Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$7.09 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $2.14 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever [Hardcover]

Sherry Yard (Author), Wolfgang Puck (Foreword)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

List Price: $35.95
Price: $23.65 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $12.30 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 11 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Thursday, February 2? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover, Bargain Price $14.38  
Hardcover, November 1, 2007 $23.65  
Unknown Binding --  

Book Description

November 1, 2007
Spago’s pastry chef to the stars and author of the James Beard Award-winning Secrets of Baking shares the recipes that propelled her to the top of her profession

Night after night at Spago in Beverly Hills, Sherry Yard dazzles the powerful, rich, and famous with incredible desserts. Her marvelous confections have won over patrons from Madonna to Frank Sinatra. Now the country’s premier pastry chef reveals the recipes that have made her a star in her own right and won her two coveted James Beard Awards.

Desserts by the Yard begins with inspirations from Yard’s childhood, such as My Favorite White Birthday Cake with Chocolate and Butter Fudge Frosting, and culminates in the spectacular creations she makes every year for the Academy Awards. Included here are some of Yard’s most famous recipes: the slinky crcme brulée she perfected when she worked at New York’s Rainbow Room, the coffeecake that made Campton Place Hotel San Francisco’s most popular breakfast spot, and the souffléed crcme fraîche pancakes with strawberry sauce she learned in Vienna. Don’t miss the chocolate caramel tart that Hugh Grant loves, former President Clinton’s favorite oatmeal raisin cookies, or the treat that made actress Suzanne Pleshette exclaim, “Bitch! You’re gonna make me fat!”

Desserts don’t get easier than Yard’s No-Bake Cheesecake, more decadent than Chocolate Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Gelato, or more holiday-perfect than Triple Silken Pumpkin Pie. In sidebars to each recipe, Yard shares tricks and techniques along with hilarious anecdotes that show her pluck, determination, and generosity.

Frequently Bought Together

Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever + The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts + Baking: From My Home to Yours
Price For All Three: $85.46

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together
  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts $35.95

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

  • Baking: From My Home to Yours $25.86

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details



Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sherry Yard, the executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck's restaurants, has cast her Desserts by The Yard as a culinary autobiography, organizing its recipes in chapters like "Brooklyn Inspirations" and "London Interlude." This novel approach may frustrate readers seeking, say, cakes all in one place, but helps make the book the fresh and compelling success it is.

