Customer Reviews

Bite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes and Cobblers to Custards and Cookies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My book arrived a couple of weeks ago and it's taken this long to decide which recipe to make first.

It just came out of the oven and wow! I made the first recipe in the book- brown sugar and cornmeal mini bundt cakes. They are ever so slightly lemony and the crunch from the cornmeal is a nice surprise.

They whipped up quickly and I really appreciated the weight measurements in the recipes as I find this a more accurate way of cooking. I also like the smaller portions and recipe output. With a small family, I don't need three dozen mini bundt cakes hanging around the house. A dozen is perfect- I can provide dessert for us, and have a plateful to pass out to neighbors and friends.

I am thinking I might want to "bake my way through this book."

Off to figure out which recipe to prepare next...

Not long ago I purchased the book "Bite-size desserts". When I was recently asked to make desserts for a fundraiser for a non-profit organization (I do the baking for free and only get reimbursed for the ingredients) I decided to use recipes from this book because I needed to make small desserts. I planned 7 desserts for about 100 people (a 2 day baking marathon in my small home kitchen) and selected 5 of the recipes from Carole's book: Sour Cream Cupcakes, Lemon Tartlets, Madeleines, Filo Triangles, and Cardamom Butter Cookies. I made few adjustments to some of the recipes (for example the filo triangles I filled only with a tiny scoop of Nutella, in the cupcakes I replaced the cinnamon with vanilla, Madeleines I made with finally chopped crystallized ginger and in the lemon tartlets I replaced the meringue with fresh blueberries because of transporting logistics), but in general I followed all the instructions in the recipes.

The desserts were a huge hit and I want to complement Carole on her book. I found the sections on "'keeping" and "making a change" very useful too. I liked the overall selection of the recipes in the book and will certainly try to make many more.

There was only a slight issue for me with listing all the ingredients in one list and not separating them into a list for a dough or batter and for a topping or frosting. Couple times I put the whole amount (of sugar for instance) in the batter or dough and later as I was following the steps did I realize my mistake. Luckily I tested the recipes in small batches before I made a bigger amount. Once I figured the organization of the ingredients I carefully read each recipe before making it (which should always be done anyway) and noted on the margins the correct amounts. But this issue still did not detract from the overall value of the book.

Carole's book will be on my Christmas shopping list for all my friends who share my passion of baking.


Thanks for a great book.

veronika krejci
Denver

Bite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes and Cobblers to Custards and Cookies

The recipes in this book *look* wonderful. And many of them are. The cobblers and crisps are a hit at my house, and incredibly easy to make. But I think the author assumes greater competence in the kitchen (bakery?) than I have, or probably than most people have. Several of the recipes are extremely temperamental. I've made the venetian almond tartlets three times now. The first time, they came out very well. The second time, the almond filling caved in on itself and smothered the almonds. The third time, the tarts stuck to the tartlet pans and I couldn't get them out for the life of me. I made the recipe the exact same way in each case, but something--the phase of the moon, maybe?--was off. The walnut nectarine galettes are another good example. The dough, if you make it as suggested, simply isn't doughy: I had to add nearly four tablespoons of flour to get it to a consistency where I could even wrap it up and refrigerate it. Despite all of this effort, the dough still wasn't right, and didn't wrap around the nectarines correctly, resulting in burned edges when I cooked it. The dough recipes in particular seem to give me trouble, despite following the directions to the letter. They tend to stick to the wax paper unless you cover the dough in flour, resulting in so much wasted material that the recipes end up making half of what they should. The mascarpone raspberry parfaits simply did not come out: a direction that looks like a suggestion to refrigerate turns out to be an absolute command.

So I can't really give this book my unqualified recommendation. It's important to read the instructions extremely carefully, three or four times. Even then, you might end up with a disaster on your hands. I really like the premise: I love to try multiple kinds of dessert, something I can never do with the full-size versions. But these recipes should have been vetted more carefully, or more instructions and ideas about possible points where they might go wrong provided by the author. Not all of us have the competence to improvise, or to see where recipes are likely to go wrong before they do.

I am familar with all of Carole Bloom's dessert cookbooks. Her recipes are precise, easy to follow, and fun for all bakers to make. Her flavor combinations are genius. Her latest book, Bite-Size Desserts, is truly a dessert cookbook gem.

Bite-Size Desserts has a lively and lovely format, beautiful mouth-watering photos, and a total of 87 tantalizing recipes. Just like its theme, bite-size desserts that deliver big delectable flavors, Bite-Size Desserts delivers big as well, with its wonderful tiny details.

