Desserts By Pierre Herme

Rating:
Summary: relief at last for a dessert fix!
Review: a former pastry chef on Martha's vinyard who would order dessert first before the entre, I raced to the kitchen to make the coconut loaf and the raspberry genoise. Was truly rewarded with delicous results, good tips for successful execution.by sally larhette

Rating:
Summary: For the serious cook
Review: After reading all the other reviewers who either gushed over or maligned this book, I felt compelled to give yet another opinion which I hope will clarify the polarized opinions on this cookbook.
First, if you are looking to find a cookbook on comfort food or "the-way-Mom-used-to-make-it-desert" for your next family gathering, DON'T GET THIS ONE. Also, if you're on a frugal budget or a time crunch, again, LOOK ELSWHERE. This is one of the GREATEST patisserie chefs in the world. And he gives us in his cookbook all the extravagance, style, taste and showmanship that title carries. The recipes are expensive, time consuming and sometimes tricky. They contain specialty ingredients and use specialty tools. Any substitutions based on economy or convenience will probably result in failure.
On the other hand, if you long to create something really extraordinary and impressive and have the time and pocketbook to match don't hesitate to get this. Although some ingredients are special, they are not so hard to obtain. If you can read and write, you can cook from this. Both experienced and beginner cooks. I can't account for a previous reviewer who complained about confusing directions. All I can say about that is some people don't bother reading directions thoroughly, make a mess, and then blame the directions. I have baked time and again from this book, from the simple and delicious coconut pound cake to the spectacular and complex "Melody," and never a glitch in the preparation. I have to tell my guests that I made it. They always just assume its created by a professional chef and ask me for his number.
So there you have it. Know yourself before you decide to spend the money on this one. Definetely for the serious cook only.

Rating:
Summary: For the serious cook
Review: After reading all the other reviewers who either gushed over or maligned this book, I felt compelled to give yet another opinion which I hope will clarify the polarized opinions on this cookbook.
First, if you are looking to find a cookbook on comfort food or "the-way-Mom-used-to-make-it-desert" for your next family gathering, DON'T GET THIS ONE. Also, if you're on a frugal budget or a time crunch, again, LOOK ELSWHERE. This is one of the GREATEST patisserie chefs in the world. And he gives us in his cookbook all the extravagance, style, taste and showmanship that title carries. The recipes are expensive, time consuming and sometimes tricky. They contain specialty ingredients and use specialty tools. Any substitutions based on economy or convenience will probably result in failure.
On the other hand, if you long to create something really extraordinary and impressive and have the time and pocketbook to match don't hesitate to get this. Although some ingredients are special, they are not so hard to obtain. If you can read and write, you can cook from this. Both experienced and beginner cooks. I can't account for a previous reviewer who complained about confusing directions. All I can say about that is some people don't bother reading directions thoroughly, make a mess, and then blame the directions. I have baked time and again from this book, from the simple and delicious coconut pound cake to the spectacular and complex "Melody," and never a glitch in the preparation. I have to tell my guests that I made it. They always just assume its created by a professional chef and ask me for his number.
So there you have it. Know yourself before you decide to spend the money on this one. Definetely for the serious cook only.

Rating:
Summary: A valuable book for unusual and delicious desserts
Review: As a home baker with moderate skills, I have found Desserts by Pierre Herme to be a really valuable addition to my library. I have actually made desserts that I thought were out of my reach...and have made them with little difficulty due to the excellent instructions of writer Dorie Greenspan. In fact, this book has actually rejuvenated my interest in baking. I NEVER thought that I could make Herme's Dome cake ..or better yet, the Autumn Meringue Cake, which combines two favorites of meringue and chocolate mousse, is fabulous to taste and gorgeous to look at. I could go on and on...the lemon loaf cake is unreal. This book is a MUST HAVE! There is something for everyone at every level of expertise. As for me, I'm going to bake my way through this book much the way I cooked through Julia Child's books a long time ago. e-mail [e-mail] Doris from Manhattan

Rating:
Summary: Restaurant Desserts
Review: At first I was skeptical of this book, since Hermé is worshipped by the French press as a demi-god. I am glad to say that this is a source of very good, but not great desserts. There are several things I like about this cookbook. All of the recipes were thoroughly tested, and I had no problem with the ones I tried, although some recipes required more than casual talent and there are no warnings about this in the recipes. Most of the recipes are assembly jobs. That is, the components are prepared at least a day before and assembled that day. The garnishes and plating are also completely described and recipes given for them; this way, there is no question of how to serve them. These are mostly professional restaurant desserts that have been successfully adapted to the American kitchen. So, these recipes are suitable for both restaurant and home. There is nothing here that is very difficult, but some are time consuming and have several preliminary steps. Hermé for the most part eschews decorative, architectural structures and focuses on the flavor of the dish.

