Desert cookbook recommendation?

leahyl

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend a good dessert cookbook? Was just watchin James Martin there on the good food channel and he has some lovely recipes for traditional dishes like apple pie, black Forrest gateau etc but when I went to look up his book on amazon I saw that he got a lot of bad reviews.

Is there anyone else who deals specifically with desserts?

Thanks :-)

Acoshla

Mary Berry is very good, has lots of books out about desserts/cakes etc. I have her Baking Bible, haven't made anything out of it yet as I only got it recently but she's very good at explaining everything and has some lovely traditional recipes.

leahyl

Spadina wrote: »

Mary Berry is very good, has lots of books out about desserts/cakes etc. I have her Baking Bible, haven't made anything out of it yet as I only got it recently but she's very good at explaining everything and has some lovely traditional recipes.

Cheers for that! I'll check her out!

Sparks

I tend to gather up recipes from different places - cheesecake from here, cookies from there, some chocolate ones from here and here and so on.

However, I do have one book that immediately comes to mind when I think of cooking a dessert: Indulge, by Claire Clark who was the pastry chef at the French Laundy under Thomas Keller. It's the best dessert recipe book I've ever read.

leahyl

Sparks wrote: »

I tend to gather up recipes from different places - cheesecake from here, cookies from there, some chocolate ones from here and here and so on.

However, I do have one book that immediately comes to mind when I think of cooking a dessert: Indulge, by Claire Clark who was the pastry chef at the French Laundy under Thomas Keller. It's the best dessert recipe book I've ever read.

Thanks Sparks - is the Indulge book complex though? I want to be able to cook/bake the traditional stuff first before i become a bit more adventurous! Your mention of this Claire Clark who was a pastry chef makes the book sound a bit daunting! haha:D

Sparks

It's both - for example, the biscuits section starts off with shortbread and oatmeal cookies, and builds up to florentines and macaroons. The scones recipe is fantastic.

If, however, you're just starting off and really aren't certain of what to do, I'd just watch the dessert episodes of Good Eats first (besides, they're on youtube, so they're free ). There's several, but here's a few to start on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB-KVveLp3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzc9ZnJtHas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpw9fjghKjg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3JAF-usAAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4sJ-4WguU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-hRz9D0nA

leahyl

Sparks wrote: »

It's both - for example, the biscuits section starts off with shortbread and oatmeal cookies, and builds up to florentines and macaroons. The scones recipe is fantastic.

If, however, you're just starting off and really aren't certain of what to do, I'd just watch the dessert episodes of Good Eats first (besides, they're on youtube, so they're free ). There's several, but here's a few to start on:

Cool thanks a million! Now to find the time to actually do them! It's hard when you're living at home with the parents!:D

Padraig Mor

Sweet Seasons by Richard Leach.

Resolutely modern, non-traditional desserts. It can seem rather daunting at first for an amateur chef; however, each recipe is broken up into several individual component recipes, any of which can be made in isolation so you only need to tackle the bits you want to. I've only made one recipe so far (goats cheese custards - delish) and attempted another (creme caramel - ****ed it up big time). Works great as a 'coffee table' book too! OP - I see you're in Cork - you're welcome to have a look at my copy if you wish.

olaola

The Avoca 'cakes' book is great. Rachel Allen 'Bake' is also very good - her recipes are always very successful, and her tips are great.

rgiller

James Martin's book is actually quite good - I've made a few things out of it and all have turned out great. I got it for under a tenner on amazon and it's definitely worth that!