Customer Reviews

The Dessert Bible

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have had The Dessert Bible for a number of weeks now, and have meant to write a review for at least as long, but each time I sit down with the book to gather my thoughts, I get lost once again in the crisp writing, the tips, and the odd bits of knowledge and inside information that Christopher Kimball provides along with his excellent recipes. This book is terrific simply to sit down and read for pleasure and edification (how can I resist such things as Case # 48 on beating egg whites, entitled "Better Whipping Through Chemistry"?), but it is also great for hands-on cooking. I am not a very accomplished cook, and not a particularly brilliant baker, but the recipes I have tried from this book have come out really well, without the pain and angst than I might have thought necessary. In part this is due to the fact that the recipes (delicious) have been thoroughly tested and improved upon, in part it is due to the general guidance provided by the author, and the theory he offers to support his practices and methods; I find knowing how and why things work or don't contributes to my sense of confidence in cooking, and especially in making desserts, which is for me esspecially daunting. I particularly love the charts detailing his experiment results, and the "What Can Go Wrong?" sections, and I find the drawings and illustrations of techniques to be a welcome relief from posed pictures of beautiful food that taunt one with their perfection!

This is an excellent dessert cookbook, aptly named a "bible," and it would make an inspired Christmas present for a thoughtful, creative person, regardless of his or her talent in the kitchen. Highly recommend it.

The two best things about this book are that I can understand the reasoning behind the instructions and that ALL of my favorite dessert recipes are finally in one book. I have 1/2 a dozen dessert cookbooks, each having a few recipes I really use and like. In this book, they are all here and there is enough information that I can make it right everytime.

About the flour measurement mentioned in another reader's review: the issue didn't even occur to me as I cooked my way through this book. I read the instructions on flour measurement and that seems to have done the trick. I made the pie crust recipe in both a low-elevation humid climate and a high elevation dry climates, with success each time. Kimball tells me what is important and what isn't, so I decide whether I can make do with what I have on hand or not. I'm not a culinary whiz, and these are recipes I can count while I try new things. I even cooked a new recipe for guests without worrying whether it would work.

Besides, who can resist a cookbook with recipes like Apple Pandowdy, fallen chocolate cake (which tastes better than you can imagine), and mango sherbert all in one place?

It's all here. It's hugely readable. You'll learn something. And the best part is: you get to eat it at the end. All my other dessert books are being donated to the library tomorrow.

I'm an avid cook and, while I no longer subscribe to "Cooks Illustrated" magazine, I respect Chris Kimball and his expert kitchen team and have had good luck, more or less, with their recipes which, if followed EXACTLY, are virtually foolproof. I also never fail to learn something from their informative kitchen commentary. All in all, his recipes and advice are beneficial to both novice and experienced cooks.

That having been I have to point out that taste is, of course, subjective. For instance, I've found, from trying a number of Kimball's recipes, that he is a salt-a-holic. I prefer to cook with little or no salt, as I find the taste harsh and unpleasant, and if I followed Kimball's recipes exactly I'd be drowning in the stuff. I prefer pepper and tend to double or triple the often meager amounts Kimball calls for in his recipes (usually he calls for four or fives times more salt than pepper, and I tend to reverse those ratios).

The recommendations too, are, of course, all one man's opinion. He speaks harshly of Le Creuset, which is my favorite cookware, despite the expense (don't listen to Kimball: the enamel service is as good or better than non-stick), and frequently raves about plain cast iron which, while I'm sure can be great, takes a great deal of patience to properly season (I've NEVER had any luck doing so), can't be washed in a dishwasher (big downfall, in my opinion) and can easily destroy an induction cooktop (something Kimball fails to even mention).

All of Kimball's cookbooks follow the same basic format: a long-winded, but often interesting, discourse on how Kimball views the "perfect" version of whatever it is he's showing you how to cook, including a lengthy explanation of variations he has tried, followed by his "Master Recipe" for the food. I recommend carefully reading the introduction, focusing on what Kimball considers "perfection," before attempting the recipe, because whether you agree with Kimball's definition of "perfection" is very important as whether this recipe will be a hit with your or not.

