Description:
If you are tired of the same old desserts, and if you have ready access to a wide variety of fresh, sweet herbs (various basils, lemon thyme, tarragon, lavender, anise hyssop, and the like), Desserts from an Herb Garden will have you experimenting away in the kitchen in no time. The trick is the herbs. Author Sharon Kebschull Barrett says right up front that except for lavender, all the herbs she uses in her recipes are fresh, and there's no point in trying to substitute dried. Fortunately, there are a number of recipes that call for sweet basil and for mint, two herbs that most stores carry fresh. Try the Apple-Basil Cake or the Blueberry-Mint Layer Cake. Or the Mint Julep Truffles. If those recipes catch your attention, you may find yourself putting in a small herb garden, or investing in window boxes and pots big enough to hold several herbs. Barrett gives her thoughts on the growing and cultivation of herbs. She notes that any herbs she grows indoors are always milder that the those she grows outdoors. And this leads to a basic rule of thumb: taste your herbs before you use them. The book is divided into sections on Cookies and Candies; Cakes of All Kinds; Pies, Tarts, and Tortes; Crisps, Cobblers, Custards, and Puddings; Frozen Desserts; and Plated Desserts. The flavors Barrett combines may challenge your previous conceptions of dessert--look inside for Cinnamon Basil Polenta Cookies, Cilantro Peach Cobbler, Chocolate-Lime Bread Pudding, and more. Desserts from an Herb Garden may well be a portal to a whole new world, where the garden and the kitchen meet to spin fantasies of flavor. --Schuyler Ingle
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