Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops
Author: Dorie Greenspan
The prize-winning author of Baking with Julia (more than 350,000 copies sold), among other cookbook classics, celebrates the sweet life with recipes and lore from Paris's finest patisseries.
Like most lovers of pastry and Paris, Dorie Greenspan has always marveled at the jewel-like creations displayed in bakery windows throughout the City of Light. Now, in a charmingly illustrated tribute to the capital of sweets, Greenspan presents a splendid assortment of recipes from Paris's foremost pastry chefs in a book that is as transporting to read as it is easy to use.
From classic recipes, some centuries old, to updated innovations, Paris Sweets provides a sumptuous guide to creating cookies, from the fabled madeleine to simple, ultra-buttery sables; tarts, from the famous Tatin, which began its life as an upside-down error, to a delightful strawberry tart embellished with homemade strawberry marshmallows; and a glorious range of cakes–lemon-drenched "weekend cake," fudge cake, and the show-stopping Opera. Paris Sweets brims with assorted temptations that even a novice can prepare, such as coffee éclairs, rum-soaked babas, and meringue puffs. Evocative portraits of the pastry shops and chefs, as well as information on authentic French ingredients, make this a truly comprehensive tour.
An elegant gift for Francophiles, armchair travelers, bakers of all skill levels, and certainly for oneself, Paris Sweets brings home a taste of enchantment.
Author Biography: Dorie Greenspan is the author of numerous acclaimed cookbooks, including Baking with Julia, The Cafe Boulud Cookbook (with Daniel Boulud),and Desserts by Pierre Herme, which won the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award. She divides her time between Paris and New York.
Publishers Weekly
Greenspan, the author of Baking with Julia and a frequent contributor to the food pages of the New York Times, here compiles recipes from "les bonnes adresses," collecting secrets for perfect madeleines, macaroons, apple tarts and other classic French desserts. She embellishes her cookbook with anecdotes and histories, explaining that, for example, crhme brulee is actually a Spanish invention (known there as crema catalana) and that Saint-Honori is the patron saint of pastry chefs. Greenspan also includes descriptions of some of her favorite Parisian bakeries, introducing American readers to the pleasures of Laduree and La Maison du Chocolat. The recipes themselves often involve numerous steps and a certain amount of technique; although Greenspan writes with a reassuring tone, most of this cookbook is not for beginners. Even the "simple cakes" require practice to perfect. But even if you don't intend to concoct a twelve-step cake called "Bacchus" ("it could send a hedonist's heart racing into overDrive") any time soon, simply reading Greenspan's transporting cookbook might be the next best thing to dessert. (Oct. 29) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
New interesting book: House and Street or State Directed Development
Michael Mina: The Cookbook
Author: Michael Mina
Mina knows that cooks like to master one recipe but then try different flavors with the main ingredient. MICHAEL MINA reveals how to recreate his trio concept, where a master recipe is followed by three flavor variations, each with its own variations and accompanied by side dishes created just for that version. A crispy loin of pork can be served with an orange/carrot, apple/sage, or tomato/corn combination of accompaniments. Although the flavor combinations create a sense of complexity, the recipes themselves are simple.
Accompanying the trios are Mina's classic and most-requested recipes from his acclaimed restaurants, including Whole Fried Chicken with Truffled Macaroni and Cheese, and Root Beer Float with Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies. This book is a must-have for any cook with an adventurous palate.
About the Author: Michael Mina has won many awards, including the 2002 James Beard for Best Chef in California.
Publishers Weekly
San Francisco chef Mina, who has franchised himself to Las Vegas with the backing of tennis star Agassi, declares that all the recipes in his book have been "designed to be prepared in the home kitchen by a single cook." The home cook with a day job is unlikely to regard this as a practical guide, however, unless similarly driven by Mina's obsession with the core concept: the trio. Each of his New American dishes, from starter to dessert, is presented with three different interpretations of the key ingredient. For instance, his Summer Berry Cobbler, Berry Sundae with Mascarpone Ice Cream, involves creating a raspberry cobbler with vanilla streusel, a blueberry cobbler with lavender scone and a blackberry cobbler with candied ginger shortbread, in hot and cold variations to be eaten in alternating bites. The design alone with its 100 beautifully crisp photos will further entice home cooks to try his recipes in their own home. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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