Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients

I own the previous two Baked Books and still drool over the glossy photos as much as I did on the days that I purchased them. I couldn't wait to pick up a copy of Baked Elements. How can anyone resist a book by the guys who brought us the Baked brownie?Baked Elements is a collection of about 75 recipes based on the top ten favorite ingredients of Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. So what are those top ten ingredients? Nothing short of decadent destruction for your waistline, I fear. They chose peanut butter; lemon and lime; caramel; booze; pumpkin; malted milk powder; cinnamon; cheese (think savory and sweet recipes, folks); chocolate; and banana. All of their luscious twists on great American desserts showcase the aforementioned ingredients beautifully and prominently!The authors open with some pointers on basic equipment as well as ingredients and techniques you'll need to work your magic with their recipes and then they immediately head into the good stuff, the recipes. Every chapter is headlined by a neat page of applicable clip art-like pics with cool facts regarding the ingredient. For example, you'll learn that peanut butter in the U.S. has to contain at least 90% peanuts.However, despite the cuteness of design here, the substance of the book is in the glorious recipes and the full page photo spreads of the finished product. You won't get a photo for every recipe but I don't see that as a flaw in this book although I'll never turn down a picture of something these guys baked.After a week long adventure of gourging myself on pumpkin desserts from a different book, I decided to reset the palate by trying their Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones. Oh my! It was the embodiment of everything a scone should be: tender, crumbly, moist, rich with chocolate studs, no less, and the beguiling afternote (and pleasant texture)of crunchy peanut butter. I won't say how many I ate in a sitting, but the authors would be pleased...or mildly disgusted.I think anyone will enjoy the food in this book at any time of year, but fall is in the air and many of the chapters are especially appropriate for this time of year. So if you were thinking of purchasing it, I heartily encourage it and I'll add that this book would make a welcome Christmas gift for the serious baker in the family.

I love Baked Explorations, so I decided I'd get this one. The 10 ingredients all sounded like things I typically like, especially since I LOVE the salted caramel brownie recipe from BE.The styling of this book is fantastic, I love the intro page for each ingredient. They are nicely done and filled with neat little bits of information and trivia on the ingredients.So far, I have only made the pumpkin cheesecake bars, which were good, but the recipe felt poorly done to me. There was a lot of prep work for the crust of the bars, and it made directions like preheating the oven for baking the crust very out of place. There's at least 90 minutes of wait time before they ever make it to the oven, excluding the prep work. And the note about cracks meaning you overbaked the cheesecake seemed absolutely silly for something topped with frosting! This may be nitpicky but both these things just seemed odd to me.Other than that, I find myself struggling to find anything that really stands out as worthy to make, especially compared to Baked Explorations. I was actually considering returning the book to Amazon after my first read through but the pumpkin cheesecake bars changed my mind.The booze chapter is highly disappointing because it is nearly entirely whiskey. I would have liked to see at least one recipe involving beer and one involving wine, both are great for baking too. Instead it's a very small section that is dominated by whiskey and bourbon.But I am giving it three stars, because there is a lot in here, and it might be better suited to other people's tastes. Perhaps you do a better job managing time and remembering what a recipe says, or boozy baking is irrelevant to you. All the Baked books have been fantastic, so even if this one ends up my least favorite, it's still got to have a few gems in it.

I don't let myself buy that many cookbooks--especially for baking or sweets, but I'm already thinking about the holidays and baking my gifts this year, so I thought I'd expand my library and my repertoire. Now that I have it though, I am SO excited to get started. This book is bound to become a year-after-year staple, and not just for the holidays. Just listen to these recipes: Devil Dogs with Malted Buttercream Filling, Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones, and Lemon Pecorino Pepper Icebox Cookies! I mean, c'mon!My expectations, based on the reviews and description, were that I'd at least get some of the recipes for some of the incredibly tasty Baked Brooklyn treats (brownies, mostly) I'd received as gifts at previous Christmases plus other recipes based on the authors' and my favorite ingredients (I love love love Peanut Butter and Malted Milk). I did NOT expect to get this beautiful book with so much information. I am a mediocre but enthusiastic baker and I am so pleased with the helpful hints and information on kitchen supplies they offer at the beginning of the book. I don't know that I'm quite ready to try a layer cake, but, I also think I might be now...I'm also going to be giving this book out as gifts to a few people. It is truly well designed with beautiful photography and exciting recipes, so who wouldn't want it. yay! so many things checked off my to do list! and one thing added: learn to make a layer cake.

Why don’t they list ingredients by weight instead of volume? I wouldn’t have bought 3 of their books if I’d known that at the time.

I have been lokking forward to this book coming out for ages and on the first try (I made the pumpkin almond cake)I have to say that it was easy to follow, the cake was delicious and I can't wait to try some more! Always amazed that my efforts turn out quite like the pics. It is a great addition to the other two books. Don't worry about some of the ingredients, because you can either buy them via Amazon or other online stores that stock American goods, also a quick check on Bing or Google and you can work out any terms you are unsure of very easily.

I love baked books, they are so nice ^^ The recipes are gorgeous and everything I have tried from the 3 book I own came out perfect. It could have more pictures once not all the recipes have a picture. I love every ingredient they chose for this book, malted milk, banana, lime, cinnamon, booz, chocolate, ...

The authors have suggested reciped using their 10 favourite ingredients but there just wasn't enough content or variety for me. I have the feeling that this is one book that I will not be using very often.

For some reason, when it comes to baking books, I prefer american ones. The previous Baked books are great and this one is as good the others. Indulgent but accessible and the guys passion really shines through. My fave. series of baking books and each of them, including this one, stands alone (no re-hashing of recipes from previous books). Highly recommended

A very very good book!!!. I've tried some recipies and all were good and easy, all taste great!! I miss some photographs on the recipies (not all recipies have photo), but i recomended purchase this book.