Best Pastry Cookbooks

Pastry cookbooks make wonderful gifts for those on your list who love to cook and bake. Pastry sometimes scares even the seasoned cook but it does not have to. There are some wonderful baking cookbooks on the market today that take the mystery out of how to prepare a good flaky crust. Pastries do not have to be sweet fruit pies, either.

There are all sorts of dishes that are a pastry that can be served as a breakfast meal, on the lunch menu and even for dinner. A pastry is a food that has a crust of some sort and that can be sweet as in a dessert but it can also be things like a quiche, a roll type item, a croissant or a meat wrapped in a flaky dough. It is the making of that wonderful flaky dough that often frightens cooks away but with the proper cookbook that can be taken away from even the novice home cook or budding chef.

The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition

Both pastry chefs and those who cook at home choose this cookbook as a great reference book and cookbook. Over 650 recipes are included in the book but what makes it stand out the most is the guidance given. Chef Bo Friberg gives instruction in how to prepare but also the principles behind the preparation of pastry so that a good foundation is formed and understood. Plenty of color photographs are also included.

Pastry: Savory and Sweet

Often the home cooks find pastry making rather frightening. Chef Michel Roux helps take the mystery out of pastry preparation with step by step directions and photographs. Learn to make both the sweet pastry recipes for pies and tarts but also the savory meals like quiche or a beef fillet wrapped in a brioche crust.

The Pie and Pastry Bible

Over 300 recipes for pies and pastries are featured in this cookbook. All sorts of pies from fruit pies and custard pies are included. Pastry is more than pie though so there are so several recipes for other types of pastries like scones, puff pastries and strudels to name just a few. There is also a section dedicated to different types of pastry crusts that can be used in the existing recipes or when you decide to make up one of your own starting with a delectable and flaky crust.

Standard Baking Co. Pastries

A cookbook for pastry written by the owner’s of a well known bakery in Portland, Maine. The bakery has been in operation since 1995 and is well known for its croissants, tarts and other pastries. Over 60 recipes are offered.

Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented

This is a wonderful cookbook that in the author’s words “reinvents” the pie. Great pie recipes that are shown in new and innovative ways to be served. Tired of making cupcakes? Make a pie pop instead! Instructions on how to make flaky pastry with a twist into new ways to delight the sweet tooth in all of us.

How many things can you make with cookie dough?

The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook: Cookies, Cakes, Candies, and More

Spiral bound for easy use in the kitchen. 

Well there are the cookies but in this cookbook you find that you can take this basic little concoction and make so many wonderful desserts that use the dough for cookies. You can make custards, cakes and a variety of other delicious treats using a dough that is free of eggs and really tasty. How about some cookie dough fudge for the kids? The recipe is in the book. Is it a hot day and the kids want Popsicles? Make them some with the dough of cookies! The cookbook offers 176 pages full of ideas from pizza to doughnuts and more. What a fun book to include in any kitchen!

The Pastry Chef’s Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional

With more than 4,800 terms and definitions from around the world plus ten appendices filled with helpful resources, The Pastry Chef’s Companion combines the best features of a dictionary and an encyclopedia. In addition to the current terminology of every component of pastry, baking, and confectionary arts, this book provides important information about the origin and historical background of many of the terms. Moreover, it offers coverage of flavor trends, industry practices, key success factors, a resources list, illustrations, and phonetic pronunciations.  

Laduree: The Sweet Recipes

A must-have with scrumptious recipes from the world-famous Ladurée tea shop Ladurée reveals the secrets of their magical macaroons for the first time ever Features padded cover, gold edges, and a beautiful gift box 100 recipes of pastry chef of the prestigious Ladurée known and recognized by gourmets around the world The story of Ladurée started in 1862 when Louis Ernest Ladurée opened a bakery in the heart of Paris at 16, rue Royale.

In 1997 Ladurée opened a tea-room/restaurant on the prestigious Champs-Elysées, followed by other Parisian addresses and international tea-rooms in London, Dublin, Geneva, Monaco, Tokyo, Milan and soon New York. In this book Philippe Andrieu, the Pastry Chef at Ladurée, reveals 100 of the most famous Ladurée recipes, adapted for the general public.

From the Strawberry Cake with Rose Choux Pastry to Pistachio Financiers and the world-famous macaroons in all their variety, this icon of French “art de vivre” is brought to life in a pallet of pastries the colour of powder pink, light green, bright purple, and lemon yellow.  

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