Tartine

by Elisabeth M. Prueitt, Chad Robertson, Alice Waters (Foreword)

An utterly fresh, inspiring, and invaluable cookbook: Every once in a while, a cookbook comes along that instantly says "classic." This is one of them. Acclaimed pastry chef Elisabeth Prueitt and master baker Chad Robertson share their secrets, fabulous recipes, and expertise to create a truly priceless collection of culinary delights.

"One peek into Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson's sensational cookbook whisks you into their popular Tartine Bakery and reveals everything you need to know to create their superb recipes in your own home." –Flo Braker, author of The Simple Art of Perfect Baking and Sweet Miniatures

It's no wonder there are lines out the door of the acclaimed Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. Tartine has been written up in every magazine worth its sugar and spice. Here, the bakers' art is transformed into easy-to-follow recipes for the home kitchen. The only thing hard about this cookbook is deciding which recipe to try first.
Features easy-to-follow recipes meant to be made in your home kitchen. There's a little something here for breakfast, lunch, tea, supper, hors d'oeuvres and, of course, a whole lot for dessert.
Includes practical advice in the form of handy Kitchen Notes, that convey the authors' know-how.
Gorgeous photographs are spread throughout to create a truly delicious and inspiring party cookbook.
Makes a delectable gift for any dessert lover or aspiring pastry chef.

Pastry chef Elisabeth Prueitt's work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on the television program Martha Stewart Living.

France Ruffenach is a San Francisco-based photographer whose work has appeared in magazines and cookbooks including Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, and Bon Appétit magazines, and in Cupcakes, Everyday Celebrations, and Ros.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Foodie, Culinary

224 pages, Hardcover

Published August 24, 2006

Reviews

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collector of cookbooks was excited to have gotten this book. It has lovely pictures, you mouth will water when you look at them. Great recipes clearly explained and you want to make these in your weekend off. This book is inspiring and I can see myself making these pastries, breads and desserts coming weekend.

This is a ARC from the publisher, which I got for a honest review.

[February Four · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of yummy-looking recipes to try. The best part is the VERY detailed explanations they talk about, such as how the dough should look, and recommended techniques (eg. instead of beating egg whites at high speed to get stiff peaks quickly, beat them at a lower speed for a longer period of time to get a finer texture).

[Aumarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been baking out of this book for exactly one year, creating exceptional desserts. My friends and family praise my baking, but the reality is, all I'm doing is following directions. I can only humbly attribute my baking successes to the ability of this book to communicate effectively, the results of which I've chronicled into a personal blog called thetartineproject.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uh-oh. It seems I'm one of those rare folks who isn't raving about this cookbook. My review comes from the reading aspect of this only-- not the results from any recipes, because I haven't made any of them yet. Don't throw rotten tomatoes at me, because I know it's annoying to have someone rate a cookbook who hasn't actually made anything from it. So, here's the problem-- I wasn't inspired to WANT to make anything from the cookbook. Yeah. I do love to bake, and I'm not afraid to try new things. I read recipes directions thoroughly, and rehearse the steps in my mind, before setting up my mis en place. In truth, there are two reasons I actually downloaded this book in the Kindle version-- #1 it was $3.99 and #2 I was hoping that the recipe for their glorious morning muffins would be found. No such luck on the morning muffins recipe (which I, ultimately, found by searching food blogs). I've been fortunate to be a part of the Tartine experience on one of our frequent drives to San Francisco. I was not disappointed. I'm sure I left a multitude of finger and nose prints on the glass display cases, while drooling (and photographing) their beautiful cakes and pastries.
As for the cookbook, itself, I enjoyed the introduction from Alice Waters. I do admire bakers who make artisan breads and pastries.
So why did I not give this five stars? For some reason, I'm just not inspired to make any of the recipes. Maybe, one day, I'll make croissants. It's a lot of work (and a lot of butter), and now I find that the morning muffins I'd love to replicate involves croissant dough. So, I'll add this learning experience to my recipe bucket list. Weird as it seems, chocolate isn't my favorite ingredient. I like it, but not rich chocolate desserts. There are quite a few of these. Some recipes had ingredients that I can't readily find. There are tart recipes, and I love baking tarts. But, I just wasn't feeling the recipes. Maybe it's the kindle format, but I found many of the directions to be too wordy, and not really clear. There are some lovely photographs, and they're similar to how I photograph my own recipes. That is, they aren't super fancy food styled. That's not a bad thing but not every recipe has a photo to go with it. That's disappointing, for me. So this cookbook will be set aside, for a second read at a later time. I have too many other cookbooks that have lots of bookmarks of recipes I'm anxious to make. Overall, I didn't dislike the cookbook, and I'm not saying it's a bad one. If someone is a beginner baker (I'd say I'm intermediate), I'd think twice about buying this one. I'll update my review if and when I make a few of the recipes that I found interesting.

