French Pastry Workshop

Starred review from September 15, 2017
Names alone will generate drools: macarons, madeleines, choux pastries, millefeuille. When those so wonderfully French sweets are combined with how-tos from a master baker, this book's appeal is inescapable. In his first workshop collection (with hopes for more), Kayser offers the right kind of support for anyone to replicate these goods. He starts with the basicsequipment, methods, but not so much as to overwhelmthen deliberately introduces the 70 recognizable recipes: everyday loaves and cakes along with tea cakes and cookies. Encouraging, too, are the variations on one recipe: loaves, for instance, take on chocolate, candied lemon, candied fruit, and coconut rum to give home bakers confidence in mastering that item. Color photographs are exquisite, often featuring close-ups of ingredients. What most readers will refer to again and again are the step-by-step photographs and directions for more complicated creations: classic cream-puff and puff-pastry doughs, a coffee Yule log, meringue sandwich cake, and more. Magnifique!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)