: A Cookbook” by Jacquy Pfeiffer and Martha Rose Shulman

Winner of the 2014 James Beard Award for Best Cookbook, Dessert & Baking

What does it take to perfect a flawless éclair? A delicate yet buttery croissant? To pipe dozens of macarons? The answer is an intimate knowledge of the fundamentals of pastry. In The Art of French Pastry award-winning pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of the renowned French Pastry School in Chicago, gives you just that.

By teaching you how to make everything from pâte à choux to pastry cream, Pfeiffer builds on the basics until you have an understanding of the science behind the ingredients used, how they interact with one another, and what your hands have to do to transform them into pastry.

This yields glorious results! Expect to master these techniques and then indulge in exquisite recipes, such as:

brioche
napoléons / Mille-Feuilles
cream puffs
Alsatian cinnamon rolls/chinois
lemon cream tart with meringue teardrops
elephant ears / palmiers
black forest cake
beignets

as well as some traditional Alsatian savory treats, including:

Pretzels
Kougelhof
Tarte Flambée
Warm Alsatian Meat Pie

The pastry is all about precision, so Pfeiffer presents us with an amazing wealth of information — lists of necessary equipment, charts on how ingredients react in different environments, and the precise weight of ingredients in grams, with a look at their equivalent in U.S. units — which will help you in all aspects of your cooking.

But in order to properly enjoy your “just desserts,” so to speak; you will also learn where these delicacies originated. Jacquy Pfeiffer comes from a long line of pastry chefs and has been making these recipes since he was a child working in his father’s bakery in Alsace.

Sprinkled with funny, charming memories from a lifetime in pastry, this book will have you fully appreciating the hundreds of years of tradition that shaped these recipes into the classics that we know and love, and can now serve to our friends and families over and over again.

The Art of French Pastry, full of gorgeous photography and Pfeiffer’s accompanying illustrations, is a master class in pastry from a master teacher.

8. The Book on Pie

“The Book on Pie: Everything You Need to Know to Bake Perfect Pies” by Erin Jeanne McDowell

Erin Jeanne McDowell, New York Times contributing baker extraordinaire and top food stylist, wrote the book on pie, a comprehensive handbook that distills all you’ll ever need to know for making perfect pies.

The Book on Pie starts with the basics, including ways to mix pie dough for extra flaky crusts, storage and freezing, recipe size conversions, and expert tips for decorating and styling, before diving into the recipes for all the different kinds of pies: fruit, custard, cream, chiffon, cold set, savory, and mini.

Find everything from classics like Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie to more inspired recipes like Birthday-Cake Pie and Caramel Pork Pie with Chile and Scallions.

Erin also suggests recommended pie doughs and toppings with each recipe for infinitely customizable pies: Mix and match Pumpkin Spice Pie Dough and Dark Chocolate Drippy Glaze with the Pumpkin Pie, or sub in the Chive Compound-Butter Crust for the Croque Madame Pielets . . . the possibilities are endless.

With helpful tips, photographic guides, and inspirations — pie-deas — it’s almost like having Erin in the kitchen baking pies with you.

9. Good to the Grain

“Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours” by Kim Boyce

When Kim Boyce left the world of professional pastry chefs to stay at home with her two small children, she soon realized that her attempts to feed them good, homebaked treats left them hyperactive and crashing in the afternoon. Too much sugar, too many refined flours, not enough wholesomeness at all.

She started experimenting with her favorite recipes, using whole grain flours like graham and buckwheat, turning out muffins and cakes that had great flavor and didn’t make a nutritionist blanch. Boyce feels that baking with whole grains should be about flavor as much as anything else.

Imagine health-food ideals combined with seasonal fruits, pastry chef flair, and deliciousness. “Good to the Grain” is for anyone who respects the ideals behind the real food movement but wants to eat food that is unmistakably delicious.

It will appeal both to novice bakers making their first muffin and to accomplished bakers yearning for old-time favorites with updated ingredients. The grains featured are barley, corn, oat, quinoa, buckwheat, Kamut, millet, rye, and spelling.

“Good to the Grain” gathers together some 75 recipes for muffins, biscuits, scones, pancakes, waffles, crepes, cakes, bread, and porridges. Recipes include Oat Muffins with nutmeg and crumble; Multigrain Biscuits that have all the lightness of their white flour counterpart combined with the malty goodness of barley flour; Raisin and Wild Rice Pudding; Cornmeal Waffles topped with raspberry compote; Oatmeal Pancakes made with maple sugar, lending a delicate sweetness; and, an Apple Graham Coffee Cake.

Readers will find recipes for a sandwich loaf that can double as pizza dough, a crunchy granola bar packed with oats and seeds, and a quick guide to making fruit and nut muesli to store in a big glass jar.

The book will explain the benefits of whole grains and will be backed with helpful information, from tools to insider baking tips to how to shop for fresh grains in a world of packaged goods.

Chapters include Weekend Baking; Jams, Spreads, and Compotes; Bread; Cakes; Cookies; Porridge, Granola, and Muesli; Crepes; Pancakes and Waffles; Biscuits and Scones; and, Muffins. and Compotes; Bread; Cakes; Cookies; Porridge, Granola, and Muesli; Crepes; Pancakes and Waffles; Biscuits and Scones; and, Muffins. and Compotes; Bread; Cakes; Cookies; Porridge, Granola, and Muesli; Crepes; Pancakes and Waffles; Biscuits and Scones; and, Muffins.

10. The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook by King Arthur Flour

From Christmas cookies and pancakes to chocolate cake and sandwich bread, The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion will be there to guide home bakers every step of the way.

Every kitchen comes equipped with a fundamental, dependable cookbook classic such as Joy of Cooking or Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. Now bakers have a modern classic of their own.

From leavening, mixing, proofing, and kneading, through shaping and baking, the experts at King Arthur Flour lead you through hundreds of easy and foolproof recipes — from tricky yeast bread and sourdoughs to trendy flatbreads and crackers, to family favorites such as pancakes and waffles.

They also present fried doughs, quick bread, batter bread, biscuits, quiches, cobblers and crisps, cookies, cakes, brownies, pies, tarts, and pastries.

For more than 200 years King Arthur Flour has been in the business of making the highest quality key ingredient in all of baking: flour. They’ve done decades of experimentation and research in their famous test kitchens on how the various ingredients in baked goods behave and why.

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion now brings you more than 350 recipes that will teach you which ingredients work together, as well as what doesn’t, and why. It is this knowledge that will allow you to unleash your own creativity and experiment in the kitchen.

You’ll get a complete overview of ingredients in chapters on flours, sweeteners, leavens, fats, and more. You’ll find information on substitutions and variations, as well as troubleshooting advice from the pros at King Arthur.

Recipes are enhanced with sidebars that share baking secrets and provide clear step-by-step instructions, and each recipe is accompanied by a detailed nutritional analysis. Techniques are further explained with easy-to-follow illustrations by culinary illustrator Laura Hartman Maestro.

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion is the definitive kitchen resource. Exhaustive in scope, authoritative in style, and offering clear, practical, and encouraging instruction, it is the one book you’ll turn to every time you bake.

Like your set of measuring cups and favorite wooden spoon, it will become an essential kitchen tool. No kitchen in America should be without a copy. Two 8-page color inserts; 150 b/w illustrations; glossary, resources, index.