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"Caprial's Desserts"

yorkshirepud
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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

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My copy just landed on my doorstep. I'm wondering whether to keep it. Any recommendations/reviews?

one review here

mixed reviews here

and finally, from Amazon:

Building on the 50 master recipes, each chapter reveals how they can be finessed to create one exciting variation after another. Along the way, clear step-by-step photographs put you alongside Caprial and Melissa in their kitchen as they share their secrets for making extraordinary pie dough, working wonders with an ice cream machine, perfecting the delicate art of puff pastry, and numerous other essentials of the sweet kitchen. If you are new to baking, this book will give you the confidence, inspiration, and skills to build a solid dessert repertoire; if you are an experienced baker, it will help you hone classic techniques and push you to new levels of creativity and improvisation in the kitchen. A model of beauty and clarity, CAPRIAL’S DESSERTS is destined to become a well-thumbed, and flour-caked fixture on your kitchen bookshelf.

I have enjoyed my copy, for what it is worth, review-wise! :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

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Thanks. I actually saw all of these.

Tell me, what have you tried and enjoyed?

I'm extremely tempted by the Caramel Pear Tart thingy.

I loved her version of brownies! Very dense and rich!! and have made, and gotten positive feedback, on her banana cream pie and her version of an apple pie is excellent as well .. as I said, I personally have enjoyed using it! :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Steve Klc

Steve Klc

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This is a few years old, right? I've looked at it, it's basic, fairly accessible for a home cook without much experience, but most of it has already been done or covered better elsewhere.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

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I'm seeing the Banana Cream Pie reviewed favourably often.

Time to go have another gander. I want to see what her recipe for brownies is like. I'm all over a good brownie! Thanks!

You will enjoy the brownies, unless I miss my guess! And if you like bananas as much as I do, the cream pie as well .. it is big here in Atlanta! :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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yorkshirepud

yorkshirepud

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This is a few years old, right?  I've looked at it, it's basic, fairly accessible for a home cook without much experience, but most of it has already been done or covered better elsewhere.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I can't say I'm an experienced baker (yet), but even so, I feel somewhat that these recipes are already covered in my growing collection of books. I'm debating whether to return it or not. Something tells me I will. Other than one recipe, nothing else 'jumps' out at me. Funny, it seemed to have more appeal when I browsed it instore and decided to buy it online.

Edited by yorkshirepud (log)
Adele
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yorkshirepud

yorkshirepud

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You will enjoy the brownies, unless I miss my guess! And if you like bananas as much as I do, the cream pie as well .. it is big here in Atlanta! :biggrin:

Thanks!

I've actually decided to return it later this evening. I'm going to exchange it for Secrets of Baking instead. Now that I know offers much more wealth of info (which is what I need).

Edited by yorkshirepud (log)
Adele
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Wendy DeBord

Wendy DeBord

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I'm a baking book junkie. I don't own Caprial's Desserts, so I can't comment much...other then if I don't own it I must have passed on it for a reason. BUT now I can comment on your second choice and I do own it, Secrets of Baking, and do reccomend it!

As a co-incidence....just yesterday I made a coconut cream cake credited to Caprial (I had seen raves about this recipe) and was very unhappy with the cake, it's a butter cake with some coconut milk instead of milk added in the end........nothing to repeat again. She has a coconut pastry cream to fill this with.....no big deal there either. No raves coming from my lips.

I do have a small list of 'hit's in the Yard book and hope to keep it growing.

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yorkshirepud

yorkshirepud

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I'm a baking book junkie. I don't own Caprial's Desserts, so I can't comment much...other then if I don't own it I must have passed on it for a reason. BUT now I can comment on your second choice and I do own it, Secrets of Baking, and do reccomend it!

As a co-incidence....just yesterday I made a coconut cream cake credited to Caprial (I had seen raves about this recipe) and was very unhappy with the cake, it's a butter cake with some coconut milk instead of milk added in the end........nothing to repeat again. She has a coconut pastry cream to fill this with.....no big deal there either. No raves coming from my lips.

I do have a small list of 'hit's in the Yard book and hope to keep it growing.

Hi Wendy,

I picked up The Secrets of Baking yesterday. I'm loving it. I've only ever browsed it before so didn't realise how well she explained her master recipes. This is exactly was I was looking for.

What have been your hits?

Adele
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Steve Klc

Steve Klc

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I think you're getting at what I meant to say Wendy--there are a lot of nice "baking and dessert" books out there written and churned out for the home cook in that nice, accessible home cook style by nice well-meaning people which are redundant, which don't add value and don't really move that genre forward.

If you already have some Rose Levy Beranbaum, Luchetti, Silverton, Flo Braker, or a Gale Gand or two on your shelf then you probably would be better off adding something different in scope and just a little bit outside what you have, like a Dessert Circus by Jacques Torres, or the Bill Yosses "Dummies" book--then you'll have enough to work from and compare and contrast for a long time.

Better to supplement your shelf with something more clearly reference or information-driven--like the Cook's Illustrated Baking book, which can be had from Costco for $18.99 (one's feelings about that outfit and its style or approach aside) or the Robert Wolke "What Einstein Told His Cook"--or move on to home baking books which have a little more depth, value, style, attitude, personality or individuality to offer--like the books by Sherry Yard, Claudia Fleming and Cindy Mushnet (an under-appreciated work this last one.)

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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yorkshirepud

yorkshirepud

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Steve,

I have recently added books to my collection by the bakers you've mentioned, namely RLB and Luchetti, and a few others.

Thanks for the other recommendations. I did plan on getting the Flo Braker book soon (I believe it's a 2nd version of an older book) but will also check out the others.

Adele
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nightscotsman

nightscotsman

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Better to supplement your shelf with something more clearly reference or information-driven--like the Cook's Illustrated Baking book, which can be had from Costco for $18.99 (one's feelings about that outfit and its style or approach aside) or the Robert Wolke "What Einstein Told His Cook"--or move on to home baking books which have a little more depth, value, style, attitude, personality or individuality to offer--like the books by Sherry Yard, Claudia Fleming and Cindy Mushnet (an under-appreciated work this last one.)

Steve - I'm not familiar with Cindy Mushnet so I went over to Amazon to see what she's done, but a search on her name brings up nothing. Could you let us know what book you are referring to?

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yorkshirepud

yorkshirepud

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Better to supplement your shelf with something more clearly reference or information-driven--like the Cook's Illustrated Baking book, which can be had from Costco for $18.99 (one's feelings about that outfit and its style or approach aside) or the Robert Wolke "What Einstein Told His Cook"--or move on to home baking books which have a little more depth, value, style, attitude, personality or individuality to offer--like the books by Sherry Yard, Claudia Fleming and Cindy Mushnet (an under-appreciated work this last one.)

Steve - I'm not familiar with Cindy Mushnet so I went over to Amazon to see what she's done, but a search on her name brings up nothing. Could you let us know what book you are referring to?

I think he may of meant Cindy Mushet. Here's a link to the book I found on Amazon.

Adele
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mckayinutah

mckayinutah

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Cool - thanks for the link. Like I said, I hadn't heard of her before, but the book looks intersting. I'll have to check it out.

This book didn't look like it would appeal to me, but when I saw it in a discount bookstore for $8 I picked it up.

Haven't made anything from it yet but did write down the names of the recipes that appealed to me, and there were quite a few.

Jason

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