Guilt-Free Desserts

The dessert book of your dreams, spilling over with luscious recipes for every occasion, irresistible hot desserts, tempting fruit concoctions and light and luxurious souffles. But the most delectable element of all these recipes is that they are all low-fat or fat-free, so you can forget about counting the fat grams. Every kind of dessert is here, including irresistible crepes, indulgent gateaux, airy roulades, and creamy cheesecakes. This isn't just a recipe book, though. You fill find just about everything you need to know about fat-free cooking: guidelines for healthy eating and fat-free cooking techniques. So, if you adore desserts and want to eat more healthily, then this book is the only dessert book you need.

Holiday Baking

The holiday season is alive with tradition, and nothing brings a family together faster than baked goods pulled fresh from the oven. Holiday Baking celebrates the six major events of the season with new and traditional holiday treats everyone will love. Vida Lee's Maple Pumpkin Pie will be gobbled up at Thanksgiving; there are three variations of rugelach for Hanukkah; Candy Cane Cupcakes are a minty delight for Christmas; Sweet Onion, Apple, and Cheese Tarts enliven a Boxing Day brunch; Brown Sugar Benne Cookies are perfect for Kwanzaa; and a Bloody Mary and Baked Mushroom Omelet on New Year's Day is the ultimate cure for a hangover. The recipes mix and match easily, whatever the holiday. Whether the plan calls for old-fashioned favorites or entirely new inspiration, the eighty-plus festive recipes in this baking compendium will bring everyone home for the holidays.

Chocolate Obsession

2006 IACP Award Winner: Food Photography & Styling Category! Known as the Picasso of chocolatiers, Michael Recchiuti creates confections that are every bit as daring and original as any of his namesake's artworks. But unlike the painter, the chocolate maker has made it possible for even the amateur to achieve his artistry. In Chocolate Obsession Recchiuti, owner of the famed artisanal chocolate company in San Francisco, divulges his professional secrets and techniques, allowing home cooks to reproduce his exquisite confections in their own kitchens. Opening with a complete discussion of chocolate from bean to bar, the book goes on to offer detailed instructions for dipped chocolates, truffles, and molded chocolates, including Recchiuti's signature ganache flavors: Earl Grey tea, burnt caramel, tarragon with grapefruit. Also featured are recipes for such sinfully delicious treats as Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Truffle Cream Filling, Double Dark Chocolate Soufflés, and Rocky Recchiuti Brownies. With more than 60 recipes in all, this book will satisfy even the most obsessive chocolate lovers among us.

Ice Cream

Ice Cream! The Whole Scoop, is an in-depth definitive book about the great American passion. Designed to take the mystery out of making ice cream but not the magic, this delightful book is not just a cookbook but a how-to guide for ice cream makers. Ice cream lovers will find hundreds of recipes from creamy-rich gourmet ice cream to healthful yogurt to crisp tart sorbets. Part One, Freeze It, offers recipes for every sort of frozen dessert, including not just dairy ice creams, sherbets and frozen yogurts, but also non-dairy delights such as French sorbets, Italian sorbetti, and rice-based and soy-based ice creams. Part Two, Perfect It, offers an in-depth explanation of the variables influencing ice cream quality including the ingredients used, the way they're mixed, and how they're frozen and stored. Detailed instructions are offered on how to develop, evaluate, and perfect new flavors. Part Three, Embellish It, offers tantalizing suggestions for all occasions including combining eye-appealing colors with taste-tingling flavors to create swirled marbles, layered rainbows or molded bombes. Ice Cream! concludes with three indispensable appendices: an alphabetical reference of two hundred formulas for creating new flavors, a glossary of ice cream lovers' jargon; and sources for specialized equipment and hard-to-find supplies. Ice Cream! is truly The Whole Scoop.

Cake Mix Cookies

magine a kitchen warm witih the smells of sweet vanilla, fragrant cinnamon, and fresh butter. On the kitchen counter is a cooling rack piled high with fresh-from-the-oven delights filled with chocolate chips and crunchy pecans. Ah, the age-old comfort of cookies. Next imagine that each of the yummy treats began with a convenient box of cake mix. That's right, a standard 18.25-ounce box of cake mix is the secret to some of the tastiest, simplest, and most irresistable cookies imaginable. With a few extra ingredients, turns of a spoon, and whirrs of a mixer, cake mix can make anyone a prize cookie baker. Like Cookie Dough Delights and Brownie Mix Bliss, Cake-Mix Cookies is the first cookbook of its kind. Although several cake-mix cookbooks exist, including the bestselling Cake Mix Doctor books and 101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix, they offer only a small number of cookie and bar recipes and overlap one another. By contrast, Cake-Mix Cookies is filled with an array of more than 175 drop, shaped, filled, and bar cookie options for every occasion. Numerous all-American favorites are used as starting points: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, jam thumbprints, and dark chocolate brownies. There are also new takes on classic European cookies; for example, crunchy Italian biscotti, tender French madeleines, and rich Viennese teacakes. Finally, a healthy dose of new cookies has been created for the book: blackberry-lemon buttermilk bars, triple chocolate chess squares, and chocolate blackout. Cake-Mix Cookies contains the broadest range of new recipes for cookies and bars that is unavailable elsewhere. And while it capitalizes on the popularity of baking with cake mixes, it has its own unique niche on the home cook's shelf.

Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

For the hundreds of thousands of readers who've always turned to Martha for the most authoritative, beautiful books, she's back with her first book in 6 years! Nobody does the domestic arts better than Martha Stewart and her unparalleled team at Martha Stewart Living, and the subject for which they're best-known and most-respected is this book's: baking. Taking the same comprehensive approach as her bestselling Hors d'Oeuvres, The Baking Handbook provides over 250 time-tested, foolproof recipes for the best--and most beautiful--baked goods. Each chapter begins with the basics, detailing the batterie de cuisine (the tools, gadgets, and ingredients) and general troubleshooting for the chapter. Then the recipes progress from the simplest to the most ambitious, satisfying every level of home cook. And since Martha is known for nothing if not thoroughness, the Baking Handbook also offers: Icons that signal whether the recipe is best for beginners, intermediate cooks, or more advanced bakers. Step-by-step photographs of techniques. Tips specially designed to help readers make the best-looking desserts possible. Make-ahead information, storage techniques, freezing instructions, and troubleshooting tips. The recipes themselves are for not only the favorite time-honored classics, but also the creative twists and interpretations for which Martha is known, covering the full breadth of categories that any home-baker could want, including: SIMPLE BAKED GOODS including biscuits and shortcakes, muffins, scones, quick breads, popovers, and pound cakes, from the most basic Buttermilk Biscuit to Cream Cheese-Chive Butter Biscuits. COOKIES that cover everything from biscotti and drop cookies like Chewy Chocolate Chip to such piped-and-pressed treats as Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. BASIC CAKES such as Linzer Torte or Carrot-Ginger Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and SPECIALTY CAKES like Buche de Noel, Pavlovas with Currants and Berries, and Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd. PIES, TARTS, AND GALETTES, from the most fundamental Classic Apple Pie to Strawberry Cream Pie, from Sugarplum Tart with Shortbread Crust to Apricot Blackberry Galette. PASTRIES that include Napoleons, Sour Cherry Strudel with Cheese, and Profiteroles. FRUIT DESSERTS such as Apricot Blueberry Cobbler and Plum Crisp. YEAST BAKING that offers everything from Sugar Buns and Cinnamon Rolls to Breakfast Brioche with Crème Fraiche, Focaccia, Pizza Dough, and even the greatest Homemade Hamburger Buns.

No-Bake Cookies

Flavors worth splurging for with little effort. Readily available ingredients. Perfect results time and again. These are the principles behind No-Bake Cookies. It may be a surprise to learn that some of the best-tasting cookies and bars can be made without turning on the oven. No magic is involved, just a few time-honored techniques for producing irresistible goodies while the kitchen--not to mention the cook--remains cool. With an assortment of cereals, crushed graham crackers, cookie crumbs, butter, nut butters, cream cheese, and chocolate (and some delicious options for adding flavor such as dried fruits, nuts, toffee, coffee, vanilla, spices, and more), no-bake cookies are a matter of mere minutes in the making. The recipes in No-Bake Cookies are a boon for busy home cooks with a penchant for sweet treats. They make first time cooking fun for kids, too. Even the youngest of children can help with measuring and stirring the ingredients while Mom, Dad, or big brother handle more demanding tasks such as chopping nuts and melting butter on the stovetop. Most people are familiar with Rice Crispy treats, peanut butter bars, and chocolate-oatmeal no-bakes. No-Bake Cookies expands the horizon with such mouth-watering treats as Maple Praline Drop Cookies, S'Mores Clusters, Quick Caramel Delightfuls, Mixed Fruit, Seed & Nut Energy Bars, PB&J Bites, Maui-Wowie Macadamia Bars, Irish Creamy Mousse Bars, Key Lime Squares, Butterscotch Pudding Bars, Blackberry Mascarpone Bars, and dozens more. So whether one is looking for a fun-time treat for the kids, a healthy snack for the lunchbox, a dreamy chocolate indulgence, or a creamy-cool summery icebox bar, a recipe from No-Bake Cookies always fits the bill.

Crazy About Cupcakes

Go cupcake crazy! With nearly 300 awesome, mouthwatering ideas to choose from, home bakers will find the right recipe for any occasion and every palate. And whether they’re chocolaty, spicy, crunchy, fruity, or creamy, these exquisitely decorated treats look as astounding as they taste—perfect little temptations designed to make adults nostalgic and children happy. All the basics are lovingly explained so anyone can whip up a beautiful batch, and there are varieties for every day (from healthy cupcakes to ice cream indulgences); parties big and small; holidays ranging from Christmas to the Fourth of July; just for kids; and fund-raisers and bake sales. Plus, to make things easy, an entire chart- and template-filled chapter focuses on flavor combinations and design elements.

Mom's Big Book of Cookies

These 200 cookie recipes have been kid-tested and are guaranteed delicious! All the cookies a mom needs are here, from slice-and-bake cookies to variations on classic chocolate chippers to cookie art projects for kids to make. Lots of color photographs and tips for kids to get involved.

La Dolce Vita

Isabel Coe’s La Dolce Vita is a rich and engaging narrative, the story of a family expressed through their shared and continuing love of chocolate. Often remarkable anecdotes are intertwined with an abundance of sumptuous chocolate recipes passed down through four generations of women. Whether it’s her great grandmother Omama’s nutty Weinacht Guezi or her grandmother Nonna’s Crema di Castagne (chestnut jam, “the perfect accompaniment to good dark chocolate”), her mother’s rich, rum-laced Chocolate Mousse or Isabel’s own extravagant Saffron-infused Mendiants with Crushed Pepper and Edible Gold Leaf, there is something in the alchemy of grating, melting, and mixing chocolate that sets it apart from all other forms of cooking.

Chocolate Connoisseur

Learn how to tell the difference between good chocolate and bad chocolate Discover wonderful new brands to savor and enjoy Marry your favorite brands to your mood and time of day Learn to taste chocolate like a connoisseur Packed with history, myths, amazing stories, recipes, tasting notes for the world's finest chocolates, and chocolate philosophy, this charming book will inspire you to become a connoisseur.

See's Famous Old Time Candies

More fun than the episode of I Love Lucy set on the candy line and with stories richer than a Dark Chocolate Truffle, See's Famous Old Time Candies is a golden ticket to the candy factory (and, yes, See's did inspire that Lucy episode). Author Margaret Moos Pick chronicles See's history, from its humble beginning in Mary See's kitchen back in the 1890s to its place of reverence in the hearts of the sweet-toothed everywhere. Learn how See's candy experts hold chocolate tastings, treating batches like fine wines, to choose the very best; how bonbons are still meticulously hand-dipped to perfection; and how those at See's simmered, stirred, cooked, and tasted 250 recipes—all to create the perfect truffle. For See's fans and proud candy lovers, here's a story with a very sweet center.

