Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis book is more approachable than the first book, Dessert Person
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2023
I love Claire’s first book Dessert Person and I got her second book What’s for dessert as soon as it got out.
First of all, this book includes 100 wonderful recipes and they are at an easier level in general. In the book D.P., there are quite a few recipes that needed food processor or a stand mixer, and some of the recipes can be quite challenging. For example, some recipes may take 5 hours to prepare, and with different equipments involved. sometimes with little ones to care for in the house, it’s hard to devote so many hours to make a dessert that’s too time consuming. I have never made the pancake in the DP book because I just can’t spend an hour and a half in preparing for pancakes besides breakfast.
Secondly, this new book WFD, only requires hand mixer as the equipment. Even though I would still use my stand mixer for some recipes, it’s not a must have. It’s also nice knowing I don’t have to turn the whole kitchen upside down to make a dessert on a rainy day. However I do enjoy the DP book still for some challenging recipes at times.
So far I have made 2 desserts from this book: blueberry buckle and tiramisuy icebox cake, they both turned out great. The instructions are clear and straightforward and I watched the YouTube videos to visualize the procedure before I get started. I would also read the instructions a few times before I started making the dessert, just to make sure I didn’t have to run to the grocery store in the midst of making the dessert and to make sure I fully understand how each step was done.
Thirdly, this book has a special section talking about how things work, like how to cream butter and how to watch for the cream when it’s being whipped. I truly enjoyed learning “why” besides simply learning “how” when I make things. I have learned so much from Claire and I feel I got more intuition in making desserts now.
Lastly, I really love the way Claire’s recipes are, they are not loaded with sugar like the desserts I got from grocery stores. Instead, her desserts are loaded with complex flavor that supports the theme of the dessert. For example, I just tried the Lemon bunt cake recipe lately and the olive oil in the cake just totally carried out the fragrance of the lemon and the olive oil itself. The glaze on the cake made a crunchy outer layer of the cake and the olive oil made the cake sooo moist! I never liked store bought lemon cakes but this Lemon bunt cake I made is almost gone in one day!!!! I also made the marbled cake with sprinkles on it, and the icing had “tangzhong” in it (it’s a mixture of flour milk and sugar cooked slowly on stove top), and that made the icing tastes like marshmallow. I always thought tangzhong is for bread only but to put it in the icing of the cake is just a genius trick. Claire really got a great taste and she’s so talented in developing such a wonderful book. I never liked desserts before I got her books, but now I look forward to make at least one dessert every week for my family and friends. My friends started calling me dessert queen because they loved the desserts I made so much, and I give total credit to Claire.
Update: I have made quite a few recipes since then and they all turned out great. I like to make dessert for a big gathering and it’s always a big hit. The desserts are not super sweet like the ones you get in a bakery shop, but they are filled with complex flavors.
There’s a fennel & olive oil cake, with black berries in the cake that’s really great. It’s very easy to make but the flavor is complex because of the fennel, olive oil, lemon zest, and black berries. The olive oil has a special flavor that got carried out perfectly by the lemon juice and zest, and with every bite the blackberries inside and on top of the cake gave out a different texture and fruity taste to the cake. After I finished eating the piece I can taste the subtle flavors of fennel in my mouth, which is a decent flavor. The body of the cake is so soft and light that reminds me of Nothing Bunt Cake, but a lot less sweet than their version. There’s also the banana toffee pudding being my favorite, and you can check it out on Claire’s YouTube channel, it’s definitely worth a try, and you’ll see why it’s my and many of my friends favorite recipe.
Please let me know if my review is helpful and I will update my review when I try more recipes.