Modern French Pastry: Innovative Techniques, Tools and Design

Modern French Pastry is not a cookbook about the classics. You will find no tart tatins, lemon tarts or opera cakes inthis book. Instead, Modern French Pastry gives you 41 original recipesnever seen before, in an array of shapes, colors, flavors and sizes.

Pix Pâtisserie award-winning chef and owner, Cheryl Wakerhauser (a.k.a.Pix), is known for combining bold flavors and textures into stunning,edible packages sold at her Portland, Ore. dessert oasis. Now, sheshares her techniques, flavor combinations and whimsical design (alongwith a few parlor tricks!) in her acutely instructional cookbook, Modern French Pastry. Amazing looking and tasting desserts so explicablyexplained it will be a tossup as to who is more impressed - you or yourguests!

French pastry is a study in components. Cheryl breakseach recipe down into easy to follow subrecipes that can be done inadvance for convenience and even interchanged with other recipes tocreate your own signature dessert. Instructions for classic Frenchpastry recipes such as pâte á choux, tart doughs and meringues arecombined with modern flavors and design. Blue Cheese Truffles anyone? AMoment of Zen takes the fruit tart to a new level with the addition ofcrème de cassis, blackberry coulis and raspberry mousse. And theéclairs? Cheryl fills them with Bourbon pastry cream and tops them withcherry jam. Think the dessert version of the Manhattan. For the adultice cream social, there's a Beer Float recipe complete with caramelizedmalted barley dipped in chocolate. Simplify your life with instructional "Parlor Tricks" - cook lemon curd, temper chocolate and prepare pastrycream all in the microwave in minutes! Cheryl is not only a pastry chefextraordinaire but a teacher as well, offering the how's and why's toeach recipe.

Cheryl trained with MOF Philippe URRACA, aprestigious patisserie located in southern France. She has been featured in Thuries Gastronomie, Vogue, Le Journal du Patissier, World of FineWine, NYT Magazine, Food Network Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, USAToday and Bon Appétit.

This book has 41 recipes and 80 photos.