[Elaine]

I bought this in Kindle edition when it popped up as a cheap price in one of those "ebooks on sale now" emails I get. I haven't had the pleasure of eating there, but I recognized the name and figured why not.

The recipes in this book are very detailed, and I appreciate each one having accompanying context for how and why the recipe was developed, as well as some notes about how the chemical reactions produce this or that effect, so if you substitute X, make sure you Y, and so forth. Awesome! It's thoroughly indexed and linked to make navigation to each recipe very easy in the ebook, as well.

However, I only bookmarked a small handful of recipes to come back to. I'm not a very diligent baker. I'm impatient. If I'm in the cooking mood, I want to cook, dangit, not cook for a little while and then wait for something to rise, then do something to it, then go back to waiting some more. And baking is picky, with all those aforementioned chemical reactions, but also how blatantly hideous baked goods look when crafted with an unskilled hand (lopsided, shmeary-crumbly, just-not-pretty...).

My big takeaway from perusing Tartine is that I really just want to go to SF and buy these tasty things, feeling little to no guilt at price because damn it seems like a lot of work goes into almost everything. Or maybe that's just how it seemed due to how the formatting ended up on my Kindle: most of the recipes seemed to go on for "pages" in dense little paragraphs. I'm tired just looking at it! It probably didn't help that "Breakfast" is the first section, and the very first recipe is for croissants, which are so not entry-level baking. This is followed by a recipe for brioche, which is followed by recipes using brioche. Ack.

It would be for a very special occasion that I'll be pulling this out and thinking about making anything fancier than the pumpkin pie or mushroom tart, I'm just saying.

[Yasmeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My current favorite cookbook. I reviewed it here: http://yasmine.ws/tartine-book-review/

And I made a recipe from it, 'Almond-Lemon Tea Cake' which was crazy delicious and quite possibly the best citrusy cake I have ever had. You can see the process/recipe here: http://yasmine.ws/almond-lemon-tea-cake/

[Mindiesel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, I use a bunch of the recipes. Wish there were a few more from the bakeshop

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. I often buy Kindle cookbooks to save space, however, I'm glad I have a physical copy of this book. It's just so pretty and the recipes are surprisingly simple. Or I should say, there are many that are simple. The author also gives great hints about what to make. For example She mentions that people hardly make pudding cakes, they are unusual and delicious, but easy to make. My grandmother's recipe for lemon pudding cake is actually very similar to the recipe in this book. I found that strangely comforting, that this somewhat fancy book, would include a recipe that my Granny Rowsom made often, and I remember from childhood. So far I have made the frangipane, which is amazing, pie crust, shortbread, brioche and buttermilk scones. All of the recipes were correctly written and came out beautifully without much effort. As someone who enjoys baking, I love that grams are included ( and also cups) I always use the scaled amounts. Once you get used to it, a scale makes a great baking companion. You don't need to dig for your measuring cups and the amounts are exact. You also avoid adding to much flour to your recipes. Believe me, it will make a difference in your results that you will like.

[Ris Sasaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a certified cook (I'm never going to call myself a chef) myself, you just have to appreciate when another amazing cook/Baker does a good job assembling a cookbook as this one.
With a detailed explanation of all the steps that you have to take to make all the recipes and a little bit of history here and there (which I appreciate a lot), Tartine is a definitely a cookbook that should be respected.
However the only thing that made me drop the rating a little bit was the scarce number of photos that would make the reading experience so much more delighting (and easier for those who didn't cook or bake as much as a professional do to visualise what the final product might look like).

Vive là pâtisserie e viennoiserie 😋👩‍🍳

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love cookbooks! This one has so many wonderful recipes for baked goods. Lots of tastiness to use up fall apples , pears, and berries. I'm also sure many of these will freeze well so I can enjoy them throughout the winter. With the holidays coming up, I will be making a few of these to serve to family and friends!

[Jason Licker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the original Tartine Cookbook many years ago and with all this time in quarantine, there is plenty of time to circle back and check out some older books I have. I enjoy everything about this book from the layout, photos to overall composition of the publication. Instructions are easy to follow and are broken down in cups and metric. This is a great go to cookbook that anyone can use.

[Nellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for the bread Tartine book but checked out the dessert book.
Lots of interesting recipes but much too complicated for my tastes. However, since the library is closed for the time being, I might break down to make something.

[greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot of options to modify these recipes to make them vegan and many gluten free options. really simple but nice things! shortbread recipe was a favourite, use of granulated sugar instead of confectioners sugar added a nice texture. also lemon cream technique was wonderful.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love this cookbook. I make so many of the recipes and, yes they aren’t easy but they are step by step. My recipes always and consistently turn out to look like the gorgeous photos from this book! You will surely impress yourself.

