Customer Reviews

Salty Sweets: Delectable Desserts and Tempting Treats with a Sublime Kiss of Salt

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Oh, how I wanted to love this cookbook. I awaited its arrival and was anxious to dive in and get baking. I would have happily gushed about the results and the wonderful treats in store for anyone lucky enough to have this book. Instead what I found, like another reviewer, is a book produced to capitalize on the current salty/sweet trend and provide little of value or substance to the reader. The book only contains 70 recipes and except for the addition of a variety of coarse salts, the vast majority are basic, common recipes found in any general cookbook. I compared the basic recipes and these should bake up just fine, but that isn't enough to give the book a higher rating -- that is the bare minimum -- it is what is expected. We deserve more.

There is little inspiration included in this book. Basic chocolate chip cookies with an extra bit of coarse salt sound fine, and I'm sure I'll try it the next time I make a batch, but I've already been experimenting with that -- it isn't rocket science. I took a basic banana walnut muffin recipe and added bittersweet chocolate chunks and topped each with a tiny pinch of coarse sea salt. They were delicious. Should I write a cookbook? There rests the problem in looking at a grouping of largely basic recipes and finding the main change is a pinch of salt. It just isn't enough -- the recipes need to be fresh new creations, not old standbys.

Do we need another recipe for Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter Fudge or Hot Cocoa? Well, actually we do if there is a fabulous twist that brings new life to an old favorite, but that takes more than a pinch of salt, and you won't find that in this book. Naming a few more of the inspirational recipes -- S'Mores, yes, they are included, along with Kettle Corn and Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels. 70 recipes, and the only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because the photographs were nice, although it would have been generous of the publisher to include a photo for each of the 70 recipes, but they didn't.

If considering this as a gift for an experienced baker or cook, skip it because it has little substance and they will be disappointed. It would probably be okay for a novice baker not in possession of a core selection of good solid cookbooks -- all of which would contain the majority of these basic recipes, but for the price of this book a much more thorough cookbook would be a better investment. This book is simply not a keeper and wasn't published to be an enduring classic.

This cookbook is suitable for a novice cook as well as those with more experience. None of the recipes rely on complicated procedures and the author explains every step of the recipes. It covers many types of salted sweets, from cocoa to candy to a pound cake. The recipes I have tried have been very good. They are the kind people actually make, not the outlandish ones you sometime see that call for ingredients you have never heard of before. Most are similar to those in other cookbooks but with more salt, which is often sprinkled on top. The author describes the different types of salt available, but curiously does not mention kosher salt. The kinds that the recipes call for (usually sea salt or fleur de sel) can be found at decent supermarkets.

It is a very chatty cookbook, with copious annotations about the author's life and her favorites, as well of those of her friends and family. This may not be to everyone's taste.

This is the perfect cookbook to reach for when making desserts for people who prefer salty snacks. It would also make a nice gift for someone whose cooking skills are not well developed but who wants to make something that seems to be a step above basic Betty Crocker recipes.

I was so excited to get this book! I absolutely love salty/sweet foods, and I wasn't disappointed by this cookbook. I was a little apprehensive given some of the other reviews, but I'm so glad I bought it.

There are recipes for all sorts of desserts: candy (salted caramels), dessert sauces (milk chocolate sauce), cakes (carrot cake), cookies (nantucket cookies), and other desserts (ice creams, fruit desserts).

The only recipe that I was a little disappointed with was the chocolate chip cookie recipe. If you're looking for a great salty/sweet chocolate chip cookie recipe, I would suggest the NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe instead.

For the last couple of years I have seen pairings of salt and sweet in finer restaurants. At first I thought, you must be crazy, why would I want a salty dessert. I can assure you, they go well together. In fact, they go so well together you will be wondering why you didn't think of this before. I find that the salt brings out flavors other than the sweetness in a particular dish, and it also takes away the shockingly sweet ways desserts can taste. With that being said, let's look at this book.

Christie Matheson puts together a collection of recipes that are well written, along with beautiful photography. Want a book that has a picture of every recipe? You want this book. I like her primer on salt, for afterall there is more than table salt that we all see in salt shakers everywhere. These different salts really do taste differently, and have different applications. For example, Fleur de Sel is hand harvested salt from France that goes well with fish.

The recipes include many wonderful basic recipes where the use of salt is fantastic. Salted caramels, are heavenly, in fact, I can hardly think of them without salt any longer. Chocolate chip cookies with a light dusting of sea salt along with semi sweet chocolate chips should have been done years ago. The Decadent Hot Chocolate, was decadent. A critism of this book may be that none of these recipes are completely new, but rather this is a collection of good recipes with salt sprinkled in, but it is sprinkled in brilliantly. If you are looking for a new way to do desserts I would definately consider picking up this book and trying this one out.

I was quite skeptical about Salty Sweets when I received this cookbook for review. I don't even salt my savory food very much, so I couldn't imagine salting my desserts. In a way the title is a misnomer, in that usually the extra salt is minute, particularly when used in the recipes. And the option to sprinkle salt atop desserts is, well, optional. I confess I did not go buy 10 kinds of exotic imported salts to try. For one thing, I live in a very small rural town, and Wal-Mart just doesn't carry French Fleur de Sel, or Hawaiian pink sea salt, or smoked sea salt. I just used sea salt from a grinder.

The recipes, by and large, are delicious, even without salt on top. The Perfectly Imperfect Pralines are a Southern delight, and what a good idea to treat them as you do peanut brittle rather than trying to spoon out the rapidly hardening candy into neat round pools of sugary pecan bliss. The Chocolate-Coconut Mini Candy bars had my husband swooning. The Chocolate Oatmeal cookies and Nantucket cookies are also terrific.

All in all, this is a worthwhile cookbook whether you like the additional salt or not.

From someone who has always preferred salty snacks to sugary sweets, the recipes presented by Christie Matheson in Salty Sweets are a perfect compromise. This book showcases traditional recipes that feature salt in an unexpected way. Simple touches and quality ingredients can make all the difference in the world, and apparently this is true for salt as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a sprinkle of sea salt or a teaspoon of fleur de sel can add a new dimension and level of sophistication to an old standby. I have always used salt to cut the sweetness and bring out the flavor of my baked goods, but these recipes do far more than just that...


On the sweet side:

The book opens with a salt primer that is both informative and somewhat inspirational. Who knew there were so many types of salt and so many options to experiment with? It was a bit difficult to find fleur de sel in the neighborhood grocery store, but it was well worth the effort. In fact, I was so intrigued by the variety of salts I learned about in the book that I started a small collection of specialty salts before I tried out any of the recipes. I had definitely moved into a whole new realm of saltiness, and I was ready to see what this stuff could do.

First of all, the salted caramels are fantastic - buttery, soft, smooth, with the added bonus of fleur de sel. There are few recipes that I've come across over the years that I know are instant classics, but this is a clear winner. After that first bite, I knew I would make these caramels year after year. And truthfully, since I made the first batch, I've made them almost week after week. The chocolate chip cookies offered a nice twist to a basic cookie recipe. I used bittersweet rather than semisweet chocolate, and when combined with the dusting of sea salt, you get a great alternative for a more mature palate. And for the rustic cookie lover, the chocolate chip oatmeal cookie offers a hearty texture with a touch of saltiness. Sometimes you want a thick and chunky café-type cookie, and this one does the trick. The salt sprinkled on each cookie adds a little punch to each flavor-packed bite. I haven't had a chance to try the salty and sweet ice cream recipes, but it's just a matter of time.


On the salty side:

Overall, I thought the book was easy to follow and offered some great traditional recipes. The only downside is that most of these recipes are pretty standard for most baking enthusiasts. There were a few exceptions though (see my comment above about the life-altering salted caramels), and really, who isn't looking for a new way to make some old favorites. Honestly, the only issue I had with this book was that I would have liked to see more pictures of the food. I love cookbooks filled with close-ups of cakes and cookies that look so appetizing you just want to eat the page. There are a decent amount of pictures in the book, but each chapter sort of wastes the facing page with an image of oversized salt crystals. I loved all of the information and pictures in the salt primer section, but after the fourth or fifth chapter, it's a lot of artistic angles on bowls filled with salt.

This book goes beyond your basic salted caramels (but there's a recipe for those too). It is really an ode to all things sweet and salty. The author's basic premise is to replace the table salt in recipes with sea salt. Matheson also suggests sprinkling salt on the finished dishes to add to the foods' complexity.

