[.ca] Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery (ISBN 0375501932)

From Amazon.com:
The La Brea Bakery had humble beginnings, initially offering only rustic bread. But the locals clamored for more, so owner Nancy Silverton--to ever-widening acclaim--introduced everyone's favorite sweets, including cookies, tarts, crisps, and crumbles. The irresistible sights and smells of a good local sweets shop permeate her second cookbook, Pastries from the La Brea Bakery, a follow-up and companion to Breads from the La Brea Bakery. The recipes are designed with the novice baker in mind (baking tools and ingredients are indexed with brief explanations of importance), but the book courts all levels of baking experience. For the more advanced, Silverton shows how to visually accentuate her creations with richly colored fruits and sugars that create varying caramelized effects in delicious ways. Dough recipes include bobka, brioche, and croissants; in the more decadent sweets department are recipes for cookies, tarts, scones, and an entire chapter on doughnuts. Once you get stuck in La Brea you'll have a deliciously hard time getting out. --Teresa Simanton

Hard to follow directions:
I recently purchased Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery and while I'm very excited and intrigued by many of the recipes and flavor combinations, I have a few issues with some of the directions given. for example, I tried the recipe for "Viennese Cream Brioche" - a circle of rich brioche filled with creme fraiche. For one thing the directions say to divide the dough into 12 parts and roll into five-inch rounds, then place the rounds on a baking sheet to rise. Obviously 12 five-inch rounds will not fit on a standard home cookie sheet, so you will have to use at least two pans and bake in shifts. OK, I can deal with this oversight, but when baked the filling did not "set" as the recipe indicated. In fact it separated into a greasy mess and never set up. Very frustrating and waste of good brioche dough. Some of these issues could be cleared up with a few extra photos or diagrams. Another example: in a recipe for a "Princess Ring" you are instructed to roll croissant dough around a filling and then form it into a ring, then "along the inside of the ring, about 2 inches from where the 2 ends meet, make a cut 2 inches deep, cutting 3/4 of the way through to the outside edge. Make 5 more cuts evenly spaced along the inside of the ring". I re-read this direction many times and still can't figure out what I'm supposed to do or what the finished pastry should look like. I'm an experienced baker who doesn't need a photo of a scone or muffin to know what one looks like, and I certainly wasn't expecting a glossy coffee table show piece, but a couple line drawings or photos of key steps would have really helped this book.

Flawless Recipes:
I have baked my way through this fabulous cookbook for the last couple of years and have yet to come across a better cookbook for baking. Actually, I have to respectfully disagree with the reviewer who recommends Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie & Pastry Bible over Pastries from the La Brea Bakery. Though I love Beranbaum's Cake Bible, I have found the recipes in The Pie & Pastry Bible to be fussy and rarely turn out as promised. I consider myself a fairly experienced baker, but have always been intimidated by pastry. Yet I have tried several pastries from this cookbook and all have turned out beautifully (including the Pumpkin Pie, which is indeed the best I have ever had and got rave reviews from my Thanksgiving guests). The directions are clear and easy to follow and the sections on muffins, quickbreads, and scones will keep the novice baker busy for a while until she or he gets up the courage to try the croissants and tarts. Pity not the poor bride who gets this for a wedding gift --maybe her husband will give it a try while she's at work. One word of caution --get ready to spend some money on kitchen equipment if you get addicted to Nancy Silverton's fabulous recipes. Some of them require cake rings and molds most home bakers don't have on hand. However, lest you be discouraged by that warning, I also have to say that many of the recipes require basic pans and tools.

A Great Cookbook that deserved a Great Editor:
This would have been a delightful cookbook, but the careful eye of an editor was needed. None of the recipes I have used have been free of errors. By way of example, the author indicates that the recipe for the yummy Banana-Cocoa Muffins yields 12 muffins. Actually, there is sufficient batter for 30 good-sized muffins - but only enough garnish for 12! If followed carefully, the recipe for cannele - which should produce tender little French cakes - produces rock-hard pellets. Most of the time, an accomplished cook can work with the many many mistakes - a novice will have a great deal of trouble using this book.

Great Book:
This is a great book!! I am in school to become a Pastry Chef and we have used this book in class a lot. It is not really a book for use at home. But it has great ideas for the profrssional or student.

Family favorite - Raspberry Bars:
Starting with the raspberry bars and going through the book, Silverton does a great job in bringing classic American favorites to our tables. I'm an experienced baker, educated by Maida Heatter's books. In between then and now I have collected hundreds of cookbooks and Pastries From LaBrea Bakery is up there in my top 10. It's takes time and patience to learn any craft. You have to collect good equipment and have a pantry ready. But why bother making it if it's not great???