Customer Reviews

Desserts 1-2-3: Deliciously Simple Three-Ingredient Recipes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This is my first encounter with the wonders of Ms. Gold's kitchen, and it is an impressive collection. Now, I collect cookbooks, and I cannot recall having described any of the others in those terms. This book really made a positive impact on me.

That being said, I think the reader should be aware that just because the book is called "1-2-3", doesn't mean "as easy as 1-2-3". These recipes may be simple in terms of the number of ingredients, but they are not simple in preparation (with a few exceptions). The methods Ms. Gold uses are classic chef techniques: custards in a double boiler, toasting and grinding nuts, hand-slushing granitas. Nothing weird, but they can be very demanding and time-consuming.

Think elegantly simple, rather than child's-play simple.

Beautifully put together desserts, that do require attention to detail. The recipes I've done have all been fairly easy and very successful. Having just three ingredients means you're more likely to have everything on hand or not have to spend three hours shopping. The Lemon Buttermilk sorbet is outstanding and easy. Enticing photography.

A lot of people who cook aren't very good with baking. It's understandable, the personality traits that make you good at one of those endeavors tend to make you bad at the other.
None the less, cooks often have to make dessert. This sweet little book is chock full of good simple ideas that are also structures that will in your cook-like way, suggest a lot of other simple, unbakerly recipes. There are excellent instructions for no-fuss custard, lots of ideas for re-purposing ice cream and a great low-calorie section. This is one of the two dessert books that I consult regularly.

Lynn Hoffman, author of the sweet bang BANG: A Novel and the creative New Short Course in Wine,The

Desserts 1-2-3 is a creative, well put-together cook book. The book is broken into 5 recipe categories: "Fresh Fruit Desserts", "Custards & Souffles", "Cakes, Cookies, and Tarts", "Chocolate", and "Ice Creams & Frozen Desserts". There are many beuatiful photographs, on avaerage I'd say about every 3 pages or so.

Be sure to read the introduction at the beginning of the book. At first, I was a little bugged that some photographs presented lovely extra embellishments, but no instruction on how to make them. For example, the picture of the Cinnamon-Baked Apples with Apple Butter looks great, with a fancy little caramel candy design stuck into them. I couldn't be sure it was in fact that, though, becuase there was no explination besides how to make the apples. In the introduction I found that they were indeed simply melted sugar, hardened into a fancy little swirl. The rest of the extra embellishments are pretty much self-explanitory, but author Rozanne Gold explains a few more in her introduction as well.

This book also includes a "Fat-Free and Low-Calorie Recipes" section and a conversion chart in the back. The fat-free/low-cal section is actaully just one and a half pages that lists the names and page numbers of previous recipes that are low in fat, or that can be lowered in fat if ingredient subsitutions are made, and it lsits what ingredients those are. These pages also list which recipes are low in calories, and the amount of calories they have per serving. I haven't needed these pages, but they are well-organized and look very helpful.

After each section, there are one or two pages of extra ideas relating to that topic. For example, after the Fresh Fruit Desserts, two pages hold a bunch of extras, such as "1-2-3 Apple Ideas", "1-2-3 Berry Ideas" and so on.

So far, I've found this book to be really great. It exceeded my expectations. I checked it out of the library, which is great because I get to use it now all I want for 21 days and can see if I'd like to buy it, or even just check it out again :) I suggest doing the same to see if you like it enough to purchase. Enjoy! :)