Eight is enough
Even those of us who love cooking appreciate recipes that are simple, that don't take endless time and unlimited ingredients. (I once reviewed a Martha Stewart cookbook that had a cake recipe that was eight pages long.) So it's hard to resist Gale Gand's "Short + Sweet: Quick Desserts with Eight Ingredients or Less" (Clarkson Potter, $27.50). The English major in me wonders if that shouldn't be "or fewer," but I digress.


Gand's slim cookbook delivers on its promise. The recipes are fairly simple and the ingredients usually basic ones, so specialty shopping isn't required.

In fact, the recipe for Aunt Greta's Walnut Meringue cookies was so simple that I wasn't sure they would come together even as I was making them. No flour in these cookies — just an egg white, sugar, cinnamon, salt and walnuts. The addition of walnuts and cinnamon made the cookie a crunchy, nutty winner, although mine didn't look quite as shapely as those in Gand's photo.

This cake was richer and lighter and more chocolately than Betty Crocker on her best day.



I was a little less pleased with Saffron Butter Cake with Orange Glaze. This pound cake-like quick bread was colorful, yes, but I just didn't find it that flavorful, and wouldn't make it again.

I baked the book's Velvety Cocoa Cake by default — I had hoped to make its Chocolate Angel Food cake, but that recipe required a tube pan, which I didn't have. Turns out it was a good thing that I didn't have one — the Cocoa Cake earned a place in my must-make-again collection by being the first from-scratch cake I've baked that beat the box mixes hands-down. This cake was richer and lighter and more chocolately than Betty Crocker on her best day.

The book is divided into 15-, 30- and 45-minute recipes, but those divisions aren't always accurate. I made the Fudgy Chocolate Sorbet, which is in the 30-minute section. It may take less than 30 minutes to prepare, but the recipe recommends that the mixture be refrigerated overnight before it's put into an ice-cream maker, so it's hardly a recipe one can whip out in a half-hour.

Still, overall the book's recipes were simple and quick, a useful book to have on hand for parties or book-club meetings.

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