Customer Reviews

Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever

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`Desserts by the Yard' is by Sherry Yard, possibly the most prominent pastry chef in the United States today, as the Executive Pastry Chef to all of Wolfgang Puck's many restaurants, a winner of the best pastry chef award from the James Beard Foundation, and the author of the James Beard Award winning first book, `The Secrets of Baking'. When I reviewed her first book, I considered it one of the finest books on baking technique I have read. Since that time, I've seen several others which may be as good and even one from another restaurant pastry chef, Kate Zuckerman's `The Sweet Life'. But it is still a major achievement for someone responsible for so many restaurant responsibilities.
This book is much different. It is also much different from almost any other book of restaurant dessert recipes I've seen. The heart of the difference is that it reflects Ms. Yard's own career, beginning with her early experiences growing up in Brooklyn through her Academy Award banquet and `Iron Chef' appearances. In following this course, Ms. Yard has succeeded again in giving us one of the best restaurant baking books I have seen to date.
I am fully aware that this book's strong appeal for me lies in the large number of recipes which fit my particular interest and ethnic background (Austro-Hungarian). Strongly influenced by Herr Puck, with whom Sherry has been working for over twelve (12) years, her Spago era recipes contain many famous Austrian influenced desserts. What is so remarkable about the Puck - Yard collaboration is that Mademoiselle Sherry often disagrees vigorously with her boss, and usually wins. For his part, Puck is more than happy to go along with his pastry wonder woman, as the strong respect seems totally mutual.
My favorite aspects of the book, aside from the delightful snippets of memoir are:
Linzer Torte recipe. Even Wolfgang wasn't interested in this Austrian classic, until Yard produced a supremely moist version.
Strudel recipe. This is by far the most complicated recipe in the book, as making strudel dough is as much an athletic as a culinary exercise. It is similar to, but not the same as the Greek phyllo dough.
Dobos torte recipe. Another Austrian classic, taking about as much work as the strudel, but as totally impressive as a bouche de Noel or a baked Alaska.
Bill Clinton's Oatmeal cookies - The president could not eat chocolate, so Sherry wheeled out these delicious cookies. This is the first time I've seen it mentioned that the trick with oatmeal cookies is that you must work fast, or the oatmeal will absorb all the moisture and leave you with dry cookies.
Charlotte Russe - The dessert on the cover, for which Ms. Yard provides the recipe for the ladyfingers, and over which she and Wolfgang had a major row!
No Bake Cheesecakes - One of many relatively simple recipes. If Sherry Yard can make no-bake cheesecake, who am I to turn my nose up at it!
The English Interlude recipes, including Crumpets, Scones, Devonshire cream, Lemon Tea Biscuits, trifle, treacle tart, and peach melba. All are simple are delightful.
The large number of recipes which use fresh fruit, but which are not traditional pies. The version of Tarte Tatin is especially fascinating, in that it uses puff pastry and no pan! The most interesting of these was the rhubarb, apple, and fennel crumble recipe. Who would have thought of combining rhubarb and fennel!
The recipe for Lime-scented Floating Islands from her appearance as an assistant to Wolfgang on the `Iron Chef America Master Series' show. Unfortunately, she does not give us her technique for spinning sugar by hand, which made a big impression when we saw her do in on the show. This is the first time I've seen an `Iron Chef America' recipe in print anywhere.
The excellent tips and tricks given along the way and the concise section on basic techniques at the back of the book. The most novel and interesting suggestion was Sherry's statement that she prefers baking cake layers in half sheet pans rather than the traditional round pans. The second most interesting suggestion was the fact that cake crumbs are one of the most useful utility ingredients to have around, and Sherry gives several recipes which use them. The third most interesting suggestion was that a streusel topping should be made separately from the fruit filling, and heated on top of the fruit at the last minute.
The sure sign that this is book has something to offer is the fact that I read it from cover to cover in one sitting, and hardly noticed the time going by. If you are on the lookout for exceptional desserts, described by one of the craft's leading practitioners, this IS the book for you.

"Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever," by Sherry Yard, is a combination baking book and memoir. Each recipe is accompanied by an excerpt from the author's life, from the `A&P Strawberry Sodas' inspired by her grandmother to the `Banded Layer Cakes' she created for the 67th Oscars. The book introduced me to Yard's recipes, though I was familiar with her work beforehand because I saw her on an episode of "Iron Chef" as one of Wolfgang Puck's sous chefs. She was in charge of making the various sweets and pastries that would be presented to the judges, and when she decorated the dishes with spun sugar watching her hands form the ethereally golden strands was breathtaking to say the least.

"Desserts by the Yard" contains an impressive collection of tempting recipes, some of my favorites including `Gingersnap Toaster-Oven Tarts with Peach Filling' (think high-end pop tarts), `Chocolate-Covered Chocolate-Mint Cookies,' `Apfelstudel' (Apple Strudel) and `Pistachio Gelato.' The `Ring of Saturn Peach "Doughnuts"` were also a hit, combining delicious ingredients like anise biscotti and macerated peaches into a treat that's dusted with confectioner's sugar, then served with vanilla ice cream. Recipes range in skill-level from basic to advanced and I appreciated how several of them allowed me to stretch my culinary knowledge. I had to make the `Fig Bars,' which are essentially homemade fig newtons, a few times before the texture was just right, for instance. Yet the treats I found myself making over and over again happened to be the ones that satisfied my simpler tastes: `President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies' and `Soft Pretzels.' The cookies were a huge hit at the office with two dozen cookies disappearing at lightening speed, while two (soon to be three?) batches of pretzels have already made an appearance in my kitchen. With the exception of one recipe, for `Forbidden Rice Pudding,' I was hugely satisfied with all the dishes I made. Yard even included something for Fido: a recipe for `Real Doggy Treats' made with honey, wheat flour, cornmeal and chicken stock. My Labrador Retriever certainly appreciated those!

Chapters include: Brooklyn Inspirations; New York City: From Cigarette Girl to Pastry Chef; London Interlude; Go West, Young Gal: San Francisco and Napa; Spago Hollywood; Farmers' Market Inspirations; Vienna Interlude; Spago Beverly Hills; Chinois on Main; Special Events; and the Academy Awards.

"Desserts by the Yard" is more then a "cookbook"
Each receipe has a story of the author's life and what part of the world she created the easy to bake with a photograpy that makes you want to lick the pages.....
Sherry's receipe for her cover photo of Charlotte russe was my favorite dessert when I was growing up in New York
and now I can share this with my children & grandchildren
My college granddaughter is reading this book as a Biography and loving Sherry's story.
I strongly recomend this book as a gift and get one for yourself to enjoy the read and the "eat" of this wonderful book.

This is a charming hybrid between a dessert cookbook and memoir. Her recipes are as wonderful as always, complete with explicit instructions, ensuring that your efforts will turn out just as lovely.

Sherry Yard, the executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, has created a mouthwatering, memorable dessert bible in Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills-Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever. Beginning with some vintage photographs, there is a glowing foreword by Wolfgang Puck, an introduction by Sherry, and helpfully enough, notes on ingredients and equipment at the front, rather than the back, of the book.

The cookbook is divided chronologically, beginning with Sherry's childhood in Brooklyn. Her introductions are nostalgic, and she includes updates of her childhood favorites such as rainbow cookies, frozen chocolate-coconut bars, charlotte russe, chocolate-dipped frozen custard cones, and mom's cuisinart chocolate mousse. Nostalgic in origin, Sherry has turned these into elegant creations, but her clear writing and step-by-step instructions make the recipes easy enough to follow, and most call for common ingredients.

The next section, New York City, chronicles her experiences working in the Rainbow Room, and includes showier (and more difficult) desserts such as chocolate souffles, baked Alaska, chocolate velvet, chocolate truffle cakes, and chocolate devil's food cake with chocolate filling. Chocoholics will find this section the most rewarding, although many recipes are time-consuming.

