Bon Appetit Desserts – Cookbook Review

By : Stuart | 0 Comments | On : December 8, 2010 | Category : Cookbooks, Reviews

We have always enjoyed the dessert recipes in Bon Appetit magazine so a purchase and review of the cookbook was not a question of if, but when. The Desserts cookbook is big, with quality printing and good color photos. The layout is easy to follow and we thought the use of whisks instead of stars to indicate the complexity of the recipe was creative.

The books begins with pantry and equipment suggestions and then techniques which might be helpful to many. The techniques sections uses illustrations where I believe pictures would have been better. For example, showing dough textures on page 37 is meaningless to the reader. We would suggest that the editor change this in the next version. From here we move to the recipes that starts with cakes.

There does not seem to be any order to how the recipes are organized in each section. There are subsections (example 5 in cakes), but if this was targeted for a large audience then perhaps sections should have started with the one whisk recipes and then moved to the four whisk recipes in each section. The pictures are well done but limited in scope. We have all seen magazines begin to have a light table grid of recipe pictures that could have played well here. At the beginning of each section they could have a 9 photo grid of each recipe and then cut back on the full page pictures. I enjoy pictures and cookbooks can always be lacking in too few of them. Pictures make me want to make the recipe.

The tips and layout of the recipes are good. The recipes selections would keep one entertained in desserts for quite a while with many visits to the treadmill. Our first recipe was a Cranberry Lime tart that did not disappoint. The holiday season will bring some other trials. Lime Snowball cookies looks interesting but it does require lime oil. We actually expected to find more recipes with uncommon ingredients but were pleased that they minimized their inclusion.

Overall we are pleased with the cookbook. You can find some of the recipes already on the Bon Appetit website and if you want a picture that may be the place to look. Amazon and Costco have very good pricing in the U.S.