Kim Laidlaw’s Home Baked Comfort has fast become a favorite read. Not only does she provide tips, and lists her favorite kitchen tools, all the recipes are enhanced with gorgeous photography by Eric Wolfinger. The photos alone are worthy of a book all to themselves. Laidlaw’s Amazing Baking Facts You Might Not Know include quick and easy tips for baking.

The book contains all the basic recipes needed on any given day or holiday: Breakfast; Breads; Cookies & Bars; Cakes & Cupcakes; Pies & Tarts; and Custards & Souffles. The recipes include both sweet and savory treats. The author’s recipes are intermingled with notable contributors: Bakerella’s recipe for Mini Banana-Maple Pancake Muffins is included and Pearl Bakery’s Blueberry-Huckleberry Grand Marnier Tart makes you want to leave for Portland, OR, to try it first hand.

Besides the fun layout and photos, Home Baked Comfort has something else going for it: the recipes are uncomplicated and sound. Laidlow writes that the Chicken, Leek, and Wild Mushroom Potpies is ‘the gold standard for potpies’ and I have to agree. My favorite recipe is her Sour Cherry “Toaster” Tarts. I, too, am a child from the ’70’s, and I remember making a version with my grandmother.

For a reference baking book to have on hand, this would be hard to beat. Sound baking advice combined with really great photography and tasty recipes make this one to flip through, and work from, often.

Book Information:

• Home Baked Comfort (Williams-Sonoma): Featuring Mouthwatering Recipes and Tales of the Sweet Life with Favorites from Bakers Across the Country; by Kim Laidlow
• Williams-Sonoma, an imprint of Weldon Owen; 2012
• ISBN13: 9781616282004

Disclosure: This digital galley copy was provided to the author by the publisher. Any opinions are the author’s own.