The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Alison Oresman (Author)
Key Phrases: grease generously with butter, cup chilled heavy whipping cream, packed golden brown sugar, Baker's Joy, Lyle's Golden Syrup, Rather Sweet (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This cookbook offers recipes for dozens of classic treats like oatmeal cookies, carrot cake and pecan pie—but often with novel twists: pineapple and coconut swirl through the carrot cake, the pecan pie takes the form of a brownie and the oatmeal cookies are fashioned into "crisps." Still, most of the recipes are pleasingly old-fashioned and sweet enough to send an unsuspecting baker into diabetic shock. The Grasshopper Pie calls for an entire cup of sugar, plus marshmallow crème and hot fudge sauce, and the Bananas Foster Shortcakes deliver sugary banana flavor amped up to maximum volume. The author is the proprietress of The Rather Sweet Bakery and Café in Texas, and she offers several signature Lone Star state desserts: a rich Fredericksburg Peach Cream Cheese Tart, crunchy Texas Pralines and Texas Big Hairs Lemon-Lime Meringue Tarts, with meringue piled as high as a Houston debutante’s coif. The cookbook also offers a few non-dessert selections, mostly soups, salads, quesadillas and the like. Though these dishes are tasty—it’s hard to object to Prosciutto Tostadas with Shrimp and Parsley or a warm, pleasing Wild Mushroom Soup—it’s the sugary-sweet and fun-to-bake Texas-style desserts that make this rather sweet, and rather expensive, cookbook worth the splurge.
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Review

"Every baker, from country folk to city slicker, will find something deliriously delightful to bake in this book. Hail to the Pastry Queen—Rebecca Rather!"
—David Lebovitz, author of The Great Book of Chocolate
 
"Rebecca Rather personifies the great American bootstrap, built on grit and tenacity upon which communities are enriched and enlivened (and happily well fed). Anyone who bakes from this book will want to meet the Pastry Queen in person."
—Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice
 
"Texans at their best are honest, friendly, helpful, and engagingly unpretentious. Oh, and pretty darned good cooks. Rebecca Rather, Hill Country reine de patisserie, is all of these things, as will be immediately apparent to anyone who dives into this delicious book—a rich, good-looking, sweet and savory masterpiece, full of baking lore, kitchen tips, charming stories, and (above all) irresistibly indulgent recipes."
—Colman Andrews, Editor-in-Chief, Saveur

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580085628
• ISBN-13: 978-1580085625
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,372 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #13 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Pastry
  #19 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > Southwest

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Fantastic Recipes Fit For a King (Queen), November 18, 2004

By	Dan K. McCoy (Corsicana, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is incredible. Since it has arrived, I have made three recipes and they all have been awesome. The recipes are easy to read and understand, and are organized so that no steps are omitted. I especially appreciate notations indicating that mistakes can be made in this step and what to do if it occurs. The Triple Threat Chocolate Chip Cookies are the best I've ever made or tasted. And the Omelette Kolache recipe is worth the price of the book if you ever have to make breakfast for a buffet. Overall if you are new to pastry and want a word class book with fairly simple and uncomplicated recipes - this is it. What Rather's recipes miss from traditional pastry books that resemble art work, she makes up in wholesome goodness and taste that will make this a kitchen page turner. Great job!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Good Baking/Cooking from Texas Hills, December 3, 2004

By	rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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Texan lady makes good with her passion for baking and doing other good cooking Texas style. Such passion becomes infectious evidently from the following she has developed for your bakery and recipes.

This passion continues to ooze out in this delightful cookbook from TenSpeed Press. I've come to realize and trust that if TenSpeed published it, it will have great photos on nice layout with exceptional and exciting food.

This volume continues in that fine train. Rebecca is really into it, and continues to refine and develop new exciting recipes, some her take on old favorites such as King Ranch Casserole and Big Hair Lemon-Lime Meringue Tarts.

This over 150 recipe offering has mostly baked goods, but as her bakery began offering lunch and dinner fare, they are included here as well: Caesar Salad Pizza; All Sold-Out Chicken Pot Pies; Savory Crab and Shrimp Casserole; Nuevo Texas Waldorf Salad.

Savor the baked delights here for us: Triple Threat Chocolate Chip Cookies (three types chocolate);Chef Mark's Southern Comfort Apple Pie; Buttermilk Pecan Pie; Frangelico-Hazelnut Fruit Tart.

There is so much fun Tex-Mex-Germanfood done beautifully for us home cooks to try. The recipes don't call for wild, hard-to-find ingredients nor are any of the techniques that complicated or intimidating. Just wonderful food with clear instructions and suggestions.

Fine, worthy addition to one's collection.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In case of housefire, make this one of first things you grab!, September 19, 2005

By	Susan G. Dunlap "queenofpastures" (Versailles, KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've collected cookbooks for years -- serious cookbooks. As in, IACP Cookbook Award winners. And many of these cookbooks I have loved, but none as much as I love "The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe' ".

Cookbooks tend to become a favorite based on their teaching the why behind tools, ingredients and techniques, as well as a "heads and shoulders above the rest" recipe or two.

_Every_ recipe in this cookbook, however, is above and beyond others I've collected. They range in difficulty, but levels of mastery are perfect when a cook is going from familiarity, to proficiency, to mastery. A cook can navigate through all these stages and stick with the same cookbook.

Guests just rave over the recipes, too. There's a balance between those requiring more exotic ingredients (defined as those that I don't already have in stock, such as apple-smoked bacon) to those always kept on hand.

Heaven forbid a housefire, but after my children and my pets, I'd grab this cookbook.