Passion for Ice Cream

Anybody who loves ice cream knows there's nothing better than a scoopful of homemade. Nothing, that is, except star pastry chef Emily Luchetti's fabulous recipes for making your own. This gorgeous cookbook doesn't just have all the crowd-pleasers, it's bursting with flavors you'll never find in the store. Even better, because sometimes a spoon just isn't accompaniment enough, there's a host of beautiful dessert recipes featuring ice cream in all its lusciousness. There's chocolate, strawberry, and butter pecan; there's orange-cardamom, root beer granita, and pomegranate sorbet. There's popsicles, floats, and parfaits. And then there's Coffee Meringues with Coconut Ice Cream; Blackberry Sorbet Filled Peaches; and Chocolate Crepes with Peppermint Ice Cream. But wait...There's Shortcake and Rum Raisin Ice Cream Sandwiches; Sauternes Ice Cream and Apricot Sherbet Cake; and Chocolate Cupcakes Stuffed with Pistachio Ice Cream. Aficionados needn't worry if their tastebuds are more deluxe than their ice cream maker because all of these treats can be made with a modest handcrank model or the fanciest machine. And to top it all off, there's a chapter on making sauces from scratch and a handy chart that lists the ice cream flavors alphabetically for easy reference. The reason homemade ice cream tastes so much better than store-bought is because you use fresher ingedients and less air. That means it's richer, creamier, and tongue-tingling with flavor. The reason Emily's recipes taste so good is because she's a genius when it comes to desserts. If proof were needed, ice-cream fans need look no further than these mmm, mmm, mmm, melt-in-your-mouth recipes.

Good Housekeeping Great Baking

More than 600 sweet and savory recipes, all shown in beautiful color photos and with the Good Housekeeping imprimatur, fill the pages of this home baker's must-have. It's so easy to make the most humdrum day sparkle with these triple-tested, fresh-from-the-oven delights. Memories are made with traditional treats like sugar cookies or fudgy brownies. For something new, try a silky custard pie or big-city cheesecake. Make scrumptious souffles (yes, you can!), pizzas and quiches, or international specialties such as Italian and Greek breads, elegant French fruit tarts, or buttery Danish pastries. All the baking basics are included, along with enough helpful hints to get it right the first time and every time after.

500 Cakes and Bakes

From Chelsea buns and chocolate drops to treacle tart and coffee cake, this stunning and comprehensive collection of mouth-watering recipes is guaranteed to inspire every cook. Covering all the traditional teatime favourites such as ginger biscuits, fruit cake and blueberry muffins to more special-occasion treats such as light-as-air meringues, black forest gateau and chocolate chiffon pie, this compilation of 500 recipes is a must for every home baker. A clear and concise introduction outlines the principles behind successful baking, including the importance of accuracy, preheating the oven, advance preparation, careful timing and how to line tins, to guide both novice and experienced cook to the best possible results. Choosing is made easy with the cakes and bakes grouped into chapters by type or occasion. Children and adults alike will love the range of divine delicacies, from simple lunchbox snacks such as oaty coconut biscuits, fruity tea bread or carrot buns to party or weekend treats such as festive apple pie, caramel meringues or chocolate cheesecake. Also included are invaluable cook's tips and suggested variations to encourage experimentation and to enable the reader to adapt recipes to suit their tastes and to improve their baking techniques. Ideas for decorating cakes and cookies, as well as storage advice and serving suggestions are also provided. For those on a diet there is a section on low fat baking, covering delicious adaptations for healthy bars, buns, pastries, cakes and teabreads. Every delicious recipe is accompanied by a beautiful colour photograph to both inspire and guide, and the simple step-by-step instructions ensure perfect results every time.