Pastries Quotes

“I think how heavenly it must be to nibble on tiny cakes and swirled caramels and plum ginger puffs all day. Tea with lemon petit fours in the afternoon; after-dinner mint truffles with butterscotch coffee in the evening. My mind swims with the notion of it. The easy, sugar-induced lull that would follow me into candy-tinted dreams each night. Life here, in Valentine's Town, would surely be simple and uncomplicated.”
― Shea Ernshaw, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

“Pigeons wrapped in the leaves of vines. Oysters in crisp pastry cases. Whole Gloucester salmon in aspic. Yarmouth lobsters cooked in wine and herbs. Glazed tarts of pippin apples. Paper-thin layers of buttery pastry spread with greengages, apricots, peaches, cherries, served with great gouts of golden cream.
"Well," I say, "it's gruel for us tonight, with a smidgeon of salt and pepper." Whereupon he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a twist of greased paper, and opens it. Immediately I smell the tang of heather honey.
"For you, Ann." In his grimed palm sits an oozing chunk of honeycomb as big as a plover's egg.
I clap my hands in delight, my tongue waggling with greed. As we eat our gruel I make the clots of chewy wax last as long as possible, pushing them around and around my mouth, pressing them against my molars, sucking on them 'til they slip sweetly down my throat.”
― Annabel Abbs, Miss Eliza's English Kitchen

“Marie Antoinette would have loved this place!"
Piper Donovan stood agape, her green eyes opened wide, as she took in the magical space. Crystal chandeliers, dripping with glittering prisms, hung from the mirrored ceiling. Gilded moldings crowned the pale pink walls. Gleaming glass cases displayed vibrant fruit tarts, puffy éclairs, and powdered beignets. Exquisitely decorated cakes of all flavors and sizes rested on pedestals alongside trays of pastel meringues and luscious napoleons. Cupcakes, cookies, croissants, and cream-filled pastries dusted with sugar or drizzled with chocolate beckoned from the shelves.
"It's unbelievable," she whispered. "I feel like I've walked into a jewel box---one made of confectioners' sugar but a jewel box nonetheless.”
― Mary Jane Clark, That Old Black Magic

“I picture the customers pressing their faces to the display window outside to look at quibes, pastéis, and codfish bolinhos. I listen for our old stereo alternating between static crackling and forró songs swelling with melancholy accordions. I search for the tangy scent of ground beef simmering in a clay pot ready to turn into coxhina filling.”
― Rebecca Carvalho, Salt and Sugar

“The Molinas' entourage of bakers stream through Sugar's doors with trays brimming with lavender-colored surpresas de uva, brigadeiros, and bem-casados under protective plastic films, which they load into the back of the van.
And then they bring out a full tray of empadinhas! Even from my spot across the street, I see the dough flaky and golden like Grandma's recipe.
The thing is, everyone knows that only Salt makes empadinhas on our street. That's the deal our families made generations ago, when our great-grandmothers drew the battle lines:
Ramires only prepare savory foods.
Molinas only prepare sweets.
Sugar crossed the line baking empadinhas, and they know it. Those shameless, dishonest, garbage snakes!”
― Rebecca Carvalho, Salt and Sugar

“They took the elevator up to the eighth floor. Charbonnel et Walker Chocolate Café was tucked between Ladies' Shoes and the Home and Gifts Department. Bathed in pale pink paint and lit by crystal chandeliers, the enchanted corner was dominated by a counter featuring a conveyor belt that transported plates of croissants, brownies, scones, muffins, and every imaginable truffle under glass domes. Dark and milk chocolate, strawberry, lemon, pink champagne, mint, cappuccino, and buzz fizz with its distinctive orange center. Sparkling glass cabinets temptingly displayed hundreds of the treats lined up in precise rows. They could be consumed on the premises or purchased to take away. A gold seal on the candy boxes signaled that the Queen of England was a fan.”
― Mary Jane Clark, To Have and to Kill

“Those are napoleons, éclairs, and jésuites for the restaurant."
"Jésuites?" asked Piper.
"They're triangular, flaky pastries filled with frangipane crème and sprinkled with sliced almonds and powdered sugar. They originated in France, and the name refers to the shape of a Jesuit's hat.”
― Mary Jane Clark, That Old Black Magic

