Customer Reviews

The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets

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The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets features 75 recipes for desserts and another 25 for cocktail recipes with a lot of high-spirited commentary in between.

The author provides a description of baking ingredients followed by an introduction to 43 spirits (from amaretto to wine, alphabetically). Many of the liquor descriptions include the prevalent flavor which would be helpful to anyone not familiar with it. For example, amaretto is flavored with almonds and frangelico with hazelnuts. This could help cooks avoid flavors they don't like (and spending money for liqueurs they won't like).

I found it very helpful that the author provides a brief commentary for each recipe, and offers an alternate flavor or two for many of them. For example, you can substitute dark rum or brandy for the bourbon in the Bourbon Apple Crisp or berry-flavored vodka for the tequila in the Pink Elephant Milkshakes.

Most of the desserts require just a tablespoon or two of alcohol, so you could use a mini-bottle to try the dessert before committing to buying a larger bottle. The main exceptions are recipes using beer or wine which tend to call for a larger quantity (since the flavors aren't usually as intense as liqueurs). For instance, the champagne cake calls for 2/3 cup of Champagne plus an additional three tablespoons for the buttercream frosting.

Recipes in the Have Your Cake and Drink It Too chapter include:
* Fig and Orange Cake with Ouzo Glaze
* Green Tea and Banana Cake with Sake Syrup
* Molten Chocolate Orange Cake
* Plum Biercake
* Coffee Maple Walnut Cake
* Devilish Angel Food Cake
* Individual Raspberry-Almond Cheesecakes
* "Bottoms Up" Pineapple-Tequila Cake
* Brandied Pear Cake with White Chocolate Chunks
* Pumpkin Pomegranate Layer Cake
* Jagermeister and Honey Bundt Cake
* Champagne Layer Cake
* Lemon Layer Cake with Campari Frosting
* Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cake
* Sachertorte
* "Can't Say Nocello" Carrot Cake Cupcakes
* Lavender Honey-Nut Cupcakes

Recipes in the next chapter, Pies and Tarts A La Booze, include:
* Hard Cider Apple Pie
* Cherry Pie with Scotch and Walnut Crumble
* Preppy Pink and Green Pie
* Blueberry Rum Pie
* Coconut-Sweet Potato Pie
* Margarita Meringue Pie
* Cranberry, Chocolate, and Pecan Pie
* Irish Cream Pie
* Strawberry-Port Linzertorte
* Nightcap Tart
* Grasshopper Tart with Chocolate Chips
* Red Wine Caramel Tart
* Plum and Hazelnut Tart
* Rustic Fig Galette

The next chapter, Raiding the Bar and the Cookie Jar, includes the following recipes:
* Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Nuts and a Nip
* "Old-Fashioned" Snickerdoodles
* Double Limoncello Poppy Seed Cookies
* Peanut Butter and Port Thumbprints
* Dirty Girl Scout Cookies
* Banana-Chocolate Chip Biscotti
* Black and White Russian Cookies
* Pistachio-Coconut Madeleines
* Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Orange Liqueur Cream
* Dark and Stormy Hermits with Raisins and Rum
* Apricot Brandy Bars
* Sherried Date Crumble Bars with Almonds and Orange
* Oak Bars
* Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
* Cuba Libre Brownies

The next chapter, Sticky, Saucy, and Spiked: Spoon Desserts, features recipes for:
* Banana-Rum-Raisin Rice Pudding
* Chocolate Pots de Booze
* Schnappy Butterscotch Pudding with Pretzel Brittle
* Vin Santo-Vanilla Panna Cotta with Apricot Compote
* Muscat and Melon Mousse
* Sidecar Souffle
* Berry Chocolate Mousse
* Hazelnut Tiramisu
* Donut Bread Pudding with Tennessee Whiskey Sauce
* Pink Elephant Milkshakes
* Bourbon-Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
* Lemon-Cherry Semifreddo with Pistachios
* Port Ice Cream Sundaes
* Beer Profiteroles with Chocolate-Beer Sauce

