Dessert Person Cookbook Review

Dessert Person: Claire Saffitz's First Cookbook

The book you have asked for is finally here! After a long wait, it is time to bring you the review of one of the most anticipated pastry books of 2020 - Dessert Person.

Named one of the best cookbooks of the year by The New York Times, Dessert Person brings Claire Saffitz's signature spin on sweet and savory recipes. In her first book, Claire shares with us delicious recipes like Babkallah (a babka-Challah mashup), Apple and Concord Grape Crumble Pie, Strawberry-Cornmeal Layer Cake, that will convert even the most "I don't like sweets" person.

In this book, Claire outlines the problems and solutions for each recipe - like what to do if your pie dough for Sour Cherry Pie cracks - as well as practical do’s and don’ts, skill level, prep and bake time, step-by-step photography, and foundational know-how. With her trademark warmth and superpower ability to explain anything baking related, Claire is ready to make everyone a dessert person.

‍

‍

"This book is a defense of baking"

Considered the baking hero for a new generation, Claire caught the attention of the culinary world with the release of her first book.

‍Dessert Person is a fantastic pastry cookbook, that argues in favor of an approach to food that is celebratory, abundant, and at times a tad luxurious. For Claire, such thing as "I'm a cook but I'm not a baker" should not exist. And to be honest, we totally support her idea. Cooking and baking are not separate disciplines, in fact, they are closely related. While cooking is considered creative, passionate, and improvisational, baking gets labeled exacting, rigid, and non deviating. These kinds of statements reveal a bias against baking, and this is exactly what Claire is trying to change with Dessert Person.

In this book, the recipes are modern interpretations of classic dishes and put unexpected twists on familiar flavors to demonstrate just how versatile and flexible baking can be. Each recipe is carefully written to provide all the information necessary to achieve a successful result. As a whole, Claire wrote Dessert Person as a friendly rebuke to anyone who thinks of baking as a lesser art that affords fewer creative opportunities.

‍

‍

A Book for Everyone

The diversity of desserts in this book means that everyone from beginners to expert home bakers will have a great time with this book. The recipes are rated on a scale from 1 (very easy) to 5 (very challenging), which makes them very easy to identify. The easier recipes are designed to make even a novice bakers feel like a pro without great effort, while the more challenging recipes will work as weekend projects for the expert bakers.

Another thing, that in our opinion, makes Dessert Person a book for everyone is the perfect balance of sweetness in each recipe. If you don't like overly sweet desserts, this is the right book for you! Claire achieved the right balance by using ingredients like tahini and unsweetened cocoa. By countering the sugar in the recipes with bitter, sour, and salty flavors, she is aiming for desserts that are just sweet enough.

Last but definitely not least, one of the things that we really like about this book is the level of detail to which the recipes were thought. As Claire says in the book, "I've tried in each recipe, no matter the level of difficulty, to ease the burden for home bakers". This means that most recipes call for standard pan sizes, most ingredients can easily be found in any well-stocked grocery store, and they were thought to minimize odds and ends. For example, a recipe will use the full 8 ounces of sour cream in a single container, rather than 7 or 9.

‍

‍

At The End of Dessert Person Cookbook Review

Dessert Person is an excellent cookbook that will ask you to spend time in the kitchen, but it also tries to make that experience fun and interesting. Claire is a fantastic pastry chef, and this book just confirmed what we already knew. The level of detail with which recipes were written, as well as the attention to the ingredients used, is something we don't see often.

If you are looking for a pastry book with a modern twist, delicious recipes, and a lot of useful information, Dessert Person might be the book you are looking for.