The Model Bakery Cookbook: 75 Favorite Recipes from the Beloved Napa Valley Bakery

Solid and authentic -and delicious- bread recipes. Nice to find a real baking book, vs. the written to be published ones.

Don't hesitate: Buy this book.Many baking cookbooks are encyclopedias of a thousand or more of recipes; in contrast, The Model Bakery Cookbook features a limited selection of 75 recipes, with the key difference that these are the time-proven recipes actually used in this famous Napa Valley bakery. A majority of the recipes in the book are accompanied by beautiful photographs, well-written step-by-step preparation instructions, helpful tips for the home baker, and explanations as why certain ingredients (e.g. butter versus oil) are called for in particular recipes. These recipes are the obvious result of 30 years of trial and effort as evidenced by words to the effect of, "if you're thinking about reducing the amount of sugar in this recipe, be warned: we've tried" and "you can freeze this", "when you're at the grocery store, don't confuse Marzipan with Almond Paste", and so forth. To me, a neophyte baker, reading these hints is like standing in the Model Bakery's kitchen as the baker reveals their secrets of the trade. In fact, about a fourth of the book is instructional and advisory in nature -- and I love it!At the request of my preteen daughter, the first thing I made from the cookbook were pecan encrusted Sticky Buns -- which are about the best danged things I've ever tasted. Prior to this cookbook, my level of kitchen skill was about sufficient to fry an egg and flip pancakes on Sunday mornings; now, thanks to the well-written and detailed explanations in this cookbook, I was kneading up a batch of schnecken dough like I'd been doing it all my life... this cookbook made it so easy!My only criticism, echoing that of other reviewers here, is that the type size is way too small when it comes to fractions; I literally needed a magnifying glass to read whether the recipe called for 1/3, 1/2, or 2/3 of a cup of this or that -- a major oversight by the authors and publisher Chronicle Books. The font size issue notwithstanding, the recipes in here are treasures.My daughter loved the Sticky Buns. At this moment, she's flipping the pages deciding what dad's going to make her for breakfast next Sunday. I secretly hope she chooses the English Muffins which look amazing!

This cookbook is from a well known bakery in Napa with very unique recipes that folks spend hours in line to try. I primarily bought the book for their famous muffins, but there are so many more recipes in there that will strike your fancy. This is one of my favorite cookbooks and I have many!

Kindle Edition: I prefer cookbooks, especially electronic ones with no extra overhead for photos, to have pictures for each recipe. It's just a help to know what I'm shooting for, especially with intricate or unfamiliar dishes. There are lots of extraneous photos in the Kindle edition, especially at the front of the book -- pretty, artsy, rustic but what about the finished products? This is really inexplicable when you consider this cookbook is from a bakery that must have product photos of everything they make. And when there is a product photo provided, it's on a different page than the recipe. I was especially annoyed to see NO PHOTO for the Gateau Basque, even after it was described as, "Not the most common dessert on these shores..." which is an understatement. How are we supposed to know if we've aced the recipe or put together some kind of Frankencake, with no picture to guide us???Organization: sucks. I don't know if this is an artifact of the Kindleization process ;) or if the print book is as poorly organized, but, really. There is a page of what I'd have to call "notes" that pertains to each section of the book, little tips and hints and necessary knowledge. Unfortunately, it's at the end of the section rather than the beginning. So, after you've maybe screwed up or failed to take advantage of some good advice, THEN they tell you their secrets. Poo!Also, they have a collection of basic recipes, like crusts or frostings. No surprise there, but they sometimes appear in a recipe using them, other times you are referred to another location in the book. Considering there is a fairly extensive introductory section on pans and ingredients and techniques, it seems like it would follow that there would be a section of "master recipes" as well. I've just been looking at a cookbook from Eliza Leslie, whom I think you could call the doyenne of American cookbook writing, and she decries cookbooks where "...the reader, before finishing the article, is desired to search out pages and numbers in remote parts of the volume..." Probably why Eliza's cookbooks are still read a couple hundred years later. Oh, if only...The recipes: I haven't baked any of them yet, but they look reasonable, are fully explained and cover a group of classic baked goods retooled for the home kitchen. The Model Bakery uses a lot of their own methods for things, which is what makes their baked goods unique, but they also make culinary sense, so it's good to see these newer takes on processes and ingredients.I'd love to get my hands on the print edition to see if these flaws are there as well, or if we red-headed stepchildren, er, Kindle readers, just got short shrift. All together, even with its flaws, this is a good book for the home baker who wants to broaden their horizons and produce baked goods they can be proud of. Even if it requires a little extra effort for the Kindle reader.

I bought this book because I read part of this bakery’s origin story, and it’s history, before the owners of the Model Bakery purchased it.I wanted to know more, and I was intrigued by the recipes listed. I bought the hardcover used, and then when I saw the kindle go on sale for $3.99, I grabbed that as well.On rare occasions, if I have a book I really love and use a lot, I will get the book in physical, hardcover format, and later, if the kindle is on sale, I’ll get it as a kindle also.While I prefer real, tangible books, my library is so full of art, craft, history, social science and cooking/baking/patisserie books, that I have to be picky as to which ones I get to keep as real books & which are best on kindle, space-wise.Kindle allows me to have a copy that doesn’t take up shelf/room space, and I can access it anywhere I am. The drawback, is that it’s never as satisfying to scroll when you could flip-through the real book in your lap.Kindle bonus however, I have found many of my favorite cooking books go on sale on Kindle, so most were between $2.99-6.99. Keep an eye out for sales and deals for kindles.This book was worth getting both formats, for me. I recommend it, it’s s a lovely book.