The Pie and Pastry Bible

Now this is what folks mean when they talk about a definitive book. I will never have to purchase another pie and pastry how-to. This book covers it all with a depth that satisfies all questions. If you love Alton Brown and judiciously read all of the Cooks Illustrated background testing info, this book is for you. I am so happy with this book that I am not just looking up specific recipes, I am literally reading it as if it were a novel. (I am a curious cook.) For the novice pie and pastry baker, you may think this will be too overwhelming for you. I think this is written in such a way that you will "get it" and thus start out making things correctly. For the experienced, this book is a problem solver and is the road to perfection. This book contains more than 300 recipes. There are more than 15 recipes for pie crusts plus variations. With that said, obviously not every pie under the sun is here, but there is enough information for you to make improvements on any recipe that is not covered. This book is so close to perfect, I gave it five stars. However, I do have some criticisms. First, this book needs to better catalog the recipes. The table of contents lists simply the chapters, such as fruit pies, tarts, custard pies etc. The chapters delve into the subject without listing the recipes. I would prefer that each chapter had a mini table of contents that listed individual recipes. My second criticism is the altering of classic recipes to suit her personal tastes. I realize this is completely subjective, but if she were a Southerner, I wouldn't have to continue to hunt for recipes for chess pie and coconut custard pie. This is the same criticism I had of the Cook's Illustrated baking volume too. However, we're talking about two or three recipes in each book that I don't agree with, so the books were still worth the purchase. Speaking of Cook's Illustrated, if I had to choose between this book and Baking Illustrated, I would go with this book. If both are an option for you, get both. Cook's does a good job of balancing flavor with speed. The bible series seems to be all about flavor with little regard to speed. My last criticism is a minor one and I realize it is as subjective as the author's taste when writing the recipes; I find the language and recipe structure awkward at times. I think the Williams-Sononma Collection, while not the most exhaustive collection of recipes, is the best example of recipe writing. I wanted to make pie crust from scratch for Thanksgiving, so I paid rush shipping charges to get this book here and it is worth the expense. I made a test basic flaky pie crust and it came out perfectly. [....]

One would expect such an authoritative volume on baking to come from a chunky Frenchman with a very tall toque and an accent you can cut with a pastry knife, not from the ever so sweet and coy face smiling at you from the back of the dust jacket of this very large book on a very serious subject. But, this book from this author should be no surprise at all, as it is the middle volume on a trilogy that does for baking what Tolkein did for epic fantasy in `Lord of the Rings'.Before I even start to talk about the virtues of the book, just consider the difference in content you are receiving from Rose Levy Beranbaum's three books when compared to Ina Garten's three cookbooks. For a 30% addition to the price, Beranbaum is giving you approximately 300% more information. Another comparison is to compare Beranbaum's 2000 pages with the very authoritative sounding `King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion' weighing in at a mere 607 pages. That is just to put these works in perspective.To most newbies, cooking may seem relatively easy, but one glimpse at what you need to make a decent pie crust has most novices running to the megamart refrigerated cases for those premade Pillsbury pie crusts. First, you have to pick the right ingredients. Can I use all-purpose flour or should I use pastry flour. Can I use King Arthur or should I use White Lily? Should I use butter or vegetable shortening or lard? Should I add vinegar or not? Should I add an egg yolk or not? Then, you have to be concerned about the weather. Is the barometer rising or falling? Is the air humid or dry? Then comes the technique. Do I use a pastry cutter or do I use my hands? How long do I work the flour and fat before adding the liquid? How much do I work it after adding the liquid? How long do I rest it before rolling it out? How do I lay the crust in the pan to avoid shrinking? What kind of pan do I use to bake the pie? Do I blind bake the crust for this pie? How long do I bake? What do I look for to know the bottom crust is done?I'm exaggerating a little because many of these variables are usually well enough in control that they don't ruin a pie. But, every variable offers a way for things to go wrong. Now, millions of people, myself included, have successfully made good pie crusts without having read Ms. Beranbaum's book, but millions of people, myself included, have made pie crusts which just didn't make the grade. Rose Levy Beranbaum tells you why, and gives you all the information you need to avoid each and every problem.One of the very few problems I find with Ms. Beranbaum's work is that there is so much information, it is difficult to whip out a simple recipe or find the solution to a simple problem without literally studying the information for some time. But, the only thing that means is that this book, however good, may not be for everyone. For the casual baker of pies, I strongly recommend Wayne Harley Brachman's `American Desserts'. Ms. Beranbaum's book is for the serious baker and f

Like The Cake Bible, this is a very detailed, incredibly researched book. Ms Berenbaum tolerates nothing short of perfection. If you're interested in EXACTLY how to make the perfect pie crust or puff pastry, this is for you. If you find analyses of Heckers flour vs King Arthur mind-numbing, you might want to pass it up and go back to the baking chapter of The Joy of Cooking.Although it's geared towards the more serious baker, it's useful for novices too, as the instructions are very detailed and she goes to great lengths to explain why she does everything she does (this is good for bakers of all abilities, because some of her techniques are nontraditional). Many of the recipes are time consuming, but they are worth it--gorgeous to look at and delicious to taste.

As someone who had tried various pie-crust recipes over the years and never gotten it quite right, reading Berenbaum's aptly named bible was a revelation. The complex and rather unorthodox techniques for cutting in fat into the flour had me skeptical at first but, having tried several of the various crust recipes in this book, I will never make a crust the easy old way again. If you want to make consistently perfect, by which I mean delectably tender and flaky, crust, this book is for you. The cream-cheese crust that Berenbaum calls the soul of her book is alone worth the price of the book. In addition, there's the fool-proof technique for ensuring an apple pie in which the juices cling just so to the apple slices yet puddle just a little on the plate -- no more runny apple pies. The multi-step technique, which involves macerating the apple slices, draining the liquid that forms, and boiling down the liquid to a syrup before baking, is time-consuming, but the results are worth it. I tried the apple pie recipe, and my husband rated it a 10! I am one reader who will never again simply toss the apple slices in sugar and bake, on the off-chance that the liquids might (or might not) reduce enough during baking. The book is invaluable also for the understanding it gives the reader of how the various ingredients in pie crust work, e.g., why the addition of baking powder to pie crust is a must for flakiness, why the crust dough needs to be kneaded harder and longer to make it strong enough to wrap around a meat loaf or the filling of a turnover, etc. I could go on and on about the merits of this book. Although I wish no one else would read it so that I could be the only person in the world (besides the author) who can make marvelous crust, I cannot help thinking this is a book that should not be kept a secret.