The History of Baking

Kayla Cobb
Mr. Jenkins
Honors English 11
30 April 2009

Bake Wise

Summary:
Bake Wise was written by Shirley O. Corriher. She wrote this book that contains the “mysteries of baking ”, as the book says. The book tells the secrets of why cakes and muffins deflate and become dry. She even reveals why cookies crumble. She describes many different techniques in this book. One is that brushing a puff pastry with iced water will make the pastry easier to roll, crating flakier, lighter, and more puffy pastries. In the book Shirley O. Corriher tells of the expertise of many different chefs that she admires, such as French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre. The book also contains some of Shirley’s and other’s recipes.

Response:
This book really shows how far baking has come. Looking back on the ancient times when bread was baked out in the sun on a hot rock baking has definitely transformed. It has gone from baking on that rock in Egypt to trying to figure out ways to perfect the puffy part of a pastry puff. Baking is most definitely an art now. It is now more than the taste but the way it looks.

Citation:
Corriher, Shirley . Bake Wise. New York City: Scribner Book Company, 2008. Print.