“Piper helped out at the counter as a steady stream of customers came in throughout the morning. They bought bags of powdered beignets, French almond croissants, and rings of buttery pastry with praline filling and caramel icing sprinkled with sweet southern pecans.”
― Mary Jane Clark, That Old Black Magic

“Through the morning and into the afternoon, the customers continued to come into the bakery, buying boxes and bags of green alligator bread, leprechaun-hat cookies, shamrock-shaped coffee cakes, Irish soda bread, and hot cross buns.”
― Mary Jane Clark, That Old Black Magic

“Closing my eyes, I concentrated on breathing. In. Out. In. Out. I could do this. This was easy. A cakewalk. What the fuck did cakewalk even mean?
The thought clung to the edges of my mind like buttercream, and I focused on that instead. Of cakes and creams, gâteaux and tartes au citron. And slowly my racing heart slowed to an acceptable pace. After agonizing minutes, I could breathe without struggle.”
― Kristen Callihan, Make It Sweet

“SOME PASTRY TERMS

Chef de pâtissier: pastry chef
Gâteau: rich, elaborate sponge cake that can be molded into shapes, typically containing layers of crème, fruit, or nuts
Pâtisserie(s): pastry/pastries
Brioche(s): a soft, rich bread with a high egg and butter content
Pain aux raisins: a flaky pastry filled with raisins and custard
Chaussons aux pommes: French apple turnovers
Pâte à choux: a light, buttery puff pastry dough
Éclair: oblong desserts made of choux pastry filled with cream and topped with icing (often chocolate)
Tarte au citron: lemon tart
Macaron: a meringue-based confectionary sandwich filled with various flavored ganache, creams, or jams
Croquembouche: a cone-shaped tower of confection created out of caramel-dipped, cream-filled pastry puffs and swathed in spun sugar threads, often served at French weddings or on special occasions
Saint-Honoré: a dessert named for the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs
Pâte feuilletée: a light, flaky puff pastry
Vanilla crème pâtissière: vanilla pastry cream
Hazelnut crème chiboust: a pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue
Paris-brest: a wheel-shaped dessert made of pâte à choux and filled with praline cream. Created in 1910 by chef Louis Durand to commemorate the Paris-Brest, a bicycle race.”
― Kristen Callihan, Make It Sweet

“This year, Merida saw rashers, poached eggs in a fragrant sauce, canceled wedding buns spread with a bit of dripping butter, boar meat made into warm, onion-scented drinking broth. Tarts golden and fragrant with cheese and scraps of pastry, mushrooms simmered in broth and browned with leeks in goose fat. Preserved pears in bowls, figs soaked in whisky, even little biscuits with rabbits stamped on them.
Their private feast was always all the bits and bobs and failed experiments left over from preparing the public one. If this was the odd-ends, Merida could only imagine what the proper feast would be like later. Cranky Aileen was a wonder.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Bravely

“Her kitchen was full of memories. This was where she demonstrated the god-given talent and craft that had made Sugar a success when she’d founded it at the age of twenty. This was where she had perfected her techniques and recipes---the dense Detroit pound cake, the light-as-air pastries, her signature champagne torte, and the bestselling kolaches had all been developed here in the homey old-fashioned kitchen. Biscuits, she often said, were the purest test of a baker’s skill. The ingredients were simple and technique was everything. Use flour from winter wheat and sift it twice. Keep a cube of butter in the freezer and shred it with the box grater. Wet your fingertips with buttermilk and handle the dough as if it were as fragile as a soap bubble.”
― Susan Wiggs, Sugar and Salt

“Across the street from the bed-and-breakfast, I open a small café where residents can sip cocoa lattes, eat raspberry tarts baked in Valentine's Town, and savor orange whipped toffees that Helgamine and Zeldaborn complain get stuck in their few remaining teeth--yet they keep coming back for more. Wolfman and Behemoth sit together every afternoon sharing a pot of black rose tea, delicately holding their cups between clawed and too-large fingertips, nibbling on coconut macaroons. I even sell my sleeping tonic at the café--in a much milder dose than what I brew for the Sandman, who still stops by for a refill now and then--in scents of lavender and chamomile, herbs harvested from Dream Town.”
― Shea Ernshaw, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

