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| The Sweet Melissa Baking Book: Recipes from the Beloved Bakery for Everyone's Favorite Treats | 
 enlarge | Author: Melissa Murphy
Publisher: Studio
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $10.85
You Save: $16.15 (60%)
New (47) Used (20) from $9.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 5601
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.6 x 1
ISBN: 0670018740
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.86
EAN: 9780670018741
ASIN: 0670018740
Publication Date: March 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
A baking book from one of the best pastry shops in all of New York (Food and Wine)
Everyone has a favorite sweet treat. Whether its a delicious brownie or the perfect mouthwatering chocolate chip cookie, simple, homespun treats are some of our most beloved. Melissa Murphy has a love of desserts that started when she was born on Thanksgiving Dayher mother refused to go to the hospital until the two pies shed baked had been served. Now, Melissa brings that passion to the loyal devotees of her popular, award-winning Sweet Melissa Patisserie shops.
What makes Melissas desserts and pastries special is that they are treats we all know and love with a fresh spin that make them more delicious than ever before. In The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, Melissa shares her simple, triedand-true techniques and her French-influenced, American- style baking approach. There are desserts for everyday, such as Double Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies, and for more special occasions.
Warm and spirited, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book also contains charming anecdotes from Melissas life of baking. With more than one hundred recipes, the simple treats in this book will make each day and every special occasion sweeter.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Playful, Unique and Scrumptious Recipes April 6, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
"The Sweet Melissa Baking Book," by Melissa Murphy, is a book that lives up to its subtitle: it really is filled with recipes that are bound to become everyone's favorite treats. From `Raised Waffles with Warm Brown Sugar Bananas' in the "Dessert for Breakfast" section, to `Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel-Rum Raisin Sauce' in the "Sunday's Supper's Grand Finale" chapter, the goodies in this book are tempting and satisfying. The `Hazelnut Raspberry Cake' was one of the best desserts I have ever tasted, while the `Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies' were just the thing to eat with a glass of cold milk. Of all the recipes I tried, the only one I did not like was the `Whole Orange-Poppy Seed Cake', which had a bitter aftertaste, but I've heard that others have enjoyed this recipe so perhaps it's simply my taste buds that were the problem. There are only eight color photographs in the book, but recipes are written in such a clear, approachable manner that I dare say you don't need the photos to create even the most mouth-watering results. Murphy prefaces each recipe with a short story, which adds a warm, friendly feel to her instructions. I especially appreciated that she outlines how to store her cookies, muffins, cakes and other treats so that they will last as long as possible. She also includes helpful sections on how to frost multi layered cakes, toast nuts, and even make preserves from scratch. Overall this is a great book for bakers (and candy makers) of every skill level. If you're looking for a baking book that will add oomph to your collection, this is definitely one to try. I'd recommend you make the `Bee Stings' first, which are yeasted buns sprinkled with sliced almonds, drizzled with a honey caramel glaze and filled with vanilla bean pastry cream. Yum!
Chapters include: Dessert for Breakfast, After-School Snack, It's Somebody's Birthday!, What Will We Do With All This Fruit?, Sunday Supper's Grand Finale, and Favorite Gifts.
Nothing Sweeter! March 16, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I have been a customer of Sweet Melissa Patisserie for years, and am so excited to have Melissa's "secret" recipes in my hands! I made the Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake (cover photo) for a dinner party last night. It won rave reviews and everyone had seconds! (And was also most excellent for breakfast this morning!)
The recipes are well thought out and easy to follow. The hardest thing about this book is to decide what to make next. I see myself working my way through this book ala Julie and Julia! Next up: Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake with Blackberry Glaze. Yum!
Good baking book for bakers of any level March 26, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
There isn't much not to love about this cookbook(my only complaint is my usual one...not enough photos). These are good solid recipes that are not fluffed up(no deconstruction and big towering desserts). Simple and good.
