Table Of Content•
recipes from san francisco's most charming pastry shop
by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath photographs by Frankie Frankeny
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recipes from san francisco's most charming pastry shop
by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath
photographs by Frankie Frankeny
CHRONICLE BOOKS
SAN F RANCISCO
Text and illustrations copyright © 2011 by Meg Ray.
Photographs copyright © 2011 by Frankie Frankeny.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
elSBN 978-1-4521-0735-6
Designed by Sara Schneider
Type styling by Janis Reed
Produced by PiperKelier LLC
Miette is a registered trademark of Miette Cakes, LLC.
Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
Introduction Candies and Creams
9 161
Cakes Miette Essentials
17 183
Afternoon Cakes Essential Ingredients
83 and Essential Tools
209
Tarts
103 Sources
218
Cookies, Bars, and Pastries
123 Index
219
INTRODUCTION
As a young girl, I loved to read my mother's cookbooks. My world of exquisite pastries, but also a charming culture of
favorite was the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, the packaging and presentation. Forthe French, presentation is
classic 1953 edition, outfitted as it was in its cheerful, tai as important as the pastry itself and each pastry is entitled
lored gingham cover; and within, fabulous photos of every to its own special box, wrapped in delicate papers and tied
thing befitting a mid-century table. This comforting, simple, with string. Without realizing it, I was gathering the knowl
homey-but-vibrant aesthetic became my ideal. edge to open my own bakery.
It was the 1970s and we moved from Palo Alto, Cali
fornia, to Whidbey Island, near Seattle, Washington. Our
the first shop
house on the island sat among thousands of acres of black
berries, leading to pies, cobblers, and crumbles. My mother I started Miette in 2001, during the months leading to the
worked at a health food store, and brought home a variety dot-com bust. When I made the transition, I had little idea
of ingredients in bulk, including whole-wheat flour and what I was getting myself into, but I did have a succinct
much-loathed carob chips. Although I was inundated with vision: I wanted to create the cakes I had loved as a child
whole grains, my heart lay in fancy pastries. I found my pas and the pastries I had discovered in my travels. Miette is the
sion in baking cakes and set out to make the ones I'd seen French word for "crumb," which is also a baker's term for
in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I started at the describing the texture of a cake-and in scale, it was per
beginning and baked everything in it. fectly fitted to the size of my first shop, a pastel-pink tent
Initially, I just wanted to frost my cakes and pipe butter at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. For two years, I was easily
cream decorations. I saw baking as the necessary distance spotted under the only pastel-pink tent ever to be pitched
to cover before I could pick up the offset spatula and pastry at the market.
bag. But then I fell in love with the process of baking itself. I arranged the tables of the Miette stall with flowers
I began to study the techniques; I taught myself baking and vintage cake stands, attempting to re-create the splen
through endless trial and error, which produced in turn end dors of a patisserie amidst the chaotic hustle and bustle of
less little triumphs and big failures, and vice versa. I made an unpredictable seasonal market. At first, I sold only layer
pound cakes, bundts, chiffons, and sponges. Each summer cakes in standard pink bakery boxes. Eventually the product
I would enter my cakes in the local county fair. One year, my line grew to include pound cakes, cookies, and bars, meticu
chocolate cake won the blue ribbon. lously wrapped in cellophane and pink paper bags printed
I never considered a career in baking. I studied art and with what had quickly become our emblem: a pink rose. From
design, and somehow wound up working in technology. the beginning, Miette's aesthetic was classic and streamlined,
Baking maintained its allure, and remained the focus of my feminine but not too girlish, decidedly American but also
travels-especially in Paris, where I discovered not only a European, infused with a dreamy, nostalgic quality.
INTRODUCTION 7
In 2003, we opened our first store in San Francisco's To complement our cakes, our pastry case is filled with
Ferry Building. My husband, Chris, designed the shop (and cupcakes, tarts, pots de creme, brownies, shortbreads, and
later our store on Octavia Street) with elaborate crown a number of American and French cookie classics. The
moldings and vibrant floral wallpaper to create the perfect celebrated Parisian version of the macaron, a centuries
theater for our cakes and pastries. Today, the shelves are old French meringue-based cookie, was new to me when
filled with vintage cake plates, jars of brilliant candies, and I tasted one at the venerable Laduree, but the moment it
little vignettes of seasonal themes and narratives. Every crumbled with a bit of resistance between my teeth and
thing is beautifully packaged in paper, cellophane, string, then melted on my tongue, there was no doubt that this
and colorful satin ribbons. The effect is breathtaking. indescribable delicacy had to be added to our repertoire.
american cakes reinvented small scale
Miette started with a passion for cakes, and cakes are still The first thing you may notice about Miette cakes is that
the mainstay of the bakery. Despite the French name, Miette they are small. There are two primary reasons for this, one
cakes have always been traditionally American, holding at personal and one practical. The first, simply, is that I'm fond
their center the image of the classic American layer cake of small things. The second is that the nature of the prod
a cake that, to my mind, portrays pure happiness. Many of uct itself suggested a diminutive size. The plain economics
our cakes are finished with a big pink candied rose, a dis are, making a 9-inch organic cake costs twice as much as
tinction befitting their modern femininity. the same cake at 6 inches, and a 6-inch cake is an elegant
With this image in mind, I have been baking my way to sufficiency, just like a small cookie that is rich and buttery.
the purest versions of these "simple" American classics, with I carry this sense of proportion through everything we do
the same criteria for clarity influencing the development at the bakery, from creating bite-size cookies and individu
of our Lemon Debutantes, Princesses, Tomboys, and all the ally portioned custards to choosing pan sizes and keeping
other sweets on our shelves. While many bakers aspire to decoration simple. Thus we adopted the principle of less is
make fancy cakes with many fillings and glazes, my aim has more, also taking a page from the Japanese: Small is better,
always been to create simple cakes that allow you to taste balance is everything.
their true flavors. I have no desire to build beyond the point Along the same lines, if you stand in front of the pastry
of delicious. Complexity and architecture do not interest cases at Miette, you might think our pastries are numerous
me in food, especially not in desserts. I think dessert should and complicated, but in reality, we have streamlined our
look delicious, not impressive. To me, there is nothing more process to a few perfect recipes. Working from just a core
sumptuous than a simple buttery pound cake in which you platform of bases and a short list of distinctive fillings, we
can actually taste the full-butter flavor. turn out the entire family of cakes that are the foundation of
INTRODUCTION 9
