The Art of French Pastry: A James Beard Award Winner: A Cookbook

The best part about this book are the author's precise descriptions, the whys and the hows, the warnings about what could and usually does go wrong all based on his many years of experience as a teacher. Some of the recipes are unique or include unique presentation but most of them you can find in other books and overall the variety of recipes is not huge. The value of this cookbook is in the instruction to the fundamentals and the approachable way in which it is presented. I have already learned so much. Take for example, the author's recipe and instructions for Italian meringue. I have had two prior failed attempts with making this recipe, once because my sugar crystalized while cooking and the second time because it was cooked before the whites were ready. With Jacquy Pfieffer's detailed instructions I was able to successfully make this recipe and I now understand how to avoid both of the mistakes leading to my previous failed attempts. To avoid sugar crystalization the author tells us that the sugar should be swirled gently so as not to get too much of it on the sides of the pan and to use a wet brush to wash down the crystals. He says to be generous with how saturated the brush is because it doesn't matter if you add additional water to the pan as it all cooks down anyway. This is exactly why I had trouble before - I attempted to brush down the crystals but was fearful of adding too much water which led to inadequate brushing and ultimately sugar crystalization. He also addressed my second problem on timing with very precise instructions regarding sugar temperature at which to start beating the whites and the beating speed. Other basic recipes I've tried with great success were the tart crust and lemon curd. I used Rose Levy's Beranbaum's recipe for pate sucre in the past but got unsatisfactory results due to the temperature being too high. She says to start with a 425F oven, then switch to 375 after 5 minutes. This resulted in a crust that browned way too quickly around the edges and set very hard. Mr. Pfeiffer tells us to bake at 325 for a longer period of time to encourage water to evaporate without browning leading to a perfectly golden and crumbly crust. Outstanding! I like the organization of this book. Each recipe has a list of ingredients in both metric and volume measures at the top and a list of equipment in a box to the side. Some of the basic recipes that are used repeatedly in multiple recipes are included in the beginning of the book. The paper has a nice quality and the pictures are beautiful though there are not pictures for every recipe. I agree with the other reviewer that noted it would be nice to have additional pictures or line drawings of techniques but that is really my only minus for this book. All in all, I am extremely happy with this purchase. I own a lot of baking books but I think this is going to become my go to manual for most foundational recipes taking over Flo Braker's "The Art of Perfect Baking." I understand this book is nominated for the IACP and the James Beard Award and I hope it wins both of them! UPDATE: Generally, all the recipes I have tried from here have been successful (though a bit too sweet for my taste despite the fact that he says he does not like overly sweet desserts). I did have trouble with the flourless chocolate sponge cake. It came out very flat (less than 1 cm high) and you could barely taste the chocolate (and I used good quality El Rey 65% chocolate). Mine looked nothing like the photo in the book, the one for the hazelnut chocolate verrine, which appears thicker and much darker. Something seems to be off with the recipe. The amount of chocolate (85g) just seems too small to produce a truly chocolatey cake. I remade it using a recipe from another book that uses cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate and it came out much better.

Great book on making the art of French pastries. Great book with pictures and easy to read writing style of author. Excellent on additional information on buying and using best ingredients. Also learn from Chapter 1 because these are the fundamentals, then master them and move on to the next chapters. I was deeply engaged making puff pastry, cream anglaise and detrempe (making croissants and chocolate croissants). Learning Chapter 1 recipes take time and patience. And practice makes perfect. There are even pictures and paragraphs explaining how to pipe pastries, macarons and other fillings and frost your pastries like a pro pastry chef. Excellent book to invest, all you need is desire, passion, patience and preserverance to learn "The Art of French Pastry". Even a home baker can do this. After a year buying a Kindle version of this book, i bought the hard copy and have tried the recipes on this book. Everything here is amazing. this is a book for the adverturous home cooks who want to learn the art of making French pastries, especially in the region of Alsace. The author is a respected teacher all over the world and his stories, passion and his recipes speaks for itself. It offers the readers delight and also the know-how and some tips and secrets of achieving these delicious morsels. So far, I have tried many recipes in this book by going through the pastry fundamentals, and moving on to what I want to make on the succeeding pastries like tarts, cookies, cakes and the last chapter. all of my friends, family and co-workers tell me these are fantastic. Some of the pastries that I have tried were memorable from my earlier years in Hong Kong where my dad's expat friends would bring sweets and gifts when he host parties. But anyway, I highly recommend this book if you want to learn the Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer.

Great information-especially for beginners of a French pastries

Fantastic! Great recipes that are easy to follow. Well planned and presented.

I would recommend this book to any home baker looking to elevate their craft and transition to professional baking/pastry. It reads like a textbook but super helpful and much warmer. As if the instructor was right there with you. The chef who wrote the book learned from a very abusive instructor and hes trying to break the stigma that you need to break your pupils. If we're being real we know how toxic the culinary world can be sometimes, especially for someone starting out. Invest in yourself with this book. Cheaper than going to culinary school and better for your mental health.

