Puff Pastry Perfection: More Than 175 Recipes for Appetizers, Entrees and Sweets Made with Refrigerated Puff Pastry Dough (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Puff pastry is the royalty of pastries—crisp, flaky, and especially light, it literally rises to any occasion. And although preparing homemade puff pastry is a labor-intensive process, Puff Pastry Perfection shows that a package of frozen puff pastry sheets makes the magnificence of puff pastry accessible to home cooks everywhere.
Puff Pastry Perfection has eliminated the guesswork. At a cost of less than four dollars, one 17.3-ounce package from a grocer's freezer section delivers two perfect puff pastry sheets, prerolled and ready to use in recipes ranging from the first course to the last.
Oh, the enchanting creations that await! Frozen puff pastry can be used to quickly and easily render classics such as napoleons, cream puffs, strudels, turnovers, palmiers, mille-feuille, and French tarts. It can be twisted into appetizer sticks, cut into tartlet shapes, used as a quick pie or quiche crust, folded over savory appetizer fillings, molded over casserole fillings to create one-step pot pie "lids," or rolled and sliced into elegant, but oh-so-easy recipes.
Puff Pastry Perfection is more than just another collection of baked goods. It is a burst of extraordinary flavors that surprise and delight, along with foolproof instructions to make home cooks into baking heroes.
The result? How about portobello napoleons, wasabi shrimp puffs, dried cherry and almond baked brie, or spicy cumin cheese straws for starters? For supper consider chile relleno quiche, puff pastry po' boys, pizza bianco with prosciutto, arugula and parmesan or chipotle and cheese beef pot pie. Next, the sweets: miniatures such as ginger-lime sugar twists, southern pecan crisps, fresh mango napoleons, and puff pastry cinnamon rolls, all perfect for teatime or an anytime nibble. And finally the grand desserts: from lemon-blackberry cobbler to chocolate-walnut strudel to caramel apple dumplings, there's a sweet treat for every taste and occasion.

About the Author

Camilla V. Saulsbury, a native of the San Francisco Bay area, is a food writer, food scholar, and recipe developer. Her award-winning recipes have appeared in Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, and Sunset. The author of Cookie Dough Delights, Brownie Mix Bliss, Cake Mix Cookies, and No-Bake Cookies, she earned her doctorate from Indiana University and lives in Texas with her husband.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581825420
• ISBN-13: 978-1581825428
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #194,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb recipes/ great collection, December 20, 2006

By	The Enthusiastic Baker - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful cookbook. I have already used it for multiple hoilday occasions and plan to use it throughout the year. The history of puff pastry at the beginning is fascinating and the recipes are outstanding. A SMART cookbook, one I will reach for again and again for all kinds of entertaining because the recipes are so diverse, perfectly written and quite easy. Here is what I have made so far with great success:

*Blue cheese & Fig puffs (so good and so easy--made me look like a professional caterer. They use fig jam)

*Petite Pissaladières

*Brandied Pear Tarts (these were exquisite, and, again, so easy. Really beautiful too)

*Chocolate Macadamia Strudel (holy moly. I don't think there was a single crumb left)

*Double Ginger Sugar Twists (These may be my new favorite cookies. I love ginger and these were incredibly simple, only 5 ingredients)


For the record, I think it is ridiculous to give a low rating for a cookbook based SOLELY on the presence or absence of pictures. I've seen that for several cookbooks on Amazon, as well as trivial comments about the cover, etc.. FYI: As someone who once worked in the publishing industry, I know that authors have about zero control over such design aspects of books (unless you are a superstar author). It is largely a matter of the alotted budget set out by the publisher.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great lessons for puff pastry, December 21, 2006

By	Cynthia Kimm (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

I bought this book with the hope of learning more about working with puff pastry in general. Every time I tried to use it, I seemed to end up with tough, flat-ish results.

The author provides an excellent how-to section at the front that I have used for recipes in the book as well as recipes that I already have. For example, I followed the advice of keeping a baggie full of ice water nearby now to keep my hands from getting too warm as I am working with the dough. I also used to have trouble rolling out the dough; learned that I was probably not defrosting it long enough, now it's a breeze. I am very pleased.

I've only made some really simple things so far, to work on technique (sweet and savory twists, puff pastry topped mushroom soup, and some easy rolled up cookies), but they were all yummy and the directions were very easy to follow. I am going to try some the mango napoleons for New Year's Eve.

The Pepperidge farm kind of puff pastry is good, but if it's a special occasion, try the dufour all-butter kind. I tried it with a batch of Parmesan twists from the book and they were so good, it was worth the splurge.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Look At The Cover ..., November 19, 2006

By	TheSuiteQueen (Blue Bell, PA USA) - See all my reviews

One look at the cover ... and you just know that you have something wonderful in store for you!!! And once you turn the page ... the perfection of puff pastry awaits you!!! But not just the perfection ... the simplicty ... because these recipes call for 'frozen' puff pastry ... it doesn't get much better!!! Between the appetizers, entrees and sweets ... I feel like I've died and gone to puff pastry heaven!!!