What's for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People: A Baking Book

I love Claire’s first book Dessert Person and I got her second book What’s for dessert as soon as it got out. First of all, this book includes 100 wonderful recipes and they are at an easier level in general. In the book D.P., there are quite a few recipes that needed food processor or a stand mixer, and some of the recipes can be quite challenging. For example, some recipes may take 5 hours to prepare, and with different equipments involved. sometimes with little ones to care for in the house, it’s hard to devote so many hours to make a dessert that’s too time consuming. I have never made the pancake in the DP book because I just can’t spend an hour and a half in preparing for pancakes besides breakfast. Secondly, this new book WFD, only requires hand mixer as the equipment. Even though I would still use my stand mixer for some recipes, it’s not a must have. It’s also nice knowing I don’t have to turn the whole kitchen upside down to make a dessert on a rainy day. However I do enjoy the DP book still for some challenging recipes at times. So far I have made 2 desserts from this book: blueberry buckle and tiramisuy icebox cake, they both turned out great. The instructions are clear and straightforward and I watched the YouTube videos to visualize the procedure before I get started. I would also read the instructions a few times before I started making the dessert, just to make sure I didn’t have to run to the grocery store in the midst of making the dessert and to make sure I fully understand how each step was done. Thirdly, this book has a special section talking about how things work, like how to cream butter and how to watch for the cream when it’s being whipped. I truly enjoyed learning “why” besides simply learning “how” when I make things. I have learned so much from Claire and I feel I got more intuition in making desserts now. Lastly, I really love the way Claire’s recipes are, they are not loaded with sugar like the desserts I got from grocery stores. Instead, her desserts are loaded with complex flavor that supports the theme of the dessert. For example, I just tried the Lemon bunt cake recipe lately and the olive oil in the cake just totally carried out the fragrance of the lemon and the olive oil itself. The glaze on the cake made a crunchy outer layer of the cake and the olive oil made the cake sooo moist! I never liked store bought lemon cakes but this Lemon bunt cake I made is almost gone in one day!!!! I also made the marbled cake with sprinkles on it, and the icing had “tangzhong” in it (it’s a mixture of flour milk and sugar cooked slowly on stove top), and that made the icing tastes like marshmallow. I always thought tangzhong is for bread only but to put it in the icing of the cake is just a genius trick. Claire really got a great taste and she’s so talented in developing such a wonderful book. I never liked desserts before I got her books, but now I look forward to make at least one dessert every week for my family and friends. My friends started calling me dessert queen because they loved the desserts I made so much, and I give total credit to Claire. Update: I have made quite a few recipes since then and they all turned out great. I like to make dessert for a big gathering and it’s always a big hit. The desserts are not super sweet like the ones you get in a bakery shop, but they are filled with complex flavors. There’s a fennel & olive oil cake, with black berries in the cake that’s really great. It’s very easy to make but the flavor is complex because of the fennel, olive oil, lemon zest, and black berries. The olive oil has a special flavor that got carried out perfectly by the lemon juice and zest, and with every bite the blackberries inside and on top of the cake gave out a different texture and fruity taste to the cake. After I finished eating the piece I can taste the subtle flavors of fennel in my mouth, which is a decent flavor. The body of the cake is so soft and light that reminds me of Nothing Bunt Cake, but a lot less sweet than their version. There’s also the banana toffee pudding being my favorite, and you can check it out on Claire’s YouTube channel, it’s definitely worth a try, and you’ll see why it’s my and many of my friends favorite recipe. Please let me know if my review is helpful and I will update my review when I try more recipes.

Great cookbook for any home baker looking to up their skill set. Claire has set this book up to teach new techniques that may seem daunting, but if you start with the easy recipes first, the upper level recipes are much more achievable. This book has taught me tons! Tasty recipes and worth the cost.

Long time fan of Claire. Her style, palette and ability to teach while creating delectable desserts is why I’m a super fan. Her second book has easier recipes and more supplementary and useful information like Can I make ahead, substitute or omit specific ingredients. She has the recipe difficulty matrix again in this book, which is very handy. She takes a lot of care to explain basic techniques, the proper order and why and what to look out for. I doubt I’ll look at any other pastry chef’s cookbooks especially if they have less detail than her books. This is worth it if you like desserts that are seasonal and overall less cloyingly sweet. And genuinely want to learn techniques that she employs. The fact that she also creates videos on YouTube that compliment her book is genius. Before purchasing this book I made crème brûlée based on her YouTube video and it was unbelievably good, if that’s not a testament to a good teacher and creator I don’t know what other proof you need. If you hesitate buying her book, watch one of her videos and try the recipe, her book is well worth having instead of pausing the video every 10 seconds. Wonderful and meticulous work, as always, beyond happy to support her and see her thrive beyond BA.

Easy to follow instructions and beautiful photos.

Claire's cookbooks are more than cookbooks. She has so much instruction and explanation in them! It's learning experience. Her recipes are winners

Saffitz is an excellent teacher in video formats, which is why I purchased this (expensive) book. Her teaching orientation continues here, as she offers many helpful hints about technique or products that, even as an experienced cook and baker, I have not seen before. My criticisms are three: first, while she tells us in each recipe how far ahead the dessert can be made, it appears that while most can be refrigerated, they cannot be wrapped and frozen in advance by the nature of the recipes. This is a shame, as most of the time if we are serving dessert, we’re cooking dinner, too. Secondly, the font, font size, and use of light-colored ink for each recipe’s tips will make this a challenge for many readers to read comfortably. This is too bad, because the use of white space and bold fonts in the actual recipe steps very much helps clarity. Finally, a personal reaction to the aesthetic of the full page photos of each recipe: there is a lot of brown throughout and most desserts are staged with dark shadowed backgrounds. This is clearly intentional, but to my eye, it’s depressing, and I am not experiencing the joy I would have hoped when leafing through this new work. Cooks in some areas of the US will find it hard to find some of the non-negotiable ingredients here, like fresh quince, kumquats, chestnuts, or even black sesame seeds. Overall, recipes are unusual, the writer’s voice present and reassuring, and, despite the challenges noted here, I look forward to working with this book.

I found higher interest in Desert Person (her 2nd book). This is great book for elevated deserts (personal dishes).

This is my first cookbook devoted to sweet treats. I’ve tried a few recipes in this book and all have been approved by my dinner guest because all dinner gatherings should have dessert. Also, I feel accomplished having executed some of the recipes.

El producto si me gusta pero llego maltratado de las esquinas y me da flojera hacer todo el trámite para que me lo cambien aunque se que me lo cambiarían preferiría que llegara en buenas condiciones y no tener que ocupar tiempo en estar haciendo devoluciones o cambios

Not as impressive as Dessert Person

This book is full of absolutely delicious recipes that are truly so easy to make. The tiramisu icebox cake is easily the winner of the whole book, I would make it every week if I could. I am also a big lover of Dessert Person, the first book. If you are a home baker, I highly recommend having these books in your arsenal.

Het boek is ietwat beschadigd.

Bought this as a gift to a friend and she loved it.