Customer Reviews

Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The illustrations are enough to motivate even the most reluctant cook. I love the special sections on garnishes and decorating techniques. Some of the recipes are time consuming, but many of them are deceptively simple. It's a great book for the average cook who occasionally wants to make something impressive!

I got this dessert cookbook for my birthday and I have loved it ever since! The recipes are fabulous and so are the pictures! It's even fun to sit down and just look at it - and think of what you are going to make next time you want dessert. Everyone who has tried the things I've made has loved them. This book is very creative, with lots of very interesting and good ideas and ways to add that extra-special touch to your creations. And - by looking at the pictures you would think that these recipes were very difficult and complicated, but they are NOT! If you can read, you can make anything in this book. Not one recipe we have tried (and we've made quite a few) has failed yet.

There is the most delicious recipe in here for cream puffs! Everyone who has tried them has declared they are better than the famous, acclaimed cream puffs you get at the Wisconsin State Fair! The Baklava is also delicious, as well as the coffee angel food cake and the little tiny cookies called "Sweet and spicy Peppernuts." (No nuts in them, but they do have pepper! Great taste! They are just as small as nuts - you make them the size of a 1/8 teaspoon. The batter mixes up so quickly that it doesn't make it take a terribly long time in the long run to form all these tiny little balls, and they taste so good that it's worth it!)

I highly recommend this cookbook to everyone who loves dessert! There is something for everyone - Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Frozen desserts, and the wonderful feast for the eyes as well as the mouth: Special desserts. You will love this book!

We all collect cookbooks of every type. How many can you say that you actually use more than once. I've owned this book for many years and when I am looking for a "no brainer" to make dessert, I grab this book first. I have made so many of the desserts in this book, each one has come out excellent, exactly like the picture shows. The full color pictures make it a breeze. This is the perfect book to give to everyone you know. It not only gives pictures (many for each dessert), a full list of ingredients, but how long you will need to put it together from making to when you can serve. Perfect for the first timer.

I bought this book for the extremely helpful pictures! Not only do they show the final product, but they also show many of the individual steps.

It's a great book for beginning chefs, and I think that on the whole, the recipes are OK and the presentation could use a little work, but I'm overall very pleased. The pages are thick and the paper is of high quality.

My 10 year old son brought this book home from the school library and we've had a great time trying several of the recipes. There is a big range of desserts and we've gotten lots of compliments on what he's made!

I was searching for a cookbook mostly focused on desserts for a family friend. She is recently learning how to cook so I wanted to get her something with lots of picture to make everything clear for her. I've found this book, I own a good housekeeping step by step cookbook. Initially I thought this book probably doesn't have enough pictures per recipes (because step by step didn't have it) but I was wrong. I saw almost all recipes came with at least one picture and often multiple pictures to show you step by step process (like a true step-by-step book). In addition, the desserts were very sophisticated and the book covered wide range of topics. Now I'm thinking about buying myself one copy.

If you are still skeptical you can take a peek on google books, it'll sure change your mind (too bad Amazon doesn't have an inside look for this book).

Edit: Now that I actually have a hard copy, I must say how truly amazing book it is. The sneak Peek I had from online doesn't do justice. It's much better than that. The presentations were cleaverly done yet very doable. I often find myself saying, why didn't I think of that earlier. This book deserves more than 5 stars.

I bought this book beacause of the beautiful chocolate cake on the cover ( I am a card carrying chocoholic). As I flipped through the book, I realized that each recipe had at least one picture of the finished product. Several had multiple pics essentially visually walking you through the recipe prossess.
The recipes that I tried were simple; I made the Peach Custard Pie and the Bannana Souffle'. The crust for the pie was so simple to make and tasted exellent. The recipes also seem to work with improvisation; the peaches I bought for the pie were not sweet or tasty and they were hard, so I cooked them down in a sugar sauce to make them taste good, and the pie still turned out well. I also did that to the bannanas for the souffle' will wonderful results.
This book has tips on garnishing, basic dessert sauces, deorating, crusts, and different types of dough, basic frostings, basic cake recipes, the best time of year to buy fruits. I could go on, but this review would be two pages long.
There are also some semi-homeade recipes in here also.
I will take away one star because the useful hints are in a separate section in the back of the book and not with the recipe that you are using. I would reccomend that you review the section in the back before baking, and if there is anything that you need to know, you can read it at that time.

I admit I was sceptical when getting this book, but I have yet to be disappointed! Clearly written recipes, accessible ingredients, beautiful pictures for every dessert you can imagine. No, this is not French pastry quality, not does it pretend to be. These are foolproof recipes for the home cook, that work! My favorite so far is the sour cream peach streusel pie, but I'm sure a lot more will follow after I try more.

this book is amazing!
it has sooooo many different desserts u can make, and has pictures for every single recipe, which is important for me to know what i'm making is supposed to look like!
I'd definitely recommend this book, it is a must have for people who love 'la dolce vita'!
I'm getting hungry from just thinking about the desserts in this book!!!!
have fun bakin'!

I am a self proclaimed "Dessert Queen"-I love to cook and bake, but my favorite course is dessert. I actually plan dessert before I plan anything else when having company for dinner! That being said, this is my favorite dessert cookbook, hands down. I have had it for over 10 years and actually had it spiral bound because the binding fell apart due to using it so much!

The recipes are all easy to follow, include lots of photos, which I love, and they always turn out the way the end product looks in the book. My children have made some desserts out of this book, such as Bittersweet Chocolate Torte, and been given rave reviews! I believe there is only one recipe which I have made in this book which I did not like, so far, and I think that's amazing over the course of over 10 years.

I have given friends and relatives this book because it has such a fantastic compilation of great recipes all in one place. If you love making desserts, you will not regret purchasing this book.