In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Guide to the Baker's Pantry [Hardcover]

Few Canadian cookbooks can match Regan Daley's In the Sweet Kitchen at once for wit, wisdom, and completeness. No surprise, then, that Daley's book won the 2001 International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year Award (no mean trick for a rookie author). It's a sturdy, handsome work with stitched signatures that won't let the 704 pages spring from their spine. There's something to learn here for everyone, from the total tyro to the self-assured pro.

Daley, a pâtissière who has worked at a couple of top-drawer Toronto restaurants, is big on method, but her vast knowledge and infectious energy still sweep you along. She lists all the tools and ingredients for anything desserty, whether baked, steamed, or fried. These instructions comprise just over half the text. First Daley anatomizes the Big Four ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, eggs (in 100 pages). How well or badly do they work? How hard are they to find? How should they be stored? She limns other fixings--fruits, nuts, spices, and allied flavourings--complementing the compendium with charts stating what goes with what and what to use if you must make, say, Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Biscotti and can't find fresh hazelnuts. Daley's no snob, just precise about taste: for Wild Blueberry Pie, "YOU NEED WILD BERRIES!! Never use the cultivated ones! They make lousy pies, and lousy everything else for that matter." Her Hazelnut Crème Brûlée with a Crushed Praline Crust, caramelize with a blowtorch, is beyond bliss.

Daley's boldly sophisticated desserts add big-city flair to homey preparations. She crafts a crumble of tropical fruits and a guava cheesecake with a cashew-ginger crust. And the leads to these detailed recipes are come-hitherish, passionate outbursts that are crammed with culinary smarts. Vaut le détour, every cookie, every cake, every word! --Ted Whittaker

"Regan Daley's grasp of which flavours complement each other, and which methods show them to their best advantage, is amazing."— Alison Fryer, The Cookbook Store

“[Regan Daley’s] goal was to compile a definitive guide to all the baker’s ingredients and tools…And oh my, does she succeed! Blowtorches, kumquats, dental floss (unflavoured, please for cutting cheesecake), gas ranges, butter, eggs, flours, ice-cream makers, Chartreuse, knives, partridgeberries — you name it, it’s here. Daley…has written a baker’s encyclopedia that is so arrestingly comprehensive that it redefines definitive with regard to baking cookbooks. And…that is only the book’s first half. The second half, the recipe half, is where Daley really shines. Page after page, Daley’s brilliant recipes…make one want to run to the kitchen to raid that Platonic pantry of the book’s first half….Profuse with information, clearly written, wholly unaffected and masterfully artistic, In the Sweet Kitchen will almost undoubtedly become an instant classic. Like Julia Child’s Baking with Julia and Rose Levy Berenbaum’s The Cake Bible, no cookbook shelf will be complete without it.” — Quill & Quire (starred review)

“Don’t be fooled by her sweet expression. Regan Daley is very serious when it comes to recipe writing and educating people about how to bake…In the Sweet Kitchen is destined to become a baking classic.” — Homemaker’s

“This whopping cookbook is one of the best investments anyone interested in baking could make. From tools for the baker, to key ingredient guidelines, this book is packed with ideas from this pastry chef, along with pages upon pages of her favourite recipes.” — Calgary Sun

“Daley knows and cherishes ingredients the way grammarians know and cherish language… In the Sweet Kitchen has the makings of a classic.” — Georgia Straight

“The book is an outstanding reference, packed with tips and recipes, for both novice home cooks and professional bakers…Daley’s no-nonsense approach is easy and entertaining to read.” — Edmonton Sun

“Dessert lovers take note: Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen will send your senses into overdrive. An insistence on the finest ingredients, careful instructions and an exuberant love of food add up to a cookbook that’s inspiring, not intimidating. You do want to know how to make the World’s Sexiest Sundae, don’t you?” — Chatelaine

“In the Sweet Kitchen is a complete baking guide full of yummy recipes.” — Bonnie Stern, National Post

“[I]t’s the utter thoroughness with which [Daley] covers every aspect of the pastry kitchen that makes this book the ultimate reference volume for the dedicated baker. Aspiring pastry chefs and professionals could well choose this to be their Bible — full of invaluable tables of ingredient substitutions, sugar cookery stages and troubleshooting charts…Daley’s grasp of which flavours belong together...is astounding…these are downright sensual desserts which live up to their enticing names….Daley has assembled a wonderful, definitive and delicious work that deserves to stay in print for decades.” — Canadian Living (Editors’ Choice)

“In her excellent ‘guide to the baker’s pantry’…Regan Daley devotes four dense pages to the various types of vanilla, where they’re grown, the pitfalls in shopping for them and the joys of finding supple ones full of aromatic beans. Her hardcover is titled In the Sweet Kitchen, and in my view, worth every cent of its cover price, especially if you’re a sweet-tooth.” — Vancouver Sun

“With such traditional baked sweets as angel-food cake surfacing on the menus of cutting-edge restaurants alongside rosemary crème brûlée, Daley’s book seems well-timed for a back-to-basics revival. The 692-page volume is crammed with rules, tips and secrets. Besides detailing the behaviour of flours, the temperament of sugars and the many facets of fats, Daley’s book provides just the information and creative inspiration bakers need.” — Globe and Mail

“In the Sweet Kitchen contains everything a person could ever want to know about baking. Daley walks the reader through section after section of accurate and useful information…then Daley tops it off with a section of more than 140 sweet recipes. This fabulous book is an essential reference to be treasured by anyone who bakes.” — Edmonton Journal