Retro Desserts: Totally Hip, Updated Classic Desserts from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s
by Wayne Harley Brachman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Wayne Harley BrachmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-04-26
ISBN: 0688164447
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Book Reviews of Retro Desserts: Totally Hip, Updated Classic Desserts from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s
Book Review: Retro Results and Humor with First Class Recipes
Summary: 5 Stars
`Retro Desserts' by Wayne Harley Brachman, noted Bobby Flay pastry chef and colleague, is, with no great surprise to me, about as much like similarly titled kitsch books as the Stephen Spielberg movie, `Raiders of the Lost Ark' is like the 12 episode adventure serials of the 1930's it was meant to glorify.
I recently reviewed a `Retro Baking' volume that is part of a whole series of `Retro' titles. This has all the faults you may expect in such a title, all the faults which Brachman's book avoids with great aplomb.
As I noted in my review of Brachman's most recent work, `American Desserts', Wayne is one of only two major culinary writer / educators who successfully incorporates humor into their work, the other being Food Network colleague Alton Brown. Thankfully, their humor is so different from one another that you can enjoy both without hearing echos of one in the other. While Alton Brown emulates Stan Freberg and Ernie Kovacs, Wayne Harley Brachman takes his inspiration from Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks. So much for the review of comedy in this book.
The creativity with the baking is really the main attraction. This is important because Brachman is not taking from the gemutlichkeit of the past to add luster to his book, he is giving to us an understanding of past famous desserts with master class level recipes making all recipes from scratch materials rather than the baking mixes which began being marketed in the 1940s and 1950s. This is not a gimmick or a deviation from message. These recipes were, in fact, presented by the baking product companies, as is, to create markets for their base products to compete with Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines. One of the few deviations from true retro recipes is to use cooked eggs rather than raw whenever possible to eliminate any lurking salmonella from contaminated eggs. Otherwise, in the introduction, Brachman states that almost all recipes were reformulated from `authentic period recipes collected from vintage magazines,...'. Some are composites of several recipes and `in a few cases, they are actually retro fakes'. But this really doesn't matter, since except for chapter six (see below), the real attraction of these recipes is the high quality of Brachman's `from scratch' recipe and the retro presentations which will fit so well into a 50's entertaining scheme.
The very reasonably priced book, with a list price of $30, has ten chapters, presenting ten different types of recipes. Practically the only argument I have with the book is that the sixth chapter, `The Posh Nosh - Classic Desserts of the Fancy-Pants Restaurants' should have been first, since the recipes in this chapter are by far the most recognizable to 21st century survivors of the last mid-century. The stars of this chapter are Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster, Strawberries Romanoff, Crepes Suzette, Baked Alaska, Peach Melba, Belgian Waffles, and Fondues. A sidebar at the end of this chapter contains my only other disappointment with this book. This blurb lists TV and Movie stars of the recent past and their famous dessert recipe names, with no mention of Danny Kaye, who was, by all accounts, a gourmet cook of the first magnitude.
The other chapters, beginning with the first, are:
`Perfect, Every Time You Bake. Cake...After Cake...After Cake'
`If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd Have Baked A Dozen Cupcakes'
`When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like...' Pies, of course.
`Fruit Cocktails for Two'
`I Tawt I Taw A Pudding Tat'
`Cookie, Cookie, Lend Me Your Comb'
`For Whom the Ice Cream Bell Tolls'
`Willy Wonka, Eat Your Heart Out' on candies and other kids stuff.
`Sauces and Goops', ten retro standard sweet sauces.
Two samples of Brachman's seriously professional technique is his instruction to triple sift all dry ingredients and to butter the bottom of baking pans AND line them with buttered parchment paper. And, since Brachman is entirely self-taught, I am certain he is recommending these techniques from personal experience rather than parroting some cooking school doctrine. This is not to say that Brachman is not giving serious instruction here. He does not belabor accurate measurement, but he does strongly emphasize good organization and laying out measured ingredients in advance. While baking demands high accuracy in measuring weights and volumes, it also requires high accuracy, or at least a high level of attention to time. When you are working with hot sugar or warmed chocolate, things can go from good to bad in seconds.
A symptom of how seriously adult these recipes are is the high incidence of alcoholic ingredients in the recipes. This book is most definitely not kids stuff, even if almost all the alcohol burns off when the desserts are baked. This is not to say there are no kid friendly recipes here. My favorites are the recipes for making marshmallow from scratch and the recipes for ice cream dishes, which do not include making ice cream from scratch.
The success with which Brachman captures the retro spirit of these desserts easily doubles the naturally high value of the recipes in this book. Just as an expert's recipes for sandwiches (Nancy Silverton) and preserves (Christine Ferber) will come as a total surprise to entertained guests. They may expect a coq au vin recipe from Julia Child or Thomas Keller, but they will not expect A-Team effort on the sideboard dishes.
Please take Nick Malgieri's blurb with a grain of salt, as these baking recipes are not necessarily easy. They are just as difficult as they need to be to present first rate baked goods.
Brachman's philosophy may be summed up on page 88 where he says `Humans are the only animals that actually seek out and prefer foods that don't taste good... Here's my point: Healthy can and should be tasty. Fun is good.'
And yes, dear reader, this book is fun and good, very, very good. Buy this book to help learn how to bake.
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Summary of Retro Desserts: Totally Hip, Updated Classic Desserts from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s
In "Retro Dessets, " Wayne Brachman, executive pastry chef at New York's Mesa Grill and Bolo, presents the desserts you loved as a kid--only better. It's time for a trip down to memory-lane bakery, where the old fashioned desserts of yesterday have been revamped for today's kitchen. Imagine homemade cream-filled chocolate cupcakes (you know, the ones with white squiggles on top) or big, fluffy coconut layer cake that Mrs. Cleaver would be proud of. Or impress your guests with a totally hot and cool baked Alaska. They're all here in all their retro glory.
These desserts may be fun, but they have been created with a professional's eye and palate--they taste as good as they look and vice versa. Instead of the little packaged boxes of instant ingredients that were the start of many midcentury desserts, in "Retro Desserts" you'll find homemade gelatin salads (come on, admit you love them) made with real fruit juice and fresh fruit, comforting puddings, and marshmallows. Now you can fill your cookie jar with homemade versions of Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla-Cream Filling, Vanilla Wafers, and Animal Cookies. Wayne gives the best-ever recipes for classics such as Strawberry Chiffon Pie, Banana Pudding (made with your fresh-baked Vanilla Wafers), Chow Mein-Noodle Haystacks, and Diner-Style Strawberry Shortcake.
"Retro Desserts" is as much a cultural history of the American sweet tooth as it is an indispensable cookbook. It's a blast to read and jammed with outasight recipes.Ever find yourself dreaming about a big fluffy coconut layer cake like the one Mom might make if you lived in "Leave It to Beaver"-land? Or Cream-Filled Devil's Food Cupcakes that don't taste like the plastic and cardboard they are wrapped in? Well, now you can bake these cakes and eat them, too.
Wayne Brachman, executive pastry chef for Bobby Flay's popular New York restaurants, presents this totally hip collection of recipes, "Retro Desserts." Inspired by classics from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, these fabulous desserts look just as great as you remember, and taste even better. It's a trip down to memory lane bakery, where kitsch desserts of yesterday have been revamped for the sophisticated kitchen of today. Updated classics include Chocolate Blackout Cake, Checkerboard Cake, Baked Alaska, and Cherries Jubilee. Other recipes include wild creations based on old-fashioned flavors, like Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Banana Bon Bons, Rum and Cherry Cola Marble Cake, and Caramel Apple Chiffon Cupcakes.
Showcased by retro-style full-color photography and artwork, headlines and excerpts taken from vintage magazines and cookbooks, these are well-tested, seriously fun desserts that really work in your home kitchen, making "Retro Desserts" a valuable addition to every home baker's cookbook collection.Ever find yourself dreaming about a big fluffy coconut layer cake like the one Mom might make if you lived in "Leave It to Beaver"-land? Or Cream-Filled Devil's Food Cupcakes that don't taste like the plastic and cardboard they are wrapped in? Well, now you can bake these cakes and eat them, too.
Wayne Brachman, executive pastry chef for Bobby Flay's popular New York restaurants, presents this totally hip collection of recipes, "Retro Desserts." Inspired by classics from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, these fabulous desserts look just as great as you remember, and taste even better. It's a trip down to memory lane bakery, where kitsch desserts of yesterday have been revamped for the sophisticated kitchen of today. Updated classics include Chocolate Blackout Cake, Checkerboard Cake, Baked Alaska, and Cherries Jubilee. Other recipes include wild creations based on old-fashioned flavors, like Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Banana Bon Bons, Rum and Cherry Cola Marble Cake, and Caramel Apple Chiffon Cupcakes.
Showcased by retro-style full-color photography and artwork, headlines and excerpts taken from vintage magazines and cookbooks, these are well-tested, seriously fun desserts that really work in your home kitchen, making "Retro Desserts" a valuable addition to every home baker's cookbook collection.
Tired of tiramisu? Good. Wayne Brachman to the rescue. He's the pastry chef for Bobby Flay at Mesa Grill and Bolo in New York City. For Retro Desserts Brachman has culled food magazines, newspapers, cookbooks, leaflets, and the like from the 1940s to the early 1970s for the classics of American dessert kitsch, turning up one horrid treasure after another. The most frightening aspect of this book is the urge that comes with each turning page to get into the kitchen and start baking, stirring, cooking, and re-creating. Why would anyone want to bake a Crazy Craters of the Moon Cake with Moonrock Topping? (Miniature marshmallows--that's the secret of the topping.) But then Brachman shows you how to make your own marshmallow, reconstructing this entire processed dessert from scratch. "If you must," he writes, "go out and get store-bought cookies or crumbs [for pie crusts]. OK, it's extra work, but homemade cookie crumbs make a remarkably big difference in flavor." There are recipes for the home-baked equivalent of the Oreo and Cream-Filled Devil's Food Cupcakes, as well as Strawberry Chiffon Pie, Banana Pudding, Bananas Foster, Strawberries Romanoff, Lemon Bars, and Cornflake Macaroons--all illustrated with the kitsch of the time. Fun as they all sound, the recipes bear the integrity of a fine pastry chef who obviously likes a good time but is also serious about what he brings to the table. Those may look like Ding Dongs you are serving at your next dinner party, but wait until the flavor kicks in. --Schuyler Ingle
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