(Part 2) Top products from r/Baking

These are French style cakes, called patisserie. Other notable French pastry chefs include Pierre Herme, Sadaharu Aoki, and Jaques Genin just to name a few. These are different from usual baked goods because of well... The lack of being baked. A lot of techniques are used to make these pastries such as tempering chocolate, making mousses, etc. Many consider them difficult to make because of the large number of components required to assemble them. For example, a simple cake is just cake and frosting. But these pastries may require many hours of work because you have to wait for the mousse to set, the tart shell dough to be cool enough to work with, the meringue for baking the macaron shells to be the right consistency, and tempering the chocolate. Making quality French pastries is hard because you're working with a bunch of different components and all of these components are arguably difficult to master.

My suggestion is to master all of the basic French recipes (choux pastry, pastry cream, almond tart crust, macaron meringue), learn about flavour pairings (I don't know if the site is still active but try parispatisseries.com for some more information on the French pastry scene in Paris), and then combine the knowledge to make your own pastries. There are also recipe book out there such as Laduree's Sucre which covers a lot of iconic French pastries!

I'm typing this up on my phone so hopefully my information isn't too confusing !

Edit- I have added a list of resources that I think may be helpful:

Websites:

Basic French patisserie recipes

Road to Pastry Pretty sure someone mentioned this above! Great basic recipes.

Patisserie Makes Perfect Solid website about patisserie

Paris' patisserie scene Great for learning more about the components of pastries, popular flavours, etc. The site however is no longer being updated, but it can still serve as good inspiration. Also if you are interested in a certain reciple, you can probably do further googling and find the recipe for it online.

Evan's Kitchen Ramblings A variety of entrement cakes that offer a twist with Asian flabours, and many of her posts offer recipes (but not all of them). Great for inspiration as well!

Books:

Fou de Patisserie is a French magazine that talks about pastries by all the big name pastry shops.

Laduree's Sucre is a recipe book that comes in both French and English that teaches you how to make basic French recipes, as well as the store's most iconic pastries (Laduree is the story that invented the macaron!)

Pastries by Pierre Herme Often regarded as the Picasso of French pastry. His book offers basic recipes as well as recipes for his creations.


These are just places to start and get you thinking about pastries.

An alarm clock to get her used to waking up at 2am? ;-)
I'm not a professional baker, but did work as one for several months 20 years ago. Enough to let me know that although I enjoyed baking, I didn't enjoy doing it as a profession. So these suggestions are from a home baker, not a pro.
I would suggest a cookbook or subscription to Cook's Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen.
I bought The New Best Recipe Cookbook ten years ago for myself and have gifted a copy to several friends since. It goes through not only a recipe, but what changing different ingredients will do to the final product. The chocolate chip cookie recipe was quite informative with illustrations showing not only what different sugars would do, but different fats, flours, and the effect of chilling the dough had on the final product.
There is also Baking Illustrated which is just about baking. It's probably going to be hard to find, but if you stumble across it, it's worth it. Some folks complain that it's just the baking chapters from the best recipe cookbook with a few extra recipes, but if your kid is really focused on baking, this may be a better fit for now and then the best recipe cookbook later when she feels like branching out into thing to go with the baked goods.
I do not own the Cooks Illustrated Baking Book but I have several of their other cookbooks and friends who have this one think highly of it. It's been described as a combination recipe book and class in baking. Like the New Best Recipe Cookbook, it includes not just recipes, but paragraphs about what is going on in the recipe and what changes to the recipe will do.
You may also want to look at getting a large vermin resistant container to store flour. I use a Vittles Vault pet food container to store my flour. It allows me to buy 25 lbs of flour for $8 instead of 5 lbs for $4 and not run out in the middle of a baking session.

Both I find. Just by doing the browned butter will give it the flavor but letting it it sit for 24 hours will make it so much better. I've not heard of others having problems, but something that I run into everytime I do them is that by letting them sit in the fridge for 24 hours the batter becomes like a solid rock. This could be due to:


Home made brown sugar. It's much more "fluffy" than store bought and you can choose how dark/light you want it. Typically I do 2tbps molasses per 1 cup of sugar for 1 cup of dark brown sugar. Some call for 2 1/2 or 3 for dark but its all your choice.


