This is the book. The book to buy for yourself, to give to friends, to read, to study, and most certainly to bake from. It’s a great book filled with exceptional recipes and solid explanations for why you do what you do. Big, long explanations.
I have a condition, not life-threatening, but persistent and incurable. Every time I walk past a bakery, I get hungry. Three years ago we were busy doing errands in Soho when we walked past the newly opened Dominique Ansel Bakery. The condition clicked in. So did my wife.
“We have things to do,” she pulled at my hand.
“I’ll get something to go. Come on. Just come in.”
We walked in. We smelled. We smelled Paris.
“I’ll get a table,” Suzen said. “You get me a cappuccino and one of those croissants.”
We’ve been back. Often. And we have watched Dominique soar. His baking is unsurpassed: and his bakery makes the lists of top ten bakeries in the world. The whole world. He gets enormous press, because he is both clever and wise. And he’s a master of marketing. Each morning now, there is a long line, waiting for hours, to buy some of the limited edition of his trademarked Cronut.
His biography is extensive. Still under 40, he already has a lifetime of experience as you can read at:
http://dominiqueansel.com/sample-page/
The Cronut recipe is in this book. And the DKA, Dominique’s version of the kouign aman [pronounced KWEEN ah-MAHN]. The DKA was the first thing I had at the bakery and I will never forget the experience, biting into a caramelized croissant, rich in butter and sugar. Perfectly baked. Fragile. Not to be bought and saved. No, you buy and you bite. Then you buy another.
There are four parts to this book.
First is a 100 pages with no recipes. It’s pages and pages of essays, the philosophy of this master baker. What he likes, how he bakes, what is tricky, why madelines have to be eaten within minutes from the oven, the logistics of baking the short-lived DKA, and so much more. This is a most intensive introduction to Dominique and it prepares you for the recipes to come.
Those recipes come in three chapters:
- Beginner Recipes like his Chocolate Pecan Cookies
- Intermediate Recipes like the Pink Champagne Macarons
- Advanced Recipes like the DKA
This organization is both essential and ideal. I can do the Beginner Recipes and, with Suzen, I think the intermediate ones are in reach. Those Advanced Recipes? It’s a bit like standing at the base of very tall wall. Can I get over it? Dominique does provide extension ladders.
The DKA recipe is 4 pages with 18 steps. It’s formidable, but too tempting not to try. Suzen and I will, and I encourage you to take an afternoon and follow Dominique's path to croissant heaven.
If you have two days, and if you love gingerbread, then you can make a table centerpice pine cone of gingerbread leaves. There’s a page and a half of ingredients, 40+ steps, 7 pages of instructions. That’s a recipe to try when you still have electric power but are snowbound.
This book has been anticipated for months, if not years. It’s subtitled “The Secret Recipes” and I admire Dominique for delivering on that promise. Yes, the DKA and the Cronut and so much more are here. The recipes are authentic and his mastery is within your grasp, in your own kitchen, thanks to the pages of carefully organized detail.
Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes will be at the top of the best sellers list. It will win award after award. You can wait to buy it, but why delay the inevitable and the delicious. This is a book you will employ and enjoy for the rest of your life. The only question now is when we can get our hands on Dominique’s next wonder.