I had tried many of Dorie's recipes found online, and loved every one of them. My husband loved them. Even my 5yo daughter's favorite cookies and cupcakes are Dorie's recipes. So I finally just bought the book. The only thing I miss is a picture with every recipe. And no statement on how amazingly, addictively, good is the "All-in-one" cake.
The thing that makes this book a must have is not just that it's massive, with every type of cake/cookie/pie out there, but that each recipe includes variations, sometimes unexpected, tripling the number of recipes. I made parmesan sables (a variation on the basic sable) last week and they were scrumptious. So one can find the appropriate recipe for any occasion. And every single thing I made has been delicious. How many cookbooks can you say that about?
I find Dorie's descriptions of different stages incredibly helpful ("don't worry if the batter looks curdled at this point", "mix it until it looks satiny", ...). As well as her general intros (e.g., difference in the texture of pie crust made with butter vs. shortening), or techniques on how to make light doughs (what butter mixed into the flour should look like). And the fact that she tells you what can be frozen and how, that's such a great tip.
One thing I am not crazy about, but not worth taking away even 1/2 the star: the index. Could be more readable (there are so many subheadings that they go on the following pages and then it's hard to know what they are under), and some things have not been listed under their actual names (e.g., my beloved "All-in-one-cake" is not listed as its own heading, but as a subheading under "apple", which happens to be one of the ingredients).