Duff Bakes: Think and Bake Like a Pro at Home

This book makes me laugh at places because it was humorously-written.

BUT!
Under the Equipment section, there's a mention of the digital kitchen scale.
That got me excited because I use the metric system and always find
measuring flour/sugar/cocoa powder/etc by weight far more accurate than by cups.

Unfortunately, all the dry ingredients in the recipes are measured in volume.
It would be great to have both types of weighing methods listed.

Oh dear - another day, another poorly edited cookbook. I can take the occasional typo in a novel, but cookbooks are where it's all gotta be precise or you'll go clear off the rails, as you undoubtedly will if you attempt Duff's focaccia recipe, which calls for a total of FOUR TABLESPOONS (yes, that's right, a quarter cup) of kosher salt for one panful of focaccia.
He does offer, in the heading, that focaccia should be 'chewy and salty,' but no baker in his or her right mind would use that much salt in any bread recipe. I can't even imagine how awful it would taste, not to mention that it would hinder or even stop in its tracks the action of the yeast.
For reference purposes, professional bakers say that one should use a ratio of no more than 2% of the weight of the flour to salt in a bread recipe; this translates generously to a half-TEAspoon per cup of flour used. They also say that you can bump this up to, at most, 3%, without any yeast rising issues (salt is a yeast-rising retardant). In Duff's recipe in this book, he calls for a whopping 54 grams of salt (and this isn't even taking into consideration the salt used in the topping) for, generously, about 500 grams of flour, a 10+% ratio.
Obviously, this is a mistake; whether it's a typo or not is a moot point.
Also for reference purposes, if you find the Charm City Cakes focaccia recipe online, it calls for nearly 11 cups of flour and only 2 tablespoons of kosher salt.
Anyway, this was the first recipe I opted to try, before I noticed the fatal error within and adjusted my salt accordingly. My two stars are because I'm frankly afraid to try any other recipes in this book for fear that there are inaccuracies that I might not notice until I get poor results. After reading a review on the buttermilk biscuits recipe (which calls for 2 tablespoons of salt) and the cinnamon rolls (which call for not nearly enough flour for the amount of liquid used), I am beginning to wonder whether this book was proofread at all.
Duff, if you're reading this, I'd love to hear what you have to say. I'm dying to try the brownie recipe but I'm scared!

Re: Chocolate Cake recipe - page 261. It seems Duff left out an essential ingredient - baking powder! The recipe as it is produces a heavy dense cake - one of the worst chocolate cakes I've ever eaten. I'm going to try it again adding 2 to 3 teaspoons of baking powder and increasing the cocoa since 1/3 cup isn't enough for a good chocolate cake. You would think that Duff and the publisher would put out an errata sheet on their website, but no.

I do have to say that this is a beautiful book and does contain a lot of helpful information.

Awesome book! You get a handful of fun anecdotes from Duff and Sara (which is cool if you're a fan of his show) and loads of different types of recipes. Duff also includes some of the "why" of baking, such as why one type of flour should be used over another in a recipe or why you need to mix a batter a certain way.

I made the chocolate cake from his book last night and it turned out awesome! This is one cookbook that will not go to waste on a shelf.

I downloaded a sample and there was 100 % front matter so I never got to the recipe section. Since every cookbook covers the ingredients first, this was a rehash of every other cookbook in the world. Hint to publishers--put all the information on 12 different kinds of flour in the back. We're smart enough to find it there.

The recipes in this book should have been tested before printing. Out of the 7 recipes I've tried so far, only 1 turned out as expected. The main problem with the recipes is that they need much longer in the oven than printed. And, yes, I have a separate oven thermometer to be sure that the oven is at the right temperature. Disappointing book.

I Loved watching Ace of Cakes for years! Duff truly seems like a family member to me! Reminds me of my nephew!! I want to go to Baltimore in hopes of meeting him someday!! Along with his team of Incredibly talented staff/friends that create the most awe inspiring cakes anyone could imagine!!
My husband surprised me on my birthday and gave me this cookbook!! I Love to bake anything and everything!! I was in my glory with this book!! Prepping ingredients for Duffs Whole Wheat Rustic Bread to make tomorrow. I can't say how many other recipes I've made from this book, but All Spectacular!! My sister is waiting for a festive birthday cake with fondant roses,,,I'm working my way there,
Thanks Duff for being even more of an inspiration!!

Has anyone made the old school sugar cookies? Did you have any trouble? I think the recipes ratios are way off, 3 cups butter + 4 extra large eggs + 1 yolk to 3 cups all purpose and 2 cups cake flour, the dough was very sticky, ended up making sugar cookies bars with the dough, no way that was rolling out.

I absolutely love reading through this book. While there are a few flaws, the photos and writing make this book fun and makes you excited to try new baking techniques. I ran into a jam in the fudge recipe and sent out a tweet. Duff actually responded which made my day! I definitely recommend it, maybe just wait for a revised version to fix a few errors.

What a unique find - inspirational as well as informative for every level of baker. Fun read even if you're not a baker and the recipes combined with the narratives are gems. Photos are just downright yummy - not too too.

What a unique find - inspirational as well as informative for every level of baker. Fun read even if you're not a baker and the recipes combined with the narratives are gems. Photos are just downright yummy - not too too.