Reddit reviews The Pie and Pastry Bible

How Baking Works by Paula Figoni really helps break how individual ingredients react to heat and to other ingredients in baking.

Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Formulas by Jeffrey Hamelman is the bible of bread baking. There are other bread books out there, and many of them are good, but if you only buy one this one should be it.

The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is a great home baker's guide to traditional baking, but almost every bakery I've worked in had a copy of this laying around. It's a great reference, and the fact that every recipe is broken down into weights makes it possible to convert many of her recipes into professional production, with tweaks.

Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller is a great supplemental baking book and worth checking out.

I have a cookbook obsession, I have roughly 500 that are somewhat organized so I feel like I can be of great use here. I will break it down by type to make it easier.

Bibles

• Baking Bible
  
• Cake Bible
  
• The Pie and Pastry Bible
  
  Bread
  
  
• Beard on Bread
  
• Bread
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast
  
• Josey Baker Bread (I just genuinely like this guy tho lol)
  
• All of the Tartine books (just get all of them, Chad is the man when it comes to bread)
  
  Caramels/Candys/Ice Cream
  
  
• Ample hills creamery
  
• Artisan caramels
  
• Chocolates & Confections
  
• The Sweet Book of Candy Making
  
• Sweet Cream And Sugar Cones
  
  Jack of all trades
  
  
• Baked Occasions
  
• Baker's four seasons
  
• Flour
  
• Flour Too
  
• Model Bakery Cookbook
  
• Momofuku Milk Bar
  
• Ovenly
  
  Pastry/Pies
  
  
• The Art of French Pastry (this is one of my all time favorites)
  
• Creative Eclairs (whole set is great for beginners to intermediates)
  
• First Prize Pies
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• Baking and pastry
  
• On Baking
  
  
  I'm sure I am leaving out a bunch of great ones but if I had to suggest just 1 to anyone it would DEFINITELY be The Art of French Pastry. Best for somebody who has done basics already and looking to try a little more. Even as a professional baker I find myself coming back and just reading the little spots like how he burned himself on his caramel. Great, great book!

The Pie and Pastry Bible is good. "Pie" is good as well and has less complex (but still great) recipes.

Do yourself a favor and get "[The Pie and Pastry Bible]"(http://www.amazon.com/Pastry-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0684813483). I learned how to bake when I was 8 (great grandparents, grand parents, parents all had bakeries) and I didn't get pie crust down until I was 24. This book is fucking awesome. I still have the copy that my ex-husband got me 15 years ago.