Customer Reviews

The Pie and Pastry Bible

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have only just discovered "reader reviews" and want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful thoughts you have shared about my work. I also want to address the people who are having trouble with one of my all time favorites--the lemon meringue pie. There is no mistake in this recipe. More yolks result in a thicker filling not a thinner one UNLESS they are not brought to a temperature of over 160 degrees fahrenheit to destroy the amylase--an enzyme which will, within hours, thin out the filling. Since the rest of the filling is boiling hot when contacting the yolks, this should ensure that the yolks get heated adequately but evidentally in some cases this must not be so. Perhaps the yolks were cold from the refrigerator. SOLUTION: As a safeguard, after adding the yolks, bring the mixture back to a boil. I promise it will not thin out if you do this! The cornstarch in the mixture will protect the yolks from curdling so don't be afraid. It's too good a pie to miss! All the best, Rose Levy Beranbaum

When I heard that Rose Levy Beranbaum was coming out with a new cookbook, I was very excited. The author of the Cake Bible and Rose's Christmas Cookies, she is known for her excellent recipes and very detailed instructions. Her new book, The Pie and Pastry Bible is no exception. The book contains not only 315 delectable recipes for pies,tarts, quiches and pastries but also has sections on techniques, ingredients,and equipment. She extensively covers these topics explaining, for example,how to make the perfect pie crust by giving step-by-step instructions on how to blend and measure flours, roll, cut, shape and bake the crust. In every recipe, if you follow her instructions to the letter, a three star dessert will be your reward.

In reviewing The Pie and Pastry Bible I made the Lemon Pucker Pie, Brownie Puddle, Great Pumpkin Pie, and the Open Faced Designer Apple Pie. Every recipe turned out and tasted wonderful. It is obvious that Rose Levy Berenbaum has tested every recipe to ensure perfect results. This book however, is for the professional or serious baker. To go through this amount of trouble to make something, you must really know and appreciate quality. This is not the sort of book you buy if you want to make something quickly as it could easily frustrate the novice baker. For example, making the apple pie involves many steps. The apples are first cut, mixed with ingredients, macerated for 30 minutes to 3 hours, and then placed in a colander to drain. The liquid is reduced and then re-added to the cut apples with cornstarch. This does result in a wonderful apple flavor, but is it worth the effort? When I weigh the extra time and effort involved, I would rather sacrifice a little taste and make it the old-fashioned easier way.  Rose Levy Beranbaum has aimed for perfection and this takes a lot of time and much effort. This is a great book for the serious baker who wants to make perfect pies and pastries and understand the science behind it. The recipes are given in both volume and weight, which I appreciate. She gives storing instructions for every recipe and pointers for success. At a list price of $35.00 it is a great textbook.

I hate to be a party pooper, but as much as one hopes to love this book, it was just too poorly written and edited. It has many terrific ideas for someone who has baked pies before, but for a newcomer like myself, the defects are pretty glaring. I bought the book because I love "The Cake Bible". But this time, the editor went to press before finishing her work, and I bet she's responsible for wasting many thousands of hours of her readers' time, considering how popular this book is.

In order to make crust using this book, you have to flip back and forth between many sections: the dough recipe, the rolling instructions, the laying out of the dough, and the baking are all in different places, in the wrong order, and not clearly labeled. I can see why this happened, because the rolling and baking are similar for different dough recipes, and she didn't want to repeat the same instructions over and over. But at least the sections should have been in order! Additional stories and comments are intermixed with the instructions, which makes it hard to follow the instructions once you find them. Different dimensions are given in different places for the size of the rolled dough you need. Sections headings are not consistently formatted--sometimes a new subsection is in the same style as the heading that started the section.

I'm a professional scientist and university professor, and I love to cook. I don't think I have any special impairment following instructions. The other reviewers who liked this book surely had the same experience, unless they knew ahead of time what they were doing, so I say to them: stop recommending this book so highly, except to experienced pie and tart bakers!

For making pastry the first time, I would use "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child instead, which manages to give all of the necessary instructions very clearly, in the correct order, in about two pages. Then buy Beranbaum's book and read it at leisure if you want inspiration and expert knowledge, and you don't mind an error here or there.

