A mentor, an innovator, an inspiration, a national treasure. These all describe the life of work and Maida Heatter, everyone's absolute favorite dessert chef and cookbook writer, both inside the food world and in kitchens around the nation. The Maida Heatter Classic Dessert Library presents three focused and fabulous collections of recipes from the legendary baker, based on three of her books long out of print (Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies, Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts, and Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts).

Now, for the first time, dozens upon dozens of her famous cookies, cakes, and pies can be found in single volumes devoted to each subject. Everyone who knows Maida knows she is famous for clear easy-to-follow recipes that work absolutely every time, whether you are a novice or a professional baker. In classic fashion, Maida has gone through each and every recipe and made everything from small alterations (1/4 teaspoon less salt, but she swears it makes all the difference) to complete rewrites (including a brand-new take on the Queen Mother's Cake that uses a food processor). Beautifully presented in lavish two-color interiors, with new illustrations throughout, all three titles offer the visual splendor and ease of contemporary cookbooks. And each features a loving foreword from one of Maida's famous fans in the food world, like star chef Wolfgang Puck. Designed to introduce Maida to a whole new generation of bakers, these completely revised collections will be essential updates to Maida devotees as well.

Maida Heatter lives in Miami Beach, Florida where she still bakes eight to twelve hours a day. She is the author of seven previous dessert cookbooks, including a New York Times bestseller, and has won nearly every honor possible for a cookbook writer, including two James Beard Awards. She has been named to Cook's Magazine's Who's Who in Cooking, and was one of the first people inducted into Chocolatier's Hall of Fame (they also named her Book of Great American Desserts as one of the cookbooks of the decade). And she often dreams of chocolate.

"Doyenne of desserts, queen of cookies, sultana of sweets... The truth is, people love to bake Maida Heatter recipes, in part because they work, producing luscious creations that almost invariably bring grown men and women to their knees. "
Suzanne Hamlin, The New York Times

"The author of some of the world's most beloved and trustworthy dessert cookbooks."
Martha Stewart Living

"Maida Heatter is the Julia Child of desserts. {Her recipes] never fail to delight."
Newsweek

"The legendary baking maven."
Food & Wine

"The Queen of American Desserts."
Chicago Tribune

Maida Heatter's Cookies

Wait until you see what Maida can do with fruit-fruit pies, tarts, cobblers, shortcakes, sorbets, and just plain fruit with the most delectable sauces. Her first-ever collection to focus on pies and fruit, Maida Heatter's Pies & Tarts presents scores of delightful recipes to thrill the palate-the homey baked apple or wild blueberry pie, classic Key Lime Pie, an incredible Cassis Raspberries with Crème Fraîche. Of course Maida's love of chocolate and all things sweet is brought to pies, too, so along with your fruit there's Chocolate Mousse Pie, Frozen Peanut Butter Pie, and Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Pie, too. And there are pies and fabulous fruit concoctions to bake and serve at any time of year, regardless of season, and for any occasion-chiffon pies, ice-cream pies, tiny tartlets, turnovers, cobblers and crumbles, mousses, flans, and puddings. Plus the flawless Maida Heatter touch is brought to every aspect of baking, as she patiently teaches critical details from how to make the perfect pie crust and how to make soufflés that never fall.
Here's an excerpt

Cakes mean celebration, and there's no better reason to celebrate than the first-ever cake book from Maida Heatter. With over 175 recipes and ten different categories (did you know there were so many kinds of cake?), it includes absolute classics like the East 62nd Street Lemon Cake plus everything from Jalousies and Zuger Kirschtorte to Pecan Sweet Potato Cake and more. She even makes fruitcake taste great. There are muffins, shortbreads, cheesecakes, gingerbreads, cupcakes, fancy cakes, nut cakes and just plain cakey cakes. And most exciting of all, there's a completely new and never-before-published recipe for her Queen Mother's Cake, perhaps the most famous cake ever.
Click here for the new Queen Mother's Cake recipe