![Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi [A Baking Book]](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/813G15II8CL._AC_UL165_SR165,165_.jpg)
With the taste of the wild plum sherbet (p. 174) still on my palate, I have to tell you that this is the only book you'll ever need to make the most spectacular sherbets and ice creams you've ever had. Lindsey Shere organizes her book around types of fruit, and the comparative analyses are alone worth the price. You quickly learn how apples, pears and quinces differ from berries and how they both differ from summer fruits such as nectarines and plums. This book has a lot of classic tart, cobbler and related recipes. I don't bake and use this book solely for fruit sherbets and ice creams! I can attest to the results of several fruit cobblers that my wife made from this book (she's used it for years), but I can't vouch for the recipes firsthand.
For the past two years, I've been following Shere's inspiring book religously in making sherbets and ice creams from whatever's fresh at the Union Square Greenmarket on a given Saturday. I've made wild plum sherbet, nectarine sherbet, apricot sherbet, apricot ice cream, peach ice cream, blueberry ice cream, raspberry sherbet, strawberry sherbet, strawberry ice cream and even coconut (though those weren't grown locally). Each one has been great, and I'm only using a fifty dollar Krups ice cream maker. The differing recipes and strong attention to technique provide a clinic on balancing acidity through lemon peel, sweetness through sugar, and texture through blending and straining.
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the authors
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Great dessert book, awful format
Other reviewers have mentioned that there are zero pictures, which I would frankly expect in a cookbook like this, but more problematic to me is the format. The ingredients are all listed in paragraph form, not the usual list form of every other cookbook I own, including my other Chez Panisse cookbook. (See the photo.)While the first recipe I tried (a citrus sherbet) was good, it required obvious tweaking to be *very* good, and called for long streaks of zest solely for the sake of appearance. And that was when I realized that these were largely untested recipes. When you put this into the ice cream maker, all the long strands of zest get hung up on the dasher, and wind up in clumps.This doesn’t mean that nothing was tested, just that a small number were, and all the rest are just variations on a theme. There are some specious comments (“The apple is the oldest fruit known to man.”) sprinkled throughout the book, but those are mostly just annoying.Either no one read this through enough to give any constructive criticism, or the author (who is NOT Alice Waters, but a pastry chef at the restaurant) simply ignored it.The recipes are better than three stars, but the format and utter lack of photos make it not really a four, either, so I made a choice and rounded up.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2001
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2010
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2024
Other reviewers have mentioned that there are zero pictures, which I would frankly expect in a cookbook like this, but more problematic to me is the format. The ingredients are all listed in paragraph form, not the usual list form of every other cookbook I own, including my other Chez Panisse cookbook. (See the photo.)
While the first recipe I tried (a citrus sherbet) was good, it required obvious tweaking to be *very* good, and called for long streaks of zest solely for the sake of appearance. And that was when I realized that these were largely untested recipes. When you put this into the ice cream maker, all the long strands of zest get hung up on the dasher, and wind up in clumps.
This doesn’t mean that nothing was tested, just that a small number were, and all the rest are just variations on a theme. There are some specious comments (“The apple is the oldest fruit known to man.”) sprinkled throughout the book, but those are mostly just annoying.
Either no one read this through enough to give any constructive criticism, or the author (who is NOT Alice Waters, but a pastry chef at the restaurant) simply ignored it.
The recipes are better than three stars, but the format and utter lack of photos make it not really a four, either, so I made a choice and rounded up.
While the first recipe I tried (a citrus sherbet) was good, it required obvious tweaking to be *very* good, and called for long streaks of zest solely for the sake of appearance. And that was when I realized that these were largely untested recipes. When you put this into the ice cream maker, all the long strands of zest get hung up on the dasher, and wind up in clumps.
This doesn’t mean that nothing was tested, just that a small number were, and all the rest are just variations on a theme. There are some specious comments (“The apple is the oldest fruit known to man.”) sprinkled throughout the book, but those are mostly just annoying.
Either no one read this through enough to give any constructive criticism, or the author (who is NOT Alice Waters, but a pastry chef at the restaurant) simply ignored it.
The recipes are better than three stars, but the format and utter lack of photos make it not really a four, either, so I made a choice and rounded up.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
