Abigail Johnson Dodge

This is my all-time favorite dessert book. It is complete without being overwhelming. The desserts are scrumptious. It has just the right amount of desserts that take a little time, and desserts for when you're just trying to impress someone with the length of time and the sheer beauty of such a thing. I screamed with excitement when I opened this on Christmas morning.

This book is full of temptation. However what disappointed me was the fact that most of the recipes seemed too complicated and time-consuming for me. I don't generally have much patience when it comes to dessert. It would be a great addition to a baker's cookbook collection, but baking is something I am not overly fond of. I would rather make custards and puddings and the like, and this book is light on that sort of thing. Still it does what it does well.

It’s been a long time since I have found a dessert cookbook that captured my attention as Desserts 4 Today has. What could be better than delicious recipes for desserts with only 4 ingredients! Even with 4 ingredients these are elegant and mostly made-from-scratch desserts. Just an example of the recipes are:

Walnut Rugelach
Blueberry-Yogurt Panna Cotta
Whipped Caramel Toffee Ice Box Trifle
Raspberry – Peach Sugar Puffs
Ice Cream Puffs – The picture of this one looks wonderful.
Grown – Up show more Chocolate Bourbon Balls

At the end of each recipe there is additional information for substitutions and optional add-ins. There is also information at the end of the book on some of the ingredients, their handling and tips for use.

I confess that one of my favorite things about the book is that there are several recipes using Nutella™ a Hazelnut cream, which is one of my favorite sweets in the whole world. I love the simple ingredient list that creates beautiful and tasty desserts.

Abby Dodge, a former pastry chef and the author of seven cookbooks, is also a contributing editor to Fine Cooking magazine. Her website is AbbyDodge.com. show less

What a wonderful collection of delightful confections! I haven't yet tried to bake any of them, but I hope to in the near future. I enjoyed the simple tips she put in the beginning of the book, I think they will come in handy. I only wish there were a lot more pictures, because I find a recipe book much easier to use when I know what the finished product is supposed to look like.