Sur La Table
Andrews McMeel Publishing, $15.00, 135 pages
The So Sweet cookbook from Sur La Table is a cute compact take on some of the recent trends in desserts. It features recipes for cookies, cupcakes, whoopie pies, and doughnuts. The recipes, given several taste tests, came out well, and were true scratch recipes, with little to no “buy this premade ingredient and incorporate.” The physical size of the book is small, both in length, with 50 recipes spread over 4 categories, and in dimension, being only about 8″ square. The size was one of the biggest drawbacks of the book, as recipes are often spread over 2-3 pages, which can necessitate some page flipping.
Instructions tended to be a little on the wordy side, as the book tried to bridge the gap between more and less experienced bakers. The book also requests some specialized equipment. Some of these things are items that experienced bakers would own (piping bags), and some are one-use items that very few people would own (a doughnut pan, whoopie pie pan). There seemed to be no problem finding workarounds for any missing equipment however (doughnuts made in a mini-muffin tin are not doughnut shaped, but it didn’t seem to particularly impact flavor).
Katie Richards