I hope there will be an easier-to-use second edition of this book. The tart I made was truly delicious, but the process made me angry. I'm guessing that the author or editor or publisher decided their deadline was more important than a final week of editing. What a shame.

As someone who had tried various pie-crust recipes over the years and never gotten it quite right, reading Berenbaum's aptly named bible was a revelation. The complex and rather unorthodox techniques for cutting in fat into the flour had me skeptical at first but, having tried several of the various crust recipes in this book, I will never make a crust the easy old way again. If you want to make consistently perfect, by which I mean delectably tender and flaky, crust, this book is for you. The cream-cheese crust that Berenbaum calls the soul of her book is alone worth the price of the book.

In addition, there's the fool-proof technique for ensuring an apple pie in which the juices cling just so to the apple slices yet puddle just a little on the plate -- no more runny apple pies. The multi-step technique, which involves macerating the apple slices, draining the liquid that forms, and boiling down the liquid to a syrup before baking, is time-consuming, but the results are worth it. I tried the apple pie recipe, and my husband rated it a 10! I am one reader who will never again simply toss the apple slices in sugar and bake, on the off-chance that the liquids might (or might not) reduce enough during baking.

The book is invaluable also for the understanding it gives the reader of how the various ingredients in pie crust work, e.g., why the addition of baking powder to pie crust is a must for flakiness, why the crust dough needs to be kneaded harder and longer to make it strong enough to wrap around a meat loaf or the filling of a turnover, etc.

I could go on and on about the merits of this book. Although I wish no one else would read it so that I could be the only person in the world (besides the author) who can make marvelous crust, I cannot help thinking this is a book that should not be kept a secret.

Now this is what folks mean when they talk about a definitive book. I will never have to purchase another pie and pastry how-to. This book covers it all with a depth that satisfies all questions. If you love Alton Brown and judiciously read all of the Cooks Illustrated background testing info, this book is for you. I am so happy with this book that I am not just looking up specific recipes, I am literally reading it as if it were a novel. (I am a curious cook.)

For the novice pie and pastry baker, you may think this will be too overwhelming for you. I think this is written in such a way that you will "get it" and thus start out making things correctly. For the experienced, this book is a problem solver and is the road to perfection.

This book contains more than 300 recipes. There are more than 15 recipes for pie crusts plus variations. With that said, obviously not every pie under the sun is here, but there is enough information for you to make improvements on any recipe that is not covered.

This book is so close to perfect, I gave it five stars. However, I do have some criticisms. First, this book needs to better catalog the recipes. The table of contents lists simply the chapters, such as fruit pies, tarts, custard pies etc. The chapters delve into the subject without listing the recipes. I would prefer that each chapter had a mini table of contents that listed individual recipes.

My second criticism is the altering of classic recipes to suit her personal tastes. I realize this is completely subjective, but if she were a Southerner, I wouldn't have to continue to hunt for recipes for chess pie and coconut custard pie. This is the same criticism I had of the Cook's Illustrated baking volume too. However, we're talking about two or three recipes in each book that I don't agree with, so the books were still worth the purchase.

Speaking of Cook's Illustrated, if I had to choose between this book and Baking Illustrated, I would go with this book. If both are an option for you, get both. Cook's does a good job of balancing flavor with speed. The bible series seems to be all about flavor with little regard to speed.

My last criticism is a minor one and I realize it is as subjective as the author's taste when writing the recipes; I find the language and recipe structure awkward at times. I think the Williams-Sononma Collection, while not the most exhaustive collection of recipes, is the best example of recipe writing.

I wanted to make pie crust from scratch for Thanksgiving, so I paid rush shipping charges to get this book here and it is worth the expense. I made a test basic flaky pie crust and it came out perfectly.

[....]

While I have found Rose Levy Beranbaum's other major tome "The Cake Bible" a source of nearly unending frustration, "The Pie and Pastry Bible" is a triumph. I can think of no other pastry book that comes close in either breadth or depth. Every pastry topic is covered in detail, and most recipes work as advertised, at least in experienced hands. Like the author's other books, everything is spelled out in glorious detail, and ingredient measures are given in both weight and volume. Most important, the formulations seem battle-tested, and I approach them with far more confidence than the recipes in "The Cake Bible."

