It’s no surprise that I love cooking. I bake bread, make pies, curries, casseroles and roasts but, to tell the truth, I have never managed a great repertoire of desserts. Perhaps it’s because I don’t want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen confectioning a fiddly sweet creation. I might have a passion for food but I am just as strapped for time as everybody else.
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts has presented me with a collection of recipes that are indeed delicious and I don’t need to spend a day cooking. This is an irresistible bunch of temptations for everything from dessert sauces and cookie crunch sprinkles for the top of ice cream to baked fruits, cakes, frostings and tarts. In fact there is an assortment of every dessert genre but all the dishes are simple to prepare.
Flourless chocolate cake is a classic. It has a remarkable texture and a richness that will cause any chocoholic to glow with pleasure. This is an easy recipe but the key is using a good quality chocolate with the correct percentage of cacao (cocoa butter). Alice Medrich suggests 55% to 70% but I would counsel going for the higher percentage. This is a sophisticated cake that’s better the day after baking, so it’s an ideal dinner party make-ahead pud.
Pudding tarts are a particularly American dessert and this book offers Tahitian vanilla tart with a cherry compote. The filling is a preparation of cornflour, sugar and cream. Now, the untutored might not think that sounds inspiring but it works. The pudding is creamy without the calories but it really is necessary to use the best available vanilla extract; and if you can’t find cherries then use any other fruit for the compote or fruit sauce.
Gingerbread is traditionally made with powdered ginger but Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts offers a version using fresh ginger along with that powdered root. This is an inspired departure from the original cake and gives a much zestier finished result. It’s a fresh tasting and exotic gingerbread, well worth a try.
Carrot cake is aromatic with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It is a no-guilt dessert as it contains vegetables so surely it constitutes at least one of your five-a-day. The usual frosting is made with cream cheese and it’s listed here but the author also gives permission to garnish the cake with crème fraîche or even Greek yoghurt which is lighter and has an agreeable tang that acts as a foil to the sweet sponge.
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts – quicker smarter recipes is an attractive cookbook offering sweets that are tempting and you won’t be spending days slaving over the stove; practical recipes for classic and contemporary dishes for everyday family fare as well as posh nosh for friends.
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts – quicker smarter recipes
Author: Alice Medrich
Published by: Workman Publishing
Price: £18.99
ISBN 978-1-5796-5398-9
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018