Dessert Person

Starred review from July 6, 2020
“I wrote this book to celebrate and defend my love of desserts,” writes Saffitz, pastry chef and host of Bon Appétit’s Gourmet Makes YouTube show, in her exceptional debut cookbook. Chapters are divided into types of baked goods, such as pies and tarts, and bars and cookies, and the recipes are thoughtfully organized by their difficulty level: in loaf cakes and single-layer cakes, for example, one of the “very easy” recipes is almond butter banana bread, and toward the end of the section is a recipe for a pineapple and pecan upside-down cake of “moderate” difficulty. Novices in particular will appreciate the helpful footnotes Saffitz shares; for instance, when baking a tarte tatin, she writes: “Very firm, fresh apples could take twice as long to soften than... apples from the supermarket,” and for her buckwheat blueberry skillet pancake, she explains that cooking a third of the batter before adding the rest “creates a platform for the berries, so they don’t sink to the bottom.” But it’s not all confections, and Saffitz devotes a valuable chapter to savory recipes, such as caramelized endive galette and pull-apart sour cream and chive rolls. This should become a go-to reference for any home baker.

Starred review from September 1, 2020

Former Bon App�tit staffer Saffitz is a culinary YouTube star, known for her homemade riffs on classic junk food staples like Twinkies, Oreos, and Doritos. Most of Saffitz's recipes have a unique savory-sweet flavor profile that will be refreshing for bakers looking for alternatives to sweet and rich desserts; likewise, she shuns over-the-top styling, food coloring, and heavy frosting, instead preferring to build dessert recipes around fresh ingredients. In this collection, she presents a variety of seasonal--and sometimes unusual--sweet bakes including quince and almond tart, a salty nut tart with rosemary, and cranberry pomegranate mousse pie. All recipes are assigned a difficulty rating, and are arranged in each chapter from easiest to most difficult. Ingredient measurements are provided in cups, grams, and ounces. VERDICT Saffitz's debut cookbook will be in high demand, though it will appeal most to experienced bakers seeking a challenge and those who appreciate modern flavor combinations in sweet and savory bakes.--Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill Coll., Melbourne, Australia

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2020
Saffitz regularly draws millions of YouTube views for her Gourmet Makes series, in which the pastry chef attempts to recreate packaged delicacies like pop tarts and pizza rolls in the Bon Appetit test kitchen. Translating that star power effortlessly to print, her first cookbook embraces "an approach to food that is celebratory, abundant, and at times a tad luxurious." In addition to overviews of techniques, pantry items, and equipment, Saffitz opens with a spread that plots every recipe in the book (cakes, pies, cookies, "fancy desserts," breakfast fare, breads, and savory stuff, too) on a matrix arranged by level of difficulty (1-5) versus time required (5 minutes to 12 hours; 2 months for the fruitcake!). Saffitz believes in giving readers "more information rather than less," with narrative recipes (most are multipage) accompanied by footnotes, tips for prepping, and clear advice for using or avoiding shortcuts. And while she asserts that it's not about the pictures, those are pretty great, too. With high-quality, foundational instructions and a splendid array of recipes, from a salty-rosemary nut tart to French pastries to St. Louis (Saffitz's hometown) gooey butter cake, Saffitz proclaims, "I am a dessert person, and we are all dessert people."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)