Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery

Baking icon Silverton, the original pastry chef at Spago and now the celebrated baker at La Brea Bakery and Campanile, now presents the definitive pastry-making bible. She shares her passion and expertise in 150+ simple yet thorough recipes of her most scrumptious favorites. From the Publisher When celebrated pastry chef and baker Nancy Silverton decided to add sweets to La Brea Bakery's repertoire of artisanal breads, she knew that they couldn't be just any sweets. Eschewing show-off, fastidious and overly elaborate desserts (which are more about costly tools and techniques than about texture and flavor), she bakes deliciously simple and rustic pastries that perfectly complement her hearty, country-style bread and that have people lining up morning after morning. Pastries from the La Brea Bakery is Nancy's gift to bakers everywhere, beginner and expert alike. She shares her passion and expertise in over 150 recipes of her most scrumptious favorites. Beginning by demystifying doughnuts, Nancy shares her years of experimentation and innovation in simple and accessible, yet completely thorough, directions. From quick and easy (and incredibly delicious) cobblers and scones to elegant, rich tarts and sinfully flakey puff pastry, Nancy explores all her favorite ingredients: cinnamon, nuts, fruit and, of course, butter. She also offers a tasty variety of beautiful cookies and steers us through the delicate art of chocolate confections and the easy preparation of moist, unique muffins. She rounds it out with an array of cakes for all tastes, tarts for all seasons, and savories for those wanting to give their sweet tooth a break. And the crowning touch is her detailed section on morning pastries, where she guides us to mastery of the classic doughs: the quick and rich bobka, the fine-textured traditional brioche, the famous and flexible croissant, and the piece de resistance -- puff pastry. An important book from a baking and pastry icon, Pastries from the La Brea Bakery willfollow Nancy's highly acclaimed Desserts and Breads from the La Brea Bakery as another Silverton classic.