"Let me introduce you to one of my favorite cookbook writers, Gesine Bullock-Prado"

I first "met" Gesine Bullock-Prado through her book Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker  (the paperback version is titled  My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time).
It tells her story of being a Hollywood bigwig (she was the head of her sister's, Sandra Bullock's, production company.  As the stress of the job piled up, she turned to baking for solace, and, eventually, moved to Vermont with her husband and opened her own bakery.  It was WILDLY successful.  And so was her book.  So she's written a couple more.  Check them out below, along with their videos.
--Jackie

Cookbooks with recipes for baking with sugar (in the oven), continue to top the bestseller lists. And yet, no one has set out to do a cookbook with recipes on cooking with sugar (on the stovetop--until now. In Sugar Baby, Gesine Bullock-Prado offers totally unintimidating step-by-step advice; the simplest instructions; recipes for candy, confections, and treats that integrate stovetop work into finished desserts; and a hilarious voice. Organized by temperature and chemical stages, here are more than 100 recipes for lollipops, caramel, rock candy, chocolate mousse, macarons, marshmallows, pudding pops, cakes, and much more. Sugar Baby will satisfy even the most demanding sweet tooth.

 "It’s a conundrum I can’t understand. Someone’s hankering for pie; you can see the pie-longing in their eyes. They want a delicious flaky crust, something with buttery overtones. They want fresh fruit—not a vague whisper of berry in a butter cream, but overt chunks of apple, discernible bites of berry. But it’s just not done. You don’t serve pie at special events like fiftieth birthdays, dinner parties, silveranniversaries, or, God forbid, at a wedding. To which I reply, ‘Bullpuckies.’"

And so begins Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented. Pie has always been a popular cookbook topic, yet in Pie It Forward, baker, confectioner, and pastry master Gesine Bullock-Prado unveils an entirely new frontier of pies, redefining what can be done with a piecrust and pastry shell. Expect lattice and cutouts with an entirely modern twist. Homemade puff pastry made easy. Individual pie pops to replace tiredcupcakes. Surprising and wildly successful explorations with beer (Chocolate Stout Pudding Pie), exotic fruits (Yuzu-Ginger Rice Pudding Meringue Pie), and candy making (Earl Grey Truffle Tart). And there are the classics too—riffing on her German roots, her Hollywood background, and life on her Vermont farm—a Blueberry Brown Butter Tart, an Italian Plum Tart with a yeasted-dough crust, a tiramisu-inspired Espresso Tart, a Vermont Pizza Pie, and more. Including sweet, savory, layered, and miniature pies and tarts, Bullock-Prado presents these recipes with a voice that removes the intimidation factor and inspires readers to break out of the double-crust straitjacket and try her signaturecreations—and to laugh out loud along the way.