The following chapter, Lush and Fruity Desserts, includes recipes for:
* Pisco-Roasted Pineapple
* Boozy Baked Apples
* Blackberry Chocolate Romanoff
* Tropical Fruit Foster
* Saucy Prunes with Cinnamon and Honey
* Pear and Red Grape Turnovers
* Nectarine-Raspberry Dutch Baby
* Drunken Pear Crisps
* Bourbon Apple Crisp
* Rhubarb-Rose Crisp
* Winter Berry Gratin
* Blueberry-Port Slump with Almond Dumplings
* Gingery Peach Cobbler
* Strawberry and Honey Shortcake
* Chocolate Pavlova with Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Drink recipes are featured throughout the book with the desserts they would compliment. For example, the recipe for "Orange Up" is featured with Molten Chocolate Orange Cake. Drink recipes include:
* Orange Up
* Brandied Pear Belinis
* Honey Bear Cocktail
* Southern Peach
* Lemon Campari Fizz
* Almond Iced Tea
* Cherry Swizzle
* Spiced Blueberry Mojito
* Beer Margaritas
* Nightcap
* Double Mint Fizz
* Cinnamon Old Fashioned
* Ruby Flip
* Dirty Girl Scout
* Clearly Cosmo
* Dark and Stormy Punch
* Butterscotch Hot Chocolate
* Orange Sidecar
* Brown Velvet
* Pisco Punch
* Pete's Hot Buttered Rum
* Tropical Hurricanes
* White Wine Sangria
* Maple Leaf
* Ginger Highball

The index includes the liqueurs and other booze so if you have leftover rum and want to use it in a dessert, you can quickly determine your options (there are 11, including beverages). You can also look up the type of dessert (such as pies or puddings).

The author includes the formulas for metric conversions (ounces to grams, pounds to grams, cups to liters, and Farenheit to Centigrade). She also provides quick reference charts of metric equivalents for volume (from 1/8 teaspoon to 1 gallon), oven temperatures, length (1/4 inch to 15 inches), and weight (1 ounce to 1 pound) as well as for butter (2 teaspoons to ½ pound).

My only suggestion for improvement would have been to include more photos of the finished desserts. Only 28 of the 75 dessert recipes (and 5 of the 25 drink recipes) included photos (which were full page, color and well-styled).

This was a fun read and I am looking forward to baking several of the treats to liven up my next office potluck.

If you like this book, you might want to check out Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked With Spirits, Wine, and Beer which has a similar fun tone and concentrates on cakes infused with liquor.

I always have trouble thinking of new things to bring to parties and pot lucks (coleslaw?) (pirates booty?), and The Boozy Baker will be my savior. It's a beautiful new paperback with tons of creative desserts all laced with the Good Stuff. Let me say I am not an experienced baker (experienced drinker, yes), but the author provides really clear, specific instructions so it was much easier than I thought. So far, since it's strawberry season here on the East coast, I made the Strawberry Port Linzertorte and brought it to my friend's backyard bbq. That thing was gone in 5 minutes! Port seems to be such a random thing to put into sweets, especially a summery fruit tart, but it really works. Added a depth of flavor without overwhelming or tasting alcoholic at all. I'm really excited to try a few more, especially the Gingery Peach Cobbler (provided I can save some of my Domaine de Canton until peach season.) I highly recommend this book to both experienced bakers and people like me who just love to eat and drink.

I bought this book shortly after I had started used the cook book "Booze Cakes." I really love Booze Cakes, but have found that some of the portions were suggest on ingredients (particularly the booze) can be somewhat exaggerated. However, I liked the idea of the book so much that I thought I would try this one and see if I faired better.

While I have to say that the few recipe's I've done have turned out extremely well, I do have one major issue with this book. A lot of the liquor that they include in their recipes are not exactly common things to have on hand. They tend more towards flavoring alcohols like schnapps or creme de menthe.

The recipes that call for what I consider to be the standards like rum, vodka, or whiskey, seem to be few and far between. This means that you might get stuck with a lot of leftovers in the liquor cabinet if you chose to make something from it.

When it comes to alcohol, I am a complete and utter lightweight, which is in part why I bought this book. I read all the glowing reviews about The Boozy Baker and thought, "Yay! A bit of alcohol with none of the bad side effects," which for me mean a headache and the Asian glow. I made the Old Fashioned Snickerdoodles and the bourbon was nearly undetectable. As a snickerdoodle, it was nice, but definitely not the best I've had. I also made the Limoncello/Poppyseed Cookies and doubled the amount of Limoncello in the glaze because the amount indicated in the recipe (2tbs) was not enough to make it drizzle. Only then could I taste a bit of the alcohol. The cookie itself was not lemony enough for my taste.

I really expected my tastebuds to be immersed in rich flavors and instead, everything fell a little flat. I will try the recipes again but am considering doubling the alcohol.