Personally I'm not a fan of them being nutella stuffed. Too strong of a flavor like you said. Skip the nutella part and you got some super tasty plain cookies though.


Lastly, some tips. A friend of my dads asked for the recipe after I made them and found all this out the annoying way.

• Use good chocolate. Nestle, hershey, ghiradelli is all low quality. I used this: https://www.chocosphere.com/default/brand/a-c/callebaut/1kg-2-2lb-fairtrade-semisweet-callets.html . The price may be off-putting but it's 2lbs/32 oz which is almost 3x the amount of the small bags at the grocery store. The quality is also tons better and very worth it.
  
  
• Even though the recipe calls for 3 different types of chocolate, just go with the above.
  
  
• Reduce the amount of chips. There is too many with the default. By taking all of what is there it comes to 1 3/4 cups of chips. I would drop it to 1 1/4 or even just 1 cup. Depends on how much chocolate you like.
  
  
• Always brown the butter. Guide to do so is on the site. Be sure to use unsalted or it wont work. Butter quality doesnt matter to my knowledge.
  
  
• Try using home made brown sugar. 1 cup brown sugar is 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons molasses. Use a stand mixer to mix otherwise arm will fall off. The freshness will help with flavor.
  
  
• Always put it in the fridge. 2 hours minimum. Doing it for 24 is best for flavor. If doing for 24 it may become very hard to scoop so use something that wont bend. A spoon does not qualify. Using a knife to slash it can help. If buying extra things is fine then look into http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Medium-Cookie-Scoop/dp/B0000CDVD2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393910062&sr=8-2&keywords=oxo+cookie+scoop . A medium scoop is going for standard sized cookies whereas the large is good for gourmet sized cookies/the one I used. Medium is tricky to use when doing nutella stuffed due to size+amount of chips. The one I linked is also very sturdy and wont break trying to scoop out the 24 hour chilled dough.
  
  
• If doing nutella stuffed: get a ziplock back and put nutella in a corner. Squish it all down into a single corner. Cut a very small piece off of that corner. Squeeze the bag to get the nutella out. Any other way you will hate life making them.
  
  
• If doing nutella stuffed: you will want to get a plate with a ziplock bag on it. Scoop out the cookie down, put it roughly into a ball and then flatten onto the ziplock bag+plate combo. The ziplock is so the cookie wont stick to the plate.
  
  
• If doing nutella stuffed: Get parchment paper and cut it to roughly the size of the flattened cookies (before baking.) Do all the cookie flattening in one go and between each flattened cookie put a piece of parchment paper to prevent them from sticking to eachother.
  
  
• Probably overkill but a good pan will help with even heating. Something like: http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Natural-Aluminum-Commercial/dp/B000G0KJG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393910441&sr=8-1&keywords=baking+pan . Great if you use pans for other things.
  
  
• The lazy tip: Parchment paper when baking them. No need to clean the pan after.
  

The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is my number one recommendation for bread. Im also a big fan of Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. His first book, Tartine is also great btw. I would skip out on Tartine Book No.3 though which seems to have too many errors for my liking. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish is also one of the better bread baking books out there.

For general baking, im a big fan of Bouchon Bakery. And one book that will surely help you improve as a baker and I highly recommend you cook through is The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. Its like a pastry arts class in a book. I am actually cooking my way through this. If you have a serious sweet tooth, Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi will probably be what you're looking for. And as someone else recommended, the Baked books are all great.

For cakes, it has to be The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Bernanbaum. This is probably the best cake book of all time. I would supplement this with Toba Garrett's Professional Cake Decorating book.

For pies, my favorites are Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Hoosier Mama. One that I haven't tried but am planning to buy is First Prize Pies. If the book lives up to their reputation, it should be an excellent book.

For plated, more ambitious desserts, I like Payard Desserts. I refer to this when I want to impress company.

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!

Here are some of my favorite tools:

• Mini measuring cups/beakers - I love these! No more spilled/wasted vanilla extract.
  