If you are a novice baker you will find that the instructions are easy to follow and the results will be positive ones for you. If you are a veteran baker like myself you find little twists on classics that you most likely didn't think about. All around, if you are a baker, you should be owning this book. If you are not a baker and you want to be...you should be owning this book.
Review: Sweet Melissa Baking Book April 6, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
For most of us, the first we had ever heard of baker Melissa Murphy was when she took home the grand prize this past year on the Food Network's Edible Ornaments Contest. But the folks in Brooklyn have adored her devotion to making the finest baked goods in the five boroughs since she first opened Sweet Melissa Patisseries in 1998.
Since then, the accolades have been many. In addition to the Food Network victory, Sweet Melissa's was also honored with the Zagat award for "Best Tarts and Pies" in New York City. Melissa and her bakery have been featured in both local publications, like the New York Times, and in national periodicals like Food & Wine and Fine Cooking. On the heels of this success, Murphy is releasing her much anticipated Sweet Melissa Baking Book from Viking Studio, a division of the Penguin Group.
Flipping through an advanced copy with a friend who loves to bake gave me some true insight to the Sweet Melissa methodology. Each stunningly photographed treat brought a similar response from my friend, "Ooh, that looks good, but I would have drizzled chocolate on the plate first," or "Pretty. I bet powdered sugar would have made that even prettier." Murphy's plate presentation is fine, but not the focus. She decided years ago to concentrate on always preparing the absolute best recipe, not the trendiest. In fact, she states in the introduction, "The best food doesn't have to be challenging in its preparation, but should recall our fondest food memories."
Thumbing through the recipes myself later on gave me the chance to fully appreciate why many say Melissa Murphy is the best baker in the nation. After reading some of her creative specialties like Guinness (yes, the beer) Gingerbread and Sweet Plum Clafoutis with Almonds, I then took time to notice her takes on some of the classics ... sheer genius.
At times the narrative seems a bit cocky when you read things like, "The cakes in this chapter are so uniquely delicious, yet the ingredients are so familiar. If you make any one of the cakes from the chapter, you will become somebody's hero!" But when you observe the attention to detail, you begin to understand that Murphy is not bragging, she is stating fact. What makes Sweet Melissa's Red Velvet Cake so good? Dutch-process cocoa, red wine vinegar, and buttermilk in the cake batter. The secret to her Carrot Cake? The zest of one orange in the frosting.
The recipes used at Sweet Melissa's are not just her spin on each dish, but rather the result of lots of trial and error. Murphy has tested hundreds of versions of each delicacy she produces to find what she, and her many patrons agree are the best recipes for each. One might say that the Sweet Melissa Baking Book is a greatest hits of baking.
Approachable and Delicious April 6, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Sweet Melissa Baking Book is totally my type of cookbook. It has tons of recipes that I will make, even though I'm not much of a baker. Everything appears approachable, from old standards like snickerdoodles to more original (and very appealing) things like sweet potato bread with connamon-rum-orange glaze. I can already vouch for the Guinness gingerbread - it's pretty great and perfectly simple to make. I don't think there's much anyone could really mess up - the recipes are clearly written and they're not terribly intimidating, even to me, and I wince at the sight of a measuring cup.
The author, Melissa Murphy, owns Sweet Melissa Patisseries in Brooklyn, though from her picture on the back cover, it's sort of hard to imagine that she really eats much of what she bakes - she's tiny. It's also kind of hard to imagine that she won't be on the Food Network soon enough, she's too cute not to be.
She starts out each section of the book with a personal note, then prefaces every recipe with a little blurb about the recipe - something from when she was a kid or when she created the recipe or something like that. I love backstory - the blurbs alone make the book for me.
My only real criticism of the book is that there really aren't very many pictures. There are a handful, but just not a ton. I just wish there were more.
Overall, though, it's a really nice book and one that I'll definitely use - it's earned a spot in my kitchen!
(This review is reprinted from my blog, Mango & Ginger)
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