The other sections cover Sherry's adventures in Vienna (including the prerequisite apple strudel), the Asian-themed Chinois on Main, with its exotic Asian fruit concoctions such as mango pudding, yuzu lemon-lime meringue pie, Mandarin granita, and passion fruit sorbet (this was probably my least favorite; besides the forbidden rice pudding, an update on Thai sticky rice pudding, I don't see myself making any of these), a London interlude, and recipes taken from Sherry's special events catering, including the Academy Awards (rather plain chocolate boxes mounted with sugar Oscar statuettes).

This is truly a dessert cookbook for everyone, and Sherry thoughtfully includes several savory recipes as well, such as honey-glazed cornbread and crispy herbed flatbread. For fans of ice cream (sadly, I don't own an ice cream maker, so I haven't tried to make these), there are numerous recipes for gelato (butterscotch, Meyer lemon, pistachio, coconut, stracciatella) and ice creams, including exotic choices such as black currant tea, Calvados, coffee, and yuzu curd.

Sherry's writing makes this a delightful travelogue, and her down-to-earth style includes touches of humor (if she writes an autobiography about her experiences as pastry chef, I'll be first in line to read it!). Her recipes are clearly written (I have several bookmarked to try in the near future), beautifully photographed, and most are simple enough for the beginning home baker to attempt (although some call for more sophisticated touches such as spun sugar adornments, or complicated puff pastry bases). Some do call for hard-to-find and expensive ingredients such as Asian fruits, but most are doable by the average home cook with access to a decent grocery store (Sherry does recommend using top-of-the-line Cluizel chocolate, since desserts are one area where you can't skimp on ingredients and expect a stellar outcome using Nestle).

Verdict: this is an absolutely lovely volume with something for everyone, whether you're a chocoholic, someone looking for a little nostalgia, or a daring pastry chef looking for new challenges (the Oscar desserts are labor-intensive and exacting).

Not only are the recipes great, but having that little bit of family/friend history makes it more applicable to the common person...you know, the regular cook. Fabulous book.

My favorite part of the cookbook is that the recipes are straightforward. Comparing to recipes in the 'death by chocolate' series, the Yard recipes are not as time consuming and, to me, taste wonderful.

WOW..You are really going to love this large cookbook with tons of mouthwatering pictures that will inspire you to get in the kitchen'pronto'. Sherry Yard gives excellent instructions to create some classics such as baked alaska, Bill Clinton's favourite oatmeal cookies,even bagels, along with such famous desserts as Chocolate Velvet Cake, still being served up in New Yorks Four Seasons Restaurant...I tried for over 6 months to find a recipe for this New York classic,going so far as to contact the Four Seasons[no luck]. The pictures, as reviewers have mentioned, are 'worth the price of admission alone'..and would make this a coffee table book spectacular except for the excellent insructions for creating some awe inspiring works that will have you hell bent for your kitchen and abandoning all 'coffee table book notions.

When I first purchased this book, I read it cover to cover. Seriously. Sherry's narratives are so engaging! Each chapter of this book is divided into chapters of her life through baking... growing up, her first jobs, going abroad, moving to California, and catering huge events, and each is prefaced with an introduction leading up to that phase of her baking career. She shares hilarious anecdotes alongside delicious creations that will leave your mouth watering. Her recipe for Mango Upside-Down Cake with Blueberries is truly impressive, both visually stimulating and incredibly delicious! Her Out-of-this-World Brownies truly are what she says: Out-of-this-world! Although some of these recipes are a bit on the professional side (hand-pulled streusel dough is even a bit extreme for my well-honed baking skills), this book offers enough for both professional and experienced amateur cooks alike.

Great book with great recipes, I have already baked about a dozen of the items in the book and they have come out great. My favorite recipe is the upside down mango cake. This book is a must have for any aspiring pastry chef and/or regular joe looking to bake.