• Instant-read thermometer - I use this to check on the temperature of my dough/ingredients and even to confirm things are done baking.
  
• Maybe you already have these, but if not, I use my kitchen scale and oven thermometer all the time.
  
• Bakeware rack - This keeps my baking sheets and smaller pans better organized and more easily accessible than just stacking them on top of each other.
  
• Marble slab - keeps pie/pastry dough cold as you roll it out (I keep mine in the fridge so it's always ready).
  
• Pastry strips for making sure pie (or rolled-out cookie) dough is rolled out to an even thickness. Pastry cloth/sleeve for keeping dough from sticking.
  
• Cookie scoops - for drop cookies, muffins, cupcakes, and really anything that needs to be portioned out evenly (including non-baking stuff like meatballs). Whenever I use these, I'm always really grateful for them. Mine are Zeroll dishers I got from King Arthur Flour, but Webstaurant Store has them for cheaper, and Oxo has a line of cookie scoops too.
  
• If you make layer cakes, you may already have a turntable, but if not, this one is really good. I also like this cake lifter.
  
• Of course, there's also stand mixers. Super-helpful for things like whipping egg whites for meringues/souffles/angel food cake, creaming butter and sugar, and kneading bread dough. If you ask for a stand mixer, the KitchenAid Pro has a stronger motor than the Artisan. I have the Artisan, and it's worked fine for me for several years, but if I could go back, I'd go with the Pro instead. An extra bowl is very handy as well.

I used this off brand Metro blade for my KA Pro 600 https://www.amazon.com/BeaterBlade-KA-6L-Metro-Design-KitchenAid/dp/B0015TMI28/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483386039&sr=8-1&keywords=kitchen+aid+pro+600+metro+blade for one year before it broke at the neck/shoulder area. Replaced it with the same blade and that lasted a bit over a year. I don't make bread and the cookies I make are not rock hard. I went looking for a replacement.

Here it is... https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KFE6L-5-5-6-Bowl-Lift-Beater/dp/B006HGZ7AY This one is actually put out by Kitchenaid. I liked the dual silicone edge of the metro, but this blade is stainless steal coated, not plastic like the metro. It is DW safe (I've washed mine at least 25x already. 10/10 would buy again. Well worth the money if you plan on thicker doughs than cake batter.

I also recommend this 11 wire whip attachment (also KA brand) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PJ6XGQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is also stainless, unlike the one sold with the mixers, which makes it totally DW safe (have washed that one at least a dozen times since I got it.

IDK if I really answered your questions, but in my experience the KA brand name accessories are worth the money. The quality is markedly different from the off brands, but in the end, it depends on what you are using them for and how much you are using them. The off brands might suit your needs just fine.

Oh, I forgot. I have the meat grinder too. I initially bought the plastic one, but traded up to the ss because of heavy use. Another example of ss being the better choice, though in this case they were both KA brand items.

Good luck to you. As a suggestion, your wife can bake to her heart's content, but have one or two and give away the rest, or the extra 50lbs will be with you in no time. I had to learn the hard way that taking it off was infinitely harder than putting it on. Save yourself and your wife!!

Edit: apologies for the word wall
Edit 2: Make sure you double check your model number before ordering any accessories b/c they may look like they'll fit, but they don't always.

My favorite cookbook is The New Best Recipe, a compilation of over 1,000 recipes from America's Test Kitchen. I love it because they give in-depth descriptions of all the different things they tried in order to perfect every recipe, and so not only do you get a great recipe but you can learn all about why it is great. Most recipes have one or two additional variations included. They cover different products and techniques, and all sorts of information that is useful for both new and competent cooks. It is so interesting that I sometimes read it just for fun.

The chapters cover everything from appetizers to different types of main courses, but also includes lots of chapters on baked goods -- breads, cookies, cakes, pies, crisps, puddings, and more. I would highly recommend it to anyone, and everything I've made from it so far has been delicious!

The microplane fine grater is one of my favorite tools. Finely grated lemon zest makes so many things super delicious. It's good for grating a little cinnamon or nutmeg into a baking project as well.

