Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours [Hardcover]

Sarabeth Levine (Author), Rick Rodgers (Author), Quentin Bacon (Photographer), Mimi Sheraton (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2010

Mastering the art of baking, presented step-by-step through recipes from the legendary New York City baker. In the heart of Manhattan’s vibrant Highline District is a destination that is beloved by discriminating dessert lovers—Sarabeth’s Bakery. Sarabeth Levine offers an irresistible array of scones, muffins, croissants, cookies, and other classic desserts. This important addition to the baking book canon has been anxiously awaited by the extraordinary baker’s countless fans. It features more than one hundred inspiring recipes for her signature baked goods, ranging from unique English muffins and luscious banana cream pie with vanilla bean pastry to creamy chocolate pudding. Recipes for the perfect accompaniment to her buttery pastries—her legendary spreadable fruits—are also included. Step-by-step instructional photographs teach the baking techniques that make Sarabeth stand apart. Tips on such topics as making a decorative piecrust edge are also discussed in this user-friendly primer. The exquisite photography shows the home baker creative ways for sharing these wonders with friends and family.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction
The Baker’s Pantry

Chapter One: Morning Pastries
Puff Pastry
Croissant Dough
Danish Dough
Apple Turnovers
Croissants
Almond Croissants
Pains au Chocolat
Pains de Matin
Pains aux Raisins
Cheese and Raisin Danish
Fruit Danish
Chocolate Babka
Brioche

Chapter Two: Muffins and More
Banana Streusel Muffins
Blueberry Crumb Muffins
Variation: Raspberry Crumb Muffins
Bran Muffins
Double Corn Muffins
Maple Muffins
Pumpkin Muffins
Currant Scones
Buttermilk Biscuits
English Muffins

Chapter Three: Beautiful Breads
Apple Cinnamon Loaf
Challah
Variation: Raisin Challah
Cinnamon Raisin Loaf
Dinner Rolls
Rosemary Focaccia
Sarabeth’s House Bread
Pain de Mie
Stollen
Viennese Kugelhopf

Chapter Four: Everyday Cakes
Mrs. Stein’s Chocolate Cake
Margaret’s Espresso Cake
Orange Chocolate Chiffon Cake
Ruby Cake
Three-Seed Cake
Chocolate Soufflé Cake
Cheesecake with Orange Marmalade Sauce
Carrot Cake
Sir Francis Crumb Cakes
Black Beauty Cupcakes

Chapter Five: Party Cakes and Company
Vanilla Génoise
Hazelnut Génoise
Chocolate Orange Cake
Pâte à Choux
Chocolate Truffle Cake
Hazelnut-Espresso Roulade
Lemon-Raspberry Cake
Raspberries and Cream Charlotte
Coconut and Mango Cake
Mille-Feuille with Summer Berries
Éclairs with White Chocolate Cream

Chapter Six: Pies and Tarts
Tender Pie Dough
Sweet Tart Dough
Almond Pastry Dough
Rustic Apple Streusel Pie
Apple Bretonne Tartlets
Banana Cream Pie
Individual Deep-dish Peach Crumb Pies
Variation: Blueberry Crumb Pies
Lemon Cream Tart with Strawberries
Lemon Meringue Tartlets
Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie
Pecan and Bourbon Tart

Chapter Seven: Plain and Fancy Cookies
Chocolate Chubbies
Pecan Moons
Chocolate Clouds
Chocolate Marmalade Cookies
Ladyfingers
Linzer Hearts
Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Palmiers
Rugelach
Buttery Shortbread
Brownies

Chapter Eight: Spoon Desserts
Crème Brûlée
Orange Blossom Crème Caramel
Triple-Chocolate Chocolate Pudding
Creamy Rice Pudding
Raspberry Bread Pudding
Chocolate Orange Tiramisù

Chapter Nine: Frozen Desserts
Ice-Cream Cones
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Variation: Blueberry Bombe
Strawberry Ice Cream
Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream
Espresso Ice Cream
Butter Pecan Ice Cream
Butter Pecan Profiteroles
Maple Ice Cream
Frutti di Bosco Sorbet
Tuiles
Piña Colada Sorbet

Chapter Ten: Spreadable Fruits
Blackberry Jam
Chunky Apple Preserves
Billy’s Blueberry Jam
Variation: Raspberry Jam
Lemony Pear-Pineapple Preserves
Strawberry-Peach Preserves
Cherry-Plum Preserves

Chapter Eleven: Frostings, Fillings, and Sweet Sauces
Meringue Buttercream
Variation: Lemon-Rose Buttercream
Variation: Hazelnut Buttercream
Variation: Mango Buttercream
Pastry Cream
Lemon Curd
Butterscotch Sauce
Chocolate Sauce
Raspberry Sauce
Whipped Cream
Simple Syrup
Apricot Glaze
Plumped Vanilla Beans
Variation: Vanilla Dust

Sources
Conversion Charts
Index
Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fall into Cooking Featured Recipe from Sarabeth Levine's Sarabeth's Bakery: Chocolate Chubbies

I have been making this cookie for close to 30 years, and not a day goes by that we don’t make them and sell every last one. It’s the most asked for recipe in the book. What I love about these cookies is that if you eat them soon after they come out of the oven the chocolate chips are so meltingly delicious, it’s like being in chocolate heaven. --Sarabeth Levine

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
9 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (no more than 62% cacao), finely chopped
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups superfine sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups (5 ½ ounces) coarsely chopped pecans
1 ¼ cups (4 ½ ounces) coarsely chopped walnuts

Position racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper.

Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put the butter in a wide, heatproof bowl, and melt the butter over the hot water in the saucepan. Add the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate, stirring often, until melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cooled slightly but still warm, about 5 minutes.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Whip the eggs in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium-high speed until the eggs are foamy and lightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla. Whip until the eggs are very thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and beat in the tepid chocolate, making sure it is completely incorporated. Change to the paddle attachment and reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and walnuts, making sure the chunky ingredients are evenly distributed at the bottom of the bowl.The dough will be somewhat soft.

Using a 2-inch ice-cream scoop, portion the batter onto the prepared pans, placing the cookies about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the cookies immediately—if you wait, they won’t be shiny after baking. Bake, switching the position of the pans from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through baking, until the cookies are set around the edges (if you lift a cookie from the pan, the edges should release easily, even if the center of the cookie seems underdone), 17 to 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool completely on the baking pans. (The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature, with the layers separated by parchment paper, for up to 3 days.)

---

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. From her modest beginnings selling fruit spreads, jams, and preserves in specialty shops and opening a bakery café "on what was then a distinctly inelegant Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side," the James Beard Award-winning pastry chef's star, like her dough, continues to rise. These days, Levine focuses on growing her brand and expanding into a number of other New York neighborhoods and Key West, Fla. Now, in her first cookbook, she gives a historical overview of Sarabeth's and offers scrumptious descriptions of the baked treats she and her staff regularly make. Chapters cover morning pastries, muffins, breads, pies, cakes, and cookies in great detail. Though recipes calling for homemade puff pastry or croissant dough may prove too complicated for the average home cook, they provide a challenge to the ambitious. Sections on spoon desserts like Crème Brûlée, chocolate and bread puddings, ice creams and sorbets, and spreadable fruits (the item that helped Levine launch Sarabeth's three decades ago) add to the appeal of this handsome volume. Photos.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (October 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847834085
• ISBN-13: 978-0847834082
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 1.3 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

117 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believe the hype, November 17, 2010

By 

lapis (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours (Hardcover)

I live in Chicago and had never heard of Sarabeth before this cookbook, but the preview on Amazon looked great so I tried it. All I can say is it is AMAZING. I am not a baker -- I have baked, and enjoy cooking, but I'm not remotely proficient at baking. With this book, I feel like the real thing. As others have said, her descriptions are very-very detailed and the pictures are wonderful. They are especially important for the dough. I made the Raspberry-Lemon Cake for a birthday party, and it is not an exaggeration to say people thought they were eating a professional wedding cake. It was the best cake I've ever made by a long way. The blueberry preserves are also out this world. Next, I'm going to tackle the croissants. I think I might actually be able to do it.

Word of warning, this book is not for the faint of heart. Some of the recipes are wonderfully simple (e.g., the preserves, cookies), but many of them have a number of steps. At least, the ones I've tried do. She is excellent at explaining which steps can be done ahead, which is a godsend. And you really do feel great when your recipe turns out. She does not shy away from listing the materials that are ideal for a recipe, but as someone who does not plan to turn into a baking machine, I make do with the materials I have on hand. My substitutions have been fine (e.g., one kind of rolling pin, not two or three; regular round cake pans, not special cake rings for layering). I don't skimp on the ingredients, but there is nothing exotic listed -- cake flour, bread flour, butter, sugar, etc. She has a great tip for working with vanilla beans, btw, but she also tells you when pure vanilla extract will do.

If you feel like taking a shot at baking, this book is very worth your effort. And if you are already an accomplished baker, I'm guessing you'll still love the luscious recipes in the book.

Update 11/21/10 - made the croissants over the weekend. They were way, way easier to make than I expected, and they were perfectly flakey and delicious -- a huge hit in the house. Total time I spent measuring, mixing and rolling was maybe half an hour. The rest of the time the dough just sits. I've read the directions in other books for how to make croissants, and the method Sarabeth came up with is dramatically easier than anything else I've seen. It's worth the price of the book on its own. Next I'm going to try the puff pastry and make some turnovers.

btw -- the size of the croissants she provides are about half the size of bakery croissants. It's a nice size for a party or if you don't want overkill. To have a typical bakery-size croissant, I roll out to a single 24" x 8" rectangle, and then mark a 6" base for each croissant. It took a bit of trial and error to come to these measurements, so I thought I'd share them.

60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great find, November 17, 2010

By 

sccerb - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours (Hardcover)

I don't write reviews on here. I am a 40 something male that likes to cook and trying to learn baking, however with no formal training. Own about 75 cookbooks, and usually read them for technique and go through some of the recipes to learn. All books seem to have somewhat similar recipes for pies, cakes ect. What this one has is GREAT PHOTOS OF TECHNIQUE. The first part of the book has dough which you will go back to. I have tried both and understand that I will have to try them a couple times to get things totally right, however without photos I am almost always lost and I have been able to make a croissant dough which I wanted to after seeing a Food Network show, however thought it was way over my pay grade.

I have made two of the cookies, taken them to the office and been told that they are fabulous. None of the ingredients are tough to find (I live in Central Illinois with Kroger and Wal-Mart as the food stores, not Fox and Obel or any of the like) like some books.

If your looking for a cookbook for someone who is interested in getting better and making really good tasting baked goods from scratch, buy this book.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book - wonderful gift for those who love baking., November 18, 2010

By 

A reader (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours (Hardcover)

I have been to Sarabeth's a few times and have never been unhappy with the bakery or the restaurant (which is always busy). There is an elegant but homey feel to the place, and you can see that in the baked goods (as well as packaging). This book is filled with wonderful recipes and instructions that don't wear you down and make you crazy. I really appreciated Sarabeth's tips on certain baking equipment and her thoughts on fresh yeast. This is the first book I bought that prefers fresh yeast, and I like the introduction. Sarabeth has clearly found what works for her and I enjoyed reading how she got there. This is a great gift book, but only for those who really like to bake. If you don't have the patience or don't love it, another choice might be better.