The best new baking books

Cooler weather often is incentive enough to get people baking. But for those who need an extra push, the latest batch of baking cookbooks offers plenty of inspiration to get you in the mood. Here are the highlights:

"The Art & Soul of Baking" by Cindy Mushet and Sur la Table (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008). If you buy just one new baking book this season, make it this one. Gorgeously illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, "The Art & Soul of Baking" covers everything from essential equipment (after all, Sur la Table is a kitchen-supplies retailer) and pantry staples to chapters on savory breads, quick breads, tarts, pies, cookies and cakes, to name just a few.

The recipes are exceedingly detailed and include do-ahead tips, notes on equipment needed, advice on storing the finished treats and suggestions for variations. Reading this is a pleasant and enticing baking education.

Mushet's recipes for Rustic Olive and Thyme Bread and Nine-grain Whole-wheat Harvest Bread were easy to follow and produced delicious, attractive loaves.

"The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book" by the editors at America's Test Kitchen.

Jammed with tips, test kitchen reviews, more than 700 recipes and the usual highly opinionated and highly useful musings of the America's Test Kitchen staff (the folks behind Cook's Illustrated magazine), this also is a must-have for bakers.

Recipes with challenging steps often are accompanied by series of how-to photos, and those suitable for beginner bakers are nicely flagged. The vanilla layer cake and angel food cake recipes are aces.

Though similar ground is covered in both books (and with similar attention to detail), the "Family Baking Book" has more of a homespun feel. Mushet's book reads more like an ode to artisanal-style baking. Both are great but will appeal to different readers.

Also:

• If chocolate is your thing, check out Sara Perry and Zane Zwinger's "Deep Dark Chocolate" (Chronicle Books, 2008), a collection of 60 deliciously illustrated recipes featuring the title ingredient. Chapters include pies, tarts, puddings, chilled desserts, sauces and drinks.

• For small-scale inspiration, try Susannah Blake's "Cupcake Heaven" (Ryland, Peters & Small, 2008), which features 60 amusing and appealing ways of dressing cupcakes, including peanut butter and raspberry jelly, lemon meringue and coffee and praline.

• To try something different, there is Priscilla Warren's "The Pretzel Cookbook" (Running Press, 2008), an introduction to making and using (think sandwich fillings stuffed between halves of a soft pretzel) pretzels. The recipes are easy and inspired (as in choco-coconut pretzels).