The chapter "Basic Recipes" contains components used by recipes in the other chapters. It is an interesting collection of recipes, some with curious wrinkles. Some of them, like pâte brisée, meringue or inside-out puff pastry, do not work as well as standard versions. Some, like crème anglaise or pastry cream, are actually better than standard ones because they list actual temperatures rather than a physical description as the end point, meaning that the less experienced will have a good chance of doing them properly. Some recipes, like Lemon Cream, are a lot of extra effort without any discernable improvement. In this chapter, standard French names in addition to the American ones used would have been nice, especially for those who have not had a lot of experience with French patisserie.

The next two chapters, "Fruits, Creams, and Cookies" and "Tarts and Tartlets" are much more interesting. Hermé's use of fresh fruits is particularly impressive, particularly in simple fruit plates and tarts. The little tricks he uses are well worth learning and applying elsewhere, like burning off crème chiboust with a propane torch, adding freshly ground pepper to fresh fruits (I believe he is the one who invented this), or using chopped, drained oranges by itself as a tart filling. Some his tricks, however do not really help; draining or drying fruit produced a nice texture, but they lost their fresh fruit flavor.

The last chapter on cakes was rather ordinary. In particular, I did not really like the flavor of the chocolate cakes. They have all sorts of other flavors added in, and they did not combine well with the chocolate. The combinations are trendy, and many of them are already out of date (book copyright is 1998).

The last chapter is particularly useful: it has explanations of the procedures and equipment used throughout the book. My only complaint here is that marzipan and almond paste certainly are not the same thing, nor are they interchangeable. It is here, buried at the end of the section on measuring, that you discover how flour is measured for the recipes (they use dip and sweep).

Rating:
Summary: Restaurant Desserts
Review: At first I was skeptical of this book, since Hermé is worshipped by the French press as a demi-god. I am glad to say that this is a source of very good, but not great desserts. There are several things I like about this cookbook. All of the recipes were thoroughly tested, and I had no problem with the ones I tried, although some recipes required more than casual talent and there are no warnings about this in the recipes. Most of the recipes are assembly jobs. That is, the components are prepared at least a day before and assembled that day. The garnishes and plating are also completely described and recipes given for them; this way, there is no question of how to serve them. These are mostly professional restaurant desserts that have been successfully adapted to the American kitchen. So, these recipes are suitable for both restaurant and home. There is nothing here that is very difficult, but some are time consuming and have several preliminary steps. Hermé for the most part eschews decorative, architectural structures and focuses on the flavor of the dish.

The chapter "Basic Recipes" contains components used by recipes in the other chapters. It is an interesting collection of recipes, some with curious wrinkles. Some of them, like pâte brisée, meringue or inside-out puff pastry, do not work as well as standard versions. Some, like crème anglaise or pastry cream, are actually better than standard ones because they list actual temperatures rather than a physical description as the end point, meaning that the less experienced will have a good chance of doing them properly. Some recipes, like Lemon Cream, are a lot of extra effort without any discernable improvement. In this chapter, standard French names in addition to the American ones used would have been nice, especially for those who have not had a lot of experience with French patisserie.

The next two chapters, "Fruits, Creams, and Cookies" and "Tarts and Tartlets" are much more interesting. Hermé's use of fresh fruits is particularly impressive, particularly in simple fruit plates and tarts. The little tricks he uses are well worth learning and applying elsewhere, like burning off crème chiboust with a propane torch, adding freshly ground pepper to fresh fruits (I believe he is the one who invented this), or using chopped, drained oranges by itself as a tart filling. Some his tricks, however do not really help; draining or drying fruit produced a nice texture, but they lost their fresh fruit flavor.

