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| Tartine | 
 enlarge | Authors: Elisabeth Prueitt, Chad Robertson
Creators: Alice Waters, France Ruffenach
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $19.87
You Save: $15.13 (43%)
New (41) Used (10) from $19.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 8465
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 10 x 8.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0811851508
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.865
EAN: 9780811851503
ASIN: 0811851508
Publication Date: August 24, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ah, the perfect book on baking! October 20, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
All I can say is, Wow. Tartine is not only one of the most delicious bakeries anywhere, but they have created a cookbook that lives up to the food they serve.
The pictures are illustrative and gorgeous. The writing is clear and succinct. But best of all, the recipes are thorough. I love how they give such detailed descriptions and explanations on all of the delicious sweets so that you can recreate them exactly. This book is a joy to read. My highest recommendation (and this comes from someone who has too many cookbooks and bakes too many sweets).
 Great book but... September 30, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's a really nice book, full of good recipes, great if you're looking for a gift. Beautifully made and very good explained. The only "but" it would be the lack of photographs. For the people who knows how the recipes looks like must be great, but I haven't had the luck of being into this Tartine bakery, so I can hardly imagine how most of the things should look like. Anyway, the recipes are great. I would recommend it.
The best September 28, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
My children loved, my husband loved, my friends loved them too. The best chocolate friands ever! From Tartine's book.
Visited Tartine and had to own the Book! July 10, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Coconut Cream Pie, which is a variation under the Banana Cream Pie recipe in the book, is probably one of the best desserts ever assembled. It is absolutely perfect how you get a bit of the pudding-coconut inside that is finished off by the melting of the chocolate coated crust. The flow of tastes and textures is perfect from start to finish of each bite.
The Caramel sauce is an incredible dessert just drizzled over a premium quality vanilla ice cream.
The recipes are easy to follow and fairly easy to replicate at home. The book gives U.S. measurements and Metric.
If you attempt one of the Cream Pie variations, I suggest making the 3 different base items over a couple days. It can be a little overwhelming the first time.
Buy these Vanilla beans ahead of time. Just over a buck a bean with free shipping. The grocery store beans can be seven bucks a bean! If you make a big batch of pastry cream you will go through a couple beans in one shot.
Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans - 7 beans
This book works, and it's fantastic June 2, 2007
46 out of 46 found this review helpful
Updates August '08: Just wanted to reiterate how successful these recipes are. Since my first review, I've baked several more cakes, a couple of tarts, and the brioche (of 3 versions I've tried, by far my favorite, better than the version in Baking with Julia). This book has a large section of bavarian style cakes, and I credit the authors for this becoming my very favorite type of cake. I've tried the passion fruit-lime cake and also the strawberry bavarian, and they came out so delicious, light, ethereal even. The lemon curd recipe is also delicious. This is my go-to baking book now, especially for cakes. The recipes really highlight quality, fresh ingredients, and they're never overly sweet or fussy. In addition to the weddings cakes (mentioned below), I've brought Tartine cakes to friends, family, and the office, and--assuming they are being honest--everyone says they are among the best they've had. I believe them because I agree, and I give full credit to the authors for that.
One note, however, is that the basic cake recipes produce more batter than needed to fill the pan. For me, this usually means a 6-inch cake for the freezer, which is a treat.
Usually I try not to review any book until I've cooked at least 3 recipes from it (which is often 3 more recipes than some of the highly-ranked cookbook reviewers around here try). Technically, I've only prepared 2 from this book: croissants and tres leches cake. However, that cake involved the recipe for a coconut chiffon cake, caramel, and vanilla pastry cream, in addition to the syrup and cream for assembling the final cake. That, coupled with the intricate nature of the croissant recipe, gives me enough evidence to say that this is an excellent baking book, a great addition to any baker's collection.
I've tried croissants before, struggled with the technique, and failed to approximate the taste of a good, buttery, proper croissant. I followed the detailed instructions here exactly, and I got exactly what I want. My French husband approved, and my mom and sister and I ate them up far too quickly. The dough wasn't easy, but it made a true croissant. I especially like Tartine's extra touch of baking them a little darker than most other recipes.
As for the tres leches cake, I'll say nothing as to its authenticity, since I wouldn't really know. As far as the recipe, though, it's utterly manageable: instructions and measurements are accurate and clear. The results: absolutely delicious, maybe the best non-chocolate cake I've made. The coconut chiffon is moist and tender, and the coconut syrup, caramel, and vanilla pastry cream make it so moist, flavorful, and satisfying. Another touch I liked was the small touch of lemon juice in the caramel. I haven't made it before, but I don't recall this as a standard addition in recipes I've seen. But it was definitely worth eating with a spoon. Probably a dozen or more people sampled this cake over the weekend, and they all loved it.
I look forward to trying the devil's food cake and the brioche, and I'm confident that they'll turn out as well as what I've made so far.
Added later:
I also tried the devil's food cake recipe (Which includes recipes for the cake, caramel, ganache). It was a bit involved, but the directions were again very clear and spot on: I knew what to look for and even my first try came out great. I ended up making about 4 batches of the recipe and using it for my brother's grooms cake. Had raves from dozens of people.
Also, ended up using the tres leches chiffon cake for part of the brides cake, which also got tons of great feedback.
I look forward to working through this book even further.
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