Mini: Contemporary Pâtisserie in Mini Format

Modern, small-format desserts and petits fours from the pastry chef of the Michelin 3-star restaurant Lasarte in Barcelona.

When Xavi Donnay first became a restaurant pastry chef, he looked for books that would inspire him in the creation of petits fours and found so little that he vowed one day to change that.

In this fully-illustrated book of more than 340 pages, Donnay provides detailed, imaginative recipes for more than 60 items classed into eight groups:

• Sablés
• Sponge cakes and macarons
• Choux
• Bonbons
• Giandujas
• Free (desserts which avoid common allergens)
• Classics
• Unclassifiable (a charming way of saying Miscellaneous, including rochers and marshmallows)

In addition to photographs of the desserts in their completed form, Mini often includes step-by-step photo sequences illustrating more complex assemblies. All recipe measurements are in metric and by weight, as is common in professional kitchen books.

Among the more striking mini-desserts:

• A trompe l’oeil avocado which is composed of basil-scented white chocolate emulsified with olive oil and features a hazelnut pit
• A popcorn and toffee eclair
• A choux puff decorated with a pink grapefruit ganache and filled with blood orange cream
• A mango-passion fruit tiramisu

This is an ingenious collection which happily expands the available literature on tiny desserts.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout. Bi-lingual in Spanish and English.