I use my fine sieve frequently for baking as well, like when I have to strain pastry cream to help it cool down or get the seeds out of raspberries.

Another favorite baking "gadget" is the cake strip - it prevents the cake from puffing up in the middle. Otherwise you have to cut off a fair sized chunk in order to stack it in layers.

My ultimate baking cookbook is Tartine bakery's - they are great at explaining complicated techniques and everything turns out fantastic.

Everything. I make everything with my kitchen aid except for simple one bowl oil-based cake recipes/quick breads.

Creaming butter is super easy, whipping eggs/egg whites/heavy cream. Basically any and all baking, my kitchenaid does all the work.

I also have this attachment (link below) which I find very helpful. You might have to adjust your bowl height so it fits in (there are directions in the manual on how to do this) but it makes a big difference. I rarely have to turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl, I'll do this maybe once while making a dough. Make sure you get the correct attachment for your model.

BeaterBlade KA-6L Metro Design Beater Blade for KitchenAid 6-Quart Bowl Lift Mixer and 5 Plus Series 5Qt Stand Mixers, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015TMI28/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5jTyyb8CHAGQ6

Additionally, there are a ton of other attachments you can slowly add to your collection that allow you to do so much more with your mixer. Personally, I love the meat grinder. Great for making your own sausage, meatballs, or just ground meat.

Have fun with your new toy!

So first things first, no baker whose work I respect uses measuring cups. Volume measurement is an anachronistic method of measurement. The reason is that baking is based on ratios of the mass of products to each other, and something like flour can vary by about 50% if you're going by volume. I.e. a cup can weigh between 4 and 6 ounces. What that means is that you need a scale. The good news is that scales are fairly cheap. It's like 30 bucks to get a good one. I like oxo 5 pound scale with the pull out display.

The next thing is that I tend to stay away from all of the cookbooks written by people who don't work in the industry. Chefs have had to stand up to years of criticism and constant learning to get to a place where they can even begin to think about putting out a cookbook. The two pastry cook books that I like the most are Thomas Keller's book, Bouchon bakery, and Christina Tosi's book, milk bar.

Bouchon bakery is a super French book (as is the bakery), so I would recommend getting it if your son is interested in making things like bread, croissants, eclairs, Madelines, macarons, cakes, etc. Things that you would think of coming out of a traditional patisserie. The book is fabulously written and gorgeous. It is incredibly approachable and in my opinion, doesn't require any outside knowledge of baking, although being a good baker certainly helps. If I were to go solely based on what I thought was the best book, I wouldn't go any further than this one

That being said, I love Christina Tosi's milk bar. Her style is more of a traditional American style, so lots of cookies, cupcakes, pies, etc. Her book isn't as well written, not as pretty, and requires a bit more knowledge of baking (but certainly not a ton). It is, however so warm and inviting and reflects her personality so much that you can't help but smile add you read her expositions about some of her recipes and past. Her cookies are so crazy awesome and delicious, that the single method alone is worth the price of admission.

The one caveat I would say is that both books will STRONGLY suggest you get a stand mixer. While neither book requires it, there are some recipes that will be very daunting without one; I sure as hell wouldn't want to do Tosi's creaming method (for making the aforementioned cookies) by hand, that's for sure. That being said, though, people baked for millennia without one, so if you don't have one, you certainly don't have to buy one before making most if not all of the recipes in either book.

NINJA EDIT:
Links to the books
Bouchon Bakery
Milk bar

Someone gave me Baking:From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, which I thought was a fantastic book with some good pictures. I also like books by David Lebovitz. He has a great blog about his life in Paris and he used to be a pastry chef here in the States. Fante's Kitchen Shop always looks like they have interesting things too. I love to browse there for ideas. Hope that helps a bit.

