Book Review: Ready for Dessert

A lil bird told me that all the bookshops in America was alarmed with panic. A long trail of readers queued up for someone larger than life, David Lebovitz was in town for book signing events and all the books were already sold out!! Some went back empty handed, some decided to just get a signature on napkin paper, whilst few eagerly ordered the book online, as everybody is heating up the oven, Ready for Dessert!

Don't be green with envy, as I must consider myself the lucky one-this book has been in my possession even before the official launching date in the UK on 9th September. An impromptu voyage across the other side of the world meant I could not make it to some of the glamorous invitations to see Monsieur Lebovitz in person, his cooking demo and tasting event invite by Divertimenti as well as a breakfast get-together at the new NOPI restaurant in London. With a heavy heart, I embarked on my journey but I did not forget the book. I took along Ready for Dessert all the thousands of miles to the Middle East followed by Southeast Asia, all the while getting some 'peeks' from Emirates cabin crews, fellow passengers as well as my mother! Now I am happy to report that David's recipes were successfully tried-and-tested and I hope this review will well compensate for my absence in the London events.

If you want to impress your dinner guests with a stunning and out-of-the-world dessert trays, I urge you to get a copy of this book. Armed with 173 recipes, endless witty anecdotes and stunning photographs, this hardback deserves a prominent place on your coffee table. The recipes are divided by the categories; 29 various cakes from celebratory to simple gateau, 29 arrays of pies, tarts and fruit desserts, a small section of 16 ideas on custards, souffles and puddings, a large chunk on frozen desserts with 30 recipes ranging from ice-cream, sorbets to frozen nougats, 30 cookies and sweets recipes and a dedicated chapter on basics, sauces and preserves. 

It was very difficult to choose just one recipe to try. So I chose to try out a few of them..and many, many more.

Cakes

You can tell that I was impressed with this book as I baked David's Racines Cake for my birthday  cake. I like the humour and the history of this cake recipe, as apparently David got the recipe from the graffiti on the wall of men's room at Racines restaurant in Paris! Well, half way through melting the chocolate, I realised that the recipe did not call for any flour. I must admit my heart raced a bit, but the cake was gorgeous and well impressed my dinner guests, though with such a risen cake, nobody believed that it was flourless.

Pies, Tarts and Fruit Desserts

I was spoilt for choice as it was very difficult to choose one bake from this section, all the recipes and photographs are very inviting. I had been eyeing the beautiful rustic picture of the Apple Frangipane Galette, but we had plenty of fresh plums so I used that instead. The frangipane brought back the memories of coffee and cake in Paris, so original and just divine. I love the fact that fruits of all seasons are featured in this section, from fresh ginger tart, marmalade tart and pavlova to summer pudding and pineapple, rhubarb and raspberry cobbler.

Frozen Desserts

Do I need to say more on this, after being bowled over by David's The Perfect Scoop? He is the ice-cream specialist , and I find myself falling in love all over again with the sorbets and ice-cream, thanks to the tropical weather. The ice-cream maker loyally reproduced yet another perfect vanilla ice-cream, and I added my own touch of chopped pistachio sprinkles. There are a lot of fancy recipes to try out next; Frozen Caramel Mousse and Kiwifruit,Pineapple,Coconut Alaska to name a few.

Cookies and Sweets

Croquants, tuiles, biscotti, amaretti, peanut butter cookies, gingersnaps..the list goes on, yet I decided to bake David's chocolate chip cookies, as he says ' I couldn't imagine chocolate chip cookies tasting any better'. As I am still a novice when it comes to food tasting, I asked my mom the baker to do the honours. She likes them so much that before long, I was packing jars of those cookies to give away to her friends who popped by to the house. 

Custards, Souffles, Puddings

This is one section that I haven't tried out yet, due to  my own fear of souffles. There are plenty of other recipes to choose from-Buttermilk Panna Cotta with blueberry compote, creme brulee and butterscotch flan amongst a few, but perhaps I shall conquer the souffles one of these days. For now, I am contented to lounge in reading through DL's life's experiences, stories behind each pudding and tips for success, something that you could hardly find in most cookbooks nowadays.

