Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito, Tina Rupp, Martha Stewart

The Barnes & Noble Review

Baked: A New Frontier in Baking by the owners of Brooklyn's eponymous café Baked, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, is, in a word, luscious. The Baked philosophy and flavor are clear in the introduction, "We would reduce sugar where possible and increase the amounts of chocolate where possible." The results are award-winning -- the Baked Brownie was declared the best by those ultra-selective testers, America's Test Kitchen. This dessert boasts 11 ounces of dark chocolate with cocoa powder and instant espresso for depth. The recipe calls for two sticks of butter and five eggs. Five eggs. The brownie is magnificent. It's dense and chocolaty and comes out of the oven just as beautiful as the picture. Most of Baked's recipes are updates of old favorites, like the Oatmeal Cherry Nut Cookies that give raisins the boot in favor of dried cherries, ground cardamom, and toasted walnuts. The Brewer's Blondies add malted-milk balls to the mix, and the Root Beer Bundt cake seems like a dessert best tried once for family and then, if successful, added to the bake sale menu. The book's design is carefully trendy, with endpapers featuring a pattern of stylized orange deer silhouettes complemented by small blue birds. Photos are bright and clean, often staged with vintage place settings completing the hip yet down-home feel. Baked is unapologetic in its quest for a delicious, decadent dessert. From the Sour Cream Coffee Cake: "Though some similar recipes suggest you substitute low-fat sour cream or yogurt to reduce calories this is not one of those recipes." The focus on quality ingredients and simple, clear recipes make this book an excellent addition to any baker's bookshelf. --Melissa Lion

Synopsis

As featured on The Martha Stewart Show and The Today Show and in People Magazine!

Hip. Cool. Fashion-forward. These aren’t adjectives you’d ordinarily think of applying to baked goods.

Think again. Not every baker wants to re-create Grandma’s pound cake or cherry pie. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito certainly didn’t, when they left their advertising careers behind, pooled their life savings, and opened their dream bakery, Baked, in Brooklyn, New York, a few years back. The visions that danced in their heads were of other, brand-new kinds of confections . . .

Things like a Malt Ball Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting, which captures the flavor of their favorite Whoppers candies (and ups the ante with a malted milk ball garnish). Things like spicy Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits that really wake up your taste buds at breakfast time. Things like a Sweet and Salty Cake created expressly for adults who are as salt-craving ?as they are sweet-toothed.

Which is not to say that Lewis and Poliafito sidestep tradition absolutely. Their Chocolate Pie (whose filling uses Ovaltine) pays loving homage to the classic roadside-diner dessert. Their Baked Brownies will wow even the most discriminating brownie connoisseur. And their Chocolate Chip Cookies? Words cannot describe. Whether trendsetting or tried-and-true, every idea in this book is freshly Baked.

Judith Sutton - Library Journal

Lewis and Poliafito left their advertising careers to open Baked, a small bakery/cafA© in the Brooklyn, NY, Red Hook district, in 2005. After a slightly rocky beginning, their delicious treats began attracting national media attention-their brownies appeared in O magazine, and they baked their Sweet and Salty Cake on the Martha Stewart Show-and things haven't slowed down since. Their recipes, many of them traditional favorites with a twist, range from Milk Chocolate Malt Ball Cake to Butterscotch Pudding Tarts. The authors have a nice style, and whimsical drawings and full-page color photos add to the book's appeal. For all baking collections.

Biography

After years in the advertising business, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito decided to leave their day jobs and open a bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Baked opened in January 2005 to instant rave reviews. The authors have been featured on Oprah, the Food Network, Martha Stewart’s daytime show, and the Today show. The bakery has been reviewed in countless magazines, both local and nationwide. Lewis and Poliafito live in New York City.

Tina Rupp is a New York–based photographer who specializes in photographing food and children. Her work can be found regularly in Food & Wine, Everyday with Rachael Ray, and Parenting magazines.