If your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthy and lose weight I suggest that you DON’T pick up a copy of t he the book Bon Appétit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful. Not unless you have some seriously strong will power (I don’t). In my opinion this book is the Queen of all dessert recipe books.
I WISH I had my book for the holidays. I could have whipped up some amazing, mouth watering, to-die-for desserts to share with my family. Sadly my husband accidentally packed away my book (GRRR!) so I wasn’t about to use it. We since found it last week when we undecorated. How it got mixed up in things I’ll never know.
I am not a good baker but I do love desserts. This book has every kind of dessert you can possibly imagine including tarts, ice cream, pies, brownies, cakes and more. Have you ever heard of the expression “one stop shopping”? That means everything you need is in one spot. This book is like the “one stop shopping” of dessert recipes. Any dessert you can possibly imagine must be in this book.
Growing up my Mom always had a dessert to serve us after dinner. Most of the time is was canned fruit with a scoop of Cool Whip on top. Other times she’d go all out and make a cake or cookies. For me it was a natural part of dinner. Dinner was not truly complete without dessert.
Now that I’m a Mom I don’t make dessert for my family but the kids usually have some ice cream, pudding or cookies about an hour or so after dinner. In a way that is dessert. I just don’t serve it right after dinner or my kids won’t take the time to chew their food and savor eat bite. They would just inhale their dinner in order to get to their dessert.
The book its self is massive in size. You could really hurt someone with this book. I think it should be listed as a deadly weapon, not only for its shear size but also for what the recipes can do to your thighs. Ha Ha.
This book has nearly 700 pages and about 600 recipes!
Bon Appétit Dessertsfeatures recipes that have been featured in the Bon Appétit magazine over the years. There are recipes that have never been published either. The recipes come from well known well known bakers, chefs and cooks and Bon Appétit writers.
The book does cover all the basics so that you can prepare your kitchen and pantry before embarking on your journey into Dessert Heaven. It even has a resource section to help you find supplies you might need and plenty of tips and tricks. Even the most novice cook/baker (ME!) can whip up desserts that people will be talking about for a long time.
This book has desserts that I have never heard of before including Linzertortes and panna cotta.
What I found most useful in this book is the rating system. Each recipe is rated 1 to 4 whisks. One whisk means its an easy recipe (something I can actually make). Four whisks mean that its a more complicated recipe. This will help you to find recipes that fit within your comfort zone and skill level. That way you dont take on anything that might be too challenging. It would really put a damper on your dinner party if you attempt a rated four recipe and your skill level is only a one and it doesn’t turn out so good. There are plenty of recipes at all levels so you’ll never run out of things to try.
Honestly the only downside to this book is that there is not enough pictures. I like to see what the finished product is suppose to look like. Visuals also help me to choose what recipe I want to try. When I can “see” the finished recipe I’m more likely to try it out myself. I guess because of the sheer size of this book and the fact that it has more recipes then anyone could ever use that adding photos for each recipe would be near impossible.
Here is a video promo for this book. Be forewarned that it features images of some of the desserts found in the book and they look oh-so-good! It might be a good idea to wait to view this until you’ve had your lunch or dinner. Ha Ha.
As you can see there are some pretty amazing recipes waiting for you within the pages of this book.
Bon Appétit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful is available where most books are sold. It retails for $40 (and is so well worth every penny) but is currently available on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel for $23.00+
This would make a GREAT gift for someone who loves to cook and bake, newlyweds or a new home gift.
To learn more about Bon Appétit visit www.BonAppetit.com.
Kimberly
*I received a free sample copy in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.