In short, if your taste is the same as Kimball's when it comes to a particular food his well-researched and thoroughly-tested recipes will be amazing. But if you don't feel the same way, the "master recipe" won't really work for you. For instance, I like my cookies more "blonde" and chewy than Kimball and his team, so his cooking times/methods aren't exactly to my specifications.

But my biggest problem with Kimball cookbooks is this: If you have one, you have them all. He lifts whole passages and recipes and uses them in multiple books. "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook," and the "Cook's Bible," for instance, have at least 50 identical recipes, not to mention verbatim introductions to each section and cookware recommendations repeated word-for-word. "The Best Recipe" features ALL of the recipes (as far as I can tell) from the "Cook's Bible," with the same commentary, which is, in turn, lifted in whole chunks from past issues of "Cooks Illustrated." I'm sure this saves Mr. Kimball a great deal of time when compiling his cookbooks but it leaves little reason to own more than one edition of his work. The "Dessert Bible" follows this same somewhat annoying pattern, featuring duplicates of basically every recipe in the "Cook's Bible" and "The Best Recipe." I'd say at least half, maybe more, of the recipes are duplicates--something you should be aware of, especially if you already own one or both of the above cookbooks, before you buy.

That having been said, the "Dessert Bible" does expand enough on Kimball's earlier works for me to recommend it to cooks with serious sweet toohs. Occasional kitchen goers would probably be better served with "The Best Recipe," Kimball's best cookbook to date.

This is one of the most interesting cookbooks I have ever read. There is much here to criticize, but there is much more to admire. All things considered, this book is a valuable addition to your bookshelf.

The main problem here is the title of the book. It should be called a Baking Bible, because it covers all the major areas of baking, including cakes, pies, cookies, custards, frosting, tarts, soufflés, puddings, and ice cream. The word "dessert" I do not think conveys the proper comprehensiveness of this cookbook.

Another rather irritating problem is that the recipes are unusually finicky. They have more steps and are more involved than most other recipes. There are extra instructions and steps you usually will not find elsewhere. The author also adjusts standard recipes to suit his own tastes. For example, he often cuts back the amount of sugar, but when I do them, I have to add the sugar back to get the "right" taste. He likes chewy brownies, but when I did the recipe, the texture sort of reminded me of that colored modeling clay we played with when we were kids. So, when you do one of the recipes, make sure you read the header information so you know what he is changing and why. Also, since he is fiddling around with standard recipes, some of them no longer, strictly speaking, qualify for the classic definitions. The frozen lemon soufflé, for example, belongs in the chapter with the Bavarian cream (since that is what it is, regardless of the name).

On the other hand, your chance of success when doing any of the recipes is very high. The author has a good feel for what works and what does not, and also what the average home cook is and is not capable of. Note that some of the recipes are difficult, and have some touchy steps; however, he always clearly notes these steps. Of more importance, he clearly indicates how to tell when something is done and ready to be taken off the stove or out of the oven (you cannot cook by the clock); this by itself is worth the price of admission. My personal pet peeve about cookbooks in general is that the soufflé recipes usually do not work; the author does an admirable job of demystifying the process. All this makes for recipes that are very long and have a lot of explanatory material, which can be daunting to the average home cook.

The most interesting feature of this book is the extensive recipe testing that the author documents. Have you ever wondered what would happen to various recipes if you change the amounts or type of ingredients? How about trying to improve a specific recipe? The author has done all things, and you can read about them. For most recipes, there is an accompanying essay about the search for the proper recipe. This gives the amateur chef plenty of grist for the mill. Whenever I need a recipe, I usually reach for this book first. It is the most used book of my cookbook collection, because I know that the recipes work as specified by the author. It is also an excellent learning tool. When I need to know something (for example, why my pot de crème recipe from another cookbook did not work), this is the book I reach for. Besides: the material relating to the author's tests are extremely interesting and fun to read about; this is one of my favorite cookbooks.

In his newest book, The Dessert Bible, Christopher Kimball has given us much more than a collection of mouthwatering recipes. He has provided the reader with an all-encompassing source of information about the best way to create desserts. I always feel confident that my baking will come out right the first time because Kimball has done all the testing for me. He doesn't only tell you how to do it, he tells you how not to do it. The book is cleverly organized into easy to understand dessert categories, with useful hints throughout. The result is that one ends up with a real understanding of the baking process. It is this no-nonsense approach that makes The Dessert Bible a must for the inexperienced and serious baker.

