Best Source for Pie (recipes)
Anyone swear by one book over another? We're staying at a friend's apt who has "Bubby's Homemade Pies" on the shelves, and I was thinking of ordering a copy. I like that it has multiple crusts and both sweet and savory.
But what about The Pie and Pastry Bible, Killer Pies, The Lost Art of Pie Making Made Easy or others? Anyone got one you swear by? If so, please tell what you like about it.
Thanks!
Fred
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I like "The Pie and Pastry Bible" because Rose Levy Beranbaum breaks everything down into understandable steps and gives very clear directions. She explains why things work. te way they do and the book is full of tips and techniques. It has both sweet and savoury recipes. She is very dedicated to helping people in the kitchen and will answer questions on her website. http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/
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redheadsara
Dec 14, 2009 11:38 AM
I do have a book I swear by. There are no savory pie recipes in the book, but, really, when you have close to 700 pages of sweet pie recipes, who cares?! It's called "pie" and is written by Ken Haedrich. He has several different crust recipes and many many many variations (an entire chapter of apple pie recipes) and a ridiculously fabulous variety of pies. I also just love his style of writing, very personable, very down-to-earth, very likable. He also offers some history on recipes, and tells stories of how he came across the recipes and has short little writings and quotes by people who contributed recipes or other relevant quotes. I really love this book, and if you were to see how dog-eared, stained, and mucked-up it looks, you'd know I've put it to good use!! I've made at least 2 dozen recipes from this book (I'm kind of obsessed with pie) and they have all been wonderful.
I also have the Pie and Pastry Bible and am impressed by how much wonderful information and how many terrific resources are detailed in there -- a lot of stuff I would have never heard of otherwise -- but, I have to say, the way it's organized and laid out makes it hard to use. It's not a pleasure to peruse like Haedrich's Pie book is, so I haven't actually used it yet. It does have a lot of pastry recipes, so, with about the same number of pages as Haedrich's book, you do get fewer actual pie recipes because more pages are devoted to other pastries -- including some savory pies.
I also have and enjoy Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook which has given me a few good tips and ideas (for instance, coat your pie crust with a thin layer of melted chocolate for cream pies to keep crust from getting soggy). But there are not a lot of pie recipes -- just good recipes for pastry cream and crust, and lemon curd etc -- ingredients I've used to make pie.
So, yes, PIE by Ken Haedrich gets my top vote every time!
