Product Description

Anyone who has so much as made a batch of cookies knows that this is where it all begins. Butter lends flavor and richness, sugar adds sweetness and melting textures, flour provides substance, and eggs bring it all together. Afterwards, the baker can allow flavor to take over: chocolate, citrus, fruit, nuts, cheese, and spices complete the dessert-making roster. Chapter by chapter, pastry chef extraordinaire Gale Gand and her husband, star chef Rick Tramonto -- with writer Julia Moskin -- explain each basic ingredient and each flavor's personality and follow up with some fabulous recipes. The unique result is a festive and fun cookbook that reads more like a dessert menu than a catalog of techniques. And what a menu! Here are over 175 fanciful, delicious treats, including signature desserts like Not-Your-Usual Lemon Meringue Pie and Root Beer-Vanilla Parfait, classics such as Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake and Brooklyn Blackout Cake, and soon-to-be favorites like Raspberry-Stuffed French Toast and Banana Strudel with Ginger-Molasses Ice Cream. There is a chapter on light-hearted holiday creations, including Halloween Boo!scotti and Pumpkin Pie to Be Thankful For, and a chapter full of drink recipes -- perfect accompaniments to these desserts and great on their own. In Butter Sugar Flour Eggs, all the ingredients are present for creating the most scrumptious, mouthwatering delights you have ever tasted. Or baked!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453170 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-28
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.com
Some people look in a pastry case and see sinful excess; others see delectable taste treats. The authors of Butter Sugar Flour Eggs see ingredients. They have named their book "after the first and most important elements of any dessert recipe.... Butter brings flavor and richness; Sugar lends sweetness and melting textures; Flour provides substance; and Eggs bring it all together. Afterward the flavorings take over: Chocolate, Citrus, Fruit, Nuts, Cheese, and Spice complete the dessert making pantry." Most desserts, the authors allow, have one strong characteristic flavor, or one strong characteristic texture that sings louder than anything else. It's how the authors have ordered the recipes in Butter Sugar Flour Eggs, a clever idea.

So, in Butter, you'll find the likes of Millionaire's Shortbread, while in Sugar, you'll find Brown Sugar Shortbread. In Eggs you'll be tempted by Mango Flan on Chocolate, but in Flour it's more likely going to be Chocolate Chip Pancakes. And that's just to get you started. Because there are chapters for all the basic flavorings, too (Oranges Simmered in Red Wine, Brooklyn Blackout Cake, Nectarine Beignets, Roasted Pecan Ice Cream, Montrachet Cheesecake, Moist Ginger Cake with Orange Icing). And then because holidays tend to pull out all the stops, there's a separate chapter for them as well. Ever get in trouble for playing with your dessert? With Butter Sugar Flour Eggs Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, and Julia Moskin give you permission to do just that. --Schuyler Ingle

