Looking for dessert inspiration? These books, arriving just in time for holiday menu planning, will ensure that every meal has a delicious ending.
– “The Artful Pie: Unforgettable Recipes for Creative Cooks,” by Lisa Cherkasky and Renee Comet (Chapters Publishing, $24.95): It’s hard to tell where to put this book-on the cookbook shelf, because of its recipes for 38 creative pies and a selection of interesting pie doughs (cocoa pastry, for one), or on the art shelf, because each pie is photographed against a work of art created just for the book. This volume is a winner on both counts.
– “Little Pie Company of the Big Apple: Pies and Other Dessert Favorites,” by Arnold Wilkerson, Patricia Henly and Michael Deraney with Evie Righter (HarperPerennial, $14): The Manhattan bakery will win fans nationwide with this marvelous collection of desserts. Detailed explanations leave nothing to chance. The pies (caramel apple, pear raspberry and cranberry raisin, among them) and cakes (applesauce carrot, cranberry ginger coffee cake and pineapple upside-down cake, for starters) will become favorites in short order.
– “A Piece of Cake,” by Susan G. Purdy (Collier Books, $15): Now in paperback, this baking classic, with about 400 recipes, includes cakes to suit every occasion, from an old-fashioned country coffee cake to an elegant wedding cake. There are also sections on icings and frostings, cake decorating-even lists of suppliers of special ingredients and equipment.
– “Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking” (Viking, $25): Everything you ever wanted to know about baking can be found within the 500 pages of this book. Its informative text has step-by-step color photographs, highlighted hints for recipe success, reference charts and some 700 recipes. Front and back flyleafs have handy lists of emergency substitutions, equivalent weights and measures, and freezing guidelines.
– “Dessert in Half the Time,” by Linda West Eckhardt and Diana Collingwood Butts (Crown, $25): With everything else you’ve got to do during the holiday season, this book can be a lifesaver. Recipes make the most of food processors and microwaves to speed preparation without sacrificing flavor.
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– “Anne Willan’s Look & Cook Delicious Desserts” (Dorling Kindersley, $19.95): The Look & Cook format features four to six full-color pages for each recipe and its variations, with equipment, ingredients and each step of the way carefully photographed. Spark up holiday dinners with such desserts as chocolate decadence with raspberry coulis, chestnut or chocolate napoleons, and apple and almond galettes.
– “365 Great Cookies & Brownies,” by Joanne Lamb Hayes and Bonnie Tandy Leblang (HarperCollins, $16.95) What’s Christmas without cookies? Or any other holiday, for that matter? But then again, who needs a special occasion to dive into this yummy collection, which includes the likes of mint chocolate logs, molasses spice kisses, cherry spirals, peanut butter brownie sandwiches and cookie candy canes.