“I make another trip to Rick's bakehouse to show people how he makes his pain au chocolat, that magical, flaky pastry filled with heavenly bites of chocolate. I shoot video of Rick laminating croissant dough, rolling and flattening and folding the butter-filled slab of pastry until the dough is as long as a beach towel and stratified with butter like canyon rock. He cuts it into rectangles and stuffs each one with two fat chunks of bittersweet chocolate inside. He bakes off five sheets in his convection oven, and when the croissants emerge, their golden tops glistening, I have to restrain myself from reaching out from behind the camera to stuff three or five into my face.
As soon as the newsletter goes out the next week, Rick's customer base goes crazy. People line up and down the market thoroughfare, undeterred by the stifling July heat, clamoring for flaky pain au chocolat and crusty sourdough loaves. Day after day, he sells out everything at least thirty minutes before closing, and the chocolate croissants sell out in the first hour.”
― Dana Bate, A Second Bite at the Apple

“My halo-halo chia seed parfait and ube scones with coconut jam were specifically requested, as well as some sort of cake. Instead of my usual calamansi chia seed muffins, I could try a calamansi lavender loaf, to advertise our spring menu. Though if it's for breakfast, maybe coffee cake would be more appropriate. Coffee cakes usually had streusel and cinnamon, so a salabat streusel would be quick and easy to whip up.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Murder and Mamon

“I reached into my tote bag and pulled out one of our huge carryout boxes. "Matcha mamon! Mamon isn't too different from Japanese castella, and I figured adding matcha would give it a little extra flavor and make it perfect for a Japanese restaurant. I also made matcha white chocolate chip cookies and strawberry-matcha mochi donuts, plus a basic parfait idea that you can adapt seasonally.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Murder and Mamon

“Muffins, teacakes, tea rolls, morning rolls, batch rolls, stottie cakes, wigs, birdies, huffkins, oven-bottom muffins, baps and cobs... It says something about us as a race, doesn't it? (But, frankly, I'm not sure what.)
HORACE DAVIDSON, Ripon”
― Caroline Scott, Good Taste

“An assortment of tea and sweets is laid out. Only the owner of Petals Tea Shop could arrange such a charming display. A smattering of preserves and jams in heart-shaped dishes are nestled between the crooks of crumpets, scones, and other pastries garnished with lavender. Laina grabs a Danish with buttercream frosting dripping from a flaky crescent roll. Crumbles of brown sugar tumble off as she takes a bite.
I pour a dash of cream into a teacup. The milk feathers out like a lotus blossom. In China, where my father is from, the lotus symbolizes honesty, goodness, and beauty.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea

“I sit down, placing the basket Laina gave me onto the table, and take in the spread before us. All of it is bright pink. Hibiscus and rose hip tea, Persian Love Cake with sugared petals and green pistachios, strawberries-and-cream finger sandwiches, peach macarons with raspberry jam, and guava shortbread.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea

“Pulling out a stick of lilac chalk, Dina added "besotted briouats" to the list, followed by "rosy-cheeked ghriba." The briouats--- melt-in-your-mouth filo pastry filled with honey and almonds--- were heavenly, even without the spell that made you feel like you'd been kissed on the forehead by a loved one. The ghriba, decadently soft sugar cookies with rosewater essence and lemon zest, were laced with a spell to warm up the fingers and toes.”
― Nadia El-Fassi, Best Hex Ever

