The Pie and Pastry Bible

I have her cake cookbook (the original from many years ago) and just got this pie cookbook from her. It is a very comprehensive listing of all kinds of pies with easy instructions and tip and tricks for best outcomes, substitutions, measurements, equipment etc. Looking forward to making a berry tart for summer!

Now this is what folks mean when they talk about a definitive book. I will never have to purchase another pie and pastry how-to. This book covers it all with a depth that satisfies all questions. If you love Alton Brown and judiciously read all of the Cooks Illustrated background testing info, this book is for you. I am so happy with this book that I am not just looking up specific recipes, I am literally reading it as if it were a novel. (I am a curious cook.) For the novice pie and pastry baker, you may think this will be too overwhelming for you. I think this is written in such a way that you will "get it" and thus start out making things correctly. For the experienced, this book is a problem solver and is the road to perfection. This book contains more than 300 recipes. There are more than 15 recipes for pie crusts plus variations. With that said, obviously not every pie under the sun is here, but there is enough information for you to make improvements on any recipe that is not covered. This book is so close to perfect, I gave it five stars. However, I do have some criticisms. First, this book needs to better catalog the recipes. The table of contents lists simply the chapters, such as fruit pies, tarts, custard pies etc. The chapters delve into the subject without listing the recipes. I would prefer that each chapter had a mini table of contents that listed individual recipes. My second criticism is the altering of classic recipes to suit her personal tastes. I realize this is completely subjective, but if she were a Southerner, I wouldn't have to continue to hunt for recipes for chess pie and coconut custard pie. This is the same criticism I had of the Cook's Illustrated baking volume too. However, we're talking about two or three recipes in each book that I don't agree with, so the books were still worth the purchase. Speaking of Cook's Illustrated, if I had to choose between this book and Baking Illustrated, I would go with this book. If both are an option for you, get both. Cook's does a good job of balancing flavor with speed. The bible series seems to be all about flavor with little regard to speed. My last criticism is a minor one and I realize it is as subjective as the author's taste when writing the recipes; I find the language and recipe structure awkward at times. I think the Williams-Sononma Collection, while not the most exhaustive collection of recipes, is the best example of recipe writing. I wanted to make pie crust from scratch for Thanksgiving, so I paid rush shipping charges to get this book here and it is worth the expense. I made a test basic flaky pie crust and it came out perfectly. [....]

When I discovered Pillsbury readymade (pre-rolled) pie crusts in a local grocery store's cold case, I started making pies again for my pie-loving husband. THE PIE AND PASTRY BIBLE is rather famous for its great, detailed instructions on making the perfect pie crust, but I use this book for its equally great pie filling recipes. Recently I made an absolutely scrumptious blackberry pie, the "secret" being author Beranbaum's recipe that calls for a few tablespoons of lemon juice and lemon zest. She also cautioned--quite correctly--that the quality of my finished pie would depend on the quality of the blackberries used. My second blackberry pie was delicious, but not quite as scrumptious as the first, because I combined farmer's market and grocery produce department blackberries, instead of using only fresh blackberries from the farmer's market. This book has recipes for all of the classic pies (e.g., apple, berry, lemon meringue, banana cream, pumpkin, chicken pot, quiche), and for many variations and other varieties. There is, for example, a recipe for making Napoleons (one of my favorite pastries)! The author's folksy text about her early experiences, and her serious experiments, with pie making is another pleasurable "plus" factor with this book. Mine is the Kindle edition, which is quite satisfactory when viewed on a 1st Gen Kindle Fire or 8.9" Kindle Fire HD tablet. The 70 color photographs from the original hardcover edition are missing, but the charts and line drawings are there. (The charts are very small in a Kindle Keyboard.) To navigate, I use bookmarks at the recipes I've used, at the Table of Contents, and at the Index. The Index is very detailed, and has working page links to the indexed recipes and information. If you could have only one book of pie recipes, this one would be an excellent choice. Two other pie recipe books that I like very much in Kindle editions are Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie (another comprehensive reference work), and Pillsbury Easy as Pie: 140 Simple Recipes (a great book with simple recipes for classic pies made with Pillsbury readymade pie crusts).

Man, I have such a love-hate relationship with this book. For starters, I agree with many of the critics in these reviews; yes, it needs more photos, the methodology Rose uses is overly complicated, there are some weird suggestions (like baking at the bottom of the oven, which causes burnt pie crusts), and it seems like she doesn’t particularly like sweet recipes (especially when it comes to chocolate) When I first started baking from this book, I was a beginner at making pies. I don’t think this book is for beginners. There are no photos to assist you in the recipes, and although the author does explain her methods a lot, I had to look up dozens of tutorials and trouble-shooting tips online until I finally got the hand of making pies. Once I knew what I was doing, I was able to fly through her recipes very easily. However, I found her methods for pie crust to be very tedious. I questioned the necessity of it, so one day I decided to make her cream cheese pie crust twice. Once her way (with the ziploc bag, rolling pin, freezing flour, etc.) and the other crust a “normal” way with just making sure to use cold butter and a pastry cutter (or hands). When they were done, I compared both pie crusts and found no difference. At all. And I never went back to using her method ever again because it was way too time consuming and just not worth the effort. Also, I found that her 9-inch crust recipes were never enough to fill my 9-inch pans. They would tear before stretching it out enough to fit my pans. So to fix this, I now use her 9 1/2-inch pie crust recipes for a 9-inch pan and have not had any more issues. Once I made these adjustments, I found myself enjoying her recipes SO much more. They are very delicious. I have made dozens of these recipes and often get many compliments when I serve these pies to friends, families, and strangers. So…back to the love-hate relationship. I hate that her methods are too excessive, unnecessarily time consuming and that her pie crust measurements questionably inaccurate (for me, at least). However…once I made my own personal adjustments to these issues, I now LOVE this book. My advice for anyone questioning whether or not to buy it…if you are beginner, maybe study pie-making a little bit first. Then, try this book out. It’s great. And again, don’t stress too much about some of the author’s methods. I attached some pictures. I was hoping to find a picture of her Great Pumpkin Pie, which I have made about a dozen times. I always get a lot of compliments on it, but I never bake it on the bottom of the oven. Always the middle. Lol. :) Hope this helps!

