The Greyston Bakery Cookbook: More Than 80 Recipes to Inspire the Way You Cook and Live

by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan

Delectable recipes for cakes, tarts, and cookies, along with inspirational stories of lives transformed, from the award-winning bakery whose pastries and community good works nourish body and soul.

On a street along the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York, is a bakery that has caused quite a stir since its inception almost 25 years ago: a bakery whose award-winning delicacies are enjoyed by devotees around the world, whose cakes and tarts earned a top rating in Zagat's, and whose brownies have made their way into several flavors of Ben & Jerry's ice creams.

Baked with a sense of mission, the pastries at Greyston are beyond delicious. Devoted to improving the lives of the homeless and chronically unemployed, the bakery hires those who lack education or job skills, and those who have battled addiction, illness, or crime-ridden environments. The uplifting stories in these pages tug at the heart. Glorious recipes delight the taste buds and include such current treats from the bakery as Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake, Lotus in Mud Cake, Key Lime Tart, and Seven-Layer Cookie Bar. There are also delicious recipes from the bakery's past, an assortment of special occasion cakes, and a group of recipes developed by the author, inspired by this remarkable enterprise.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 2007

Reviews

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have made almost every recipe in here--the exception is the bread section, which I have made several but not all--the chocolate mousse cake, pumpkin tart, pecan tart, and queen of sheba cake grace our table multiple timses a year, and the casablanca cake is one that inevitably gets people to not only ask for the recipe but what is in it. THe lemon poppyseed cake is also the best--and I adapted it to a 10 x 15 sheet cake for TUcker's gradutation. I learned to volume bake from this cookbook and it will always be a favorite

[Girl Underground · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I love the story of Greyston Bakery--a bakery built to employ the jomeless, former addicts, former criminals, etc., and give them a way to serve themselves and their community--the recipes don't seem to be anything special. I tried the brownie and blondie recipes, and the brownie was just a good brownie, like every other good brownie I've had, and the blondie was very good, but I tend to find that most blondies are. I wish the photographs weren't bunched together so that I had to keep flipping from recipe to the photo because that isn't make the most of visual cues the way other cookbooks do. Also, while I appreciate when recipes come with descriptive summaries, these summaries weren't very effective: "You'll just love these brownies." They were wrong; I just liked them. Same goes for this book, though I really wanted to like it more.

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years ago, during an unemployed summer and a series of unfortunate events, I came across the handy book, Instructions to the Cook. Zen Buddhists running a high end bakery, having an exclusive contract with Ben & Jerry's ice cream and taking the downtrodden off the streets and giving their life purpose through meditation and baking brownies?

While that book was more a guide on how mindfulness and service to others can nourish our spirit and community, the cook book reveals the Zen simplicity of beautiful and delicious recipes accompanied with gorgeous photos of the end product.

The recipes are elegant, rich in flavor and low on complex ingredients and tools needed. It's a meditation in the kitchen. Three words: Lemon Steamed Cakelets. Mmmm.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous, simple recipes and tips for the beginner baker. So far have only tried the brownie and blondie recipes. While delicious, they don't taste like the brownies and blondies you buy from the actual Greystone Bakery, which was the reason I bought the book, so that was disappointing. Since buying I haven't had a reason to bake a cake or a tart, but will definitely be trying more of their recipes soon.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was OK. Lots of yummy looking recipies -- especially cakes and tarts. But I don't (currently) bake cakes and tarts. So of what was left, there wasn't really anything that I felt I didn't have covered in my existing cookbooks/recipe stash. But it was nice to page through, so if you like to bake I'd grab it from the library.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories, great recipes, beautiful pictures, and practical tips for baking, plus the recipe for the brownies that go into Ben and Jerry's ice cream...what's not to love?

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My latest addition and I can't wait to try these recipes out.