“For spring and summer, Dina baked delicate and light pastries fragranced with rosewater, meskouta orange bundt cake, and delicate raspberry macarons. When strawberries were in season in early June, she made airy fraisier cake. For autumn and winter, Dina worked with heavier ingredients: thick, dark chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom, gingerbread, and pumpkin. As the days grew colder and the light dimmed earlier and earlier, people started to crave that feeling of warmth and comfort. And Dina would give that to them, even if only for a short while. One special bake for this season was a ginger and persimmon cake, yellowed with saffron strands, which Dina had bought on her last trip to Morocco, and fresh vanilla pods, their sweet scent so potent that it wafted across the café.
This was in addition to all the regular pastries and cakes she had on offer, which were all recipes her mother had taught her to bake. The cake made with dark honey from the Atlas mountains was an all-time customer favorite. Dina had imbibed it with a very specific spell, a childhood memory of a time that she must have fallen asleep on a car ride home, and although she was a little too big to be carried, she remembered her father lifting her into his arms, her mother closing the car door softly so as not to wake her, then carrying her upstairs and tucking her into bed.
When she'd been fashioning the spell for the first time, it had occurred to Dina that one day your parents put you down and they never picked you up again, and so she'd made the honey cake to recreate that feeling of childhood comfort. That sensation of someone taking the utmost care of you, holding you close, was a feeling that many in the rushing city of London didn't experience often.
Sometimes she wondered if she was really in the business of café ownership, or if she was more of a fairy godmother in disguise. Undeniably, the magical pastries were great at keeping customers coming back for more, so that was a bonus on the businesswoman side of things.”
― Nadia El-Fassi, Best Hex Ever

“The menu was full of foods that felt like home to me, but that also had a flair of originality. Brisket and matzo balls in a hearty bowl of ramen. Lox bowls with nori and crispy rice. Savory potato kugel and boureka pastries with hummus and fried artichokes with kibbeh. Knishes with kimchi and potato filling and a gochujang aioli. "This menu is so... Jewish."
"So Jewish," Seth agreed. "And make sure you're saving room for dessert. The rugelach is unreal, and the rainbow cookies are---" he looked around, then lowered his voice--- "better than my mom's."
One of the things I actually missed about living in New York was seeing all the fun twists people put on Jewish and Israeli food at restaurants and in delis. Nobody was doing that in Vermont.
Maybe you could do that in Vermont, something whispered in my head. I was used to just pushing that voice away, but, for once, I let myself pause and consider it. Would it be that crazy to sell babka at my café? I bet people would love a thick, tender slice of the sweet bread braided with chocolate or cinnamon sugar or even something savory with their coffee. I could experiment with fun fillings, have a daily special. Or I could rotate shakshuka or sabich sandwiches on the brunch specials menu, since they both involved eggs. My regulars might see eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce and pitas stuffed with fried eggplant, eggs, and all the salad fixings as breaths of fresh air.”
― Amanda Elliot, Love You a Latke

“The sweet corn and cheese muffin that he's eating is both sweet and salty," I said. "If you eat pork, we've got longganisa rolls, which are Filipino sausage wrapped in puff pastry."
"Yes!" both Ben and Michelle exclaimed. "That sounds amazing."
I was one of those people who yelled at the screen during The Great British Baking Show when the contestants had too many savory challenges ("It's called The Great British BAKING Show, not Cooking Show!") since I was a baker and not a cook for a reason. But I had to admit, ever since I added those longganisa rolls to the menu, we'd been getting more and more requests for savory pastries. Something to discuss with my partners later.
Elena engaged in idle chitchat with the other two while I finished setting up the drinks station, which included boxes of our house blend, decaf, and house chai, along with various milks and milk alternatives plus sweeteners. Zack had ordered our deluxe drinks package, which included not only the aforementioned beverages and creamers, but also Adeena's simple syrups. Elena had proposed the idea of producing and bottling our cafe's most popular syrups for at-home and office use and they were a surprise hit. So alongside the usual granulated sugar and honey, I lined up bottles of lavender syrup, rose syrup, pistachio syrup, and arnibal, or Filipino brown sugar syrup.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Guilt and Ginataan

“He handed over a Brew-ha Cafe bag filled with corn and cheese muffins and a ginataang mais cupcake that I was testing out, plus a lavender chai latte.
She went straight for the cupcake. "Ooh, this is new. What is it?"
"The cupcake has a sweet corn cake base and is topped with coconut cream cheese frosting, a coconut jam drizzle, and toasted puffed rice. A new recipe I'm toying with for this weekend's Corn Festival booth menu."
Cupcakes were a little fussier than the desserts I usually prepared (I loved a gorgeously decorated pastry, but as the cafe's only baker, I had to focus on speed and taste, not appearance), but these were simple enough and impressive-looking enough that I was willing to make the effort for a special event.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Guilt and Ginataan

