Freeze Frame

I've mentioned on here before my love of baking (in fact, I'm baking right now, making this agave-sweetened banana bread; I tweaked the recipe with the addition of allspice, ground ginger, and dried unsweetened coconut, as well as used coconut oil for both the oil called for in the recipe and for greasing the baking pan). It must run in the family, as my younger sisters both can't seem to get enough of mixing, stirring, beating, whipping, and pouring either. I possess all manner of baking accoutrement, from a host of pie pans to fancy cupcake liners, from a brulee torch to miniature tart tins. I've also got a growing colossus of baking cookbooks. In short, it's my jam, my gig, my abiding passion.

So, when I come across a baking book that makes me really stop what I'm doing and give it a lengthy gander, I take notice. Such was the case with yesterday's find, "Frame by Frame Baking", dubbed a "visual step-by-step cookbook" from Love Food publishers (a division of Parragon). In short, it's perfect. I often find, even though I'm a well-experienced baker, that I pine for some visuals when attempting a new recipe, especially when baking (with cooking I can often just "taste in my head", but with baking, I want to see it brought to life on a page that I can gauge my results against). For recipes with multiple steps that involved rising or shaping or otherwise alchemical interactions and reactions, I love a bit of hand-holding, a bit of "you've got it, you're doing it right." Frame by Frame gives all that and then some. It's simply photographed, employing a minimal aesthetic of wood and simple vessels, a look I'm terribly fond of.

If you're in the market for a new baking cookbook, or even if you're not but you love to be inspired, I invite you to check out Frame by Frame. I auspiciously found it in my local grocery store's book department (in between searching for a box of recycled paper face tissue and and the aisle containing pet food) and couldn't be more smitten.