The Dessert Bible (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Many cookbooks hide all the really useful information in an introductory chapter, the one nobody ever reads..." (more)
Key Phrases: expensive electric machine, pecan lace cookies, thicker cookie, Cook's Illustrated, Minute Tapioca, James Beard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The best part of The Dessert Bible is not the recipes--although they are wonderful--it's that Kimball, the founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated, shares his discovery process. You feel as though you are standing right next to him in his kitchen while he puzzles out the best lemon bar recipe. How do you make a bar that's zippy but not too sweet? How far should a Fallen Chocolate Cake fall? Can you substitute nondairy creamer in Crème Anglaise? (A resounding no!) Step by step, Kimball walks you through his experimentations, sharing both the triumphs and the failures. Cornstarch may beautifully thicken your lemon curd but it'll taste metallic. Each recipe is fronted by several paragraphs or pages of Kimball's baking process. He tells you which ingredients he tried and what happened. After each recipe are variations and a section called "What Can Go Wrong?" that points out common mistakes and misconceptions. The Dessert Bible covers cookies; brownies and bars; cakes, frostings, and glazes; brioche and fritters; pies, tarts, and fruit desserts; soufflés, puddings, and custards; frozen desserts; and restaurant desserts to make at home. In addition, several chapters offer tips and techniques on baking, baking sheets and pans, utensils, and kitchen appliances. "If The Dessert Bible provides you with a solid knowledge of dessert making," says Kimball, "you will gain the confidence to think for yourself in the kitchen, balancing a healthy mistrust of recipes (even mine) with enough common sense to rely on your own experience." --Dana Van Nest

From Publishers Weekly

Devil's Food Cake is a classic American dessert that every serious baker should know, but it is also one of the most challenging recipes to authenticate. In his new book, Kimball (The Cook's Bible) thoroughly demystifies this timeless treat and many others, with an occasional history lesson and a food-lover's commitment to quality gastronomy. Those familiar with Cook's Illustrated magazine (of which Kimball is founder, editor and publisher) will recognize his meticulous approach. Test charts neatly display the results of empirical equipment and ingredients tests. Techniques are described in great detail and illustrated masterfully with simple yet precise drawings. The recipes include humble basics like bars and cookies, standards like pies and cakes, and more difficult items such as souffl?s, custards and even famous restaurant-style desserts. Kimball begins by defining the essence of a particular dessert, often citing recipes from other well-known baking authorities. He then carefully deconstructs each of the basic elements, explains alterations and still manages to respect different tastes. The final master recipe combines great teaching skill and a fresh, unpretentious style to deliver a truly authentic pleasure. Seasoned bakers will appreciate his zeal to learn "what makes desserts work, what makes them fail, and why." The detailed knowledge base and solid master recipes in this valuable instructional compendium will inspire many.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (October 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316496987
• ISBN-13: 978-0316496988
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #266,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dessert Bible: dessert heaven, November 10, 2000

By	Jenny du Pont (Dover, MA USA) - See all my reviews

I have had The Dessert Bible for a number of weeks now, and have meant to write a review for at least as long, but each time I sit down with the book to gather my thoughts, I get lost once again in the crisp writing, the tips, and the odd bits of knowledge and inside information that Christopher Kimball provides along with his excellent recipes. This book is terrific simply to sit down and read for pleasure and edification (how can I resist such things as Case # 48 on beating egg whites, entitled "Better Whipping Through Chemistry"?), but it is also great for hands-on cooking. I am not a very accomplished cook, and not a particularly brilliant baker, but the recipes I have tried from this book have come out really well, without the pain and angst than I might have thought necessary. In part this is due to the fact that the recipes (delicious) have been thoroughly tested and improved upon, in part it is due to the general guidance provided by the author, and the theory he offers to support his practices and methods; I find knowing how and why things work or don't contributes to my sense of confidence in cooking, and especially in making desserts, which is for me esspecially daunting. I particularly love the charts detailing his experiment results, and the "What Can Go Wrong?" sections, and I find the drawings and illustrations of techniques to be a welcome relief from posed pictures of beautiful food that taunt one with their perfection!

