Tartine

`Tartine', a high end American Patisserie cookbook by husband and wife master bakers, Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson is a fine exemplar of a particular kind of baking book, where the emphasis is simply on communicating excellent recipes from professional bakers which are, with proper patience and technique, quite doable by the home baking hobbyist. This book can be distinguished from several other fine baking books. The most outstanding variety genus is the restaurant baker / baking instructor book. Two of the finest examples are `The Secrets of Baking' by Spago superbaker, Sherry Yard and `The Sweet Live, Desserts from Chanterelle' by Kate Zuckerman. Another major genus is the professional baking teacher / encyclopedic book, such as the several `bibles' from Rose Levy Beranbaum and `How to Bake' and `Perfect Pastry' from Nick Malgieri. Still another genus is the `I love to bake, and here are my favorite recipes' books such as `Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters' and `Baking From My Home to Yours' by Dorie Greenspan. Two other small but important categories are the basic baking manual, such as the excellent `Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook' and Alton Brown's nerdy `I'm Just Here for More Food' and the omnibus sampler of baking techniques such as `Baking With Julia (Child)' written by Dorie Greenspan. Note that Alton Brown's book could also be lumped together with Sherry Yard's book, as both are excellent at illuminating the whys of great baking. In addition to all of these, there is the whole family of bread baking books, which is outside this discussion. I also have to give special mention to all books by Flo Brakker and the great Maida Heatter as great sources of instruction and encyclopedic range. So where does that leave us with `Tartine'. My first impression is that it could have been given the same name as culinary journalist Jeremy Jackson's `desserts that have killed better men than me', since these recipes are uniformly outstanding in standing out from the crowd. It should be no surprise that recipes from a high-end bakery fit within the range of skills of the hobbyist baker, since the difference between home and professional technique is much closer than it is for the savory kitchen. In fact, if anything, the home baker needs more patience, space and time to match professional results rather than more speed and hotter ranges needed by the professional line cooks. A perfect example of the need for lots of time is the recipe for brioche, which can often be seen more as a cake than as a bread (but it commonly appears in both pastry and bread books). My paradigm for brioche up to now has been Nancy Silverton's `Breads from the La Brea Bakery' recipe, but I think `Tartine' will replace it, not because it's easier, but because it requires even more steps and care, giving an even richer result. Books of this genus are great for entertaining recipes, as one challenge of the high end professional bakery is not only to produce great results, but to easily stand apart from the average stuff you may find on the supermarket cookie shelf or bakery counter. For example, the eight cookie recipes all seem vaguely familiar on first glance, but they all stand out in some way when you look at the recipes. The shortbread recipe is a fine example of how the authors have taken the pedestrian cookie found in a `Lorna Doone' Nabisco box and turned it into a rare treat. Another lesson from the shortbread recipe is the fact that the authors go to great lengths to be sure that no detail of their technique is left out. This is not to say this is a good teaching book. You will still do much better with these recipes if you have mastered the basics than if you are starting with no baking knowledge. But, with experience, you will be able to appreciate the wisdom of the authors' technique. While almost all recipes in this book are outstanding, there are three chapters that are more valuable than others. The first is the `Pasteries & Confections' which covers some of the wilder marches of the baking landscape, such as Eclairs, Friands, Toffee, Truffles, and Peanut Brittle. This is not your garden-variety peanut brittle! The second is in the `With a Glass of Wine' chapter covering gougeres, cheddar cheese crackers, wild mushroom tart, and pissaladiere on brioche. These are for entertaining with a flair. The last is the `Basic Baking Recipes' chapter that is notable for its recipes for chiffon cakes. The authors explain that unlike angelfood cake, chiffon cakes have gone out of fashion for their relative richness. So, if you are in need of something which is `decadent', traditional, and unusual all in one, try one of these four (lemon, orange, coconut, or chocolate) chiffon cakes. Even Alton Brown hasn't done a `Good Eats' show on chiffon yet. Given the authors' connection with Alice Waters, who supplies the introduction, it is not surprising that the only recipe in the book for which I could identify a superior replacement was the blueberry lemon tart, which seemed not quite as interesting as my favorite from Chez Panisse (in their `Chez Panisse Fruits' book). The only non-culinary caveat I have is that the spine of the book was just a bit stiff, so it will not easily lie flat on your kitchen table without some hefty weighting. All in all, a really great book on professional baking products and techniques.

Beautiful book. I often buy Kindle cookbooks to save space, however, I'm glad I have a physical copy of this book. It's just so pretty and the recipes are surprisingly simple. Or I should say, there are many that are simple. The author also gives great hints about what to make. For example She mentions that people hardly make pudding cakes, they are unusual and delicious, but easy to make. My grandmother's recipe for lemon pudding cake is actually very similar to the recipe in this book. I found that strangely comforting, that this somewhat fancy book, would include a recipe that my Granny Rowsom made often, and I remember from childhood. So far I have made the frangipane, which is amazing, pie crust, shortbread, brioche and buttermilk scones. All of the recipes were correctly written and came out beautifully without much effort. As someone who enjoys baking, I love that grams are included ( and also cups) I always use the scaled amounts. Once you get used to it, a scale makes a great baking companion. You don't need to dig for your measuring cups and the amounts are exact. You also avoid adding to much flour to your recipes. Believe me, it will make a difference in your results that you will like.

