Wayne Gisslen’s Professional Baking is my new baking Bible. If you need to bake anything, it will be in this one massive textbook. Learn how to make chocolate truffles, blown sugar decorations, Amish pretzels, brioches, éclairs, or petits fours all with easy-to-follow directions, diagrams, and pictures. The well laid out chapters cover everything from utensils, measurements, specialty ingredients, basic baking principles to advanced pastries and dessert presentations. There are general hints on why a cake, cookie, or pie might fail, and how to correct the problem. If you’re cooking for a huge gathering, an appendix of large-quantity measurements for recipes is included in the back. Gisslen also adds a chapter on special needs diets for gluten-free, low-fat, or low-sugar recipes. I really could go on and on about all the different types of recipes and instructions you can find in Professional Baking, so I’ll just stop here.