Imagine walking into a perfect fantasy bakery, its sparkling glass cases overflowing with delectable treats - cookies, cakes, pastries, pies, tarts, cream puffs, Danish, and more - all made with real butter, sugar, chocolate and other fine ingredients. Now imagine you have the recipe to make every one of those treats at home. Not only that, the baker will give you her personal tips and instructions for getting perfect results.

Imagine no more, for that's just what you'll get in The Village Baker's Wife.

Gayle Ortiz and her husband Joe, along with partner Louisa Beers, run Gayle's, a world class pastry shop in the California beach town of Capitola (near Santa Cruz). What began as a small 800 square foot store in 1978 has grown into one of the largest and most successful quality bakeries in the country. Today, Gayle's uses 32,000 eggs, 32,500 pounds of flour and nearly 900 pounds of chocolate per month!

This book draws on Gayle's twenty plus years of experience, which enabled her to streamline her recipes for home cooks while retaining the exceptional quality people expect from a Gayle's product. There are over 150 cake, cookie, pie, tart, and pastry recipes, plus 130 instructional illustrations and 25 essays on baking techniques. Recipe instructions are clear and concise, and each conveniently references the page you can turn to for additional tips and techniques.

Divided into three parts, Part I contains instructional materials about equipment, ingredients and techniques. Part II is where you'll find the recipes -- chapters include: Croissant; Danish Pastry; Puff Pastry; Pies and Tarts; Cookies; Muffins, Cream Puffs, and Other Bakery Goodies; Gayle at Home; Holiday and Other Festive Desserts. Part III provides invaluable resources for bakers including equipment and supply sources, books and periodicals for further reading, and more.

If you love to bake, this book is sure to become an essential part of your culinary library and its recipes part of your regular repertoire.

Sample Recipes:
See the Related Recipes box below for sample recipes from this book.