The recipes do the rest. Yard has included a wide range of sweets that either polish old favorites--see her Black-and-White Cookies (from Brooklyn days) and Flourless Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping (a London creation)--or that invent in ways both enticing and doable. Formulas like Buttermilk Cheesecake; Rhubarb, Apple, and Fennel Crumble; or Concord Grape Soufflés give some idea of her imaginative range, which is, however, always tethered to practicality and good taste. New and seasoned cooks alike will also appreciate her technical niceties (for example, to help soufflés rise, smear butter upwards when greasing mold sides), as well as Sherri's Secrets (for pithless citrus segments, dip them first in cold water then scrape with the back of a knife). With a tempting-in-itself section on basics like Creamy Caramel Sauce, and dozens of color photos, this is a special baking book in every way. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Brooklyn-born Yard worked her way up to reign as Hollywood and Beverly Hills queen of sweet. Executive pastry chef of Puck's Spago empire, she annually creates 1,700 or so perfect desserts for the Governors Ball following the Oscars, such as mousse-filled chocolate boxes on power-painted red carpets the year Julia Roberts won for Erin Brockovich. But Yard hasn't forgotten the rapturous tastes of her childhood; along with celeb-studded, look-at-me tales of her lofty successes, she offers tender memories and recipes for such favorites as Italian bakery Rainbow Cookies. Yard actually delivers what every cookbook promises: news for the professional and foolproof secrets for the avid amateur. From her finger-stirred sugar–water–corn syrup caramel to her assembly-line masterpieces, every ingredient is necessary and every direction makes sense. Fruit desserts, her special passion, transport the reader to Eden. Comprehensive, well-organized and meaningfully illustrated, Yard's book may be the new dessert bible. Color photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (November 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0618515224
  • ISBN-13: 978-0618515226
  • Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.4 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
 (21)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Restaurant Cookbook / Memoir Buy it Now., November 7, 2007
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever (Hardcover)
`Desserts by the Yard' is by Sherry Yard, possibly the most prominent pastry chef in the United States today, as the Executive Pastry Chef to all of Wolfgang Puck's many restaurants, a winner of the best pastry chef award from the James Beard Foundation, and the author of the James Beard Award winning first book, `The Secrets of Baking'. When I reviewed her first book, I considered it one of the finest books on baking technique I have read. Since that time, I've seen several others which may be as good and even one from another restaurant pastry chef, Kate Zuckerman's `The Sweet Life'. But it is still a major achievement for someone responsible for so many restaurant responsibilities.
This book is much different. It is also much different from almost any other book of restaurant dessert recipes I've seen. The heart of the difference is that it reflects Ms. Yard's own career, beginning with her early experiences growing up in Brooklyn through her Academy Award banquet and `Iron Chef' appearances. In following this course, Ms. Yard has succeeded again in giving us one of the best restaurant baking books I have seen to date.
I am fully aware that this book's strong appeal for me lies in the large number of recipes which fit my particular interest and ethnic background (Austro-Hungarian). Strongly influenced by Herr Puck, with whom Sherry has been working for over twelve (12) years, her Spago era recipes contain many famous Austrian influenced desserts. What is so remarkable about the Puck - Yard collaboration is that Mademoiselle Sherry often disagrees vigorously with her boss, and usually wins. For his part, Puck is more than happy to go along with his pastry wonder woman, as the strong respect seems totally mutual.
My favorite aspects of the book, aside from the delightful snippets of memoir are:
Linzer Torte recipe. Even Wolfgang wasn't interested in this Austrian classic, until Yard produced a supremely moist version.
Strudel recipe. This is by far the most complicated recipe in the book, as making strudel dough is as much an athletic as a culinary exercise. It is similar to, but not the same as the Greek phyllo dough.
Dobos torte recipe. Another Austrian classic, taking about as much work as the strudel, but as totally impressive as a bouche de Noel or a baked Alaska.
Bill Clinton's Oatmeal cookies - The president could not eat chocolate, so Sherry wheeled out these delicious cookies. This is the first time I've seen it mentioned that the trick with oatmeal cookies is that you must work fast, or the oatmeal will absorb all the moisture and leave you with dry cookies.
Charlotte Russe - The dessert on the cover, for which Ms. Yard provides the recipe for the ladyfingers, and over which she and Wolfgang had a major row!
No Bake Cheesecakes - One of many relatively simple recipes. If Sherry Yard can make no-bake cheesecake, who am I to turn my nose up at it!
The English Interlude recipes, including Crumpets, Scones, Devonshire cream, Lemon Tea Biscuits, trifle, treacle tart, and peach melba. All are simple are delightful.
The large number of recipes which use fresh fruit, but which are not traditional pies. The version of Tarte Tatin is especially fascinating, in that it uses puff pastry and no pan! The most interesting of these was the rhubarb, apple, and fennel crumble recipe. Who would have thought of combining rhubarb and fennel!
The recipe for Lime-scented Floating Islands from her appearance as an assistant to Wolfgang on the `Iron Chef America Master Series' show. Unfortunately, she does not give us her technique for spinning sugar by hand, which made a big impression when we saw her do in on the show. This is the first time I've seen an `Iron Chef America' recipe in print anywhere.
The excellent tips and tricks given along the way and the concise section on basic techniques at the back of the book. The most novel and interesting suggestion was Sherry's statement that she prefers baking cake layers in half sheet pans rather than the traditional round pans. The second most interesting suggestion was the fact that cake crumbs are one of the most useful utility ingredients to have around, and Sherry gives several recipes which use them. The third most interesting suggestion was that a streusel topping should be made separately from the fruit filling, and heated on top of the fruit at the last minute.
The sure sign that this is book has something to offer is the fact that I read it from cover to cover in one sitting, and hardly noticed the time going by. If you are on the lookout for exceptional desserts, described by one of the craft's leading practitioners, this IS the book for you.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Glamorous, creative desserts in the comfort of your own home, April 6, 2008
This review is from: Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever (Hardcover)
"Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever," by Sherry Yard, is a combination baking book and memoir. Each recipe is accompanied by an excerpt from the author's life, from the `A&P Strawberry Sodas' inspired by her grandmother to the `Banded Layer Cakes' she created for the 67th Oscars. The book introduced me to Yard's recipes, though I was familiar with her work beforehand because I saw her on an episode of "Iron Chef" as one of Wolfgang Puck's sous chefs. She was in charge of making the various sweets and pastries that would be presented to the judges, and when she decorated the dishes with spun sugar watching her hands form the ethereally golden strands was breathtaking to say the least.

