Customer Reviews

Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We have always enjoyed the dessert recipes in Bon Appetit magazine so a purchase and review of the cookbook was not a question of if, but when. The Desserts cookbook is big, with quality printing and good color photos. The layout is easy to follow and we thought the use of whisks instead of stars to indicate the complexity of the recipe was creative.

The books begins with pantry and equipment suggestions and then techniques which might be helpful to many. The techniques sections uses illustrations where I believe pictures would have been better. For example, showing dough textures on page 37 is meaningless to the reader. We would suggest that the editor change this in the next version. From here we move to the recipes that starts with cakes.

There does not seem to be any order to how the recipes are organized in each section. There are subsections (example 5 in cakes), but if this was targeted for a large audience then perhaps sections should have started with the one whisk recipes and then moved to the four whisk recipes in each section. The pictures are well done but limited in scope. We have all seen magazines begin to have a light table grid of recipe pictures that could have played well here. At the beginning of each section they could have a 9 photo grid of each recipe and then cut back on the full page pictures. I enjoy pictures and cookbooks can always be lacking in too few of them. Pictures make me want to make the recipe.

The tips and layout of the recipes are good. The recipes selections would keep one entertained in desserts for quite a while with many visits to the treadmill. Our first recipe was a Cranberry Lime tart that did not disappoint. The holiday season will bring some other trials. Lime Snowball cookies looks interesting but it does require lime oil. We actually expected to find more recipes with uncommon ingredients but were pleased that they minimized their inclusion.

Overall we are pleased with the cookbook. You can find some of the recipes already on the Bon Appetit website and if you want a picture that may be the place to look. Amazon and Costco have very good pricing in the U.S.

This book is amazing - there are an immense amount of recipes that are rated out of 4 whisks - 1 whisk being easy to make and 4 whisks being more advanced. The layout is easy and simple, the pictures are sparse but beautiful and everything sounds delicious! Some of the recipes call for expensive and/or hard to find products but luckily substitutions can be made that taste just as good. I made the pumpkin spiced cake with caramel-cream cheese frosting, and it was unique and delicious. I highly recommend for any sweets lover and aspiring baker.

How fun to have a very large (689 pages) and beautiful cookbook devoted entirely to desserts by one of the premier food magazines, Bon Appetit. There are over 600 recipes in this book, most reprinted from the magazine archives but also some new ones. The photos are gorgeous and inspire me to want to head to the kitchen to create something wonderful.

This is one of those cookbooks that anyone can use no matter what level of cooking experience because the recipes are well-written with plenty of explanation and diagrams. Also included are chapters on what kinds of foods to keep on hand in the pantry, equipment basics, and techniques explained.

Every kind of dessert is covered: cakes and cupcakes; pies, tarts, and pastries; custards and puddings, fruit desserts, frozen desserts, cookies, bars and brownies, candy, and even a chapter devoted to cheesecake. I like that most of the recipes use regular ingredients that are easily found in any grocery store. The traditional recipes for things like classic chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, and chocolate cake can be found alongside unique offerings such as Mai Tai Sorbet, Cherry Creme Brulee, Hazelnut Macaroon and Strawberry Tart, Hazelnut Praline Cheesecake, and Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes.

Whether needing a dessert for a casual pot-luck dinner or something elegant for a bridal shower or a tea, I can find it all in this one book.

I've been a high-end, professional Pastry Chef in both San Francisco and NYC for many years ... love this book. Use it constantly for reference and new ideas!!!

The pros:

1) Comprehensive.
If you only could have one dessert cookbook, this one would be the one to choose. It covers everything from cookies, cakes, ice cream, candy, pies, etc.

2) Solid recipes.
I've made the Apple-Spice bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze, and it was amazing! You grate almost 2 pounds of apples in there, which produces a moist and flavorful cake. The brown sugar glaze, which is pretty much a caramel topping, takes it to out of this world delicious. I've also made the Red Velvet Cake, and others and all have turned out perfect. I'm an experienced baker and the recipes I've read and tagged for future baking look solid, e.g., sensible flour to liquid ratios, no questionable measurements, etc.

3) A good baking/dessert making education.
Any baker that works their way through this tome, will come out with a good baking/dessert making education.

