The Perfect Pie: More Than 125 All-Time Favorite Pies & Tarts [Paperback]

Susan G. Purdy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2000

A warm slice of apple pie with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream. A not-too-tart sour cherry pie with a soft, flaky, almond-scented crust.  A towering lemon meringue pie with a tart lemony filling and a cloudlike meringue topping. Whether it's a buttery pastry or graham cracker crust, a fruit or chocolate cream filling, or a lattice crust or cinnamon streusel topping, who doesn't love a wedge of freshly baked pie?
But when it comes to making pies, most people hide in the kitchen corner. Not any-more. Not with expert piemaker and cooking teacher Susan G. Purdy by your side. From traditional classics like Old-Fashioned Apple Pie, Mississippi Mud Pie, and Key Lime Pie to inspired favorites like Rum-Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, Italian Ricotta Cheese Pie, and Grass-hopper Pie, The Perfect Pie features simple recipes for dazzling pies, tortes, tarts, and crisps. Flawless crusts and an enormous selection of fillings are as easy as pie. With step-by-step illustrations, clever shortcuts, and troubleshooting tips, Susan is with you every step of the way. The Perfect Pie guarantees that your pies will be perfect every time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Inclusive to a fault, this compendium of more than 125 recipes for pies, tarts, strudels and fruit dumplings makes a handy reference for bakers old and new. Along with enticing recipes for such treats as Old-Fashioned Apple Pie, Baked Alaska Pie and Mixed Fruit Clafoutis, Purdy (The Family Baker; Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too) provides abundant, clearly written instructions. Many of the recipes come with several variations (so that Old Fashioned Pumpkin Custard Pie can also be transformed into Vermont Maple Sugar Pumpkin Pie, New England Squash Pie or Southern Sweet Potato Pie), and Purdy includes an extremely thorough section on crusts, arguably the most difficult aspect of pie making. Basic pastry instructions are excellent, and more complex techniques--such as how to make a lattice top--are covered in depth. Purdy also supplies advice on freezing the various components, and each recipe includes suggestions for advance preparation. In other words, even the pie-phobic have no excuse for not trying their hands at traditional favorites such as Linzer Torte or newfangled concoctions such as Chocolate Honey Chiffon Pie. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Recipes for chiffon pies, tarts, turnovers, dumplings, cobblers, crisps, clafoutis, strudels, and frozen pies fill the pages of this latest contribution from IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award winner Purdy (The Family Baker, LJ 9/15/99). The author also includes recipes for pastry and crumb crusts; flavored whipped creams; streusel toppings; sauces; glazes; and chocolate shells, curls, and leaves. Purdy!s recipes lean toward the traditional (apple, lemon meringue, and pecan), but she also includes more exotic fare such as Fresh Fig Tart with Red Wine Syrup, and Velvet Rum Cream Pie. She offers reduced-fat variations for a number of recipes. Her instructions are easy to follow, and she provides detailed pastry-handling techniques as well as information about equipment and ingredients. Although it covers much the same ground as Carole Walter!s Great Pies and Tarts (LJ 2/15/98), this down-to-earth cookbook will encourage beginning bakers and inspire the more advanced. Highly recommended."Jane la Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1ST edition (June 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767902629
• ISBN-13: 978-0767902625
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #823,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of good info, August 22, 2002

By 

J. Brown (Roseville, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Perfect Pie: More Than 125 All-Time Favorite Pies & Tarts (Paperback)

I had never made a pie before reading this book, but I was interested, so I picked up a copy. It has a lot of good recipes and advice for the price, and the sections in the beginning about the different ingredients and their roles in pie fillings and crusts were very helpful. I don't like just following the steps in a recipe. I really like to know what's going on in the bowl/pan, and her details really helped me get a feel for how the process of making a pie should work.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Major disappointment., April 4, 2002

By 

Mike Coleman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Perfect Pie: More Than 125 All-Time Favorite Pies & Tarts (Paperback)

Sometimes it only takes one bad recipe to ruin a cookbook for me, and that's what happened with this one. Susan Purdy's apricot-walnut pie turned out to be a soggy, way oversweet mess, and I didn't use half the sugar she called for. I've been making pies a long time, and I had questions about this recipe from the get-go. Her crust recipes are good, however, although it's annoying that she never tells you, when adding an ingredient like wheat germ to a crust, whether said ingredient replaces part of the dry ingredients called for, or is added to them. Seems like a major oversight in a book that promises to clearly communicate pie recipes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect pie, really, September 26, 2009

By 

Maya Saran - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Perfect Pie: More Than 125 All-Time Favorite Pies & Tarts (Paperback)

My grandmother used to make wonderful apple pies, and I loved them, and I wanted to learn how to do the same. This was the first book of several that I tried that really worked for me. The book is worth buying for the basic crust recipes alone, for which Purdy gives instructions for mixing by hand as well as with a food processor. I have baked several kinds of crust from this book, and each has been a hit -- tasty, flaky, wonderful. The mix-and-press-in-pan crust deserves a special mention. There are also several reduced-fat recipes. I appreciate Purdy's explanations of the purpose of each technique or ingredient, so that one knows exactly why the crust includes an egg yolk, and what to expect if one omits it. As far as fillings go, I have made the blueberry and various kinds of apple -- it was really the apple I was after -- and they were all super wonderful and devoured by my family and friends at top speed. I can't say much about the other filling recipes, other than mentioning that there are a lot of them, including all the standard ones, and they all seem delicious. I am keen to try the pear next. I should add that this book is restricted to sweet pies, you'll have to look elsewhere for savory recipes.

I highly recommend this book.