I had Carole's book one week, and had already gleefully made "cornmeal-dried cherry scones", "wicked brownie bites", and "raspberry-blueberry crisps". All of them, were scrumptious.

Congratulations Carole on your new book, Bite-Size Desserts!

This is one of the neatest baking books I have ever purchased. First, it is easy to use with all the instructions being written in a simple step by step way using simple language. I have made several of the recipes with no problems at all. Actually most of the recipes are very quick to make requiring only a few steps and ingredients. And are they good, YES! In my judgment Bite-Size has the best of best when it comes to desserts. Another great aspect to this book is that you can make small portion desserts. I recently made a variety of these bite sizers for a backyard Bar-B Q. They were a real hit with everyone. This book is going to be a stable for my dessert making endeavors for a long time to come. Oh, one more thing, the desserts pictures in this book are fabulous.

I'm the target audience for this book ~ I LOVE a little sweet after my meal! So, I was intrigued by the concept and what I was able to glean from the view inside. As soon as the book arrived, I began with the recipes. So far, I have made three and they were scrumptious. I served some as desserts at a party and everybody raved. I can't wait to make more, but, they are time consuming and not waist-friendly, so I need to find the appropriate event. Additionally, some recipes (clearly the ones that intrigue me most!) do call for quality ingredients and special equipment, so be prepared to plan before you bake.

This book is one of the best cookbooks I've ever owned. When we are all focused on healthy eating and weight management, it is refreshing to discover bite-sized desserts. Yeah! I can indulge my sweet tooth without eating huge portions of cake, pie and custards. When we make desserts bite-sized, we can indulge and still meet our goals for healthy living. I tested the lemon meringue tartlet recipe and loved it. Snall is beautiful! Can't wait to try some of the other sweet treeats! Just reading about them seems to satisfy the appetite.

It seems like everyone tries to cut back on sweets but who wants to give them up completely? This cookbook offers a compromise: all the flavor we crave in guilt-free, bite-size portions. Whether serving the little desserts at a party or for portion control, these treats offer a cuteness factor without giving up taste.

I made the Maple Walnut Tea Cakes, which turned out more like muffins, and before I could take a photo of them for my blog, my guys ate them up (the recipe made 18)! So yes, they were a hit. And obviously for some, one bite-size treat isn't going to be enough. The recipe was easy to follow and while it called for using silicone muffin pans, I used the aluminum ones I already had with good results. I was a bit confused by the directions calling for beating the butter until fluffy because it was only 1 tablespoon of butter. I skipped that step and simply beat the butter with the brown sugar and egg yolk before mixing in the rest of the ingredients and it turned out fine.

I've read other cookbooks featuring little desserts but this is the best one so far, in my opinion. The recipes aren't difficult but they are more elegant than serving vanilla wafers with pudding as I saw in one cookbook. Some of the desserts featured include Dried Cherry Pound Cakes, Petite Cheesecakes with Raspberry Sauce, Mixed Berry Cobblers, Tuile Cookie Cups, Raspberry Sorbet Shots, and Green Tea Truffles.

Every dessert is covered including cakes, cupcakes, brownies, scones, pastries, tartlets, turnovers, mousses, custards, cookies, sorbets, ice creams, and candies. There are lots of color photographs which adds to the charm of this book. Most of the recipes are easy enough for a beginner while others may be more challenging. Some of the recipes call for specialty pans that may not be easily found locally but the author includes a list of online mail-order sources for them.

Pastry chef Carole Bloom shows how to create memorable mini-desserts with a cookbook for any who want to downsize desserts into bite-sized pieces. From small cakes and scones to muffins, turnovers, cobblers and puddings, this offers tips on attractively making and downsizing desserts, with color sidebars of detail and attractive color photos throughout. Any general interest collection will find this appealing.

Newly widowed, I bought this book to give myself ideas for smaller or single-servings of stuff I'd like to cook. Yes, I can always divide a cheesecake recipe into 16 parts and make small portions, but this is a pretty book to flip through for ideas that need no adjusting. I was surprised that many of the desserts are intended for cute individual guest servings (i.e., impress those folks with the daintiness of offerings, or let them chose more than one thing if they want). I bought it for single-person servings. Some recipes still need to be split into more than one eating session, but, hey, who's to know if I have left-over slightly-fallen chocolate souffle for breakfast.