Oooh. I would suggest some fancy ingredients like some Nielsen Massey vanilla paste (I have the gigantic 1 quart size myself and it's pretty much my favorite thing ever) or some Valrhona cocoa powder or feves (fancy chocolate chips). Some high quality measuring cups like these ones from All Clad would probably make her over the moon (as others have said, you can never have enough measuring cups and spoons, and heavy-weighted ones like those are a delight to use). You can round out your gift with a few cookbooks you think she might like -- some suggestions are the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (since you mentioned she makes lots of cupcakes), the Tartine Cookbook (I love this one), and Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cake Bible or Heavenly Cakes.

My 6 year old son is HFA as well and loves to bake with me - I've started explaining some of the concepts and he really responds to the science-like nature of the process.

I don't know what your son's reading comprehension level is, but perhaps Alton Brown's baking book would work. He throws a lot of history, science and explanation into his recipes so there is definitely some "teaching" going on.

Another great one is the good old fashioned Better Homes and Gardens Baking Book (whatever edition they're into now). It includes very basic recipes (then graduates to harder ones), easy to follow instructions and lots of pictures. I've had mine for over 20 years and still bake from it frequently.

As a professional baker, there are two books that I recommend:

• I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking by Alton Brown (gets into the science of baking, it's entertaining, and has some great recipes)
  
  
• Baker's Manual by Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees (has the most classic recipes, and covers a lot of the things I learned in culinary school)
  
  I doubt it's in your price range, but every baker absolutely needs a kitchen-aid standing mixer.
  
  Other necessary items: wire whisk, rubber spatula, good set of bowls, various pans, or at least two half sheet pans, measuring cups, measuring spoons, bench scraper, etc.
  
  Wilton has a good cupcake decorating kit. Offset spatulas are necessary for any decorating, 4" for cupcakes, 8" for most cakes. If she likes cake decorating, then she needs a cake wheel and a decorating comb.
  
  I personally go for more practical items as opposed to novelty items. I hope some of that was useful.

If you are interested in some of the science of it but not all I really like Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food. I pretty much love all of his recipes and I learned a bit from the book. I haven't completely gone trough it and I still use the internet for learning some new recipes. But overall I think it's a good one with information and little diagrams that explain what he means. I'm not sure if it would be pastry enough for you but it has a lot of baking info.

For essentials I would suggest a half sheet pan for things like cookies and brownies and a 9x5" loaf pan for things like banana bread, lemon loaf, pound cake, etc. Those are good starting points! Oh also maybe a cupcake/muffin tin?

Parchment paper is also great to have on hand to line the half sheet pan so that the cookies don't stick.

That depends on what kind of bread you'd like to make. Are you interested in poundcake type breads (banana bread/carrot cake), quick breads (biscuits, scones), sandwich type enriched breads (sandwich loaves, cinnamon rolls), artisan bread (glutenous inside, crisp crust, high flavor; ie. French baguettes). There's a lot to aim for.

My personal suggestion would be to pick up Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day. His book covers pretty much all the major areas of breadmaking (except for poundcakes), using simple, proven recipes that are designed to maximize flavor and texture in the home kitchen. I feel it's a great place to start because the recipes are pretty much bulletproof and filled with just enough detail to explain what's going on without being cumbersome. Think of it as a more simple, advanced-beginner oriented, version of The Bread Baker's Apprentice that is one of the handful of gold-standard breadmaking books (the other being Bread by Jeffery Hamelman).

Can't speak for OP's recipe, but I've made these before (I wish I had those molds though). The recipe is basically this, but in his book Sweet he includes the glaze and the recipe might be slightly different. I definitely recommend getting the book. Every recipe is amazing.

There is a cookbook called The New Best Recipe that has lots of amazing recipes. Also, they tell you all the different versions of each recipe they tried and why their certain recipe works best.

What kind of things does she like to bake? Cookies, Cupcakes/cakes, breads/pastries/doughs, pies/tarts...? Anything and everything?

Aside from an awesome KitchenAid mixer, my personal favorite baking tool is a Silpat (and having two so you can rotate pans easily is nice. I'm always putting a second pan in after the first one, so it keeps things going.) After getting those, I almost never have to wash my baking pans, and crap doesn't occasionally stick to the pan while baking like it used to. I usually end up moving baked goods to the rack with my fingers because a spatula isn't even necessary with a Silpat much of the time. Freakin' awesome.

