Here's an excellent source for your baking needs.(Food)(From the food editor)

I'm pretty lucky. When my egg whites get watery or my cake falls, I have a Rolodex full of experts to consult. I've called Baking Secrets columnist Annie Overboe more than once when faced with cookies that brown too quickly on the bottom or a pie that doesn't set.

Now, there's a book that's can be your baking lifeline and it comes from one of my favorite sources, the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine.

"Baking Illustrated: The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker" (America's Test Kitchen, $35), brings cooks inside the test kitchens at the acclaimed magazine to see how test cooks and editors determined the flakiest croissant, the moistest devil's food cake and the perfectly spiced cinnamon rolls.

"Developing a friendly croissant recipe left some test cooks at wit's end," says Cook's Illustrated founder and editor Christopher …