This book, enriched with chapters on ingredients, equipments and some basic recipes, is a must-have for beginners in the kitchen who aspire to achieve professional results yet, with minimal efforts. The photographs and styling is inviting, although I long to see more pictures especially for slightly complicated recipes, even for the sheer pleasure of knowing what do they look like. This is David Lebovitz's greatest hits, though I sincerely hope this is not the last book he ever writes, as I would like to see more of his creativity. After carrying this hardback almost everywhere I go with my journey, I realised that Ready for Dessert is a treasure to behold that has attracted David's legion of fans, and if the sales of the book soar exceptionally in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, don't blame me.

To get your own copy of Ready for Dessert, click here.

Note: My heartfelt thanks to Jacqui Small Publishing for the copy of Ready for Dessert, Catherine,  you are a star! Thumbs up to David for the fabulous recipes and brilliant write-up, hope this is not the last book from you!

Squires Kitchen Review: Squires Kitchen's Guide to working with Chocolate book and Polycarbonate Chocolate Mould

Don't be fooled by these round shaped chocolates. Nope, I did not buy them from a shop. I actually made them at home, fresh from preservatives and certainly well moulded into its dainty sphere delights.

Thanks to The daring Kitchen challenge of the month, I have been playing with plenty of chocolates lately. From tempering to moulding, and filling each chocolates with its own complementary flavours, my Chocolate Factory is on full steam and always rearing to go. It was literally a gift from heaven when Natalie from Squires Kitchen sent me a chocolate book for review, and a beautiful polycarbonate chocolate mould to try on. I was over the moon to say the least, and I just could not contain my excitement to try out 'working with chocolate' on that exquisite mould. 

This 71-paged chocolate heaven book is a definite God sent. Authored by the famous pastry chef and chocolatier, Mark Tilling, exclusively published for Squires Kitchen, this book contains everything beyond basics that would help  any inspiring chocolatiers to create homemade chocolates with glossy, professional finish. Written in approachable manner,  easy to understand instructions, the tempering techniques were so easy to follow that one does not need to attend chocolate masterclass, provided the instructions are followed verbatim. 

It was time to put the reading into practice. Armed with some luscious Belgian couverture chocolates,  I chose the tempering method using bain-marie, outwinning the other two techniques taught in details in the book; the microwave method and tempering with powdered cocoa butter. What I thought was a great help is how tips are given for testing the tempered chocolates without the use of candy thermometer. I erred on the side of caution and used my ever-so-reliable thermo though this tip is definitely worth a try on next experiment.

Flipping through the pages, I was rushed with adrenaline to try out the beautiful creations displayed. Have you ever tried chocolate transfer sheet? Guess what, despite cooking and living chocolates for years, I have not come across much use of chocolate transfer sheets, until this book was in my hand. The next thing I knew, I ordered some Swiss marble chocolate transfer sheet online and anxiously tried out my tempered white chocolate on those magical sheets. Verdict, these easy to create decorations looked so deceptively extravagant, hence a must-have for that glamorous finish. 

This clever book also has sections on piping, working with marble slabs to create chocolate nests and fans, as well as using moulds to create your own fancy chocolate bars. I was particularly delighted with the recipe chapter at the end. With arrays of truffles, cupcakes, mousses and celebration cakes to try from, this book is definitely worth a buy. Having said that, I would not mind a larger section on the recipes to be included in the book and probably more on chocolate decorating techniques and party ideas if a new edition is to be released.

Finally it was time to try out the polycarbonate mould. This is very exciting, given my exposure to chocolate making all this while has been limited to silicone moulds. Making full use of my tempering practice, I decided to make some milk-and-white chocolate filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache. This simple creation sums up the knowledge of tempering different types of chocolates ie milk, dark and white, as they need to be tempered at its ideal temperature, respectively. The final product was exquisite, with decadent silky smooth ganache encased in crusty chocolate shells. I just tapped the mould gently on my kitchen top and all the chocolates came out of the moulds perfectly!

As I am writing this, my freezer is already laden with  pistachio and nougat filled chocolates, ready to be boxed into their pretty little giftboxes for family and friends. It goes without saying how satisfying it is to make your own professional looking shop-bought lookalike chocolates, thanks to the techniques learnt from the Squires Chocolate book and the high quality polycarbonate moulds. 

This is truly a wonderful experience and a much welcomed culinary skill that will be cherished in my kitchen for years to come.

Note: Special thanks to Squires Kitchen for this wonderful polycarbonate chocolate mould and the book.

