Patisserie at Home: The Essential French Pastry Cookbook―Techniques from Dough to Chocolate and Creams

This is a beautiful book containing classic pastries like Paris-Brest, Napoleons, and macarons. The architectural drawings of the pastries help you understand how they're put together, and the recipes are extremely clear and well written. Will you make pastries with an average of six layers of things that must be combined, cooked, and constructed? Maybe not. Nonetheless, you'll enjoy this coffee table book on pastries and appreciate the classic patisserie much more when you eat it.

The book was larger than expected but beautiful. Colorful pages with great recipes. So pretty that I will have it on display as well as useful in my baking at an upscale level.

Love this book! Has great pictures for setting up fine desserts and each recipe has a page reference to get other recipes. It’s very big not your normal size book that you can carry with you. Though it a great book to read on a Sunday bunch! I would recommend this book to whose who love pastry and are looking to perfect your fine dessert skills!

Nice book!

Beautiful book … as expected was a gift

TLDR, I think this is a great reference/idea book, but it's not good to bake directly from. Personally, I love this book, but you're not going to like it if you want recipes to bake from directly. This is primarily a reference book, and I peruse it regularly to get ideas or learn how classic desserts are baked. Want to know the difference between a french and swiss meringue and why you'd use one over the other? This book is great. What are the elements of a black forest cake? Also great. Want to make tiramisu from scratch? Look elsewhere. This book is really not constructed to bake from. In the actual recipe section, it usually says something like "make a sweet crust pastry," assuming you already know how to do that. Anything you make will have you either flipping to the front of the book to learn the base recipes or flipping to the back to learn techniques. Plus, I'm pretty positive all these recipes were originally in metric and converted (poorly) to imperial. You'll see measurements like "1 5/8 tablespoons" or "set the oven to 315 degrees." It's weird. Ultimately, it's a great book for a proficient baker looking to expand their skills and knowledge. But I would really not recommend trying to cook a complex dessert directly from it.

Principles of pastry making explained simply and full pointers for Success. Invaluable for those who needs to know why certain steps are crucial. Not the book if you are looking for recipes.

This was a gift from a friend who knows I love to bake. The recipes have pictures and are easy to follow. I’m working my way through these wonderful desserts.

I bought this for my wife who enjoys making cakes and has always dreaded making pastries. However, this book has changed everything as the book goes through every process step-by-step and now we have our own French patisserie at home! A must buy for those seeking to make French delicious pastries at home.

Hands down best baking book that I have purchased. I went to pastry school and just loved the design and layout of this book, and the diagrams/drawings are super cute and helpful. The recipes are relatively difficult but laid out in step-by-step instructions making them a bit easier. Hoping more like this will be published!

An excellent book for an adventurous home baker. It has a bunch of base recipes which are then used to construct many classics of French patisserie. It does require a certain level of knowledge and an understanding of process, but I think it strikes a good balance between instructional and aspirational. The reviewer who claims some recipes are incomplete is wrong. I’ve read every one and didn’t spot any howling omissions or errors. (Except for the Epiphany cake which lists 100g of vinegar in the puff pastry instead of 10g – yikes!) Recipes instruct you to make a sponge or cream or meringue from the base section then direct how to use these elements to make the final product, just like in college or a pro kitchen. Occasionally, the time management seemed a little off, placing elements halfway through a recipe that would perhaps be better made the day before, but this may be a stylistic choice to enable things to be made in one day. However, the authors do note when elements can be held overnight, so it's easy to plan differently if necessary. Being French, it requires mostly rings and frames rather than tins and pans, and you might have to get one or two silicone moulds and other assorted paraphernalia if you want to recreate everything exactly (like nozzles, acetate, thermometer, etc.) Thankfully, I haven’t noticed anything too wacky, ingredient wise. Definitely worth a look if you’re keen to learn more technique and go beyond the ordinary.

Superbe livre, surtout pour les pros.

The book is top notch and I gladly give it 5 stars! However, I have one criticism: In my eyes, it is not clearly understandable which 2016 edition uses which measurement system (grams versus ounces). As a European, I would have liked to read the recipes in metric. However, the book I bought now has imperial system. This criticism does not change the quality of the book, but is a hint to other buyers to be mindful here. I also find it confusing that there are several spin-offs of chapters as separate books and it is not presented exactly what the reader will find in them.