"Desserts by the Yard" contains an impressive collection of tempting recipes, some of my favorites including `Gingersnap Toaster-Oven Tarts with Peach Filling' (think high-end pop tarts), `Chocolate-Covered Chocolate-Mint Cookies,' `Apfelstudel' (Apple Strudel) and `Pistachio Gelato.' The `Ring of Saturn Peach "Doughnuts"` were also a hit, combining delicious ingredients like anise biscotti and macerated peaches into a treat that's dusted with confectioner's sugar, then served with vanilla ice cream. Recipes range in skill-level from basic to advanced and I appreciated how several of them allowed me to stretch my culinary knowledge. I had to make the `Fig Bars,' which are essentially homemade fig newtons, a few times before the texture was just right, for instance. Yet the treats I found myself making over and over again happened to be the ones that satisfied my simpler tastes: `President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies' and `Soft Pretzels.' The cookies were a huge hit at the office with two dozen cookies disappearing at lightening speed, while two (soon to be three?) batches of pretzels have already made an appearance in my kitchen. With the exception of one recipe, for `Forbidden Rice Pudding,' I was hugely satisfied with all the dishes I made. Yard even included something for Fido: a recipe for `Real Doggy Treats' made with honey, wheat flour, cornmeal and chicken stock. My Labrador Retriever certainly appreciated those!

Chapters include: Brooklyn Inspirations; New York City: From Cigarette Girl to Pastry Chef; London Interlude; Go West, Young Gal: San Francisco and Napa; Spago Hollywood; Farmers' Market Inspirations; Vienna Interlude; Spago Beverly Hills; Chinois on Main; Special Events; and the Academy Awards.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Global adventure of Desserts, November 7, 2007
This review is from: Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever (Hardcover)
"Desserts by the Yard" is more then a "cookbook"
Each receipe has a story of the author's life and what part of the world she created the easy to bake with a photograpy that makes you want to lick the pages.....
Sherry's receipe for her cover photo of Charlotte russe was my favorite dessert when I was growing up in New York
and now I can share this with my children & grandchildren
My college granddaughter is reading this book as a Biography and loving Sherry's story.
I strongly recomend this book as a gift and get one for yourself to enjoy the read and the "eat" of this wonderful book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pâte sucrée, vanilla sugar, rotate the pan from front, stand mixer fitted, stray granules, linzer dough, chocolate into the cream, spray the parchment, half sheet pan, scrape down the bowl, ice cream maker following, cup brewed espresso, heatproof bowl set, medium heatproof bowl, bowl after each addition, tap the bowl, silicone mat, large bowl with ice, kitchen torch, other coffee liqueur, whisk attachment, yuzu juice, pan spray, ounces bittersweet chocolate, paddle attachment
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Grand Marnier, New York, Rainbow Room, Tia Maria, Sherry's Secrets, Iron Chef, Campton Place, Beverly Hills, Seven-Bean Vanilla Ice Cream, San Francisco, Joe Baum, Governors Ball, Sunset Boulevard, Michel Cluizel Noir Infini, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Lyle's Golden Syrup, Special Olympics, Jack Daniel, Leon's Bakery, Devonshire Cream, Granny Smith, Tribeca Grill, Charlotte's Place
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(10)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject