Sweet Stuff: Karen Barker's American Desserts

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Description: "Like many people, I believe that one should always save room for dessert," says Karen Barker. Inspired by this sumptuous collection of more than 160 easy-to-follow dessert recipes, you may be inclined to skip dinner altogether and head straight for the sweet stuff. 

Starting with the fundamentals, Barker offers advice on selecting key ingredients, suggestions for essential kitchen equipment, and tips on ways to fit dessert-making into the busiest of schedules. The recipes are organized to begin with basics such as pastry doughs, sauces, and special toppings that serve as building blocks for other desserts and provide a foundation for home cooks eager to improve their skills. 

Chapters on pies, fruit desserts, custards, cakes, ice creams, cookies, and breakfast-like desserts feature familiar favorites with a twist, such as key lime coconut pie with rum cream, deep-dish brown sugar plum cobbler, dark chocolate Peppermint Pattie cake, and cornmeal vanilla bean shortbreads. Accompanying each recipe are suggestions for varying and serving the dessert -- changing the fruit according to season, for example, or adding a sauce for an elegant presentation. 

Drawing on years of professional experience as well as memories of cooking and baking from her Brooklyn childhood, Barker creates a book that echoes the best traditions of cooking alongside an experienced mentor. Sweet Stuff is an inviting, personal cookbook with recipes that are quintessential American, marked by the contemporary regional flair that is the hallmark of Barker's national reputation. 

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Condition: Jacket has some small puncture marks on spine area. Further good condition.