The cons:

1) No weight measurements (the reason I took off a star).
The more baking books that I buy, and the more baking projects that I take on, the more I have come to appreciate a book that provides weight measurements in addition to the traditional "cups and teaspoons" measurements. Some baking is forgiving, but much of it, e.g., making cakes, requires precision that you just don't get from cups and teaspoons.

2) Not as many photographs as I would like.
This book is gigantic, so I can see why more photos might be problematic since the book already weighs about 5 pounds. Nonetheless, as experienced of a baker as I am, I still LOVE photos in my cookbooks! I probably shouldn't be advertising this, but I collect cookbooks and read them like novels or magazines; I flip through the pages and fantasize about all the beautiful confections I can make, and for whom, and for what, etc. Beautiful food photography is all wrapped up in that process for me :) so I love a cookbook with lots of photos.

All in all, a great buy that a dessert lover should have in their collection.

Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful, edited by Barbara Fairchild, is a massive cookbook from one of my favorite magazines. Since I reviewed an ebook version, I didn't realize just how large it was until I saw it recently in one of the local bookstores. Not only will it take up quite a bit of space on your counter when cooking, but it is quite heavy if you plan on reading it without having a place to prop it up. On the other hand, this is a book with page after page of gorgeous photographs, each one seducing you into adding just one more recipe to the list that you absolutely must try.

... the sample alone is worth picking up and keeping ...

A longer review, complete with photos is on my blog.

Karen
Books on the Knob - a blog about free and bargain books

This must have 20 years worth of desserts. Just reading the recipes has added 5 pounds. Loved it!

Bon Appétit Desserts is a whole book, a huge book actually (680 pages), devoted solely to desserts. Every dessert you've ever heard of, every dessert you could ever want or need to make. All in one book. The book was edited by recently resigned Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief, Barbara Fairchild. In her introduction she writes about how while growing up her family had dessert after every dinner, something sweet was included in her lunch, and how her mother always served a sweet of some kind whenever company dropped by. I like that. To me it reveals the sentiment behind this book. Desserts and sweets as part of the eating process. The 600 recipes in the book are culled from Bon Appétit's extensive archives; never-before-published recipes are also included. Well-known cooks, bakers, and pastry chefs (like Dorie Greenspan, Sherry Yard, and Susan Feniger), and Bon Appétit staff and writers also contributed to the book. If that's not enough the book also has the Bon Appétit pedigree.

It's truly a reference-cookbook -- the first three chapters are 'The Desserts Pantry'; 'Equipment: The Basics'; 'Techniques: The Basics,' at the back of the book are 'Online & Mail-Order Sources,' and 'Metric Conversions & Equivalents.' Everything needed to make desserts with skill and aplomb. The rest of the book is all about the recipes. It has, in addition to the standard and expected American-style desserts, many of the classics: fools, crepes, Linzertortes, napoleons, cannolis, crème brūlées, éclairs, panna cottas, tiramisùs, pavolovas and more. I was thrilled to see a recipe for būche de Noėl! Short and to-the-point head notes are followed by well-organized recipes. A whisk rating system showing the level of difficulty (1 to 4 whisks) is included with each recipe. An easy reference 'Index of Whisk Ratings' at the back of the book allows for quick decisions on which recipe to try. Food photographer, Con Poulo's fifty gorgeous photos are sprinkled unobtrusively throughout. Recipe testing on a book of this size could take months but of the recipes I was able to try all worked beautifully.

I can't recommend it highly enough. It should be part of every cook's library especially those who love to make desserts.

I ADORE THIS BOOK! IF THERE IS ANY ONE THING I WOULD HAVE ADDED HOWEVER IT WOULD BE MORE PHOTOS OF THE DESSERTS. AS A BAKER, I FIND IT VERY HELPFUL.

A very complete book, filled with recipes for all kinds of sweet treats - cakes, cheesecakes, cookies, ice creams, tarts - and absolutely gorgeous photos (too bad there aren't many of them).

The book is huge and weighs a ton, so be prepared! Lots of great recipes, and the nectarine almond crumble is one of my top favorites.

UPDATE: I have now made over 15 recipes from this book and they were fantastic. Very tasty and worked fine.