Caramel: Recipes for Deliciously Gooey Desserts

Rating:
Summary: I melt for caramel
Review: When I found out there was a caramel cookbook from Chronicle Books, I immediately got a copy. One of my favorite flavors combined with one of my favorite cookbook publishers--how could I go wrong? As usual, Chronicle did not disappoint; cookbook author Peggy Cullen and food photographer Maren Caruso have served up one of the most decadent cookbooks since Marcel Desaulniers' Death by Chocolate series.

Caramelizing sugar can be tough. It can burn in seconds. It can seize up. However, I saw an episode of Alton Brown's TV show "Good Eats" that dealt with the subject. Alton and food scientist Shirley O. Corriher explained lots of science about sugar crystals, the upshot of which is: include a little light corn syrup and your caramel won't seize up. That simple. I checked right away, and the caramel recipe here calls for a few drops of lemon juice or a little light corn syrup; I was satisfied that the author knew her stuff.

I headed for recipes that looked like challenges--ones I was a bit dubious about. I inherently love caramel, so this cookbook has an unfair advantage when being judged. The nut brittle (I'm not overly fond of nuts nor the sickly-sweetness of most brittles) bowled me over; I couldn't stop eating it. The pears poached in port wine sauce (I'm not thrilled about the taste of alcohol either) were delicious.

Recipes range from the elegant (fresh figs with caramel and creme fraiche) to the simple (caramel popcorn), time-consuming (chocolate-caramel crunch cake) to quick (caramel dessert sauce). There are classics like creme caramel, creme brulee, buttercrunch toffee, and nut praline. There are also plenty of things I haven't seen in other cookbooks, like caramelized banana split-second sundae, caramel-roasted strawberry shortcakes, and chocolate souffle roulade with caramel whipped cream. (And oh, the caramel peach-bottom babycakes are wonderful!)

I can't think of a single negative thing to say about this cookbook. Cooks who aren't confident in the kitchen and prefer to keep things simple would find many of the recipes too complex, but even they could play with things like the nut brittle, caramel sauce and caramel popcorn. Some people might not be thrilled by the price-to-number of recipes ratio (roughly 50 recipes not including variations and decorations), but this book has a value that the flat number of recipes can't convey.

Cullen demystifies caramel and turns it into something doable--even easy for more experienced cooks. And that's pure, luxurious, delectable magic.