By Emily Elsen and Melissa Elsen (Grand Central, 224 pp.)
Sisters Emily Elsen and Melissa Elsen started baking pies out of their Brooklyn, N.Y. apartment and eventually open a wildly successful shop, The Four & Twenty Blackbirds. Their cookbook of the same name is a compilation of their best recipes, which bring sophistication to the humble pie: "Green Chili Chocolate Pie," "Pistachio Cream Pie," and "Salted Caramel Apple Pie," to name just a few of their seasonal-based creations. The first 70 pages are dedicated to tips and instruction on everything from how to select the best ingredients, the kitchen tools you'll need, and techniques for making a lattice crust.
