Books like Cocolat — picked by fans

Maida’s Book of Great Desserts is the first of many books by her, and the one that influenced me very early in my developing love of baking and desserts.

I was privileged to know Maida for the last 25 years of her life and was able to teach several classes with her. Although all her books were masterpieces, she would most often pick recipes from this book to teach. 

Some of my (and Maida’s) favorites include Queen Mother’s Cake (a recipe shared by a musician who claimed to have received it directly from the Queen Mum), East 62nd Street Lemon Cake, Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies (simply delicious), and Black and White Cheesecake. 

Don’t pass this one by!

Cedric Grolet, the enfant terrible of Parisian pastry circles, astounded the world of desserts when he started preparing his fabulous life-like molded fruit desserts at the Hotel Meurice. 

Soon after, a tiny retail pastry shop opened in the hotel, and now he has a full scale shop, Opera, a few blocks down from the actual Paris opera house. Fruit was his first book and though it details some of his most elaborate creations in the form of natural fruits, the book also concentrates on his personal twist on basic preparations such as pastry doughs, fillings, and presentations.

Some classic pastry books are happy to accurately chronicle how specialties were prepared in the past, but here is a book that shows the contemporary up-to-the-minute version of so many recipes recreated by a true pastry genius. 

Innovative recipes for all types of croissant variations, astounding presentations of fruit tarts, and elaborate eclairs… show more.

I first met Ciril Hitz at a pastry chefs’ conference in Las Vegas where he was conducting a demonstration workshop on laminated doughs like croissants. Swiss-born and American-educated, his articulate explanations of this complex branch of pastry-making, helped me to understand them more fully than ever before. 

I rejoiced when I received a copy of his first book about bread with a unique approach: Ten master formulas, each elucidating a different type of bread dough, cover the main techniques for producing delicious – and beautiful – breads accurately every time. 

Baguettes, focacce, brioches, croissants, whole grain breads, pizzas, bagels, sandwich bread, and challah, are all here with further variations on shapes and flavors. Having started my career with an exclusively pastry background, I had to learn about bread on my own. 

This book gave me a firm foundation of knowledge that enabled me to create my own individual approach to… show more.

In Good and Sweet, Brian Levy takes a radical approach to preparing delicious desserts – he uses no refined sugar but finds the necessary sweetness of his desserts from fruits (dried, juiced, or fresh), grains, dairy products, and nuts.

Before I tried any of the recipes, I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical, but one taste of any of the recipes I tried made me realize that there are other ways to sweeten besides refined sugar. My favorites include Blueberry Biscuit Cobbler, Cherry Coconut Clafoutis, Figgy Cheesecake, Rosemary Lemon Shortbread, and Spiced Pumpkin Pie.

Levy also incorporates whole grain flour when appropriate as high-quality flour provides a sweetness of its own.

Los Angeles-based pastry chef Rucker has compiled her favorite fruit-based brunch and dessert recipes into one tempting volume. Some of my favorites: Spiced Apple Wedding Cake, Huckleberry Blondies, and Kabocha Squash Pie. 

There is some advanced technique here, but most of the ingredients are easy to find. With photography that is bright and inviting, this book is a good, modern addition to your seasonal baking library.

In this lushly photographed book, Brooklyn baker Arefi showcases 76 creative dessert recipes that draw on seasonal fruit and her Iranian heritage.

I love her subtle flavor twists like Raspberry Pink Peppercorn Sorbet, Rhubarb and Rose Galettes, and Cherry and Poppy Seed Yogurt Cake.

While Arefi’s recipes lean slightly exotic, they’re not overly complicated or fussy. They feel fresh and creative, which makes this book a perfect choice for the adventurous baker looking for inspiration.

This charmingly compact cookbook is a favorite of mine and never far from my kitchen.

It’s chock full of recipes for old-fashioned, seasonal fruit desserts by the owner of Portland, Oregon’s Baker & Spice. I particularly love the rustic berry crisps, wholesome cakes, and boozy bread puddings inspired by the ingredients of the Pacific Northwest.The Sour Cherry Cobbler is a delightful recipe I come back to again and again.

Organized by season for easy reference, the luscious, up-close photographs are half the appeal. But the recipes for this irresistible assortment of desserts are reliable, unfussy, and delicious, making it my favorite seasonal cookbook of the bunch.

Stella Parks approaches baking like I want to, but don’t really have the patience for.

She’s meticulous in her experimentation (check out her posts on Serious Eats) and baking science. In BraveTart, she turns her eyes to classic American desserts like Oreos, Fig Newtons, English Muffins and Graham crackers. Her recipes are stellar, and I like that I can enjoy them knowing that they are at least a little better health-wise than the store-bought versions.

I also enjoy reading through the bits of history each of the recipes includes. Having written a cookbook on remade childhood classics myself, I know the work that is involved!

As a food allergy parent, I bought a lot of cookbooks so I could make safe meals and treats for my allergic child, and The Divvies Bakery Cookbook was one of our family’s favorites, even for the non-allergic members of the household. The recipes are delicious, the photos are gorgeous, and Sandler, the parent of a child with multiple food allergies, makes it easy and fun to duplicate all sorts of beloved desserts without nuts, eggs, or dairy. You may also find the simple recipes that use common household substitutions are fun ones to make together. 

Disclosure: The owner of this San Francisco restaurant was strongly influenced by the less familiar Austro-Hungarian recipes in my book KAFFEEHAUS. But, while my book focuses on the classic versions, Michelle takes them to new heights with seasonal produce and her fresh taste on flavors and techniques. It is worth the price of the book to get her infamous Russian honey cake recipe, the towering masterpiece that graces the cover. This book is an instant classic that every serious baker will want to own.