Overview
CAPRIAL PENCE is the chef and co-owner of Caprial's Bistro in Portland, Oregon, which opened in 1992. Shortly after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Caprial was named Best Chef: Pacific Northwest by the James Beard Foundation-the first female recipient of this prestigious award. Caprial's latest cooking show can be seen on public television nationwide.MELISSA CAREY has baked professionally for 18 years and is a graduate of the Horst Mager Institute. She has created scrumptious desserts-the old-fashioned ones are her favorites-as the pastry chef at Caprial's Bistro for the past six years.
* New paperback edition of Caprial Pence and Melissa Carey's collection of desserts, featuring 67 master recipes and their variations.
* Full-color photography throughout, including more than 60 illustrations of fundamental pastry-making techniques.
* Caprial's books have sold nearly 300,000 copies.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewFans of Caprial's Bistro, in person or via her television show, will welcome this straightforward, attractive approach to homemade desserts from layer cakes and pies to berry cobblers and puddings. It's a great book for beginning and intermediate bakers.
Caprial Pence and the restaurant's pastry chef, Melissa Carey, offer 67 master recipes plus variations -- a Caramel-Walnut Tart that can morph into a Bourbon Pecan Tart with a Chocolate Crust, for example, or Raised Doughnuts that can become Lemon Doughnuts with Vanilla Sugar. Continuing the culinary school approach, they also provide pages of step-by-step color photographs to illustrate tricky techniques like caramelizing sugar, making chocolate garnishes, and splitting, filling, and frosting a cake.
The book's contents are devoted to Cakes; Cobblers, Pies and Tarts; Cookies; Breakfast Sweets; Puddings, Custards and Mousses; and Ice Creams, Sorbets, and Gelati. A final chapter on Special Occasion Desserts offers more advanced recipes, like a Chocolate Turtle Torte for pulling out all the stops.
Pence and Carey even tell you how to make your own mini-marshmallows and your own mascarpone -- an instruction I've never seen before, so here it is: "Combine 2 cups heavy whipping cream with one teaspoon tartaric acid in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring just to a boil. Place the mixture in a strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth, set the strainer over a bowl, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. The next day remove the chilled mascarpone from the cheesecloth, discarding the liquid in a bowl." Now you're ready to make Gingersnap-Mascarpone Sandwiches. (Ginger Curwen)