The next time someone asks "What's for dessert?" you will answer with enthusiasm and confidence. The Dessert Bible is a clearly written hefty 400 page cookbook. Hints and tips for every stage of making and assembling a dessert make this the dessert cookbook I rely on exclusively. No longer do I waste precious time checking through several cookbooks comparing one recipe against another unable to visualize what I'm aiming for. Christopher Kimball allows you to see at a glance exactly what is required and when. I found inserts on food history, ingredient comparisons, equipment, and answers to the "how come?" of chemical reaction between acid foods and stabilizers. The presentation of each recipe is easy to follow and accomplish, guaranteeing success for cooks at any level. The Dessert Bible was a gift to me and I have bought copies to be given as holiday, hostess, house-warming, bridal shower and wedding gifts.

Well, Chris Kimball has done it again! As I own all of Kimball's books, I have been anxiously awaiting for this one, and it has not disappointed me. This cookbook is wonderful for all ranges of cooks - beginner to gourmet. He takes the time to explain why he uses certain ingredients and processes - which is fascinating reading for both the above. I especially enjoy the WHAT CAN GO WRONG? section in this book. With everyone so busy these days, these additional warnings are much appreciated. This dessert cookbook has all my favorite recipes - from simple bar cookies to lemon curd cheesecake.There is something for everyone. This book is on my son's Christmas list, as he also loves Kimball's books. He enjoys all the explanations, uses and ratings of cooking equipment from pans to mixers. This book is a must for every cook and should be added to everyone's Christmas Wish List!

Much fine work goes wasted in "The Dessert Bible" because author Christopher Kimball, the current Dean of American home cooking and a self-described slave to experimentation, refuses to precisely quantify his flour measures. Kimball acknowledges that "any sort of baking can be difficult, since small changes in ingredients...can affect the outcome." This is true, and flour is the most difficult ingredient to measure repeatably. You cannot expect reliable results from carefully crafted recipes until you get this variable under control. He even demonstrates on page 14 how two people given the same instruction -- measure a cup of flour using the dip and sweep method -- could get radically different results. (BTW - "Case 2 - Sifting, Spooning, and Sweeping" must have involved cake flour, because the only way he could have measured 3.85 oz. from a cup of all-purpose flour is if he conducted the test on a planet with a lower gravitational constant.) Yet in spite of his own data, he still refused to express flour in units that can be repeated. It is an inexcusable error and one that affects nearly every recipe in the book. His excuse is that most home cooks don't have a scale. OK, then tell the reader to get one. A decent digital scale costs under $40, far less than the Kitchaid mixer he suggests people own if they ever expect to make brioche. So, as much as I love Kimaball's approach (I swear we were separated at birth), I cannot wholeheartedly recommend his book. If you measure your ingredients, particularly flour, differently than he does, his recipes won't work as he intended.

This is a wonderful book that could not have come into my life at a better time, with the holidays approaching. Mr. Kimball has taken the guess work and fear out of even the most complicated desserts, so I can be assured of perfection. Because he explores both the art AND science of cooking, the book is very readable and enjoyable whether you're in the mood to bake or not. And talk about comprehensive...every heavenly dessert I know is in this book and many I'm dying to try! Thanks, it's going to be on the giving list for several of my favorite cooks this Christmas.

Christopher Kimball has produced a number of great cookbooks, I think we have them all. This book, like the others shows his great attention to detail and tireless efforts to create the best recipes and then compile the best recipes possible. His incredibly useful charts regarding products and which product produces the best results for the particular recipe is invaluable. Plus, his discussion regarding the science/chemistry of cooking helps to encourage those of us not inclined to follow a recipe to the "T" to reconsider our ways in some areas. We learn that subtle differences in temperature, hot or cold, or types of product used can mean an enormous difference in the end product. Plus Chris has a very nice way in his writing. Thanks to the Kimballs and their contributors we have some delicious meals here in Boston. (We love the magazine)