[.ca] Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (ISBN 0517884933)

From Amazon.com:
The Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts has the homey but not hokey style you expect from this much-loved restaurant. It is refreshing to enjoy the authors' unvarnished pleasure in food and in sharing about life at the Moosewood as it relates to their desserts. It may be startling to find that the first dessert in this appealing book is nature's best dessert: fresh fruit served with cheese. But these cooks also put butter and eggs to good use, adding enough to make desserts that appeal in their richness. You'll find abundant choices of recipes for every kind of dessert: pies and cakes, puddings, custards, cookies, even special drinks. Chocolate lovers may feel a bit ignored, but fruit, pudding, and cake lovers will be pleased by the 250 recipes in this book.

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum!!!!:
I wondered, what does it mean for a vegetarian restaurant to publish a dessert cookbook? I mean, most desserts don't have meat in them, so ... Well, the answer is: it's wonderful! The same creativity that is a feature of the other Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks is clearly on display in the Book of Desserts. If you've seen their other books, particularly "Sundays at Moosewood", you know that the group pulls influences from cultures all over the world. This book is no different, in that the desserts exhibit that similar multi-cultural style, with spices (some of which are pretty surprising!) and flavors from all over. All the while, the Moosewoodies (I hope it's okay to call them that!) stay true to their own style, and keep the recipes true to their home cultures as well. I highly recommend it -- especially for party planning (making desserts for parties).

Not a "healthy dessert" cookbook! This is the real thing!:
I love a cookbook that is more than just a collection of recipes. The recipes in this cookbook all start with some background about where the recipe came from, how it can be used, and other ideas for how to serve it. This makes the book fun to browse through. Also, the book is well-organized and well indexed. There's even an ingredients index so you can look in your pantry and pick a dessert based on what you have on hand. The variety of recipes is good: some are easy, some are more complicated, some are good for kids, some are fancy for adults. I've tried several things from each chapter of the book and everything has turned out well. Basics are included, such as a flawless pie crust recipe, as well as more unusual desserts such as Pink Chiffon Cake. Another bonus is the multicultural aspect of the book. There are several recipes from the Middle East, and some from Italy, Greece, too. These Mediterranean desserts tend to be less sweet than what our US taste buds usually like, and I've found them great for informal suppers and luncheons. (By the way, the name "Moosewood" in this cookbook does not mean "healthy"! There's plenty of sugar and other good stuff in these recipes!) I make desserts only when entertaining, so I usually have to take the risk of trying new recipes with guests, but with this cookbook I never have any worry about whether it will be a hit or not. This book has proven itself to be a Dessert Bible for me!

Great dessert cookbook without the pretentions:
I have several dessert cookbooks, all with great recipes, most costing considerably more than this one. In spite of that, when I am looking for a recipe, this is the cookbook that usually comes through for me. I have made cakes, muffins, coffee cakes, cookies, pies, and other assorted sweets, all with rave reviews. The recipes are tailored for the home cook, so they are easy to prepare, but amazingly there is no loss of quality. You can get fancy if you want (the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache is quite impressive) but most of the recipes are quite simple. No great color photos, but the price more than makes up for that.

Great book, I use it often:
This is another fine Moosewood publication. It offers unique and varied dessert selections. The recipes are generally well-tested, though a few had a decidedly flat taste that I didn't prefer, such as the chocolate bread pudding and the apple cake. One recipe failed outright, in my opinion (the everyday rice pudding--it was WAY starchy). My step-daughter really loved the bread pudding and apple cake, though, so maybe it's actually a strength of the book, that there's something to suit everyone's taste in it. Most of the recipes have been outstanding, however, and so I would recommend this book totally. The Indian peach dessert is sensational, for instance. The soft, sweet peaches and the crumbly cornmeal topping is a heavenly pairing. I like the look and feel of the book. It's soothing to work with--it's not glossy and pretentious, it's not merely designed to impress. I reach for this book often, and it has come through for me time and again.

Fabulous cookbook!:
If you love to bake you'll love this cookbook! Most appreciated is the prep time, baking time, and equipment needed section for each recipe. Easy to read recipes and the results are to die for! The peanut butter cupcakes with cream cheese icing are the BEST we've ever tasted!