Books by Rose Levy Beranbaum

[tari]

Hi everybody!

Anybody can tell me anything about cookbooks by Rose Levy Beranbaum? Are they worth to buy???

Thank you and have a great day!!!!!!

[Darienne]

I am a relative newbie and I have the Cake Bible and the Pie and Pastry Bible and they are wonderful.

Not only are the recipes easy to follow and well explained, RLB also tells you why you must do or not do something and what to change if something doesn't work.

Another wonderful book is Shirley Corriher's Cookwise. I've not see her Bakewise, but folks say it is not something they would recommend, especially compared to her Bakewise.

Good luck!

[DanM]

+1 for the Pie and Pastry Bible. There is a chart at the beginning o the Fruit Pie section that lists how much sugar and corn starch is needed for a given amount of common fruits for making a fruit pie. That by itself is worth the money. There is also a great chicken pot pie recipe that my wife and I enjoy.

The cake book is good, but a little dated. I don't know much about her new Heavenly Cakes book. Bread bible... meh. Good stuff, but I would recommend Jeffery Hammelman or Peter Reinhart for a bread book over hers.

Dan

[Wholemeal Crank]

I use the original Cake Bible regularly; scouted but am still on the fence about Rose's Heavenly Cakes, mostly because I don't bake cakes regularly, and a few base recipes plus my own variations really suffice pretty well for me; didn't buy the Pie and Pastry Bible because I was already comfortable and confident with my own pies; did buy the bread book despite her really annoying bias against wholegrain flours because the little pretzel breads are fabulous and quite unique among all my other bread books and recipes (and I do make them with my fresh-milled whole wheat flour).

[JeanneCake]

I have all of her books, except for Romantic and Classic Cakes (her first).

The Cake Bible is an excellent reference; the Christmas Cookie book contains the best recipe for Gingerbread cookies that I've ever used and lots of others that are different enough from what's out there to make a great cookie basket gift; the Pie and Pastry Bible is also equally as good for the fruit/sugar chart and the savoury recipes (I second that chicken pot pie!)

I don't use the Bread Bible as much, and agree that the topic is covered by others more informatively.

I have Heavenly Cakes, but haven't made anything from it yet. This seems to be a more personal collection of recipes not an update of the Cake Bible. There are people on her blog/forums that are actively baking their way through the book and having good success.

ETA correct typos

Edited November 6, 2009 by JeanneCake (log)