$24.95 paper
ISBN 978-0-8078-5860-8

Published: Spring 2004

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Copyright (c) 2004 by the University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Like many people, I believe that one should always save room for dessert. It has been proven time after time that the appearance of a luscious dessert elicits delight at virtually any table. So what exactly is it about sweet stuff that people find so appealing?

Food in general, and dessert in particular, often seems to generate almost primal memories. Food memories can take you back in time, triggering a wide range of emotions and powerful recollections. From my childhood in Brooklyn, I remember "the box" being brought in the door from Ebinger's Bakery, with a wickedly delicious blackout cake inside. The Capri was the source of fancy Italian butter cookies and my dad's favorite Napoleons. Junior's was the standard-bearer in the cheesecake department, and I still occasionally long for those Chock Full o' Nuts coffee shop whole-wheat donuts. For everyday snack consumption there were Ding-Dongs, Ring-Dings, Devil Dogs, Ho-Ho's, Sno-balls, and Twinkies. There was one grandmother's boiled plum dumplings and the other's Russian apple cake. My mother's chocolate pudding pie and my Aunt Eleanor's chocolate cake still rank high on my list of ultimate comfort foods. Summer in the Catskills meant plump cinnamon buns and double danish from Katz's. Social activity revolved around the coffee klatch and group barbecues. I mastered the art of making the perfect s'more early on.

I concede that perhaps I have been more profoundly affected than most people by early dessert memories. I had an uncle who was a principal owner of a great old-fashioned Jewish deli in Miami Beach. Like the proverbial "kid in a candy shop" this "girl in a bakery" was allowed to peruse the counters that were positively heaped with an amazing selection of sweets and sample as many items as I wished. Is it possible that my fate was sealed at the age of ten? I knew then and there that I wanted to learn how to produce such wonderful treats myself.

Although I am now a restaurant pastry chef, I am convinced that the best desserts have a direct link to the home kitchen. The sights, aromas, and tastes of honest, simple baking evoke warm sensations of family and a distinct sense of place. Some baking is about appearances, and when done well these dramatic creations are truly an edible art form. My personal baking style is decidedly more down-home in nature. I like to categorize it as traditional American with a twist. American desserts go way beyond the symbolic patriotic notion of linking the proverbial pie with Mom and the "American experience." To some extent the designation as I use it transcends nationality. The culinary melting pot that is often referred to as "American cuisine" has tremendous regional variation and yet retains many common threads. Socially and historically, American dessert-making is based heavily on homemade dishes. Typically, they rely on pure, intense flavors. American desserts are sassy, never muted or shy, and conjure up images of lofty layer cakes, flaky pies, just-churned ice cream, and an array of cobblers, crisps, and cookies. They bring to mind holidays, birthday parties, picnics, and childhood. American desserts are not illusionary creations based on sugar and air. Frankly, I don't care if a cake is lopsided, a pie crust crumbles slightly, or cookies are a bit irregular in shape as long as the item in question tastes delicious. I find homey imperfections charming—they let the diner know that the items are handmade.

For some, baking is an innate, almost intuitive skill. My maternal grandmother turned out an incredible variety of Eastern European baked goods and never followed a written recipe or used a standardized measure. Somehow her half an egg shell of milk mixed with a touch of oil, an egg yolk, a handful of sugar, and a juice glass of flour materialized into delicious, flaky cookies. Her substantial repertoire was kept in her head, and she claimed that baking was something a girl just learned to do in her day. In reality what usually happened was that from a very early age children were trained, standing side by side next to an experienced baker (usually an elder member of the clan), to faithfully reproduce the family favorites. If you have not developed baking skills by osmosis, fear not: knowledge can be acquired and techniques can be learned. The most important factor in successful baking, for professional and home bakers alike, is working with a great recipe.

I would like to think that I follow in my grandmother's footsteps of being a natural baker, but I greatly value the ever expanding assemblage of recipes that I've developed and collected over the years. What I have gathered in these pages is a compilation of favorites that I go back to time and time again. Many of the basics are components that show up in any number of dessert variations. A few great recipes can become the backbone to a much broader repertoire of desserts. These desserts are not groundbreaking—they are new riffs on old themes—but they all have one thing in common: they're based on proven recipes that can easily be executed by the home cook. This is not a Magnolia Grill dessert book, although many of the recipes have appeared on Grill menus. Some recipes are adaptations of family favorites. The collection also includes variations of traditional American standards that are given my own personal stamp. These desserts are equally at home at VIP parties, informal barbecues, and bake-sale fundraisers. These American desserts are guaranteed to make people smile.

