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Hardcover
Publisher: Studio
A baking book from “one of the best pastry shops in all of New York” (Food and Wine)
Everyone has a favorite sweet treat. Whether it’s a delicious brownie or the perfect mouthwatering chocolate chip cookie, simple, homespun treats are some of our most beloved. Melissa Murphy has a love of desserts that started when she was born on Thanksgiving Day—her mother refused to go to the hospital until the two pies she’d baked had been served. Now, Melissa brings that passion to the loyal devotees of her popular, award-winning Sweet Melissa Pâtisserie shops.
What makes Melissa’s desserts and pastries special is that they are treats we all know and love with a fresh spin that make them more delicious than ever before. In The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, Melissa shares her simple, triedand-true techniques and her French-influenced, American- style baking approach. There are desserts for everyday, such as Double Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies, and for more special occasions.
Warm and spirited, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book also contains charming anecdotes from Melissa’s life of baking. With more than one hundred recipes, the simple treats in this book will make each day and every special occasion sweeter.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A Purchase Well Spent |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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On first glance, this book is a slightly smaller than the average
glossy cookbook, you know the kind - almost ready to feature as
a coffee table book, rather than a cookbook that goes on your shelf.
That kind of cookbook has really become a standard trend.
Unlike allot of other cookbooks, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book gets right to the point. There is no lengthy forward, just a few pages mentioning Melissa Murphy's schooling and where she has gotten her restaurant experience.
She explains her love of baking and why she bakes certain items at her bake shop - Sweet Melissa Patissarie in New York, which has been going strong for 10 yrs .
Reading the forward is enough to make you love this cookbook even more. The forward really sets the tone, and you began to see Melissa's thoughtfulness shine through in each and every recipe she features in this book. The recipes are all easy to follow and have detailed instructions from the procedure, through baking of the final product.
When it comes to cookbooks the trend is to have a glossy full size picture on every other page. This sometimes can deter the purpose of a cookbook - to showcase the recipe it's self. The Sweet Melissa Baking Book is mainly recipes, with a short insert of assorted glossy pictures, but the pictures in noway detract from the main purpose of this cookbook.
As for skill level, I would say that this book is great for all skill levels --- just pack a love of baking and an attention to details, so your recipes will come out just as yummy as they sound in this book.
As you start to delve into the contents, you will notice throughout the book Melissa offers her commentary with personal antidotes on how she feels about the baked goods, she features in each chapter. Also throughout the book there are special notations with instructions to "do it like the pros".
My favorite recipes from this book include: Hot Pepper Muffins with Orange Maple Butter ; Guinness Gingerbread; and Raised Waffles with warm brown sugar bananas,Pear Cranberry Pie with Ginger Snap Crust, Strawberry-Ruby Grapefruit preserves.
I think that The Sweet Melissa Baking Book is a purchase well spent. It will become a favorite addition to any cookbook or baking library.
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| So far, so sweet! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I love this book! Melissa is gifted and I appreciate her sharing these lovely recipes. As far as dessert books go, it is kind of humble--no lavish photography--but the straightforward recipes make up for it. I have a ton of great dessert books causing my kitchen and sunroom bookshelves to buckle, but could not resist adding this one when I read about it online. I received it on Thursday and by today (Monday), I have made the banana bread and the chocolate sour-cherry cookies. Both are fabulous. (BTW, Melissa is right, the blacker the banana, the better.) My husband is diabetic (a great irony for a sweets lover and baker like me), so i cut down the sugar in the banana bread to 1/4 cup......it is just so delicious. I used blood oranges for the fresh orange juice the recipe calls for. The chocolate cookies are my favorite kind of recipe--rich, chocolate and shaped into logs that can be kept in the freezer. On schoolday mornings,I can bake one or two for my daughter's lunch--as I did today. (She is in seventh grade.) I cannot wait to try the black-bottom brownies and the espresso cheesecake. Yum!!!
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| A gem of a baking book! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Visually lovely book enhances the reading of some delicious recipe treasures that Miss Murphy shares with the reader. Her anecdotes of childhood memories make for pleasant and heartwarming reading. The coconut custard pie is one of the best I've ever made. I had the pleasure of buying and giving the book to several women in my family.
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| Delicious Bites of Goodness |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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As a devotee of the madeleines at Sweet Melissa, I was excited to try her recipe from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. I'm not someone who just happens to have things like madeleine molds or hazelnuts just laying around the house. Nor am I a gifted separator of egg whites or recipe follower. However, after two hours of refrigeration and fifteen minutes in the oven, 24 perfect chestnut honey madeleines lay cooling on my kitchen counter. Moist, sweet, and perfect for dusting with sugar. Though my version was not quite as good as the one Melissa makes in her bakery, I place the blame squarely on my shoulders. Her recipe was clear and easy, and the madeleines were believably baked by a pro.
This is my first (only) dessert cookbook, and I don't think I'll need another.
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| Outstanding! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Oh, I cannot tell you enough how much I am enjoying "The Sweet Melissa Baking Book". Especially, The Chocolate Malted Layer Cake ...oh does it live up to its name. It has a whole cup of malted milk powder in the frosting. I could have ate the icing with a spoon and then died utterly content. The cake is moist, tender and absolutely chocolate-y. Paired together, it's a too die for combination.
There are a myriad of recipes in the book that I want try. So many recipes, so little post-its. Yes, the book is under attack by post-its. Almost every single recipe has a post-it on it to remind me "I must try this soon".
There are over a 100 recipes in the book! The book is divided into six chapters: dessert for breakfast, after school snacks, birthday, and gifts and so on. The recipes are written in a manner that allows one to "set-up" their "mise en place". Melissa even offers "pro-tips" which I found extremely helpful. Simply a great book packed full of recipes and tips that can only lead to stunning delicious desserts.
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