I'm no stranger to sea salt, I own four of the nine types covered in the book. The novelty of the book is that I never thought to use sea salt in sweet goods. I've adapted some of my tried and true recipes because of the book. My coconut ice cream has hit a new high.

Now for the mechanics of the book - there is a primer that provides brief descriptions of the various types of sea salt. The author didn't suggest any retail locations to purchase some of the more exotic varieties, but they are available online and at high-end kitchen retail stores. There's even a nice-looking starter set on Amason: Finishing Salt Starter Set - 6 Different Sea Salts From Around the World, Spanish Cork Jars - 1 oz

The prelude is truly for foodies; we're told to use the best ingredients, choose organic chocolate and buy local honey and support local beekeepers ... The recipes are a mix of familiar favorites with a salt twist and some new recipes. (I'm looking forward to the honey-tangerinecaramel truffle tartlets.) There are about 70 recipes, including some for ice cream and puddings. You can use this book all year.

Christie Matheson's "Salty Sweets" is an interesting concept.

You may not be aware of this, but practically every sweet treat has at least some salt in it, even many ice creams and sorbets, because the salt awakens your taste buds and makes you taste everything more deeply.

But Matheson takes this idea a step further and adds more salt to the recipes.

Flipping through the book, there are some obvious choices and ideas. A number of recipes feature peanut butter and nuts, they might be good recipes, But I wanted to try something more unusual for my test. Surprisingly, there are a number of recipes featuring fruit and chocolate as well.

I decided to try the Cranberry - Almond Coffee Cake. Fine sea salt is added to the cake batter, not unusual, but also to the glaze.

This cookbook is designed for the home chef and because of that I think it is important for the author to make sure everything is spelled out carefully, completely and accurately. I read a lot of cookbooks, watch a lot of cooking shows and know a significant amount of information about cooking. But the book should be able to be used by a novice, meaning everything should be spelled out for the first time chef.

The Cranberry - Almond Coffee Cake batter is pretty easy to assemble. My complaint comes with the prep and baking instructions. Matheson instructs to butter the pan. That's it. No flour. A bundt pan, really? I decided to follow her instructions. Then, I poured half the batter in, followed by half of the cranberry sauce. Then the remaining batter and cranberry sauce. After baking, she instructs to let it sit on a rack for five minutes, invert out of the pan and let cool and additional 10 minutes before adding the glaze. Whaaaaa? I did as intructed. First of all, because the cake pan wasn't floured, a lot of the cake got stuck to the pan. Also, because so little time is spent allowing the cake to cool in the pan, once you invert the cake out of the pan, it loses a lot of volume.

It did taste delicious, however. The additional salt seemed to heighten all of the flavors, making the dish a little more scrumptious.

I then tried the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding. Absolutely delicious and no faults with the instructions. Salt is sprinkled on the top along with a drizzle of butter and some brown sugar before baking.

Because I have had mixed results, I feel some trepidation about using the other recipes. If I am making desert for family and freiends, I can't afford the time or money to make something that won't turn out. On the other hand, both recipes I made were delicious.

I will probably try some other recipes.

I love to bake and do it almost daily, so I was interested to try out this new volume on desserts with a salt kick. Ever since discovering butter salt caramels, I have been experimenting a bit myself in that direction. I have tried some of the recipes and so far all have been successful. As another reviewer pointed out, if you are an experienced baker there are no new standouts in this collection. The salt sensation seems to work best with buttery pastries and caramel flavorings. If all this is new to you, then this book provides a sweet n' salty introduction. Would make a nice gift.

I've found this to be a solid, interesting contribution to my baking collection. I appreciate the recipes being more good food that fiddly foofoo nonsense. The whole point of the recipes is to explore the interrelationship between salty and sweet in new ways. I find this more useful applied to classic types of recipes than some sort of weird exotica very few people really want to eat. It does a fine job of that. The baker is free to amend to suit his/her own taste. And if you've a yen to add more weirdness, well feel free to do so. :-) I do not recommend it as a sole baking cookbook or for beginners. I do recommend it for people who enjoy baking and exploring recipes without wanting to go off into the land of avocado pudding or some other such new thing oddness.