by Gesine Bullock-Prado
Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS
Pies are as old as the pyramids and baker, confectioner, and pastry master Gesine Bullock–Prado has elevated this time-proven favorite to a new level with her Pie it Forward cookbook. Bullock–Prado believes that pies are so special, they can even be served at special events such as birthdays, dinner parties, anniversaries, and yes, weddings. She introduces an entirely new frontier of pies, redefining what can be done with a piecrust and pastry shell. Expect lattice and cutouts with an entirely modern twist. Homemade puff pastry made easy. Individual pie pops to replace tired cupcakes. Surprising and wildly successful explorations with beer (Chocolate Stout Pudding Pie), exotic fruits (Yuzu-Ginger Rice Pudding Meringue Pie), and candy making (Earl Grey Truffle Tart). And there are the classics too—riffing on her German roots, her Hollywood background, and life on her Vermont farm—a Blueberry Brown Butter Tart, an Italian Plum Tart with a yeasted-dough crust, a tiramisu-inspired Espresso Tart, a Vermont Pizza Pie, and more. Including sweet, savory, layered, and miniature pies and tarts,
The Basics, chapter 1, is where it all starts: tips and recipes for making multiple types of pie dough, tart dough, strudel dough and puff pastry dough. The step–by–step directions, plus pictorials, will put the baker at ease and encourage even those intimidated by pie crust making to give it a try.
The book contains 96 recipes with beautiful colored photographs by Tina Rupp.
Praise for Pie it Forward:
“Delicious reworkings and inventions from Sandra Bullock’s sister, including a truly quick puff pastry that’s worth the price of the book.” —New York Times Book Review,
Gesine Bullock-Prado, author of baking memoir My Life from Scratch and cookbook Sugar Baby, lives in Hartford, Vermont, with two dogs, seven chickens, ten Indian Runner ducks, six geese, two goats, and one wonderful husband. She uses her animal’s eggs and milk in her commercial bakery and maintains historic apple trees and a large garden to bring pies to vibrant life. Bullock-Prado and her product line, Gesine Confectionary, have been featured on the Today Show, the Rachael Ray Show, and Food Network. This is her second cookbook.
Tina Rupp is a New York-based photographer who specializes in food photograph. Her work can be found regularly in Food & Wine and Food Network Magazine
Win the Book ...We thank Stewart, Tabori & Chang for sponsoring this week’s Cookbook of the Week and the FREE Giveaway! To enter, please email us at ContactKosherEye, and put your name and the name of the cookbook in the message box. So easy! Giveaway ends midnight,January 6th, 2013.
Congratulations to the Winner – Naomi Lev
Buy the Book
KosherEye Notes:
This is not the average two–crust pie recipe cookbook! It is beautifully done, pie recipes are elevated to a new level, and clearly she loves to bake pies – all types including savory. Several of the pie dough recipes contain sweetened condensed milk, and some of the fillings include butter and cream. For KosherEye, this is not a problem as we love to bake, and eat, dairy desserts. There are non–dairy recipes throughout the book but clearly this professional baker loves the real McCoy. Rather than convert some of these fabulous recipes to non–dairy, we are going to just bake them as presented and possibly even have a slice with our morning coffee. The information contained in this book regarding the "how–to" of baking a pie crust is like a cooking class. The recipes in the chapter on Savory are not kosher friendly, however but some are substitute friendly. That does not alter our opinion that this is a wonderful cookbook and one that we will reference often for pie advice.
Try these recipes: All–Butter Easy Pie Dough (parve option) with video, Pie Dough Tips, Wild Blueberry Pie, and Chocolate Fleeur de Sel Caramel Tart.
For Your Information:
As you enjoy reading about these fabulous cookbooks, some featured cookbooks have recipes, or indeed chapters with recipes that have non−kosher ingredients. No worries! KosherEye and our team of knowledgeable cookbook authors, chefs and foodies will help you find, convert and substitute ingredients to create kosher recipes. To get you started, we are providing an initial, basic list of kosher substitutions. As is the case with many outstanding cookbooks, this is a worthwhile exercise, which enables the kosher cook to have access to some of the world’s greatest, classical and most contemporary recipes, created by experts in their field.