cover image Good Housekeeping Best-Loved Desserts

Good Housekeeping Best-Loved Desserts

, . . Hearst, $29.95 (381pp) ISBN 978-1-58816-550-3

With its red recipe titles, wavy blue rules that might have been cut with a pastry crimp and lots of white space on every page, this Good Housekeeping compendium fairly shouts All-American bake sale. This is the place to look for clear, simple instructions on how to make Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chewy Gingersnaps and Strawberry Shortcake. But some of the best recipes in the book are the exception to the rubric—for instance, an Upside-Down Apple Tart (Tarte Tatin) that uses a short crust, not a puff pastry. The editors tell you what and how; they do not tell you why—even when it comes to their far-reaching, against-the-grain decision to base all recipes on salted butter (those who neglect to read up on fats in the introduction may get slightly different results from those intended). This is nevertheless a solid dessert cookbook. (Apr.)