Disclaimer: This review is solely my opinion, based on my own experiments trying out the products and not prejudiced by any external influence.

Book review: The Perfect Scoop & Another Giveaway!

After years of reviewing medical books and journals, I was more than elated when the postie knocked on the door with a different kind of book this time, an ice-cream book! As I am child really, above it all, suffering with the eternal Peter Pan syndrome, this Perfect package really perfected my day. Unlike my other  medical appraisals, cookbook reviews are much more interesting as literally, I could 'have the cake and eat it too!

* Read on for a surprise giveaway at the end of post and winner announcement!*

The Perfect Scoop is yet another sweet treat from the brilliant David Lebovitz, whom really, does not need an introduction in the food world. With hundreds of ice-creams, sorbets, granitas sauces and dessert ideas, one would really be spoiled for choice for the flavour to try. I have been churning homemade ice-creams since I discovered that they do taste much, much better than the shop-bought ones. With organised preparations, you could  have your own fanciful ice-cream flavour in a matter of minutes, but the questions is, what sort of flavours could you try at home? This is where The Perfect Scoop comes  in handy. This book contains 73 ice cream ideas, 39 sorbets and sherbets and 18 granitas recipes, which I think is enough for the lifetime! Wait, there is more..this is probably the only ice-cream book in my posesssion that also contains the most varied ideas for sauces and toppings (27 in total), mix-ins such as buttered pecans and fudge ripples recipes as well as 'vessels' as David calls it, to contain the ice-cream, such as blondies, profiteroles and the traditional yet ever-so popular ice-cream cones. Some toppings that I have never even heard of, and am so excited to try out now!

Too much of a good thing led to the 'conflict' in the house, on what flavour should we try out first. As I am a self confessed chocoholic, and The Husband is a straight-forward vanilla guy, we had an MOU that we shall try out the fanciest of them all: Gianduja-Stacciatella Gelato. Apology if the picture does not do justice to the delicious hazelnut-chocolate ice-cream!

The recipe calls for hazelnut-infused, custard based ice-cream with melted milk chocolates. Stacciatella, easily translated to 'chipped chocolates made by pouring warm melted chocolates into the cold ice-cream at final churning process', really brought the ice-cream to the next level. The ice-cream was a definite winner in the household and my ice-cream maker is now on the rock-and-roll with the latest churn of mango sorbet, a yummy recipe that brings out the best flavour of seasonal fruits. Remember the good old childhood days where ice-cream was a sacred treat? Now The Perfect Scoop brings back those memories straight to one's own kitchen with an even better, wholesome twist to it.

So back to critical appraisal, now that we know the recipes are exceptional. I love the way how the recipes are presented with little anecdotes, as well as the author's 'perfect pairing' suggestions for the ice-cream flavours. The book also comes with the 'Basics' chapter, which is  helpful for beginners and experienced ice-cream makers alike; it covers everything that you ever need to know about ice-cream making. Though I appreciate there are more recipes than photos in the book, I wouldn't mind more of those exquisite photographs to be added in the next edition, as they are really feasts to the eye, and also an attractive way of 'selling' one flavour over the other, especially with hundreds to choose from.

If you want an ice-cream book that would serve you a lifetime of homemade ice-cream pleasures, this is the book for keep. This is The Bible for ice-creams. The hardcover copy would be a beautiful addition to your coffee table collections and David's contagious humour is a good read for those days that you don't feel like churning yet another ice-cream.

So here's the exciting part.

Jacqui Small from AurumPress has kindly provided me with a copy of The Perfect Scoop that I could give to one of the blog readers.

For a chance to win a hardcover copy of The Perfect Scoop, please leave a comment here:

• What is your favourite ice-cream flavour?
• You must follow the blog to enter the giveaway
• The deadline for this giveaway is 28th August 2011

So hurry! This giveaway is open worldwide, so let's make the best of your remaining summer days!

Disclaimer: Although the book is provided by Jacqui Small, the review is solely my own opinion, as well as based on my kitchen experiment with the recipes in the book. Special thanks to Jacqui Small for the cool giveaway, and David Lebovitz for one of the best reads, a chock full of treats.

For the book purchase, please visit:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Scoop-Sorbets-Granitas-Accompaniments/dp/1906417547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314312168&sr=8-1