The Coconut Cream Pie, which is a variation under the Banana Cream Pie recipe in the book, is probably one of the best desserts ever assembled. It is absolutely perfect how you get a bit of the pudding-coconut inside that is finished off by the melting of the chocolate coated crust. The flow of tastes and textures is perfect from start to finish of each bite. The Caramel sauce is an incredible dessert just drizzled over a premium quality vanilla ice cream. The recipes are easy to follow and fairly easy to replicate at home. The book gives U.S. measurements and Metric. If you attempt one of the Cream Pie variations, I suggest making the 3 different base items over a couple days. It can be a little overwhelming the first time. Buy these Vanilla beans ahead of time. Just over a buck a bean with free shipping. The grocery store beans can be seven bucks a bean! If you make a big batch of pastry cream you will go through a couple beans in one shot. Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans - 7 beans

I was really in it for the chocolate pudding, I'll be honest. And the recipe here delivers. It tastes and feels exactly like the bakery version. I'm making the almond-lemon tea cake next, and noticed that the photo between the first and second pages of the recipe is for almond-lemon-poppyseed pound cake, which appears to be topped with a dusting of powdered sugar rather than the citrus glaze the recipe specifies. I can certainly add some poppyseeds to this recipe of my own accord, but it seems odd to me to have a photo of something else in there, especially when there are relatively few photos in the book. Also, the recipe calls for almond paste, which I only found locally at a restaurant supply shop, in a gigantic tub for $40. Again, it won't kill me to look up a recipe for almond paste online, but for a book of this quality, from a restaurant of this quality, I would've expect a little more attention to detail. For this reason, I'm knocking off a star. I am not dinging them for the relative paucity of sandwiches/savory things, although those are among my favorites from the bakery. They chose to give the book a strong sweet focus, and that's their choice. I would've loved to have seen a recipe for those spicy pickled carrots! Maybe next time?

Great book, highly recommended, all of the pictures and formulas are great. All stuff that comes from Tartine is great ;-)

I love this book - it quickly became one of my favourites, which is no easy feat! I find I frequently buy books that look beautiful but lack substance or practicality. This makes for lots of cookbooks that just gather dust. However I've definitely used this one quite a few times. The recipes are delicious (the lemon tart is amazing - I've made it so many times and frequently get requests for it), and the instructions are detailed and informative. This is not another mainstream cook-in-30-min cookbook that just provides the ingredients and lists 5-6 steps to follow. The author takes the time to explain why certain steps must be taken, and suggests substitutions where appropriate. Despite the complaint from another reviewer, I didn't find it lacking in photographs - most of the desserts had beautiful pictures. I've been inspired by the detailed instructions in the book on how to create croissants (it's over 3 pages long!) - rather than finding them daunting, I'm actually encouraged because I know I'm not going to get confused or frustrated after hours of labour. I also found the tone of the author very comfortable to read - I liked reading about her experiences with the various items at the bakery. I haven't made as many items as I'd like, but I find myself regularly turning to the book to get inspired - I just need to make the time to do more baking! ** Mar 18, 2013 update ** Still a favourite several years later having made numerous batches of choc-oatmeal walnut cookies, hazelnut chocolate tart, maple pecan tarts (highly recommend as not overly sweet) and serves as my go-to source for sugar and flaky tart dough. Finally ventured to make croissants for the first time this past weekend and they turned out so wonderfully I almost cried!! Amazed at the depth of flavour and texture that developed with simple ingredients (Fleischer's yeast, Robin Hood all-purpose flour and Gay Lea North American butter....can only imagine if European butter had been used). Definitely worth having patience as entire process spanned 3 days. However take heart that actual labour time was minimal (suggest making preferment Friday evening to have croissants ready for Sunday morning)...my only caution is in the proofing step where the authors say to use "steaming water" - novice that I am, I learned the hard way that this does not mean boiling water (oven gets too hot and butter melts out - an approx 50:50 mix of boiling and tap water yielded much better results in subsequent attempt). I greatly appreciate the authors' authenticity in providing high quality recipes that yield great results (somewhat of a rarity in most bakery/restuarant cookbook offerings).

Super, excellent, very professional. Needs to be read carefully. Is for professionals Very good technics’ for bread making. I am waiting for the next one.

Ein schönes Buch mit tollen Rezepten,ohne gute Englischkentnisse kommt man allerdings nicht weit. Leider sind nicht zu jedem Rezept Bilder beigefügt,so das erst eine Übersetzung Aufschluss bringt was am Ende raus kommen soll. Sicher kein Backanfängerbuch.

There are SO MANY recipes that they use at Tartine Bakery. It will take you a year to go through them all. But the ingredient list and the dteps are clear (there is metric, yay) and she goes in detail so that you don't mess up somewhere. Not as many "pretty pictures" as other baking books, or even the Tartine Bread book. A recipe a page or two. Simple. And they work great.