Cookbook Review: Sweet by by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh

Title: Sweet
Authors: Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: October 3rd 2017
Source: Publisher


Book Description:

A collection of over 110 recipes for sweets, baked goods, and confections from superstar chef Yotam Ottolenghi.

Yotam Ottolenghi is widely beloved in the food world for his beautiful, inspirational, and award-winning cookbooks, as well as his London delis and fine dining restaurant. And while he's known for his savory and vegetarian dishes, he actually started out his cooking career as a pastry chef. Sweet is entirely filled with delicious baked goods, desserts, and confections starring Ottolenghi's signature flavor profiles and ingredients including fig, rose petal, saffron, orange blossom, star anise, pistachio, almond, cardamom, and cinnamon. A baker's dream, Sweet features simple treats such as Chocolate, Banana, and Pecan cookies and Rosemary Olive Oil Orange Cake, alongside recipes for showstopping confections such as Cinnamon Pavlova with Praline Cream and Fresh Figs and Flourless Chocolate Layer Cake with Coffee, Walnut, and Rosewater.

Review:

★★★★ ★

This book is gorgeous from cover to cover. I bake a lot more than I cook, so I'm always looking for new baking books to add to my shelf. I wasn't disappointed in Sweet even a little bit.

The book is divided into chapters by the type of dessert, making recipes easier to find. The chapters include: Cookies, Mini Cakes, Cakes, Cheesecakes, Tarts and Piers, Desserts, and Confectionery. There's also a list of ingredients and their descriptions, as well as a glossary.


There's a nice variety of recipes here, both in terms of skill and of taste. Some recipes seem really simple, and others are really complex with lots of ingredients and components. The steps are numbered, but long. Like, full paragraphs long. Seems like they could have just added more numbers and broken it down a bit more, but that's nitpicking. There's also a bunch of hints and tips in the sidebars of the recipe pages.

There are pictures of almost every recipe, and the photos that are included are really high quality. It's a bit intimidating, but definitely makes you want to bake.

Some of the recipes that I most want to try include Pistachio and Rosewater Semolina Cake, Neapolitan Pound Cake, and Passion Fruit Cheesecakes with Spiced Pineapple.

This book is sure to make any baker happy, and has something for everyone. It's a bit intimidating when you first look at it, but the steps are well explained and often are less complicated than the gorgeous looking pastries make it seem.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.