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Title: The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum ISBN: 0-684-81348-3 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 11 November, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (52 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Too Time Consuming
Comment: I'm a housewife who has all day to bake if I wish to but the results should be perfect. I followed all of the instructions perfectly for the apple pie. After several hours of preparation, using a baking stone covered with foil, a temperature of 425 degrees (preheated for 20 minutes), etc., the pie was just okay. The bottom crust browned but was soggy, the filling tasted good but was undercooked. I reduced the liquid from the macerated apples to just above the 1/3 cup recommended. However, it never bubbled out of the top of the crust and didn't thicken in the pie (I used the cornstarch on the apples as instructed). If I had cooked it any longer (10 min. longer than recommended didn't help), the pie crust on top would have been shoe leather. The top crust was delicious and flaky and looked beautiful. I did learn to fill the pie pan with the crust and refrigerate it before cooking to prevent shrinkage and produce flakiness. I plan on trying another recipe in this book in the future but I know now to devote my entire day to each recipe. I can't imagine baking tons of holiday pies with so many steps to take for each one. I have been looking for the ultimate pie crust secrets and this book is good for providing information on flours, chilling factors, etc.. Cooking is my hobby so as a textbook, it will be extremely helpful.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant Book -- A True Bible
Comment: This really is a glorious book, a must-have for any serious baker. Her cream cheese crust is unparalleled in my experience for achieving the perfect flaky texture of a pie crust. And the chocolate-peanut butter tart has quickly become a family favorite. Detailed recipes are a great help for the relative novices out there. For the more experienced cook, you can easily incorporate many of her ideas and tips without taking too much extra time. And I've been known to take a few shortcuts too, still with excellent results.
It's quite helpful how she provides ingredients by weight or measure, something that's rare for an American cookbook. And her tips on understanding what's happening "behind the scenes" of the recipe appeal to the amateur chemist in me.
I also own the Cake Bible by Beranbaum and, while it is the cookbok that won awards, I far prefer the Pie and Pastry Bible. The recipes suit my taste better and are much more likely to elicit the "oohs" and "aahs" that good cooks love to hear.
Rating: 5
Summary: My kind of cookbook
Comment: This is a cookbook for the perfectionist. If you like to understand exactly why things work the way they do so that you can be in control of your baking projects, then this is the book for you. If you get excited at the thought of being empowered to create pastries more delectable than the very best you have ever tasted at the finest gourmet pastry shoppes, then you owe it to yourself to get this book.
If you'd rather not be bothered with too many niggling details and just want something quick that reliably comes out OK, even if you use the wrong type of flour, then stick with the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
Be warned. These recipes generally don't have much margin for sloppiness built into them, the way ones from other cookbooks do. That's why they taste so good when they are done correctly. You should read all of the background information on a topic before you start baking. Rose's backgrounders are interesting, helpful, well-written and will make you a better baker. At the absolute minimum, you must follow the recipes to the letter. No substitutions or shortcuts whatsoever can be allowed unless you've read all the background information so that you know *exactly* what you are doing.
I can see only two legitimate grievances. The structure of the book is sometimes a bit scattered, which often makes it necessary to flip through to a half-dozen different places to get through a single project, and, (although this is not a concern for me) Rose makes no mention that I can see of what sort of adjustments one might make to achieve perfection at 9000 feet above sea level, and I could see how someone up in the Rockies might run into some difficulties.
I can only think of one other "downside": Your own baking will spoil you for anything else.
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Title: The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum ISBN: 0688044026 Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks Pub. Date: 20 September, 1988 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum ISBN: 0393057941 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum ISBN: 0688101364 Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks Pub. Date: 04 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart, Ron Manville ISBN: 1580082688 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook by King Arthur Flour ISBN: 0881505811 Publisher: Countryman Pr Pub. Date: 25 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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