This is a very interesting book. I wish it had been better edited before being printed. The first recipe that I tried was Chocolate Whoopie Pies (p. 98). The ingredient list includes "milk." However, as I was following the recipe I was shocked to see "buttermilk." Also, other than one egg, there are no leaveners in the recipe. I attribute that as the cause of mine turning out to be like hockey pucks. (I recently came across another Whoopie Pie recipe and among other ingredients it calls for 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Otherwise the recipes are very similar.) I will try this recipe again - but modified.

Even though there is the apparent error, I will try more recipes but will be on the look-out for discrepancies.

I have a whole list of cakes that I make that are "kicked up" a notch or two with various liqueurs, and they are always popular at work functions, picnics and potlucks so when I saw this collection I thought it pretty much had my name written all over it. I was not disappointed. The book has a listing of the different kinds of spirits and what they are, information on ingredients and the best part, the 75 tempting treats and 25 cocktail recipes. What a great collection! There is everything from chocolate chip cookies spiked with Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) to pies, tarts, bar cookies to more company-fancy treats like fig and orange cake with ouzo glaze or champagne chiffon cake. On some of the pages you will find a matching drink recipe, such as blueberry rum pie with the facing page giving you a recipe for spiced blueberry mojito, or margarita meringue pie and beer margaritas. If you can't find something that tickles your fancy in this collection I'd be surprised. There is seemingly something for everyone in the book.

The recipes also seem to be for all bakers, there are many easy recipes, like the cookies/bars, and more complex recipes for some of the layer cakes for more advanced bakers.

So far, I have tried the Chocolate chip cookies with Frangelico-absolutely delicious, and with a deep flavor but not too boozy, and the banana rum raisin rice pudding, which came out creamy and delicious with a soft vanilla flavor and plump, punchy raisins that had been soaking in dark rum.

I can't wait to try more of these recipes and know that this book will be in my baking rotation while I try more of the treats. I have already tagged numerous pages of items that I want to try.

If you love spiking your goodies with a little something and enjoy a good cocktail this is the book for you.

I think this would also make a nice present for a baker with a nice cookie sheet, a cookbook holder, or a pretty spoon/spatula set.

Overall, a great book with lots of pictures, a good range of recipes and some fun cocktail recipes.

Cheers!

When Amazon recommended this title last May, I was immediately intrigued. I have always looked for ways to include liquor in my baking. When my copy arrived, one of the first things that caught my eye was the Champagne Layer Cake. My nephew had recently announced that he and his girlfriend were getting married; the wedding would be held out of state, but they would have a reception here for the friends and family that couldn't attend the wedding. I knew that I would have to bake the Champagne cake for their second reception. It was a hit! One of the guests loved the flavor of the cake so much that she had to seek me out and rave about it. I shared the book title and author's name with her. As it happens, she works at a book store. She ordered a copy for herself, and copies for the store.
I have tried a few more recipes, the Jack Daniel's bread pudding was a delightful surprise, but I have also been inspired to be bolder when experimenting with adding booze to some of my other recipes. For instance, the Strawberry Cupcake recipe that Martha Stewart had on her program- I substituted rum for half of the milk that the recipe calls for. I call them Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes.

I cannot say enough good things about the recipes in this book. I just bought it and have already marked up so many pages! No matter what kinds of alcohol you like (beer, wine, spirits) and what desserts you crave (pies, cakes, cookies), you will find the perfect tipsy treat here. Lucy Baker provides just the right amount of advice to help you follow her recipes as well as branch out on your own boozy baking adventures.
My boyfriend's favorite dessert is the Tennessee Whiskey Doughnut Bread Pudding and I have fun replacing the whiskey with a different alcohol each time I make this delicious dessert.
My favorite dessert in this book is the Champagne Layer Cake. I sprinkled edible silver shimmer over the tops of my champagne cakelets and they look beautiful... like something you could serve at a wedding.
The desserts are versatile and can be dressed up for fancy occassions or dressed down for a night in. Plenty of desserts can be made using "just the basics" of beer or wine (e.g. beer profiteroles with chocolate-beer sauce, red wine caramel tarts, the list goes on...).
I recommend taking notes after every baking adventure. I have come up with lots of variations on the book's desserts this way, and it just makes the whole experience fun. I also recommend going into a liquor store, finding a spirit that you can't wait to try, and using it in some of the recipes. You will have SO MUCH FUN baking your way through this book's treats!

I made one of the pies from this book, and it has changed my perspective on baking. I vow to add booze to most of my recpies from here on out. Big fan.

Saw this cookbook recommended in a local paper, very glad I decided to purchase it. The recipes are easy to follow and everything I've made has come out amazing. Made a variety of things for a batchelorette party, all of which were a hit.