Kathleen's Bake Shop Cookbook: The Best Recipes from Southhampton's Favorite Bakery for Homestyle Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Muffins, and Breads

These basic recipes will not challenge an experienced baker, but they will frustrate the novice. King, proprietor of a Southampton, N.Y., bakery, presumes a thorough understanding of the terminology and techniques essential to her craft. Instructions are minimal, with no glossary to advise the uninitiated: woe betide the beginner who does not know how to stir the muffin batter without destroying the texture of the finished product or how to knead bread dough. The already skilled, on the other hand, may not be tempted by what are primarily King's versions of classics--brownies, chocolate-chip cookies, French bread, pound cake, etc. (An exception is the more innovative chapter devoted to ``Healthy Goodies,'' which introduces several oat-bran breads and low-fat treats.) Connoisseurs, however--those for whom variations in the proportions of fats to leavens command passionate scrutiny--will make room in their repertoires for such standouts as an extra-tart lemon meringue pie and a particularly rich shortbread. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Mar.)