“The Chew: An Essential Guide to Cooking and Entertaining,”

edited by Ashley Archer (Kingswell, $19.99)

The fourth in a string of best-sellers from ABC’s popular daytime talk show, this cookbook presents some of the most downloaded recipes from the show’s library of 4,000.

The book begins with basics such as omelet in a jar, slow-roasted salmon with avocado salad and cheesy hasselback potatoes. It continues with comfort food (hush puppies, slow-cooker mac and cheese, shepherd’s pie), family favorites (pizza rolls, chicken cacciatore, apple cake with cream cheese frosting), old and new favorites (hash brown frittata, chicken meatballs marsala, grilled cheese and tomato casserole), and guilty pleasures (cinna-bacon pie, pineapple upside-down monkey bread, s’mores cream puffs).

Interspersed are lively pictures of the hosts — Mario Batali, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly, Daphne Oz and Michael Symon — plus cooking tips, Q&As and a few pages dedicated to techniques.

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Joleen Oshiro, Star-Advertiser

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“Baking with Mary Berry,”

by Mary Berry (DK Publishing, $19.95)

Those who watched “The Great British Baking Show” will remember Mary Berry as one of the two judges — the other being U.K. artisan baker Paul Hollywood — who tasted their way to picking the top baker of each season.

Berry, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris when she was 17, has published more than 80 cookery books in six decades.

Her latest brings a variety of easy English desserts into American homes.

The “Breakfast Goods” section begins with flapjacks, but don’t expect pancakes. The British flapjack consists of butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and oats and looks more like an energy bar. She also has recipes for Danish pastries, coffee eclairs, Viennese fingers, brandy snaps (one of the desserts contestants had to make on “The Great British Baking Show”), Wimbledon cake and a variety of pavlovas, a dessert listed in Mimi Sheraton’s 2014 book “1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die” (Workman Publishing, $24.95).

If you’ve dined at Bills Sydney in Waikiki and eaten the delicious pistachio pavlova, consider trying one of Berry’s three pavlova recipes. Like many dishes in the cookbook, her pavlova pastry is simple to execute and can accommodate various preferences, once the base is baked. Use your imagination to change up the filling. Bills Sydney, for example, adds a seasonal fruit compote and yogurt ice cream filling.

One last note: The “Techniques” section is great for newbie bakers. It covers the basics on cakes, including information on preparing pans and how to test and cool the finished product. She also has a few illustrated instructions on pastry basics (crusts, doughs), steamed puddings and egg whites.

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Michelle Ramos, Star-Advertiser

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“The Everyday Baker: Recipes & Techniques for Foolproof Baking,”

by Abigail Johnson Dodge (The Taunton Press, $40)

I’m a lazy baker. If I see a recipe with a long list of ingredients, I’ll salivate over the picture and move on. If I see the words “knead dough,” I’ll admire the crusty loaves of carbs and move on. (This is why the only breads I make come out of Pillsbury cans.) And if I see a cookbook that reminds me of my high school history books, with pages and pages of text, I’ll usually move on (unless there is an extremely scrumptious-looking item, in which case I’ll search for the recipe to see how long it is … and then move on).

So when the textbook-looking “The Everyday Baker” landed on my desk, I wasn’t excited. I skimmed the book and put it aside. Then, I wanted to test Mary Berry’s pavlova recipe (see story at left) which required making egg look “like clouds” before adding sugar and beating until “stiff and glossy.” I vaguely remembered hearing that egg whites should be at room temperature before beating, but I wasn’t sure. Then I remembered I had “The Everyday Baker” and looked up “egg whites” (yes, I could have Googled it, but the book was right there).

This is what the book said: “While it’s easiest to separate the egg whites when the eggs are cold, they get the most volume when at room temperature. So separate first and then warm to room temp before beating.” Aha! I separated the egg whites and then sat down to see what other hidden secrets “The Everyday Baker” had to tell me. There were a lot.

Dodge covers everything, from types of sugar to what kind of knife to use for specific cutting jobs. Another tip: If you don’t have superfine sugar, “make your own by whizzing the same amount (volume or weight) of granulated sugar in a food processor until the granules are pulverized.”

I found both those suggestions (and many more) within the first 33 pages.

The remaining 565 pages contain recipes for cookies, cakes, breads, pastries and more, with useful “essential techniques” with every recipe.

These illustrated how-tos range from piping filling to crimping dough. Even for those who already know the techniques, the pictures are useful in envisioning the stages of a recipe. For example, in the recipe for rough puff pastry, photos help explain instructions to chop and cut “until the dough comes together, is shaggy …” In the Brown Butter-Almond Lace Cookies recipe, bakers can see what color brown butter should be and what it looks like when the butter is burnt.

Dodge’s book was much more interesting than the history books I had to read, and a lot more useful, too.

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Michelle Ramos, Star-Advertiser