[Pam G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This and Flour are definitely go to baking books. Great recipes that produce bakery quality treats.

[Hussaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a good informative book. I tried double chocolate cookies. It turned out nicely and tasted awesome. I am planning to bake brownies next.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of place I want to go to rather than try to replicate. Special ingredients needed and lots of baking experience required.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and detailed. Brioche to die for. These recipes are not easy. Read through the recipe several times before starting.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great baking book, infused with experience and wisdom. I like that there are many alternate flour recipes, even teff!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

some delicious and inspiring classic baked goods. Some feel a bit beyond my capacity.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is awesome! It’s become my go-to cookbook for all dessert related items. I’ve made many items (20 recipes) in this cookbook and all are repeats. Directions are easy to follow and recipes turn out spectacular every time! My personal favorites are the lemon shaker pie, shortbread, eclairs, gougères, and peanut brittle.

[Jana Light]

Everything looks delicious and surprisingly (deceptively?) simple. I can't wait to try some recipes and then add in my "stars" review.

[Charles Eldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and informative cookbook that has many recipes that a home chef will want to make over and over again. Hits all the right notes for a cookbook. Well worth pickup up your local library to see if the recipes resonate with you.

[Daire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small errors scattered throughout (typos, or not mentioning when to add certain ingredients in the steps). Yeild of some recipes doesn't seem accurate despite following steps exactly.

I don't love the paragraph style steps, you have to hunt for the details. I also find the authors assume a fair amount of technical knowledge that may improve the recipe (for example in the apple variant of the banana muffins you would probably want to strain the apples with a cheesecloth to remove excess moisture as the muffins were quite wet). This is fine as an experienced baker but you do have to think about what you are doing you can't just blindly follow the steps.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just made the banana cream pie recipe in the book, and though it was quite labor intensive, it was well worth the effort. I have a newfound respect for pastry chefs.

There were multiple recipes that went into the pie which made it difficult to make all at once since I had to keep flipping back and forth between the recipes for the pie shell, pastry cream, caramel, and the banana cream pie recipe that brought it all together. But it's nice to know that the same recipes can be re-used in other recipes.

By itself, the caramel was heavenly with the aroma of slightly burnt sugar in a creamy smooth syrup. The pastry cream I could have just eaten by itself. All of it together was amazing. I would recommend allowing it to sit for the requisite 3 hours to chill before eating it. We were too impatient and ate it right away, but the next day it tasted even better once the pastry cream had firmed up and the flavor from the bananas had melded into it.

[Christopher Bunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Superbly written and carefully constructed for the non-pastry person (such as myself, though, I have to say I have fruit pies down cold). Tartine has an excellent array of recipes taken from the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. My wife was recently up there and came away with an assortment of pastries (lemon, raspberry frangipane, banana cream). Deceptively simple, with an emphasis on deceptive. Anyway, I baked all three of those, plus an apple tart, from the recipes in Tartine. First go, I think I came about 75% close to the actuality of the Tartine pastries she bought. Not bad. I'll definitely be baking more of these recipes. Lovely photos, too, which is always a welcome bonus in cookbooks, particularly for something as visual as tarts and whatnot.

Highly recommend this if you're a kitchen gromit.

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book and I have promised myself that the next time I go to San Francisco I am going to line-up if I have to in order to taste the delicious food and baking at Tartine! What a treat! I also need to get this book and bake many of these amazing recipes. I am inspired to do more and I loved all the stories behind the recipes and the straight forward instructions. For anyone who loves to bake or even ever thought of baking this is a must-have volume. I plan to read Tartine Bread by Elizabeth's husband Chad as soon as I have the time. I read in San Francisco magazine about his quest to make the perfect loaf and it really got me thinking!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put simply, Tartine is Mecca, and this book is their gospel.

Thanks to this book, you shall no longer need to stand in line in hopes of receive your sacrament... and you needn't worry that the person in front of you in line will get the last Frangipane croissant.

Except, of course, if you want a morning bun - you'll have to get out of bed and get your ass down to 18th & Guererro if you want one of those - they 'forgot' to include that recipe :\

[Jeffrey Bean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect

I want to make everything in this cookbook. The authors are great at explaining a bit of the chemistry that goes on in baking, which I think is helpful but rarely included in baking recipes. Why things work is just as important as how they work. But this book is far from stuffy. It is a great read, informative, entertaining and most importantly inspiring. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go make some croissants.

[Michael Brunson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't read this book without creating something wonderful

This could well be the cookbook you need to elevate your cooking to a whole new level. From something as simple as spiced nuts and shortbread to chiffon cakes and beyond. It is step by step, hold your hand instructions for every recipe you try. So, here's your chance to make someone think you're a chef today. Follow the instructions to the letter for best results.