In Medrich’s book, the essential flavors of milk, butter, cream, chocolate, or fresh cheese should shine through on their own. This can fall flat if your ingredients aren’t top quality. Most have the familiar butter, sugar, eggs, etc., but you might want to stock up on lavender, chestnut flour, specialty sugars, and whole-grain flours, and find a source for local or artisan, not supermarket, ricotta. Quality chocolate also is essential; Medrich authored several chocolate cookbooks and ran a shop called Cocolat. It’s her passion. She gives the best explanation of cacao nibs I’ve ever come across. Nibs are chocolate essence – chopped-up roasted beans – and now a trendy ingredient, used much as nuts are. Medrich has a whimsical but totally unhelpful way of classifying her recipes. It’s non-intuitive for this reader, at least. They are arranged not by type (cakes, cookies, candies, syrups, frozen desserts, etc.) but by theme, such as The Flavors of Fruit or The Flavors of Grains, Nuts and Seeds. For example, we
TROPICAL CINNAMON TOASTS
find Lavender Tuiles, a cookie, in the section poetically entitled The Flavors of Herbs, Spices, Flowers and Leaves, which also has a difficult lavender caramel sauce and vanilla caramel candies. In The Flavors of Sugar and Honey, you could put just about any recipe. It’s easier to go straight to the index; the chapters are poetic but make no sense. If the informative commentary wasn’t printed in pale gray on a difficult-toread pallid-lavender background, it would be more helpful. Topics such as Why Bother? explain why homemade is so much better than anything purchased, and why it’s always worth the effort ... yes, we should make it. Whole grains also appear, and she explains why and how they work well in the right recipes, such as the very buttery Whole Wheat Sables or the pound cake made with Kamut flour. Tag the Chilled Oranges in Rum Caramel Syrup – just three ingredients but with a lovely flavor and presentation. Panforte Nero is her beautifully spiced, cocoa-enriched version of the Sienese fruit-and-nut confection that keeps for months. It’s one of the easier recipes. Her directions are clear, explicit and detailed; she is a perfectionist, and wants her readers to achieve perfection. If you read through carefully and practice, it’s almost better than attending cooking classes – no one will see your mistakes. ■
4-6 fresh or slightly stale baguette slices, sliced on the diagonal up to 1 inch thick and 6 inches long for maximum drama 2 tablespoons firmly packed raw sugar, or brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened Pinch of salt Place the bread on a baking sheet and preheat the broiler with rack 4-5 inches from the heating element. Mix sugar, cinnamon, butter, and salt together. Spread on the bread. Broil until edges of the bread are dark brown and sugar is bubbly. Serve at once.
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excerpted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Publishers
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