Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries

by Russell van Kraayenburg

Perfect for chefs and home cooks alike, this baking cookbook proves you can ‘dough’ it with 122 easy recipes for a wide range of delicious pastries.
 
With clear instructions and helpful diagrams, chefs will learn how the ratio of just five ingredients—flour, butter, water, sugar, and eggs—can be tweaked to bake a patisserie’s worth of delectable desserts and savory treats. Delectable recipes both savory and sweet for treats like Cheddar Bacon Biscuits, Root Vegetable Spiral Tarts, Cherry Cheesecake Danishes, and Salted Caramel Éclairs give plenty of tasty spins on the basic formulas. And with plenty of tips and tricks to up your baking game, it’s a snap to riff on the recipes and invent your own incredible pastries.
 
Table of Contents
Biscuit Dough
Scone Dough
Pie Dough
Shortcrust Dough
Sweetcrust Dough
Pâte à Choux Dough
Brioche Dough
Puff Pastry Dough
Rough Puff Pastry Dough
Croissant Dough
Danish Dough
Phyllo Dough

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 2015

Reviews

[Sandra Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me just start by saying this book is worth every penny if just for the Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie recipe. Oh, my!! I substituted wheat flour for the crust and accidentally added too much liquid which meant I had to add more flour, work it more and that left me with a somewhat tough crust and it was STILL amazing! I didn't use the bourbon, but...wow! I'll be making it again in a few days for Thanksgiving!!

I would love to get each of my girls a copy of "Making Dough" before they leave home. It's just that good. All the classic pastry doughs you could ever need are covered in this book along with delectable recipes using them. From a simple Biscuit or Scone, to Shortcrust, Sweetcrust, Pate a Choux (Lemon Curd Eclairs are amazing!!), Brioche, Puff Pastry, Rough Puff Pastry, Croissant, Danish and Phyllo are all covered with a handful of recipes using each.

Charts, diagrams, ratios and photos abound along with clear, easy to follow instructions make this a great book for anyone from a very new beginner to someone who is used to making easier doughs and are ready to move on to the more complex such as Croissant, Puff Pastry and Phyllo doughs. This is a great quality book that I am happy to highly recommend to anyone interested in baking. Holidays are just around the corner, so it's time to get baking!!

I received a copy of this book from Quirk Books for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Valerie]

This is a really wonderful book if you are a baker whether an at home or pro baker. I have used multiple recipies from this book to make delicious pastries and desserts. My children are also loving this book. It has good pictures and easy step by step instructions anyone can follow. We were finally able to make an apple pie with home made crust and have it turn out perfect. I have always before now had trouble making crust. I look forward to making more delicious things using this book.

[Danielle Burgsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of recipes, and excellent breakdown of pastry dough basics in text, charts, and illustrations.

[Honest Mabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

the biscuits are a hard no

The moment I opened it up and read cake flour I was out. Like you cannot talk to me about American southern biscuits and then bring in cake flour. Soft red wheat flour, yes. But cake flour you are out of your mind

[Rose Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful recipes in this book all based on French baking but I'm looking forward to the PB&J Doughnuts (and I don't like doughnuts) and the Galette Des Rois, Yum-Yum!!

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it courageous to write a book on dough that specifically excludes breads. There is a lot of love and knowledge in this book and I believe it will make anyone a better baker.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad that I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway! It appeals to me because I appreciate the precision that goes into baking just as much as I enjoy the freedom to be found in other types of cooking. The book starts off talking science and it explains why each ingredients in the dough recipe is there and what it does. It also explains the properties of different types of flour, which I appreciated because I usually only ever use AP flour. If a recipe calls for another type, at least let me know why I need that flour so that I can decide how to approach the recipe.

I can't wait to try making biscuits because I've never spent enough time on them to get a good "hand" on making them and the duck fat biscuits are my goal as I always end up with duck fat left over when I make a breast for dinner.

I have noticed that most, if not all, of the basic dough recipes you are given to provide a foundation use a mix of cake and bread flour. I can only assume that this is to get the gluten content to the best level for each dough, but as I said, I only tend to keep AP in the house. Because of this, I'll be doing my experimenting with the AP in these recipes to see if the flours are essential or it even in the science of baking, allowances can be made. I'll get back to you once I try all the basic recipes this way :)

The recipes look drool-worthy but even without them, the detail given to explaining the science makes this a very appealing read and I'm glad to add it to my collection.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is the perfect Christmas gift for aspiring pastry chefs! There are many beautiful photographs to accompany the mouthwatering recipes. I like the inclusion of prep times and cook times so it is clear how much time each recipe will take to make. I also appreciate that the ratio of mix-ins for each type of dough were given so that you know how much to reasonably add in without overwhelming the recipe.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from goodreads.

[Debbie Carnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to try out as many recipes from this book as I could before writing a review .

WOW, what a great book, no matter if your just learning to cook or have been cooking for many years this book will teach you something new.

Well worth buying

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't tried the recipes but I thought scientific like details about the ingredients was great. It definitely explained some things I questioned and didn't know. For example the difference in baking soda and baking powder and how each works was great.

[Gail Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative!!!

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so excited to try these recipes. I like how the book is set up, it's both enticing and informative. Here's to hoping I make more than just french bread in the future!