Break! - Eric Ortuño

Break! The definite tea pastry and biscuit book by Eric Ortuño

Sablés, wafer rolls, puff pastry, cookies, crocants, biscuits, carquinyolis, wafers, speculoos, baklavas, linzer, cigarellos, grissines, tiles... What do all these specialties have in common? Well, they break, emitting a suggestive sound, a crunch that gives us clues of their delicate texture. This is the first meaning of the English word, "break".

In a more figurative sense, "break" refers to that short period of time in which we relax, and in which we can perfectly take the opportunity to have a cup of tea or coffee with one of the more than 60 small sweet creations that the great teacher Eric Ortuño has gathered in this book.

This, which is undoubtedly the crunchiest book on the market, includes explanations, techniques and recipes of the most classic and universal tea pastries and biscuits, but also other proposals of his own creation, such as Sacher or Reus pastry, both winners of the Dulcypas Competition for the Best Tea Pastry in Spain.

Monographic books, specialized in a product, always have added value, with  the advantage of narrowing down a topic well to work with it in depth and in all its breadth. In it, alongside this complete professional and pastry teacher, we go through more than 60 varieties of traditional and modern cookies, introducing innovative concepts as well as cutting-edge technology such as 3D printers and techniques from other areas such as candy making and confectionery drum mixing. The result is a new and complete look from which to rediscover a very commercial product with a long shelf life.

Break! is not only an extensive compilation of tea pastries, it is also a journey around the world through its most iconic cookies. Polvorones from Spain, amarettis from Italy, crocant de Cordes from France, baklava from Turkey, alfajor from Argentina, North American cookies, the Japanese fortune cookie, and the Maghreb gazelle ankles are just a small sample of the great variety that is gathered in the book.

In short, Ortuño offers us in his first book an exciting journey through the universe of tea and biscuits, but in a broader sense, even incorporating the concept of “petit four”. An essential book of the pastry of yesterday, today, and surely, of tomorrow.