by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero
Da Capo Press, $17.00, 222 pages
In a vegan kitchen, this little book featuring mainly pies has a place on the kitchen bookshelf. Though small in size, the book is of high quality with nice color illustrations throughout. The first part introduces every aspect of pie dough with both color and sketch illustrations that novice pie bakers will find useful. It describes nine different pie crusts, but being vegan, oil, vegetable shortening or margarine replaces butter. The authors give good instructions and illustrations on various pie dough borders and toppings. The recipes in the second half are very good with easy-to-follow instructions from readily available ingredients. Many are not standard, traditional pie recipes (Luxury Pistachio Pudding Pie, Curried Macaroon Pie, Salted Chocolate Caramel Pie). The book ends with a few pie topping recipes. Many hints (called Slices) help the baker with techniques or ingredients and the authors also give suggested variations with some recipes. Brief head notes introduce all recipes. The major fault with this cookbook is its layout. Many of the longer recipes flip over pages to the inconvenience of the baker. The index is thorough and very good. Even non-vegan bakers will enjoy this pie book.