Great book if you want to make pies

I purchased a few books from Mrs. Beranbaum, in order to prepare something special this past Holiday Season. I am a beginner baker with a passion to learn. At first it seemed a bit confusing with all the measurements and jumping around from one section to another, but after taking the time to read and to absorb the information I found that I understood the recipes and format much better. This is not your simple and typical cookbook. This is a book for baking which is more involved and loaded with tips and I found this book to be educational. The real proof is in the pudding, so I made 3 pies from two of Mrs. Beranbaum's cookbooks, The Baking Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible. I made three different crusts one for each apple, cherry, and pumpkin pies. Let's just say that my family was very impressed! The pies turned out perfect all three times and were very delicious! I'm kinda proud and pleased that my first ever pies, from scratch, looked and tasted great! Though I have much to learn and I do need more practice on the are of pie making, I found that this book is money well spent. Thank you Mrs. Rosse Levy Beranbaum! I love your books!

First of all, this is NOT a book for those wanting to make something up quick. If you want a quick and easy dessert, go somewhere else. If you enjoy the process of baking and (even more so) the pleasure of eating homemade goods, this book is for you. The piecrusts (as other reviewers have noted) are not the easiest. But, they do come out very well. It is possible to use the freezer bags as noted (only one is necessary per piecrust recipe). On the crusts, I recommend using the food processor method. Also, I noticed that it takes a lot less time to bake the crusts than the time recommended in the book. I have never had them become soggy either. Brushing on the egg white after you bake them helps to prevent that. As for the time-consuming quality of the recipes, be prepared to spend a long time on any one of these. On the Strawberry Lover's Chiffon Pie (my first pie ever to bake and the first from this book), I spent around 9 hours over a two-day period. I just made the Apple Crumb Pie, and it took probably five hours though a lot of that was dead time (i.e., baking or chilling times when I could be doing something else). Before making any of these recipes, carefully read the instructions to get an idea of how long they take. And, the photography is excellent. It makes you want to make every single one in the book. The Pumpkin Pie and Honeycomb Chiffon Pie are coming up next (that is, after some recipes in her Cake Bible). The recipes are meticulously detailed. If you follow them EXACTLY, you should get good results. If you take shortcuts or decide that something isn't necessary, you'll get less than perfect results. The recipes range from traditional favorites like cherry and apple pies to more exotic pies (like the Honeycomb Chiffon pie and Tiramisu). Recipes for savory pies (like Shepherd's Pie and Chicken Pot Pie) are also included. This is my second favorite cookbook after Rose's The Cake Bible.

There are a few "core" books for any kitchen. This one has joined my bookcases and will remain with me forever. I am an enthusiastic home cook but have done little with baking. I learned of this author via YouTube and bought this encycylopedic treatise. Can't beat it! One gets an idea of Berenbaum's devotion to pies when you see that there are 70 pages devoted to crusts. There's a fun introduction about her personal journey of baking. Well worth the price.

In depth book with step by step instruction. Bought one previously and it went missing, so was always going to get another one. Has recipe of pie and pastry crusts as well as fillings. More books should this. No frills stories either just a good solid book.

This was a very welcomed gift for my partner, who is new to baking. He absolutely loves it. very informative with tips along the way. Very different from other cook books,not as many photos ( this isn't a bad thing) I feel this book is for the confident baker who wishes to learn more and progress in their carer, if not used to reading or prepared to test yourself and continue to love baking this book could be heavy going. I'm enjoying the book.

Unspeakably, ridiculously, amazingly good. I can't even begin to go into how much I love this book. I've tried almost a dozen recipes from this book and haven't had a loser yet. While I find some of her instructions to be a bit over the top (putting the frozen chunks of butter in a ziploc bag with the flour and rolling the whole thing out is ungodly time consuming, despite being a very reliable way to get a flaky crust) they never fail to give an excellent result. The savory items are also spectacular. I've made the cheese pastry wrapped meatloaf twice now and loved it both times. Absolutely recommend this book if you're serious about pastry.

Rose Levy es muy precisa al escribir, raya en la obsesión con sus recetas: las instrucciones no podrían ser más claras, con medidas en tazas y en gramos y consejos para lograr el éxito. Si las sigues al pie, te sale algo bien sin lugar a dudas. Algunas recetas son complejas, pero valen la pena. Fue mi primer libro de esta autora, y ahora ya tengo varios más.

Sobre lo avanzado y demás no sabría decir, pero en su caso ha estudiado repostería en varios sitios (escuela Hofmann y demás) y está encantadísima. Vamos a poder probar nuevas recetas y experimentos en casa. Se lo regalé a mi hermana para navidad, que es la experta del tema, y le encantó. Veo que hay personas que le dan críticas hasta de 1 estrella por no traer fotos de las "recetas". Una valoración penosa y muy equivocada de alguien que imagino que esperaba un libro de dibujos, sino no lo entiendo... Además que SÍ trae imágenes, simplemente no tiene todas las imágenes paso a paso. Si tienes experiencia supongo que se pueden echar en falta, pero las imágenes son algo que en un librazo de verdad para gente con experiencia se puede prescindir.