Sally’s Baking 101 is formally out on this planet! After 3 years of labor, tons of of recipe checks, and numerous flour-covered counters, I can hardly imagine I get to carry this guide in my fingers… and that it’s lastly in your fingers, too.
To have fun the discharge, I assumed it could be enjoyable to share the behind-the-scenes journey of how this guide got here to life. From constructing the desk of contents, to chopping down an 80,000-word manuscript, to photographing recipes throughout all 4 seasons… right here’s how we made Sally’s Baking 101.
Please meet the workforce behind Sally’s Baking 101:
(Not pictured: James, Lexi, Allie, and Trina, or my wardrobe stylist, Danielle Wooden, and all of my recipe testers!)
Writing Sally’s Baking 101 has been the most important mission of my profession. In actual fact, it took three years from the very first proposal draft to holding the completed guide in my fingers. I wish to take you behind the scenes not simply of the recipe growth, however the numerous hours, edits, images, and choices that went into making a baking guide of this caliber.
Why 3 Years?
After I started the proposal in 2022, I deliberately requested for a protracted deadline. I wished to provide this guide the time and a focus it deserved whereas nonetheless operating my web site, creating new content material for you, and maintaining with the day-to-day. This wasn’t going to be a rush job. It was going to be the type of guide I’d be happy with a long time from now. A real reference and instructing information, not only a assortment of recipes.
And let me let you know: it was extra kitchen work than I’ve ever achieved in my profession.
Constructing the Desk of Contents
You’d suppose step one could be leaping into recipe testing. However truthfully? We spent nearly your complete three years tweaking the desk of contents.
My co-author Beth and I obsessed over the movement of the guide. What abilities did we wish to train? Which recipes made essentially the most sense subsequent to one another? How might we construct a construction that took a newbie baker by the hand, whereas nonetheless conserving skilled bakers impressed?
I began by pulling 31 recipes straight from my web site. Assume: the classics which have turn into neighborhood favorites and that I knew needed to be on this guide, together with pizza dough, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, banana bread, and extra. These shaped the muse. From there, we constructed out the chapters with new and thrilling recipes, flavors, and methods. We pushed ourselves to transcend our consolation zones—not simply to study new abilities, however to translate them into teachable ideas for you.
Recipe Testing & Retesting
Every recipe was examined, retested, and in some circumstances reduce or utterly rewritten. Some got here collectively shortly; others took dozens of rounds. Beth and I’d tag-team: I’d run checks in my kitchen, she’d do the identical, after which we’d evaluate notes and make changes.
Beginning in 2023, I shared just a few posts concerning the cookbook recipe testing course of:
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 1 (2023)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 2 (2023)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 3 (2024)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 4 (2024)
And, clearly, these posts don’t even cowl 1 / 4 of the recipes within the guide! There have been days when my kitchen seemed like a flour explosion. We went by way of kilos of butter, luggage of flour, mountains of chocolate, and so many cartons of eggs that I misplaced depend. Grocery retailer runs 3, 4x per day as a result of we ran out of one thing. And nonetheless, we by no means rushed the method. If one thing wasn’t working, we went again to the drafting board.
It wasn’t simply me and Beth within the kitchen, although. My workforce member Lexi examined many of the recipes within the guide. I additionally employed Amanda Yee, who lives abroad, to bake by way of the recipes with completely different elements and instruments. As a result of what works in my kitchen within the U.S. would possibly act in another way abroad. On high of that, we had over a dozen extra recipe testers who supplied suggestions, requested questions, and helped make sure that each element was clear and dependable.
Recipe testing is one thing I take very, very severely. For the guide, I wished every recipe to not solely style unimaginable, however to additionally give you the results you want the very first time you attempt it. That meant being obsessive about directions, troubleshooting, and ensuring nothing was left to likelihood.
