Making Dough ─ Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries

Pastry baking is one half creativity, one half science, and one half old-fashioned know-how. If that seems confusing, don’t worry:Making Dough makes perfect sense out of the often-intimidating task of preparing homemade pastry dough. With helpful diagrams, easy-to-follow recipes, and step-by-step instructions for home cooks, every type of dough from puff pastry to short crust is demystified, deconstructed, and delicious. Plus, you’ll get a heaping helping of variations, substitutions, and tips, so you can put your own tasty spin on recipes like Apple Chipotle Hand Pies, Cinnamon Custard Eclairs, and more!

Russell Van Kraayenburg is the author of Haute Dogs (Quirk, 2014). His blogChasing Delicious was a Saveur finalist for 2012’s best baking and desserts blog, and his work has been featured on such sites as Lifehacker, Co. Design, Business Insider, the Kitchn, Live Originally, the Daily What, Quipsologies, Neatorama, Explore, and Fine Cooking, among many other personal, cooking, design, and art blogs. He’s also written for publications such asSouthern Living and Giada Weekly. He lives in Texas.