“WEEK ONE: Summer Abundance

Almond-Infused Hot White Chocolate over Iced Berries
Cold English Summer Pudding
Fresh and Easy Strawberry Crème Brûlée
Peach Cobbler D'Ours with Ginger Ice Cream
Limoncello Sorbet and Wild Maine Blueberries


WEEK TWO: Simple Comforts

Classic Tarte Tatin
Warm Cherry Crisp with Vermont Maple Cream
Almond Biscotti Tiramisu
Old-Fashioned Gingerbread and Lemon Sauce
Spiced Pear and Roquefort Flan


WEEK THREE: A Multiple Chocolate Orgasm

Grand Marnière Chocolate Mousse
Torta Caprese
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
Profiteroles with Dark Chocolate Kahlúa Sauce
Quick Chocolate Soufflé”
― Sarah Strohmeyer, Sweet Love

“Those cherry madeleines were astonishing. It was absolutely genius to pair them with cucumber and dill sandwiches, and the delicacies of your macarons... Crepes alive, you should win the episode."
Freya giggled and glanced over at her. "Did you just say, 'Crepes alive,' Claire? Baking nerd alert."
Claire shrugged, still grinning. "I was raised in a pub, and my parents wanted to keep us from using that kind of language that might be overheard at the White Fox, so we had to make up all kinds of expressions. Mine just happened to be baking related--- son of a biscuit, sugar, crepes alive, cake and a custard."
"You might be the biggest dork ever," Freya told her, still laughing. "But your rhubarb crème brûlée tartlets were awesome. Daring to do the mushroom vol-au-vents, but it worked out.”
― Rebecca Connolly, The Crime Brûlée Bake Off

“On a table in front of her was an enormous spread from Russ & Daughters: a dozen assorted bagels, smoked mackerel, smoked salmon, three tubs of cream cheese (plain, scallion, horseradish-dill), sliced tomatoes and onions, capers, and an entire chocolate babka, plus black-and-white cookies and hamantaschen.
"Can you believe all this?" asked Molly, as she chewed a giant bite of pumpernickel bagel schmeared so heavily with cream cheese it was almost an even ratio of dairy to carb. "Netflix sent this! They're worried about the campaign to get me reinstated and that I'll call them on discrimination online, which I might still do. You have to try some of this!"
Their roles must've genuinely reversed, because Isabella, for the first time in her life, had forgotten to eat lunch, and she never forgot to eat lunch. This Russ & Daughters arrived at the perfect moment.
"The only thing Netflix sends me is a bill," said Isabella, expertly loading up her bagel with horseradish-dill cream cheese, a few slices of smoked salmon and raw red onion, sprinkling on some capers at the end. Her father had taught her how to eat a proper bagel at Barney Greengrass, and she firmly believed that the worse it made your breath the better.”
― Adam D. Roberts, Food Person

“Four in the afternoon, and Haga in Gothenburg is still shrouded in a cinnamon mist. A smell that will often lead you, as it will everywhere in Scandinavia, to knots and twists and bundles of dough laced with pearl sugar, butter and spice.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“It is the lightest of snowfalls, the merest sprinkling of powdered sugar, but its presence, shaken through the mesh of a fine sieve, has brought a certain magic to the rugged surface of a tray of almond croissants. It has made a crescent of brown pastry and frangipane into a snow-freckled mountain range.
On other days I have seen icing sugar used as thickly as driven snow, on a tray of softly mounded walnut shortbreads or in the cracks and ridges of a Stollen. At Christmas, no Yule log or mince pie seems festive enough without it. Unfashionable, yes, but icing sugar brings a certain enchantment.
A dusting of powdered sugar can cover up a multitude of sins, but its presence is more than a way of papering over the cracks. It will highlight the crests and peaks of a crisp meringue, make a swirl of buttercream sparkle and render the deliciously blackened tips of a French apricot tart irresistible. When it lies on the waves and curls of a cupcake's piped frosting you would need a heart of stone not to be tempted.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts