Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie & Pastry Bible

[Chris Amirault]

Yeah, over a decade late to this party, but I'm surprised that there's no dedicated topic for Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible, which I just grabbed in perfect condition at Savers. There are a few mentions throughout the P&B forums, but I'm wondering what the hits and misses are, where to start, and so on.

[Dianabanana]

I'm surprised there's not a dedicated topic to this, too! I cook from this book quite a bit. I think it is very typically RLB, in that it walks the line between scrupulous attention to detail and compulsive over-analysis, and requires a maddening amount of flipping back and forth between sub-recipes; however, I have learned so much from it that I'm able to apply to all of my other baking--for instance, the benefits of freezing a fruit pie before baking it, or the idea of macerating fruit then draining and reducing the juices and adding them back in. I made the most astounding cherry pie I've ever tasted the other day using the latter technique on a jar of Bulgarian sour cherries.

The Maple Walnut Tart has completely usurped the pecan pie in my kitchen, and that's saying a lot. I made the Plum Flame Tart but with Johnnybird's Toast Dope instead of the cinnamon sugar in the recipe and holy cow was that good--and pretty. I made the Christmas Cranberry Galette over (surprise) Christmas and it was just okay. I'm out of town so don't have the book with me to check, but I know I've made an awful lot out of the fruit pie chapter.

Note that you'll want to check her website for errata, especially if you've got an older edition of the book.

[Katie Meadow]

I too recently acquired this book. Less daunting for me than the Cake Bible, but then I'm not too interested in cake. My first foray (before I actually owned the book) was the result of Chris Hennes raving about her open-face blueberry pie last summer. The filling was outstanding. This New Year's Day we made the "Best All American" apple pie, using three different types of apple. Again, the filling was fabulous--and, I am seriously picky about apple pie.

My daughter made the currant scones (her first time ever making scones) and they were very good.

I should say that my husband is the flour guy; I do the pizza toppings, he does the dough, I do the pie fillings, he does the crust. He prefers a Julia Child crust to the one he tried from the RLB book, so we are using her pie fillings but not her crust. At least for now.

Doesn't that picture of the honeycomb pie with the little bees just kill you?

[JeanneCake]

Hmmm. What haven't I made from this book is probably a better place to start! As the book is in work and I am home, I can tell from the top of my head that the Linzer Torte (tart) is excellent, and I've substituted best quality apricot jam for the seedless raspberry with good results.

The pecan tart is hands down the best I've had, it is on the menu at several of my restaurant clients. Use the Lyle's syrup if you can get it; but it works with dark corn syrup too. At first I had trouble with the baking time for this recipe (the top was very spongy looking) but it turned out I needed to bake a while longer. The tarts are as beautiful as they are tasty.

The Chocolate Oblivion tart is very nice, but I usually end up just pouring a good ganache into the chocolate pate sucree crust and call it a day.

The Boulders Tart and the Tart Nadege is quite good. I also got good reviews on the peanut butter mousse tart. I make the apple walnut tart at the holidays but I prefer almond cream to the walnut cream if truth be told.

That's all I can remember without the book in front of me!

[gap]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this book? I hadn't seen it before but looking at various reviews/sites etc it seems to be quite a good and thorough book. It might be worth heading off to Amazon for . . .

[Darcie B]

I've had the book for years and consider one of the most disappointing cookbooks I have purchased. I use recipes from the Cake Bible a lot, and held high hopes for this volume, since I am firmly on the pie side of the cake vs. pie debate. However, I found her pie crusts to be very difficult to work with, and the fillings, for the most part, underwhelming.

Caveat: I was so disappointed in the few recipes that I tried that I pretty much gave up. I did not try more than a half dozen of the recipes. I keep the book as a reference but haven't even cracked it open in a year or so.

[abooja]

I owned this book for many years before I decided to bake from it for the first time last year. I made the Pear Galette. It was a bit bland, for my tastes, but looked pretty damn cute. My guests seemed to enjoy it.

I'll definitely have to delve into it some more. That macerating the cherries then, separately, reducing the juices and adding them back in idea sounds like just the ticket for a cherry pie that might finally blow me away.

[Chris Amirault]

Darcie, which recipes did you try?

[Tom Gengo]

I particularly like the section that covers "matching" flavors- it tells what flavors go w/ which, eg. raspberries and chocolate, but covers some interesting combos. Great creating new recipes.

[Lindacakes]

DarcieB, I find your comments very interesting.

I'm in agreement, although I confess I don't have a lot of experience with the book. Probably because I haven't been thrilled with the recipes I've tried.

I'd be curious to know where you go for pie recipes, as someone on the pie side.

[qrn]

I checked it out at the library, last month, and did some things from it, Much more user friendly than Cake bible...

Bud

[Chris Hennes]

Blueberry Tart with Lemon Curd (pp. 258–260)

I first reported on RLB's no-bake blueberry pie recipe in in the Blueberry Pie topic: this is a similar thing, but with a lemon curd tart underneath the layer of uncooked blueberries. Overall a good idea, with an execution flawed by an overly-sweet lemon curd. The tartness of the curd is almost completely eliminated by the large amount of sugar she includes in the basic curd recipe. I don't know if it's possible to decrease the sugar and still get the curd to set up properly, but I may give it a try next time, since the premise seems so good.

[cookingofjoy]

I'd gotten the book from the library last summer and loved the no-bake blueberry. I'd also tried a currant tart, I think it was just pastry cream, currants and currant jelly to glaze. Her pie crust recipe was the first one I'd ever gotten to work, now I've been able to make a crust without all the freezing, but her instructions were really helpful for me.

[JeanneCake]

Blueberry Tart with Lemon Curd (pp. 258–260)

I don't know if it's possible to decrease the sugar and still get the curd to set up properly, but I may give it a try next time, since the premise seems so good.

I noticed that the curd recipes in the Pie book are different from the ones in the Cake bible. The curd recipe in the cake bible has less sugar - 3.5 oz in the original recipe compared to 4.5 oz for passion, lime, and orange curds. You could either add two sheets of bloomed gelatin to the warm-ish curd; or use an extra yolk or two in the recipe to make it firmer.

[DanM]

This is one of the stars in my pastry collection. There is a table near the beginning of the book that shows how much sugar and pectin is needed for a given quantity of numerous types of tarts. This table makes this book worth it by itself. Our favorites from the book are the cranberry gallete, chicken pot pie, and chocolate pecan blasts.

Dan

[Darienne]

Right. I love the cranberry galette, my first attempt out of this book.

And also, thanks to JeanneCake for that useful tip about the two lemon curds.

I'd like to try the blueberry pie, although when I think it through, I would have to say that we are not 'pie people'. Not sure why...

Edited June 28, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[Chris Hennes]

I think liking that blueberry pie it doesn't so much matter if you are "pie people" as that you are "fresh blueberry people". If you like raw blueberries, you will like that pie. Leaving most of them uncooked makes it a whole different animal compared to a traditional blueberry pie.

[DanM]

On 27 June 2010 - 08:18 PM, Chris Hennes said:

Blueberry Tart with Lemon Curd (pp. 258–260)

I first reported on RLB's no-bake blueberry pie recipe in in the Blueberry Pie topic: this is a similar thing, but with a lemon curd tart underneath the layer of uncooked blueberries. Overall a good idea, with an execution flawed by an overly-sweet lemon curd. The tartness of the curd is almost completely eliminated by the large amount of sugar she includes in the basic curd recipe. I don't know if it's possible to decrease the sugar and still get the curd to set up properly, but I may give it a try next time, since the premise seems so good.

Thanks for the referral. Blueberries are in season around here and
I just picked a few pounds. I made it today with a few changes. I switched out the pie crust for a whole/multigrain (20% oat flour, 80% white whole wheat) pate sucree. Per your comments about the curd, I reduced the sugar by roughly 1 tsp, per the book, and upped the lemon juice by .25 oz.

In the end, it turned out wonderfully and my wife's coworkers ate every bit of it.

Thanks again!

Dan

[Chris Hennes]

Glad you liked it: I made a similar crust substitution, using a standard pâte sucrée instead of the pie crust she calls for. I'm not sure why she wants you to use a flaky pie crust in this clearly tart-like thing.

[LovesGenoise]

I love the Pie/Pastry Bible, and I've baked from it extensively. My favorites so far are the cream cheese flaky crust- the flavor is leaps and bounds better than any of the all-butter crusts. And for fruit fillings my favorites are the concord grape pie (still in season here in the Northeast) and the open-face apple pie. The pecan pie is to die for, but I wouldn't make it unless I had Lyle's, which is yummy. I like to toast my pecans lightly before putting them in the pie.

Like Dianabanana, I have also used the technique of macerating sour cherries and then reducing the juices, it creates a very intense pie. I use the microwave to reduce the juices to avoid any caramelizing from the bottom of a pan, which with cherries makes them bitter. Have also used the same technique with frozen wild blueberries.

I don't always manage to take pictures, but here's a Flickr link to some of the Pie/Pastry Bible desserts I've made: http://www.flickr.com/photos/julie2357/sets/72157623256021206/

[LovesGenoise]

The Lemon Meringue Pie makes a deep layer of filling and is nuanced and well-balanced. I might increase the lemon zest ever so slightly next time I make it, but everyone I served it to raved about it.

Edited November 29, 2011 by LovesGenoise (log)

[LovesGenoise]

The Concord Grape pie is one of my all-time favorites from this book. It is a very juicy pie, and sometimes bakes up a bit messy, so I prepare the components separately and then assemble. Love it with lemon whipped cream.

[LovesGenoise]

The last pie from Thanksgiving, the pumpkin chiffon with sugar glazed pecans. Sublime flavor and very, very light texture.

[FWED]

I have been reading this topic and have been influenced to go out and buy and use this book. I have used RLB’s cake books for years and have learned much and liked them. Over the years I have also used the book on tarts (Great Pies and Tarts) by Carol Walter. Is there any one here that has used both of the tart books and has liked one over the other and for what reason?

[mache]

I made the tiramisu and it was fantastic. My guests suggested that it was very much at the level one would expect from a fine dining restaurant.

-- Mache