If she rolls dough often, she might enjoy one of these pastry mats. I use mine a lot (almost as much as my Silpats), but I roll out dough like every other day.

"Crack" pie is pretty good. It's kind of like a pecan pie without nuts, so a custardy sweet filling.

I'd also recommend the book "Pie" , which my friends and I have taken to calling the Pieble. It's quite the tome and has a bunch of good recipes.

I am fond of pastry mats, myself, for working with dough by hands. Which is quite rare, but I use it a lot for things like scones. I don't like cutting boards; I have a difficulty with heavy objects and find silicone sticks to my counter top much better.

Here's an idea of one

I really love them because of their measurements, too. Which saves me from guesswork or whipping out a ruler.

Here's the recipe, from this book. I modified it by adding chocolate pudding to each cake after they had cooled.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

1 Cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened. (I used margarine)
1 Cup granulated sugar
2 Cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 Cup peanut butter (you can use crunchy or smooth)

Preheat oven to 350. Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and buttermilk in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Stir the peanut butter in until well combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.

Frosting:

1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/2 Cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened.
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk

Combine peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined. Swirl the frosting onto cooled cupcakes

I used the recipe in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook by Thomas Keller - best of luck, happy baking!!

Bouchon Bakery

It’s reeeeally good! I think I slightly overbaked the génoise, but the mousseline is so fluffy and delicious. It tastes like a fancy strawberry shortcake. I used the recipe from Pierre Hermé Pastries

more pics

I'm not OP, but I have these same cutters/stampers. The gingerdead men are made with this, and the dinosaurs are with these.

They're a very fun sort of product; it does take some time to get the technique right, but the finished product is really cool. Because of the detail, I use cookie recipes that don't really spread, like sturdy gingerbread or chocolate roll-outs.

It also takes a little patience to fill in all the indentations with icing, but it's worth it for the final effect.

Yes, I believe you should knead it more.

The main purpose of kneading a bread dough is to develop the gluten which works like a web to trap the gas bubbles that the yeast produce to give it a rise. If you don't knead enough, there will not be enough gluten to trap the gas bubbles and it won't rise properly. Make sure your dough passes the windowpane test (image) before you are done kneading. It is unlikely that you will over-knead a bread dough.

High protein content in your dough is very important for making bread. If you are able to determine that, you should be able to figure out if you need to add any vital wheat gluten to your dough.

Also, you say you are using whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour contains bran which is sharp and actually cuts the gluten, making it more difficult to make whole wheat bread than white bread. Peter Reinhart has a book that I would highly recommend if you are interested in making whole grain breads.

Good luck!

My most used and loved tool is without a doubt my OXO kitchen scale.

Honorable mention goes to my Vollrath 5314 sheet pans.

I would recommend, https://www.amazon.com/Chocolates-Confections-Formula-Technique-Confectioner/dp/0470424419/

Its a very nice book and a great place to begin. The recipes in it are good as well. The book OP mentioned is also good book, but not specifically for chocolate or confections.

If it has a 5, it means it has a 5 quart bowl, 45, 4.5 quart.

If your kitchen aid has a tilt head, then then you can buy the smaller one (i.e. this ) if yours is a "bowl lift", you'll want this. However, be careful on the last one, for it's plastic. It should be fine, but if your batter is super heavy it might break and need a replacement with a metal base (like I had to).

You can try one of those plastic cutting mats for sewing. One of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00L5I8RTW/ref=zg_bs_262643011_13?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YMBFT6YKR9K9KT8FAF8H some of them are better quality than others, and they come in different sizes.

I roll out my smaller doughs on a silicone baking mat. This is the exact one I have, and I love it! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IY1C7D0/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1511365887&sr=1-13&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65

I use the recipe for Sleeping Beauties (nice copyright avoidance, there) in Peter Greweling's "Chocolates and Confections". It's a great book, highly recommended!

https://www.amazon.com/Chocolates-Confections-Formula-Technique-Confectioner/dp/0470424419

It depend on the pie wether or not I blind bake. The sugar only goes on the rim and top crust.
If I blind bake I usually brush with egg white to not allow the filling to seep into the crust and make it mushy.
If you want the best resource for pie baking I would totally recommend this book
pie by Ken Haedrich

Try Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From my home to yours"
It's a real gem (:
her recipes are almost foolproof!