The pie crust recipes are outstanding, and I like the fact that the finished pies are designed to slip out of the pan so you can serve them from a cutting board. The fruit pies are innovative and an extensive table takes the guesswork out of adding starch thickeners. The puff pastry, croissant, and Danish formulas work as advertised, and they produce a final product that simply cannot be bought. [Note: The King Arthur Green Mountain Gold flour recommended for the croissants is no longer available.] The food processor-based cream puff pastry is a wonderful improvement on the classic. Of course, there are a couple of clinkers (I wouldn't make the Buttermilk Chess Pie again), but my batting average with these recipes is higher than usual.

As other reviewers have noted, potential buyers should be aware that this is not a book for beginners. Pastries are among the most demanding of kitchen products to begin with, and the recipes in this book are often complex. As the author herself points out, pastry is a matter of technique. It's far easier for someone to show you how to make puff pastry than it is for a book to adequately describe it to you. In addition, yeast pastries, like croissants and Danish, take a more advanced kitchen than that required for other baked goods. Heat and humidity are principle players -- not just the ambient weather, but the fact that one moment you need a cool spot with low humidity to roll dough, and the next you need a warm spot with high humidity to rise it. That's not an easy combination to achieve in the average home kitchen.

Add to these inherent difficulties the author's willingness to espouse any technique and ingredient that will enhance the product, and the result is a collection of recipes that are often challenging, even to the well initiated. Simpler pastry recipes can certainly be found, but my experience is that something is usually lost in the process. Therefore, I recommend this book highly, but with qualifications. Experienced bakers will profit, but beginners could well find these recipes, and the kitchen requirements for following them, maddeningly complex.

This book can be great but only if you have a lot of time to invest in making a pie or tart. And, while Rose does do a masterful job of teaching the fine art of pastry making (and it is an art!) I think complete novices would be better off making do with a simpler book for awhile. But for those really serious about pastries and pies this book can be terrific. There are many recipes for different kinds of pastries as well as many different kinds of pie fillings. The directions are detailed and the illustrations mouth-watering. I enjoy it more than The Cake Bible because I don't find the recipes quite so exotic and so am able to use more of them, more often. Just be prepared to spend the entire afternoon or evening making one pie. On the plus side, if you follow Rose's directions, the time will certainly be time well spent.

One would expect such an authoritative volume on baking to come from a chunky Frenchman with a very tall toque and an accent you can cut with a pastry knife, not from the ever so sweet and coy face smiling at you from the back of the dust jacket of this very large book on a very serious subject. But, this book from this author should be no surprise at all, as it is the middle volume on a trilogy that does for baking what Tolkein did for epic fantasy in `Lord of the Rings'.

Before I even start to talk about the virtues of the book, just consider the difference in content you are receiving from Rose Levy Beranbaum's three books when compared to Ina Garten's three cookbooks. For a 30% addition to the price, Beranbaum is giving you approximately 300% more information. Another comparison is to compare Beranbaum's 2000 pages with the very authoritative sounding `King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion' weighing in at a mere 607 pages. That is just to put these works in perspective.

To most newbies, cooking may seem relatively easy, but one glimpse at what you need to make a decent pie crust has most novices running to the megamart refrigerated cases for those premade Pillsbury pie crusts. First, you have to pick the right ingredients. Can I use all-purpose flour or should I use pastry flour. Can I use King Arthur or should I use White Lily? Should I use butter or vegetable shortening or lard? Should I add vinegar or not? Should I add an egg yolk or not? Then, you have to be concerned about the weather. Is the barometer rising or falling? Is the air humid or dry? Then comes the technique. Do I use a pastry cutter or do I use my hands? How long do I work the flour and fat before adding the liquid? How much do I work it after adding the liquid? How long do I rest it before rolling it out? How do I lay the crust in the pan to avoid shrinking? What kind of pan do I use to bake the pie? Do I blind bake the crust for this pie? How long do I bake? What do I look for to know the bottom crust is done?

I'm exaggerating a little because many of these variables are usually well enough in control that they don't ruin a pie. But, every variable offers a way for things to go wrong. Now, millions of people, myself included, have successfully made good pie crusts without having read Ms. Beranbaum's book, but millions of people, myself included, have made pie crusts which just didn't make the grade. Rose Levy Beranbaum tells you why, and gives you all the information you need to avoid each and every problem.

