Gourmet's Sweets:: Desserts for Every Occasion [Hardcover]

Gourmet Magazine Editors (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 1998

GOURMET--America's premier cooking magazine presents a new collection of 200 phenomenal desserts. The book features desserts for all tastes, time constraints, and diets, from such fabulous show-stoppers as Profiteroles with Burnt Orange Ice Cream and Hot Fudge Sauce to quick finales like Fresh Berry Gratins and Banana Chocolate-Chip Souffles. 75 full-color photos throughout.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition. Secon edition (August 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375502009
• ISBN-13: 978-0375502002
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT-, September 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gourmet's Sweets:: Desserts for Every Occasion (Hardcover)

I`ve only recently found this magazine but I`d have to say already that it`s one of the greatest there is and this book just proves that point even more. Gourmets Sweets has catered for everyone with 200 mouthwatering desserts from profiteroles to icecream and sauces to souffles with 75 full colour photos of delightful and impressive desserts. It`s not hard to see why GOURMET is Americas premier cooking magazine.

5.0 out of 5 stars MAPLE-WALNUT FUDGE, December 9, 2009

By 

John (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gourmet's Sweets:: Desserts for Every Occasion (Hardcover)

I spotted this tome in the marked-down bin at my Harris-Teeter. I went to the book's index and spotted this recipe (a favorite from my 1950's childhood). I went to the recipe which to my delight I found printed on its own single full page with color photograph of the fudge. I headed for the register. I am thrilled with the book so far. I've never come across this particular recipe which is clearly the real deal (no marshmallow helper in the ingredients list). Authentic maple-nut fudge recipes don't seem to appear in modern books like Joy of Cooking and Cook's Illustrated Best Recipe. Gourmet did the best they could in describing when to turn the cooked fudge out of the cooking vessel into the cooling pan (the mixture will thicken, lighten in color, and begin to lose its gloss (BEGIN being the operative word, since you still have to be able to stir in the nuts at this point, so don't get carried away with beating or the mixture becomes too stiff to incorporate the nuts). It took me a little practice to "get the feel" in terms of perfecting this technique, but the effort was well worth it. The book describes it perfectly, and after a couple of batches, I nailed it. Once you've got it, you will always be successful at making perfect fudge. I can now enjoy this wonderful confection at home, and it is far superior to any of the allegedly "real" maple-walnut fudge I have purchased in candy shops. This recipe produces nearly 2 pounds of perfectly creamy luscious fudge (not a trace of graininess). It is THE wonderful maple-nut fudge of my memory/ dreams, at a fraction of the cost of store-bought. If the other recipes in this book measure up to this one (which alone made the book a worthwhile purchase) then this is bound to be an absolute treasure trove of fine quality dessert recipes which I will enjoy for the rest of my life. Thank you Gourmet!

P.S. Can you tell how thrilled I am with this fudge?

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very nice collection of fancy desserts., May 19, 2007

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gourmet's Sweets:: Desserts for Every Occasion (Hardcover)

`Gourmet's Sweets' by the staff of the magazine `Gourmet' is an older volume (1998), done under the stewardship of Editor-in-Chief Ruth Reichl's predecessor, Gail Zweigenthal. Since the volume is dedicated entirely to desserts, it does not have the primary virtue of almost all the other `Gourmet' books, which typically begin with a large number, usually ten to twelve, of menus for entertaining. This volume fills this tradition with two very specialized menus for `A Garden Dessert Party' and `A Champagne Dessert Party'

The main difference I see in this book, between the style of editor Zweigenthal and successor Reichl, is that the prose is just a bit `breathless', as if the authors are so taken aback by the marvelous offerings that they are just too tickled to deal with mundane matters. Reichl's editing seems to give far more respect to the intelligence of her audience. On the other side of the coin, the text is not infected with those malignant terms spoiling contemporary popular culinary prose such as `signature', `decadent', and `tons of...'.

The best audience for this book is a bit hard to place. On the one hand, true to the `Gourmet' style, many of the recipes are fancy originals or fancy versions of old standards, done up in their best party garb. This means the instructions for recipes are far more elaborate than you may find in more conventional sources. And, the elaborate recipe write-up extends even to those `everyday' desserts. One perfect example is when I compared this book's Moravian sugar cake recipe to the one in my local church fund-raising cookbook. The church book actually had one more ingredient (margarine and shortening in place of butter), but the `Gourmet' recipe spelled out all the steps in far more detail. While the church cookbook called for (leftover) mashed potatoes, `Gourmet' gave us chapter and verse on how to prepare the potatoes for the recipe.

While the `Gourmet' book had richly detailed recipe procedures and supplementary sections on basic pastry techniques, it was NOT a good replacement for one of the excellent baking manuals available today such as `Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook', Sherry Yard's `The Secrets of Baking', or Kate Zuckerman's `The Sweet Life'. It is simply a collection of good dessert recipes at a reasonable price. So, if you know how to bake and you have room on your shelves for another book of desserts, this is as good or better than many you can pick for the price. I should also note that the recipes are quite modern, as illustrated by the use of butter (see above) in place of margarine (watch those trans-fats!). And, like all `Gourmet' collections, the index is an excellent guide to finding a suitable recipe by ingredient and time to prepare.