It's actually more accurate to measure by weight instead of volume. I have this one, and I love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Home-Yours-Dorie-Greenspan/dp/0618443363

Note, many of the recipes on the Great British Bake-Off are very British. They won't be in a standard baking book not from Britain.

I couldn't find the recipe on Ken Headrich's site, but it looks like it's from his book Pie. Here is the filling recipe from a blog I found!

Hello Cupcake. You'd be amazed at some of the stuff you can do with frosting, food coloring, and a bit of candy.

Does she have mini (2-bite) muffin pans? That's one of my staples for cupcake making.

On the decorating side, I'd start by buying a cute cupcake cookbook (like this one - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618829253/) and then sneaking a peak at the recipes and buying all the things she'd need for one that you'd think would appeal to her

I quite liked Bakewise by Shirley O'Corriher. She goes into how ingredients will affect the finished product, how to spot cake recipes that won't turn out well (and how to fix them), and why technique matters.

+1 for Dorie's Cookies and Bravetart.

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Depending on her tastes you might also consider Sweet by Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi. There were editing problems at first but they've been corrected and this is a beautiful, interesting book.

I got them about 5 years ago at like Target or something. Here’s the same set: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BUMA3A4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_K4V2Bb8V1CAVD

> http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785
This is looks like what I am looking for. Off to see if they have it at the library.

Fluffy banana cupakes (recipe from this book here) with fresh strawberry, whipped cream, and blueberry garnish.

I’m not OP but I made these for my sons preK class. It’s not that difficult. Just use royal icing

https://www.amazon.com/Fred-DIG-INS-Dinosaur-Fossil-Stampers/dp/B00BUMA3A4

I spelled caramelized wrong, oops.

Recipe
The tart shell and pastry cream recipes are from the Tartine cookbook. Both seem fairly standard (I don't want to copy from the cookbook!). I used sweet vanilla pastry cream but made it with half and half instead of whole milk.

Cut the figs in half, dipped the cut side in sugar, and caramelized them on the stove for about 5 minutes each. Set them in a bowl to cool. Then poured 3 tablespoons of bourbon in the fig drippings, about 1 tablespoon of honey, and 2 tablespoons of butter and cooked it down until it was a little thick.

Assembly: 1 cool tart shell, filled about 3/4 full with cold pastry cream, topped with figs, and served the bourbon sauce on the side to prevent sogginess. The bourbon sauce made the tart, it really isn't the same without it.

A little heavy for summer but just got the tart pan and figs were $6 at costco, so...yeah.

I used this set from Wilton! Used the middle one for this pattern :) https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-417-1154-Icing-Smoother-Comb/dp/B007E8KCCM/ref=pd_aw_fbt_79_img_2/138-0664085-1140843?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007E8KCCM&pd_rd_r=6feee8e4-c0b3-4f3e-986f-3b5410e44333&pd_rd_w=psQy7&pd_rd_wg=akKbt&pf_rd_p=6e6afc8a-fbbd-4649-97cf-4e08f5113612&pf_rd_r=43Z0C69EGRNEJH6YT88T&psc=1&refRID=43Z0C69EGRNEJH6YT88T

Did you use this book?

Bakewise
http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785

Wilton comb set. Very affordable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007E8KCCM/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527445926&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=wilton+comb+set&dpPl=1&dpID=41XTlLZT8EL&ref=plSrch

Thank you! To get the stripes, I put on a thick layer of the black buttercream, and then used this ridged cake comb to make the grooves https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Icing-Smoother-Comb-Set/dp/B007E8KCCM. Then I popped it in the freezer for 30 minutes, then piped the individual colors into the ridges and smoothed it out and removed the excess with a regular cake scraper. I watched loooots of videos on Instagram to figure it out but it was still quite tricky.