Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts [Hardcover]

Moosewood Collective (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 1997

Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York, has gained international recognition and garnered awards for its innovative and tempting vegetarian food. Their delicious desserts are foolproof and prepared with a minimum of fuss while incorporating diverse flavors and traditions--from Grand Marnier Cake and Strawberry Mango Cobbler to Pear Meringue Tart and Summer Berry Pudding.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts has the homey but not hokey style you expect from this much-loved restaurant. It is refreshing to enjoy the authors' unvarnished pleasure in food and in sharing about life at the Moosewood as it relates to their desserts. It may be startling to find that the first dessert in this appealing book is nature's best dessert: fresh fruit served with cheese. But these cooks also put butter and eggs to good use, adding enough to make desserts that appeal in their richness. You'll find abundant choices of recipes for every kind of dessert: pies and cakes, puddings, custards, cookies, even special drinks. Chocolate lovers may feel a bit ignored, but fruit, pudding, and cake lovers will be pleased by the 250 recipes in this book. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

One of the Moosewood pastry chefs coauthored her own low-fat dessert book last year (Kip Wilcox's Sweetness and Light, LJ 8/96); now here are more than 250 desserts from the whole cooperative. The well-known restaurant in Ithaca, New York, has always specialized in homey desserts like Cherry Almond Crumble and Old-Fashioned Apple Cake; there are also some more elaborate creations for special occasions as well as recipes inspired by the different international cuisines served at the restaurant each Sunday and a chapter of "classics" that have remained favorites over the years. For most collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 398 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1st edition (October 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517702096
• ISBN-13: 978-0517702093
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a "healthy dessert" cookbook! This is the real thing!, April 20, 2001

By 

scducharme (Concord, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (Moosewood Collection) (Paperback)

I love a cookbook that is more than just a collection of recipes. The recipes in this cookbook all start with some background about where the recipe came from, how it can be used, and other ideas for how to serve it. This makes the book fun to browse through. Also, the book is well-organized and well indexed. There's even an ingredients index so you can look in your pantry and pick a dessert based on what you have on hand. The variety of recipes is good: some are easy, some are more complicated, some are good for kids, some are fancy for adults. I've tried several things from each chapter of the book and everything has turned out well. Basics are included, such as a flawless pie crust recipe, as well as more unusual desserts such as Pink Chiffon Cake. Another bonus is the multicultural aspect of the book. There are several recipes from the Middle East, and some from Italy, Greece, too. These Mediterranean desserts tend to be less sweet than what our US taste buds usually like, and I've found them great for informal suppers and luncheons. (By the way, the name "Moosewood" in this cookbook does not mean "healthy"! There's plenty of sugar and other good stuff in these recipes!) I make desserts only when entertaining, so I usually have to take the risk of trying new recipes with guests, but with this cookbook I never have any worry about whether it will be a hit or not. This book has proven itself to be a Dessert Bible for me!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great dessert cookbook without the pretentions, February 22, 2000

By 

"sbgantz" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (Moosewood Collection) (Paperback)

I have several dessert cookbooks, all with great recipes, most costing considerably more than this one. In spite of that, when I am looking for a recipe, this is the cookbook that usually comes through for me. I have made cakes, muffins, coffee cakes, cookies, pies, and other assorted sweets, all with rave reviews. The recipes are tailored for the home cook, so they are easy to prepare, but amazingly there is no loss of quality. You can get fancy if you want (the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache is quite impressive) but most of the recipes are quite simple. No great color photos, but the price more than makes up for that.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, I use it often, December 19, 2001

By 

S. Gardner (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (Moosewood Collection) (Paperback)

This is another fine Moosewood publication. It offers unique and varied dessert selections. The recipes are generally well-tested, though a few had a decidedly flat taste that I didn't prefer, such as the chocolate bread pudding and the apple cake. One recipe failed outright, in my opinion (the everyday rice pudding--it was WAY starchy). My step-daughter really loved the bread pudding and apple cake, though, so maybe it's actually a strength of the book, that there's something to suit everyone's taste in it. Most of the recipes have been outstanding, however, and so I would recommend this book totally. The Indian peach dessert is sensational, for instance. The soft, sweet peaches and the crumbly cornmeal topping is a heavenly pairing.

I like the look and feel of the book. It's soothing to work with--it's not glossy and pretentious, it's not merely designed to impress. I reach for this book often, and it has come through for me time and again.