One of the very few problems I find with Ms. Beranbaum's work is that there is so much information, it is difficult to whip out a simple recipe or find the solution to a simple problem without literally studying the information for some time. But, the only thing that means is that this book, however good, may not be for everyone. For the casual baker of pies, I strongly recommend Wayne Harley Brachman's `American Desserts'.

Ms. Beranbaum's book is for the serious baker and for people who really like to read about baking in order to troll for ideas and projects. The depth of information exceeds virtually every other work I have seen so far. Where other books give you measurements by both weight and volume, Ms. Beranbaum gives you measurements in both Metric and English system units. Where others recommend a fat to use, Ms. Beranbaum explains why the fat of choice should be used and how to make intelligent substitutions with various kinds of ingredients. While I have not yet read Shirley Corriher's book `Cookwise', Rose gives me the same kind of intimate knowledge of my ingredients and techniques as I would expect from Shirley. Rose even quotes Shirley's recipe for Southern biscuits as the model recipe for same.

Speaking of biscuits, if I were to write a tutorial on pastry making, I would probably start with biscuits. As Beranbaum points out, the techniques and results when making biscuits stand you almost exactly halfway between pastry crusts and cake making. I would add that it also puts you very close to the bread baking world, with a product where the time between cracking open the flour canister and pulling the finished product out of the oven can be less than 30 minutes. This makes biscuit baking a perfect intro. to baking in general. Needless to say, Ms. Beranbaum covers biscuits with her usual thoroughness.

I would very strongly recommend this and all of Ms. Beranbaum's books on baking as a perfect second book on their respective subjects. As a first book, get `Baking with Julia' and follow the directions with the diligence of a Viennese pastry master. Very highly recommend to those in love with baking. How can you possibly resist so sweet a smile on Ms. Beranbaum's face as she kneads her dough on the dust jacket?

Like The Cake Bible, this is a very detailed, incredibly researched book. Ms Berenbaum tolerates nothing short of perfection. If you're interested in EXACTLY how to make the perfect pie crust or puff pastry, this is for you. If you find analyses of Heckers flour vs King Arthur mind-numbing, you might want to pass it up and go back to the baking chapter of The Joy of Cooking.

Although it's geared towards the more serious baker, it's useful for novices too, as the instructions are very detailed and she goes to great lengths to explain why she does everything she does (this is good for bakers of all abilities, because some of her techniques are nontraditional).

Many of the recipes are time consuming, but they are worth it--gorgeous to look at and delicious to taste.

When I heard that Rose Levy Beranbaum was coming out with a new cookbook, I was very excited. The author of the Cake Bible and Rose's Christmas Cookies, she is known for her excellent recipes and very detailed instructions. Her new book, The Pie and Pastry Bible is no exception. The book contains not only 315 delectable recipes for pies, tarts, quiches and pastries but also has sections on techniques, ingredients, and equipment. She extensively covers these topics explaining, for example, how to make the perfect pie crust by giving step-by-step instructions on how to blend and measure flours, roll, cut, shape and bake the crust. In every recipe, if you follow her instructions to the letter, a three star dessert will be your reward.

In reviewing The Pie and Pastry Bible I made the Lemon Pucker Pie, Brownie Puddle, Great Pumpkin Pie, and the Open Faced Designer Apple Pie. Every recipe turned out and tasted wonderful. It is obvious that Rose Levy Berenbaum has tested every recipe to ensure perfect results. This book however, is for the professional or serious baker. To go through this amount of trouble to make something, you must really know and appreciate quality. This is not the sort of book you buy if you want to make something quickly as it could easily frustrate the novice baker. For example, making the apple pie involves many steps. The apples are first cut, mixed with ingredients, macerated for 30 minutes to 3 hours, and then placed in a colander to drain. The liquid is reduced and then re-added to the cut apples with cornstarch. This does result in a wonderful apple flavor, but is it worth the effort? When I weigh the extra time and effort involved, I would rather sacrifice a little taste and make it the old-fashioned easier way. Rose Levy Beranbaum has aimed for perfection and this takes a lot of time and much effort.

This is a great book for the serious baker who wants to make perfect pies and pastries and understand the science behind it. The recipes are given in both volume and weight, which I appreciate. She gives storing instructions for every recipe and pointers for success.