This is an excellent dessert cookbook, aptly named a "bible," and it would make an inspired Christmas present for a thoughtful, creative person, regardless of his or her talent in the kitchen. Highly recommend it.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Expanded Version of Other Kimball Dessert Sections, August 21, 2001

By A Customer

I'm an avid cook and, while I no longer subscribe to "Cooks Illustrated" magazine, I respect Chris Kimball and his expert kitchen team and have had good luck, more or less, with their recipes which, if followed EXACTLY, are virtually foolproof. I also never fail to learn something from their informative kitchen commentary. All in all, his recipes and advice are beneficial to both novice and experienced cooks.

That having been I have to point out that taste is, of course, subjective. For instance, I've found, from trying a number of Kimball's recipes, that he is a salt-a-holic. I prefer to cook with little or no salt, as I find the taste harsh and unpleasant, and if I followed Kimball's recipes exactly I'd be drowning in the stuff. I prefer pepper and tend to double or triple the often meager amounts Kimball calls for in his recipes (usually he calls for four or fives times more salt than pepper, and I tend to reverse those ratios).

The recommendations too, are, of course, all one man's opinion. He speaks harshly of Le Creuset, which is my favorite cookware, despite the expense (don't listen to Kimball: the enamel service is as good or better than non-stick), and frequently raves about plain cast iron which, while I'm sure can be great, takes a great deal of patience to properly season (I've NEVER had any luck doing so), can't be washed in a dishwasher (big downfall, in my opinion) and can easily destroy an induction cooktop (something Kimball fails to even mention).

All of Kimball's cookbooks follow the same basic format: a long-winded, but often interesting, discourse on how Kimball views the "perfect" version of whatever it is he's showing you how to cook, including a lengthy explanation of variations he has tried, followed by his "Master Recipe" for the food. I recommend carefully reading the introduction, focusing on what Kimball considers "perfection," before attempting the recipe, because whether you agree with Kimball's definition of "perfection" is very important as whether this recipe will be a hit with your or not.

In short, if your taste is the same as Kimball's when it comes to a particular food his well-researched and thoroughly-tested recipes will be amazing. But if you don't feel the same way, the "master recipe" won't really work for you. For instance, I like my cookies more "blonde" and chewy than Kimball and his team, so his cooking times/methods aren't exactly to my specifications.

But my biggest problem with Kimball cookbooks is this: If you have one, you have them all. He lifts whole passages and recipes and uses them in multiple books. "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook," and the "Cook's Bible," for instance, have at least 50 identical recipes, not to mention verbatim introductions to each section and cookware recommendations repeated word-for-word. "The Best Recipe" features ALL of the recipes (as far as I can tell) from the "Cook's Bible," with the same commentary, which is, in turn, lifted in whole chunks from past issues of "Cooks Illustrated." I'm sure this saves Mr. Kimball a great deal of time when compiling his cookbooks but it leaves little reason to own more than one edition of his work. The "Dessert Bible" follows this same somewhat annoying pattern, featuring duplicates of basically every recipe in the "Cook's Bible" and "The Best Recipe." I'd say at least half, maybe more, of the recipes are duplicates--something you should be aware of, especially if you already own one or both of the above cookbooks, before you buy.

That having been said, the "Dessert Bible" does expand enough on Kimball's earlier works for me to recommend it to cooks with serious sweet toohs. Occasional kitchen goers would probably be better served with "The Best Recipe," Kimball's best cookbook to date.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge is power, October 15, 2000

By	RP (Oregon) - See all my reviews

The two best things about this book are that I can understand the reasoning behind the instructions and that ALL of my favorite dessert recipes are finally in one book. I have 1/2 a dozen dessert cookbooks, each having a few recipes I really use and like. In this book, they are all here and there is enough information that I can make it right everytime.

About the flour measurement mentioned in another reader's review: the issue didn't even occur to me as I cooked my way through this book. I read the instructions on flour measurement and that seems to have done the trick. I made the pie crust recipe in both a low-elevation humid climate and a high elevation dry climates, with success each time. Kimball tells me what is important and what isn't, so I decide whether I can make do with what I have on hand or not. I'm not a culinary whiz, and these are recipes I can count while I try new things. I even cooked a new recipe for guests without worrying whether it would work.

Besides, who can resist a cookbook with recipes like Apple Pandowdy, fallen chocolate cake (which tastes better than you can imagine), and mango sherbert all in one place?

It's all here. It's hugely readable. You'll learn something. And the best part is: you get to eat it at the end. All my other dessert books are being donated to the library tomorrow.