The last chapter on cakes was rather ordinary. In particular, I did not really like the flavor of the chocolate cakes. They have all sorts of other flavors added in, and they did not combine well with the chocolate. The combinations are trendy, and many of them are already out of date (book copyright is 1998).

The last chapter is particularly useful: it has explanations of the procedures and equipment used throughout the book. My only complaint here is that marzipan and almond paste certainly are not the same thing, nor are they interchangeable. It is here, buried at the end of the section on measuring, that you discover how flour is measured for the recipes (they use dip and sweep).

Rating:
Summary: beautiful pictures, original desserts
Review: Book covers: basics (genoise, meringue, puff pastry, ladyfingers, tart dough, cinnamon dough, + some fillings), fruit desserts (includes chocolate creams, ice cream, lemon crepes, tuiles, cookies), tarts (includes lemon tart, apple galette, rice tart w/fruit, lots of stuff with pears, orange tarts) , cakes (includes easy ones like lemon loafs, chocolate cakes, then moving on to fancy ones), and some explanation of terms, techniques, equipment and ingredients.

I own 8 baking books The pictures are really nice. The other thing that stands out about this book is the exotic nature of some of the recipes - a rice tart? Mascarpone/blueberry/ladyfinger cake? Herme uses a lot of exotic fruits such as passion fruit, figs, and currants (which are hard to get here in parts of the USA). In doing so, I think this book shows you a lot of things that other don't. I feel the level of the book is for somewhere slightly above beginner. There are some easy recipes in this book and some very time consuming ones as well so there is a big range there. Overall, the strengths of this book are the great photography, innovative recipes, and new ways that the reader will look at designing desserts. Even if you have a lot of baking books already, this one will help you see things in a new way. On the other hand, if it's the ONLY dessert book you own, I'm not sure it will help you see baking in a systematic orderly way as "Baking with Julia" is or one of the cake or pie/pastry bibles.

Rating:
Summary: A lovely presentation of ho-hum recipes
Review: Certainly this is a lovely book. However many of the recipes are nothing new (crepes, loaf cakes,pastry dough, genoise) or consist of adding an ubiquitous lemon cream to the crepes,pastry, etc. It does not compare in interest and clarity of exlanations with, for instance, Alice Medrich's "Cocolat". Overall, I was disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: "Disses those of us who measure by weight
Review: Here's my 2¢ worth on the Pierre Herme/Dorrie Greenspan book: It doesn't give measurements by weight. What's more, Pierre's recipes have been corrupted by, not just failing to convert them with standard conversions, but by reformulating them for measurements by volume. Dorrie said (in a class Pierre gave at DeGustibus in New York) that she changed Pierre's measurements by some method that leaves her with no choice but to include a disclaimer in the book not to convert her measurements back to weight. Without getting into the great benefits of measuring by weight or disservice she does us by omitting them as well as changing Pierre's recipes, she sets herself above the great teachers who taught many of us to bake, cookbook in one hand whisk in the other. Flo Braker, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, Rose Levy Beranbaum Cake Bible and the others she's written. Not to mention Gaston LeNotre. Even Jacques Torres' new book. Every one of them gives recipes by weight out of respect for us who learned that way and encourages the rest of us to learn to do so. But Dorrie is "dissing" us. She says we're not her readers. Her readers have never learned to bake. Her readers will never learn to bake. Or so she says. They just follow recipes. How else does she corrupt Pierre's recipes? By changing ingredients that she thinks we will not take the extra step to buy instead of suggesting a substitute? By changing methods and techniques she thinks we don't know (since we have never learned to bake) instead of teaching us? Well, you get the point. "

Rating:
Summary: involved but original recipes
Review: Herme's book has a lot of delicious-sounding recipes for pastry, but it just seems too complicated. One particularly yummy-sounding recipe contains apples cooked with butter and sugar for 10 hours and combined with cinnamon pastry, genoise, and (I think) a bavarian cream filling. I think I'll wait until I can get to Fauchon in Paris to try his creations, though. Also, there aren't pictures for every dessert, which is a little annoying when the recipes are so involved. Still, if you like to spend hours creating a dessert based on 5 other recipes, you might want to buy this book! I would recommend Simply Sensational Desserts or The Village Baker's Wife over this.