This week: Pastry, cookbook previews and giveaways

As you may have deciphered from my Fear of an empty pantry, part two – the baking edition article last week, or any other baking-related piece I’ve shared (and there have been many), I am a baker. While I love all cookbooks, my passion lies with those devoted to baking. I flip straight to the baking related chapters first when I receive any cookbook.

Anything to do with the craft of baking intrigues me, especially tart pans and pastry tools related to other cultures. I’ve tracked down everything from Iranian pastry molds to Laufabrauð irons to make leaf bread. One day, as I am wont to say, I’ll make all the pastries.

We have over 670 books with pastry in the title in our EYB Library and almost 9500 devoted to baking and a whopping 53,556 pastry recipes (online recipes) indexed. While not everyone is a baker, most everyone loves baked goods. This year has brought home baking to the center stage. See Lockdown bakers get creative; Weighing the options, is this recipe egg worthy?; and Diving into the deep end for related articles.

Novice bakers can be overwhelmed by the thought of laminated doughs. But it is surprising how rewarding the process can be and the resulting treats such as Danish pastries, croissants, and my personal favorite Kouign-amann are delectable. In our EYBD Preview of Bake by Rory Macdonald, there is a six-page spread detailing the process with photographs for making Kouign-amann.


Let’s talk about a few of my favorite cookbooks devoted to pastry:

The Pastry Chefs Little Black Book and The Pastry Chef’s Little Black Book Volume 2: Each of these 400-page volumes is written for chefs, by chefs. Do not let that sway you because the instructions and recipe layout are so approachable even a novice can easily crank out patisserie worthy goods. Filled with photography by Alan Battmann each recipe is outlined in a table format with US and Metric measurements, yield weights, procedural steps, and chef notes. These are the little black books of pastry. They can be ordered directly from Chef’s Connection with a free e-book download with purchase. If you do purchase both, you will receive a $10.00 discount, and the book(s) ship free. I’ve ordered these titles myself.

Other favorite titles include:

For skilled bakers, check out So Good Haute Patisserie magazine. I have all issues from No. 5 to No. 24 (locating earlier issues would be like finding a unicorn). I have yet to attempt to create anything from So Good but then again – one day.

This Week on our Blog

Since our last roundup, Darcie has written articles entitled: Learning from the masters, Cool as a cucumber, Eating (and cooking) as a coping mechanism, Flower cakes that are wobbly works of art, and Breaking up with sourdough. Darcie’s weekly food news antipasto is shared every Sunday #foodnews brings up these information-packed posts).

This week I shared my July 2020 New Cookbook Review and two fantastic new titles were featured A Table for Friends with a giveaway open to the US and UK and Summer Kitchens with a giveaway open to the US, with one additional copy worldwide provided by EYB.

Our EYB Cookbook Club summary was also published so be sure to check out the post for our options for August through October. The Kindle cookbook deals and Looking forward to 2020 cookbook preview posts are continually updated. Some titles scheduled for later this year have been pushed to 2021. Lastly, our monthly newsletter was just published, so be sure to check your email.


Jenny and the EYB Team


Featured Recently Indexed Titles


Member Photo of the Week

Cardamom sticky buns from Baking at République: Masterful Techniques and Recipes for Bakers by Margarita Manzke and Betty Hallock submitted by member Smokeydoke

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Featured Online Recipe

Chopped chicken sesame noodle bowls from Pinch of Yum


EYBDigital Previews

Recently we uploaded our 685th EYBDigital Preview where a selection of full sample pages is available for the following cookbooks.

Learn more about EYBDigital Previews.

Note: To learn why you cannot add all EYBDigital Preview recipes to your Bookshelf, please read this Help page.


Cookbook Giveaways
Click on the Blue Link Below to Enter

*Please note due to the pandemic, promotions are extended until publishers are back in their offices, and warehouses are available to resume the shipment of books. The cookbook giveaway roundup shares all current giveaways.

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2 Comments

  • Smokeydoke  on  July 25, 2020

    Thanks for posting my photo!

  • matag  on  July 25, 2020

    kouign-amann… worth every inch of the effort!

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