Update on January 18, 2014 I added a star since the original review. I have now tried several of the recipes in the book, and I am pleased to report that the results were fantastic. The most significant discovery for me was the pie crusts. That alone was worth the price of admission. Two pie recipes - wild blueberry and lemon -- were very successful, although I cheated and left out the complex meringue topping on the lemon pie and used lime instead b/c that's what I had handy, the results nonetheless were amazing. Be aware that the chef's approach to technique can be daunting and overly precise, but I prefer that to too lax and imprecise. You can always adjust (as I did witht the lemon pie) thanks to his detailed explanations of the ingredients and reasons for the techniques used. As for the Kindle version, I discovered that when using the desktop computer Kindle app, navigation works nicely. So, the problem is with the software on the Kindle iPad app. Can't fault the book publishers for that. I still stand by my original criticism about the lack of instructive photos, video links, and the overload on Alsatian-based recipes including pretzels. In the bigger scheme of what the book actually delivers -- beautiful results - those are just nitpicking details. Just ironic for a book called the Art of French Pastry. Funny how a title can effect expectations. Anyway, I look forward to learning more proper pastry technique. I would have given this four and a half stars if that were possible. The Original Review: I pre-ordered the Kindle version believing that there would be a savings in pre-ordering. Hmm. wrong. Within a few days of the release, the price plunged six dollars. So much for pre-ordering. But that's no fault of the authors, so no penalty in the stars for that. Just a lesson to be learned. As for the Kindle version of the book. Disappointed. Having seen the preview, "Look Inside" which showed intricate diagrams of how to pipe pate a choux, I was eager and excited to get my hands on this book. Dreaming of learning the right way to make French pastry with the aid of respected and talented French chef, helpful diagrams, photos and other visual aids. Wrong again. I was literally shocked by the scarcity of illustrations. As for the chef, I was mildly annoyed by his inclusion of Alsatian pastry such as Black Forest Cake, tarte flambee (which I love), Beer Quiche, Warm Alsatian meat pie, Alsatian cinnamon rolls, etc., etc, to the exclusion of classic French pastry such as Madelaines, financiers, to name a few. Not that Alsace is not French or good, but there are no other French regional recipes presented such as canneles from Bordeaux or anything from Provence, so I'm thinking that next edition, put in the missing French classics, add some other regional classics, and of course keep Alsace. As it is now, I'm sorely missing those French classics. The good news is that the text is excellent and actually gives precious technical details on the fundamentals of French pastry so the book delivers in that way. But unfortunately, for each technique and recipe, the text describes what something should look like rather than show it. In the case of the tuiles, the photo is confusing. the text explains that to get the right shape, you must place the still pliable tuiles on a rolling pin. The one picture shows tuiles in a special, tuile shaping mold, I think that's what it is. What was the editor thinking? I want to know how to properly place these thin delicate pastries on a rolling pin. Instead I get a coffee table picture that is for all practical purposes, useless. Sorry, slipped back into the bad news. This book deserved more. I would have paid more money to get the same text but accompagnied with more illustrations and visual aids to help the understanding of the techniques and the desired results of the recipe. ALso, the navigation is rudimentary and damning. Link to a recipe but try to find your way back to text that contained the link. This is another example of a Kindle after thought rather than a made for Kindle product. I wish I could give this more stars.

If you want to learn about anything in life, you first have to ask yourself who you want to be your teacher. If I had to sum up my feelings about this book in a single word it would be "grateful". While the shelves of you collection could very easily be stacked with the accomplishments of one chef or another, Jacquy's book is not a demonstration of his vanity. It's a total crash course on pastry. It's not an encyclopedia of French pastry but more of a intro course that gives you a great start. For many home cooks, it may be all you'll ever want. The value of this book lies in the details. Pastry is unmerciful and unforgiving. Make one mistake and your whole project is over. The problem with so many books on the subject is that they assume you understand the technique needed to succeed. This book walks you through that technique and gives you a chance at success. The information in this book is far more valuable than it's price. Read it. Read every footnote, every paragraph leading up to a recipe, and every side note and summary. I own hundreds of cookbooks. This is the cream of the crop. So, do you need a teacher? If you can't be there in person, this is the next best thing. Always learn from the best in their field. Buy it. Try a few recipes and you too may find yourself grateful. Edit 7/27/15: After having tried many of the recipes in this book, I'm ever more impressed with the quality of the recipes, the explanations, and the outcomes. THERE NEEDS TO BE A VOLUME 2 TO FOLLOW THIS ONE UP.

While attending a course at the French Pastry School (Chicago), which was founded by Chef Pfeiffer, one of my fellow attendees told me she swears by his recipe book. (Note: if you're a fan of NYT recipes, the book's co-author posts recipes on that site.) Earlier this year, I purchased 'The Art of French Pastry' and now use it FREQUENTLY. It is my go-to resource for desserts and brunch treats. Along with baking some AMAZING desserts/pastries, I've learned a lot of wonderful tips that have improved all of my baking outcomes. The recipes are very complete and concise, as well. Remember, this book is used as the textbook in a pastry school, so you will never wonder how or what to do. I've probably made about 2 dozen of the recipes in the book (first recipe book I've used this extensively!) and have been delighted with all of them.