I bake professionally, but there is not an item I make in my restaurant kitchen that can't be fully rendered at home. Many people are skeptical of cookbooks written by chefs. In some cases the recipes are simplified to the point where they are not representative of the author's true cooking style. In others, the difficulty and length of the preparations make it unlikely that the average home cook will actually tackle the recipes. I have tried to create a grouping of recipes that is simultaneously inspiring and doable. My desserts do not rely on advanced techniques, specialized equipment, or hard-to-find ingredients. Within each recipe I offer visual clues (telling you how to judge consistency or doneness by appearance, for example) and provide professional tips. In some instances, when it seemed that information about procedures or ingredients beyond what was needed in a specific recipe might be helpful, I have provided such details in a sidebar.

Most of the recipes come with suggested serving accompaniments. A basic recipe can be enhanced with the preparation of a sauce, an ice cream, or a fruit garnish. If there's one significant difference between home desserts and restaurant desserts, it's the number of these "extras" that are often employed to compose complete plates. Each cake, tart, or crumble can certainly stand on its own, and there are occasions when the simplest presentation is the most appropriate approach. You are in complete control of how complicated you wish to make a dessert. Premium store-bought ice cream is a perfectly acceptable alternative to homemade. A basic bakery poundcake can be toasted and topped with a quickly made fruit compote and flavored whipped cream. Homemade cookie dough, made ahead and frozen, can give you a freshly baked batch in no time.

One of my goals is to encourage you to bake more at home. It is possible to fit dessert-making into the busiest of schedules with just a bit of planning. Many people don't realize how much professional baking is done in advance. Although many bakeries and restaurants don't actually bake items until the day they are needed (and in some cases this is essentially done "to order") much of the preparation work is done ahead of time. A refrigerator and freezer can be a baker's best friends. Try to read recipes well in advance. If your pastry dough is made and rolled out and you have a garnishing sauce in the fridge, putting together a fabulous fresh-baked tart can take less than an hour. Whip some cream and you have a four-star dessert.

My general cooking background has taught me how to layer flavors and textures for a more interesting end result. On the sweet as well as the savory side of the kitchen, "seasoning" and achieving flavor balance is key to turning out memorable desserts. Taste is, of course, subjective and very personal; and I, for example, prefer desserts with forthright flavors and a lower sugar profile. Small changes in recipes can occur as a result of ingredients being altered even slightly. A chocolate cake will taste different depending on the brand of chocolate you use. The exact brand (and water content) of your butter might have an effect on pastry. The freshness and pungency of a spice can change its prominence in a given recipe. Differences are perhaps most apparent when dealing with fresh fruits. Acidity levels, water content, ripeness, sugar levels, etc., can all vary enormously—not all peaches are created equal! Accomplished cooks and bakers develop a sense of where and how to adjust for these variations. For example, I might find myself adding or deleting a bit of sugar or lemon juice to bring a fruit filling into balance. If the fruit is particularly juicy, you might need to add a bit more thickening agent to a pie filling. If your cherries are a bit "flat," a few grinds of black pepper, a splash of citrus, and a sprinkle of sugar will perk them up. This is not high-tech, hard-to-figure-out stuff. The more you bake, the easier it becomes to rely on your intuition. Common sense may well be the greatest asset for any cook or baker.

Achieving a comfort level with the actual process is key to accomplished baking. A wonderful recipe and the best ingredients are important elements, but ultimately the success of a recipe is in the baker's hands. The psyche of the baker definitely transfers through to the dessert itself. It's often said that the secret ingredient to a wonderful dish is love. To me this maxim is most apparent in dessert-making. I enjoy eating desserts, but feeding them to other people is a special joy. It's a simple fact that sweets make people happy. So, can we say sugar = love? It might be impossible to prove that equation, but in the South, the expression "give me a little sugar" means give me a little love (usually in the form of a hug and a kiss), and, amazingly, in New York, my Russian grandmother used virtually the same phrase (albeit in Yiddish).

I hope that within these pages you find information and recipes that will educate and stimulate, and will prompt you to spend time in the kitchen. A great dessert can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime, especially a great American dessert.