Flavorful

Starred review from August 3, 2015
Boyle (The Good Cookie), coeditor of Dessert Professional magazine, turns her keen eye and discerning palate to the hottest flavors in the dessert world. These flavors, namely vanilla, chocolate, caramel, coffee, apple, berries and cherries, sweet cheese, and citrus, are the focal point of this enticing and exceptional collection. Boyle knows how to utilize and enhance flavors in vastly appealing and beautiful ways: vanilla soufflés, blueberry cornmeal scones, apple fritters with brown sugar-rum sauce, and lime meringue bars. Her crème fraîche cheesecake with fresh peaches is an absolute masterpiece, and her chocolate-caramel-almond tart with fleur de sel is simply drool-worthy. Coffee almond biscotti and lemon–cream cheese pound cake are less fussy but just as tempting. Boyle’s repertoire of stellar recipes seems endless, including coconut-lime mousse cake; ganache-filled peanut butter cookies; orange cupcakes with mascarpone frosting; and vanilla tres leches cake. With a few exceptions, her recipes don’t require expensive or hard-to-find ingredients or use unusual equipment. Boyle also includes a list of what she considers to be essential baking equipment as well as an extremely useful section on ingredients, where she advises on everything from flours and thickeners to fats and chocolate. Superb in every detail, this stellar collection is a must-have for home bakers and professionals alike.

Starred review from September 15, 2015

Dessert expert Boyle (The Cake Book) understands that some flavors (vanilla, caramel) never go out of style, while others (prunes) are a hard sell. Drawing on her experiences as a pastry chef and coeditor of Dessert Professional magazine, Boyle has grouped sweet recipes into popular categories (e.g., nuts, sweet cheese, berries and cherries) that regularly appear on America's best dessert menus. Chocoholics can skip straight to baked goods such as chocolate almond coconut bars and double chocolate eclairs, while citrus lovers can choose from 17 varied options, including frozen lime meringue cheesecake pie and lemon-blueberry parfaits with gingersnaps. VERDICT Reliable and technically informative, Boyle's latest functions like nine single-subject titles in one. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy classic dessert collections such as Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking and Flo Braker's The Simple Art of Perfect Baking.

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