Simple Desserts

All-dessert cookbooks often fill me with trepidation. The book cover usually features a photograph of some dessert guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of even the most intrepid baker, and recipes that promise to be the soul of simplicity frequently reveal themselves to be of a nature as involved and delicate as I would imagine hostage negotiations to be. Ken Haedrich's "Simple Desserts" looked as though it might actually fulfill the promise held by its title. Of course I expected that the book would hold at least a few recipes that required more than the attention span of a gnat; after all, if a book like "Simple Desserts" were 100% true to its title, you would open it to find one-sentence recipes along the lines of, "Have a nice apple." As early as page 32, though, things begin to unravel. Haedrich succumbs to the temptation of including a Mocha Brownie Cheesecake recipe he developed while making restaurant cheesecakes for a living. He semi-apologetically writes:" . . . this is not a snap to make . . . you must bake a crust and brownies ahead, and make the icing if you're using it . . ." Haedrich also includes a recipe for Dark Chocolate Fruitcake which requires a whopping 19 ingredients and an overnight rest, and a recipe for Steamed Black Chocolate Cake which, while it sounds lovely to eat, sounds ridiculous to make (lots of melting and cooling of different ingredients, a two-hour steam bath, and lots of checking of the water level during said steam bath. I would imagine that along with this comes lots of chewing of the fingernails). The Lemon Cheesecake Tartlets require the following:"Cut 12 strips of wax paper 6 inches long by 3/4 inch wide. Press 1 strip into each [muffin] cup, neatly tucked into the bottom seams. It should run down the sides and across the bottom, with an even overhang on each side of the cup."Just the thought of having to do this makes me want to go stick my head out the window and scream. You may rest assured that, delectable though they may be, these Lemon Cheesecake Tartlets will not be made anytime soon by yours truly. Haedrich thinks nothing of asking you to let a dessert sit before serving, frequently overnight, and fully half of his cookie recipes call for refrigerating the dough before baking. In another cookbook, none of this would offend me in the slightest, but in one bearing the sunny subtitle of "Sweet Endings with a Carefree Spirit," I have to say that sweet endings of this ilk make my carefree spirit start to deflate.I have nothing against any of Haedrich's recipes themselves; they look fine, and some even have wonderful twists on the usual (Orange and Toasted Coconut Crème Brûlée and Semolina Cake with Olive Oil are among the many that intrigued me). I do, however, have to take exception to the fact that quite a number of these were included in a book with the title "Simple Desserts." Certainly, simplicity is in the eye of the beholder--but it is fair to say that in order to really fit