BY NATALIE HAUGHTON >FOOD EDITOR

It's the year for dessert cookbooks written by pastry chefs.

To be part of the world of these dessert mavens, open their books (see accompanying list), start baking and indulge. Designed for amateurs as well as professionals, you'll find a wealth of dazzling treats that will impress guests and friends this holiday season and beyond.

In "Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills - Recipes From the Sweetest Life Ever" (Houghton Mifflin; $35.95), Los Angeles' top pastry queen and dessert superstar Sherry Yard, the executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide (including Spago, Cut, Chinois and other fine dining establishments throughout the country), includes 150 recipes. They range from the homey sweets of her youth to exquisite Oscar party masterpieces.

"The whole book is all one big memory of my life and desserts," says Yard. "My first book taught people how to bake, and this one has all my secret recipes." Many she has made over the years have been revised and updated. "Years ago, pastries used to be too sweet. I've cut down on the sugar."

Several are simple and easy and can be duplicated with success by any home cook. For starters, try the mini No-Bake Cheesecakes, Cafe Glace or Quintessential Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Yard shares fun reads about stints in the pastry line at the Rainbow Room in New York, as a pastry assistant at New York's Montrachet, pastry chef at Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco and Catahoula in Calistoga before landing at Spago in 1994. The book is also filled with stories about her travel escapades and baking for the rich and famous.

"We bake 250 desserts, minimum, a day at Spago Beverly Hills - and that's close to 75,0000 to 90,000 desserts a year, she notes, adding that the most popular are Kaiserschmarren, a 12-layer Flourless Chocolate Dobos Torte, Apple Strudel and a Lemon Souffle Tart.

Yard's love affair with desserts began in her childhood years, growing up in Brooklyn. For special occasions, the family (her parents and three sisters) ordered bakery cakes.But the favorite desserts of her youth, she recalls, included toasted almond ice cream bars from the Good Humor truck, Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, chocolate-covered cherries and blackout cake - all re-created in some form in the book.

"If I had a choice of a hamburger or a piece of cake on the table, I would go for a piece of cake first," says the enthusiastic 43-year-old, with a laugh. "I could live on pastries alone - and bread.... I wanted to be a great pastry chef. But getting here was not easy."

She left home without much money and followed her dream. There were financial challenges, living far away from her family on the East Coast, and working long, exhausting hours. But it paid off and has brought her numerous awards, rewards, fame and good fortune.

"I think I am a dessert chef, not a pastry chef per se, because I consider every part of the meal which leads up to the dessert. I create a balance in the meal."

Most fun about her job is "licking the bowls and beaters clean, which I still do."

The worst and best parts relate to her wardrobe. "You never have to worry about what to wear - it's always the same thing - a uniform. Your form of expression is in the food."

For home cooks, she passes out a few tips. Measure ingredients out in advance - and make components of desserts (i.e. tart shells) ahead. "Don't be afraid to give your pastry and cookies color (when baking)." Use a slightly hotter oven, if necessary. Use good-quality chocolate - Scharffen Berger, Callebaut, Valrhona or Guittard.

"We double sift (the flour) no matter what at the restaurant. For home cooks, it doesn't take that much effort to do, but whisk it if you don't have a sifter."

These days, you'll find Yard traveling 20 percent of the time overseeing the pastries at various Puck restaurant locations throughout the United States - including Chicago; Detroit; Las Vegas; Washington, D.C.; Maui and more.

When it comes to food, "Never deny yourself anything," she says. Yard is a stickler for the freshest, best-quality in-season fruits, chocolate and other ingredients.

"You taste with your eyes first, so presentation should always be lush."

Natalie Haughton, (818) 713-3692 natalie.haughton@dailynews.com