From Library Journal
Almost an embarrassment of riches for dessert lovers, here are new books from four talented bakers. Gand and her husband, Rick Tramonto, are the pastry chef and chef, respectively, of their two popular Chicago restaurants, Brasserie T and Tru. Their first book, American Brasserie, included some of Gand's delicious desserts, and now they offer a generous collection of almost 175 recipes, from Millionaire's Shortbread to Sweet-Hot White Pepper Ice Cream. The writing style is slightly precious (e.g., "Butter is a true aristocratAand a modest one"), but the recipe instructions are clear and the headnotes informative. For all baking collections. Medrich, the well-known author of Cocolat and Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts, now presents 50 delicious recipes for favorite cookies and brownies, many of them shown in mouth-watering full-page color photographs. There's a good introduction, and each chapter opens with "Here's What I Learned," a brief but informative collection of clever tips. Many of the recipes are classics, and all of them seem irresistible. An essential purchase. Purdy's A Piece of Cake and As Easy as Pie have become classics, and her two recent low-fat cookbooks, including Let Them Eat Cake, have been very popular. Her new book features recipes for all sorts of homey desserts and other baked goods, from Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding to Blue Ribbon Cherry Pie to Sour Cream Spice Cake. The recipe instructions are detailed and thorough, and there are many thoughtful technique tips and other useful hints, as well as variations. For all baking collections. Wilson is a baker and food writer, and her specialty is wedding cakes, the topic of her first cookbook (The Wedding Cake Book). Unlike her extravagant wedding cakes, a number of the desserts in her new book are fairly simple, although many of them feature a "Bake It to the Limit" version, an optional final step for a more elaborate presentation or variation. (The cake recipes, perhaps not surprisingly, are far more complicated than the other desserts.) With recipes for sweets like Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart and Sour Cherry Bars, this is recommended for most baking collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Gale Gand and Rick Tramonto have worked together in some of the most famous kitchens in the United States and Europe. Currently, they own and operate Chicago's hugely successful Brasserie T and Tru restaurants. Both have enjoyed wide exposure in magazines and on television. Their first book, American Brasserie, was published in 1997. Food writer julia moskin is also the coauthor of American Brasserie and Bistro Latino by Rafael Palomino. She was the weekly restaurant critic for Microsoft?s sidewalk.com in New York City and has contributed articles to Saveur, Metropolitan Home, and other magazines.

Customer Reviews

returned
Another nice book by Gale Gand, but not the types of recipes I was looking for or would make. I returned the book.

Major goofs!
I've had some great desserts made from this book -- which is why I bought it -- but I should have looked inside more thoroughly first. The editing is really sloppy.

Most of the yeast recipes are way off. The standard conversion for fresh yeast to active dry yeast is 2:1 -- 1 oz. of fresh equals 1/2 oz. of active dry, 2 oz. of fresh equal 1 oz. of active dry, and so on. But look at cinnamon apple bumpy bread; for 3 cups of flour, it shows the substitute for 1-1/2 oz. of fresh yeast to be 3 oz. of active dry yeast -- that's 12 packets, or 9 tablespoons. The lemon custard-filled sugar brioche shows the conversion for 1 oz. of fresh yeast to be 2 oz. of active dry -- 8 packets, or 6 tablespoons. Most of the recipes call for four times as much active dry yeast as they should. But not all of them. The conversion for the sugar-crusted Breton butter cake is correct. The hot cross buns don't use fresh yeast, but match 2 oz. of active dry -- again, 8 packets -- with 3-1/2 cups of flour. Scary.

I've been baking with yeast for over 40 years, so these major errors popped right off the page for me, but a beginning baker would be left in tears.

There are also errors in the keying of photographs to recipes. I looked in vain for a photo of Brooklyn blackout cake on page 142 -- which is where the recipe says it will be -- but found Gale's famous truffles instead. The blackout cake was on page 149. This is a minor problem -- no one would mistake one for the other, but it makes me wonder where the errors are in the other recipes. Are they major or minor? Are there lots of them or just a few? Did I simply defy the odds and find errors in the first few recipes I happened to look at? Understand, I wasn't looking for errors. It's almost as if they were looking for me.

I feel as if I have to give each recipe a sanity check now, something I shouldn't have to do with a good cookbook.

Buy it, but buy it with your eyes open.

My favorite cookbook.
It's not just recipes and pretty pictures (although it has both), it's a tutorial about why the recipes work the way they do. Understanding the wherefores opens up new kitchen possibilities as well as a good start on "where things went wrong." The detailed instructions guide you through new processes without overwhelming you. Full of innovative recipes from inspired ingredients and adorable stories from Gale, this book has a place of honor next to my spice rack.
To Datura: The Lemon Buttercups are time and labor intensive, but well worth the effort. I'm not a huge lemon tart fan, but my mom raved about it and the cookie crust for months. The only problem I had was the lemon curd took 30 minutes to set instead of 10, and I was freaking out thinking It'd gone wrong. I've made the ginger cake for friends' birthdays to warm reception, too. (Although, anyone who doesn't receive you warmly when you come bearing cake is just not worth feeding.) I wish you luck.