The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets features 75 recipes for desserts and another 25 for cocktail recipes with a lot of high-spirited commentary in between.
The author provides a description of baking ingredients followed by an introduction to 43 spirits (from amaretto to wine, alphabetically). Many of the liquor descriptions include the prevalent flavor which would be helpful to anyone not familiar with it. For example, amaretto is flavored with almonds and frangelico with hazelnuts. This could help cooks avoid flavors they don't like (and spending money for liqueurs they won't like).
I found it very helpful that the author provides a brief commentary for each recipe, and offers an alternate flavor or two for many of them. For example, you can substitute dark rum or brandy for the bourbon in the Bourbon Apple Crisp or berry-flavored vodka for the tequila in the Pink Elephant Milkshakes.
Most of the desserts require just a tablespoon or two of alcohol, so you could use a mini-bottle to try the dessert before committing to buying a larger bottle. The main exceptions are recipes using beer or wine which tend to call for a larger quantity (since the flavors aren't usually as intense as liqueurs). For instance, the champagne cake calls for 2/3 cup of Champagne plus an additional three tablespoons for the buttercream frosting.
Recipes in the Have Your Cake and Drink It Too chapter include:
* Fig and Orange Cake with Ouzo Glaze
* Green Tea and Banana Cake with Sake Syrup
* Molten Chocolate Orange Cake
* Plum Biercake
* Coffee Maple Walnut Cake
* Devilish Angel Food Cake
* Individual Raspberry-Almond Cheesecakes
* "Bottoms Up" Pineapple-Tequila Cake
* Brandied Pear Cake with White Chocolate Chunks
* Pumpkin Pomegranate Layer Cake
* Jagermeister and Honey Bundt Cake
* Champagne Layer Cake
* Lemon Layer Cake with Campari Frosting
* Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cake
* Sachertorte
* "Can't Say Nocello" Carrot Cake Cupcakes
* Lavender Honey-Nut Cupcakes
Recipes in the next chapter, Pies and Tarts A La Booze, include:
* Hard Cider Apple Pie
* Cherry Pie with Scotch and Walnut Crumble
* Preppy Pink and Green Pie
* Blueberry Rum Pie
* Coconut-Sweet Potato Pie
* Margarita Meringue Pie
* Cranberry, Chocolate, and Pecan Pie
* Irish Cream Pie
* Strawberry-Port Linzertorte
* Nightcap Tart
* Grasshopper Tart with Chocolate Chips
* Red Wine Caramel Tart
* Plum and Hazelnut Tart
* Rustic Fig Galette
The next chapter, Raiding the Bar and the Cookie Jar, includes the following recipes:
* Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Nuts and a Nip
* "Old-Fashioned" Snickerdoodles
* Double Limoncello Poppy Seed Cookies
* Peanut Butter and Port Thumbprints
* Dirty Girl Scout Cookies
* Banana-Chocolate Chip Biscotti
* Black and White Russian Cookies
* Pistachio-Coconut Madeleines
* Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Orange Liqueur Cream
* Dark and Stormy Hermits with Raisins and Rum
* Apricot Brandy Bars
* Sherried Date Crumble Bars with Almonds and Orange
* Oak Bars
* Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
* Cuba Libre Brownies
The next chapter, Sticky, Saucy, and Spiked: Spoon Desserts, features recipes for:
* Banana-Rum-Raisin Rice Pudding
* Chocolate Pots de Booze
* Schnappy Butterscotch Pudding with Pretzel Brittle
* Vin Santo-Vanilla Panna Cotta with Apricot Compote
* Muscat and Melon Mousse
* Sidecar Souffle
* Berry Chocolate Mousse
* Hazelnut Tiramisu
* Donut Bread Pudding with Tennessee Whiskey Sauce
* Pink Elephant Milkshakes
* Bourbon-Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
* Lemon-Cherry Semifreddo with Pistachios
* Port Ice Cream Sundaes
* Beer Profiteroles with Chocolate-Beer Sauce
The following chapter, Lush and Fruity Desserts, includes recipes for:
* Pisco-Roasted Pineapple
* Boozy Baked Apples
* Blackberry Chocolate Romanoff
* Tropical Fruit Foster
* Saucy Prunes with Cinnamon and Honey
* Pear and Red Grape Turnovers
* Nectarine-Raspberry Dutch Baby
* Drunken Pear Crisps
* Bourbon Apple Crisp
* Rhubarb-Rose Crisp
* Winter Berry Gratin
* Blueberry-Port Slump with Almond Dumplings
* Gingery Peach Cobbler
* Strawberry and Honey Shortcake
* Chocolate Pavlova with Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Drink recipes are featured throughout the book with the desserts they would compliment. For example, the recipe for "Orange Up" is featured with Molten Chocolate Orange Cake. Drink recipes include:
* Orange Up
* Brandied Pear Belinis
* Honey Bear Cocktail
* Southern Peach
* Lemon Campari Fizz
* Almond Iced Tea
* Cherry Swizzle
* Spiced Blueberry Mojito
* Beer Margaritas
* Nightcap
* Double Mint Fizz
* Cinnamon Old Fashioned
* Ruby Flip
* Dirty Girl Scout
* Clearly Cosmo
* Dark and Stormy Punch
* Butterscotch Hot Chocolate
* Orange Sidecar
* Brown Velvet
* Pisco Punch
* Pete's Hot Buttered Rum
* Tropical Hurricanes
* White Wine Sangria
* Maple Leaf
* Ginger Highball
The index includes the liqueurs and other booze so if you have leftover rum and want to use it in a dessert, you can quickly determine your options (there are 11, including beverages). You can also look up the type of dessert (such as pies or puddings).
The author includes the formulas for metric conversions (ounces to grams, pounds to grams, cups to liters, and Farenheit to Centigrade). She also provides quick reference charts of metric equivalents for volume (from 1/8 teaspoon to 1 gallon), oven temperatures, length (1/4 inch to 15 inches), and weight (1 ounce to 1 pound) as well as for butter (2 teaspoons to ˝ pound).
My only suggestion for improvement would have been to include more photos of the finished desserts. Only 28 of the 75 dessert recipes (and 5 of the 25 drink recipes) included photos (which were full page, color and well-styled).
This was a fun read and I am looking forward to baking several of the treats to liven up my next office potluck.
If you like this book, you might want to check out
Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked With Spirits, Wine, and Beer which has a similar fun tone and concentrates on cakes infused with liquor.