Writing (and Reducing) the Manuscript
The manuscript ballooned to about 80,000 phrases. That’s a small novel! Each recipe got here with detailed notes, troubleshooting ideas, and step-by-step explanations. As you’ll be able to think about, it needed to be pared down to suit the web page depend. Reducing phrases is painful, particularly whenever you like to over-explain (hello, it’s me), however in the long run the guide is tighter, extra targeted, and simpler to make use of.
Photographs of take a look at recipes:
The Pictures Course of
I’m the photographer behind each recipe picture on this cookbook, aside from those the place I’m truly within the shot! These have been taken by my longtime videographer, Stronz.
Pictures was a mission all its personal. It took us 10–12 months to finish as a result of I didn’t wish to rush it. Sure elements wanted to be in season, and I wished the images to mirror the freshest, most vibrant model of every bake. We shot a bulk of the guide in April 2024.
To deliver the guide to life visually, I employed two stylists: Giulietta, a prop stylist with a literal warehouse filled with dishes, linens, boards, and backdrops for each temper and mission you’ll be able to think about, and Diana, an excellent meals stylist. Collectively, they turned my cookbook dream workforce. Giulietta would arrive with crates of props that made every picture really feel heat and welcoming, whereas Diana had the magical means to make each swirl of frosting and each flaky pie crust look its best possible.
Each single recipe has a photograph. The three of us photographed in batches, ready for berries, peaches, apples, or cranberries and so forth to come back into season. Every picture wanted to do greater than look fairly—it wanted to show. You’ll discover that there are plenty of step-by-step educational images. That was intentional.
We cherished working collectively a lot that they now assist me with images for my web site, too. They’re gifted, artistic, and endlessly enjoyable to be round—and I really couldn’t have requested for a greater workforce to assist deliver Sally’s Baking 101 to life on the web page.
The Emotional Facet
I gained’t sugarcoat it (pun meant): it was exhausting. Writing Sally’s Baking 101 wasn’t only a mission, it was a marathon. There have been loads of joyful moments, but additionally loads of occasions it felt impossibly arduous. My kitchen became a revolving door of elements, take a look at batches, failures, and victories. There have been late nights after I was exhausted (after a protracted day engaged on the guide, operating my web site, and parenting) however needed to pull one other tray of cookies from the oven. Days when a recipe failed for the tenth time in a row and I puzzled if it could ever work.
It took literal blood, sweat, and tears. There have been occasions I cried from frustration, occasions I used to be so drained I couldn’t take a look at one other bowl of batter, and occasions I stated, “what did I get myself into? I can’t do that.”
However then there have been the breakthroughs. The second a recipe lastly clicked, the day the desk of contents got here collectively, the primary time I noticed a completed chapter laid out with images and phrases. These moments made each arduous day value it.
This guide demanded all the things from me: my time, vitality, creativity, and resilience. And whereas it pushed me additional than any mission earlier than, it additionally gave me my proudest skilled accomplishment so far.
That is the guide I’ve all the time wished to jot down.
And whereas three years felt like endlessly on the time, it was completely value it.
Now that Sally’s Baking 101 is on this planet, I take a look at it and consider all of the hours, choices, and teamwork that made it doable. It’s greater than a set of recipes—it’s a real guidebook for bakers at each stage. And it was a workforce mission.
And I couldn’t have achieved it with out you. My readers, my associates, my household, my neighborhood. For over a decade, you’ve trusted me together with your kitchens, your celebrations, and your on a regular basis bakes. Your suggestions, images, questions, and encouragement are what fueled this guide from begin to end.
This cookbook is my thanks. It’s a useful resource constructed from all the teachings we’ve shared, the classics you’ve cherished, and the brand new challenges I can’t wait so that you can attempt. My hope is that it conjures up you, teaches you, and offers you confidence each time you activate the oven.
From the underside of my coronary heart: thanks for baking alongside me all these years. I can’t wait to see what you make first.
Sally’s Baking 101 is accessible in all places books are offered beginning at the moment. Completely satisfied launch day, associates!
Photograph credit score: Stronz Vanderploeg
