Review: So Sweet!

Summary: Proving that life is indeed oh So Sweet! cooking authority Sur La Table offers 50 fabulously sweet recipes with intriguing flavor combinations. From cookies and cupcakes to doughnuts and whoopie pies, you'll find them all in this attractive and giftable full-color package.

Gathered inside So Sweet! are 50 mouthwatering baking recipes presented alongside photographs of tasty treats such as Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars, Boston Cream Upside Down Cupcakes, and Strawberry with Lemonade Filling Whoopie Pies, as well as Blueberry Buttermilk Doughnuts with Orange Glaze, Cherry Oatmeal Cookies, and Chocolate-Mint Cupcakes. And just in case you're uncertain what your sweet tooth is craving, a handy flavor profile reveals whether you're in the mood for sweet, salty, chocolatey, fruity, or nutty. Remind yourself of the sweeter side of life with So Sweet! -- Andrews McMeel

I am always a sucker for cute cookbooks. And SO SWEET! COOKIES, CUPCAKES, WHOOPIE PIES, AND MORE certainly fits the bill. I immediately fell in love with this adorable little cookbook (it's about 7x7 inches.) However, it was when I started skimming through the book that I knew it was a winner!

SO SWEET! is a Sur la table cookbook and it definitely lives up to what I've come to expect from their recipes. It is filled with 50 fabulous recipes for all things sweet. There are chapters for cookies, cupcakes, whoopie pies and doughnuts. And I'd be hard pressed to pick my favorite section. I probably liked the whoopie pie section the most, but I did appreciate having recipes for a wide variety of baked doughnuts! That's not something you see in most cookbooks!

Just to give you an idea of the amazing recipes in this cookbook (and, at the same time, tempt you and make you very hungry), here's a list of the ones that appealed to me: Peanut Butter Thumbprints with Peanut Caramel, Tiramisu Cupcakes, Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting, Kahlua and Cream Whoopie Pies, Black Forest Whoopie Pies, Peanut Butter Doughnuts, and Snowball Doughnuts. Suffice it to say, I could easily have listed another dozen or so!

In addition to loads of delicious-sounding recipes, I loved the photographs in this book. Everything was so pretty and there were pictures for almost every recipe. I also liked the layout of the book. It was very easy-to-read and the directions were very clear. I especially appreciated that the list of ingredient lists was in a separate colored bar on the edges of the pages for quick access. There were also some helpful tips like freezing instructions as well as some recipe variation ideas.

Since there was no way that I could pick just one recipe to try, I handed the cookbook to my husband and asked him to pick out a recipe. (This also had another hidden benefit: I wouldn't end up eating the entire batch of goodies by myself.) He only got to the third recipe when he found "the winner." He requested the Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies. I was on board with this because who doesn't want to find a great chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Although this recipe for chocolate chip cookies didn't give me the "traditional" cookie, I still thought they were very good. The cookies were thin and crunchy, and I absolutely loved the saltiness of them. I also liked that the recipe called for mini chocolate chips because I don't love biting into cookies with the full-size ones. And finally, I loved that the secret ingredient (crushed cornflakes) gave it such a great texture. Definitely yummy! However, there was one slight problem with this recipe... it made eight dozen cookies. That isn't inherently a problem, but it is for me -- I don't want to eat that many cookies! The recipe said that it makes 25 big cookies, but I don't think I realized how many normal sized cookies that equal. I ended up taking two dozen to my husband's poker buddies and giving another two dozen to a friend. And we're still left with a lot of cookies! At least they are delicious!

If you'd like to get an idea of a few recipes in the cookbook, you can take a peek at the recipes for Raspberry-Cherry Crumble Bars and Blueberry Buttermilk Doughnuts. I swear that almost every recipe in this cookbook appealed to me. Believe me when I tell you that you'd be hard pressed to look through So SWEET! and not find multiple recipes that you'd want to try. I'm still drooling over this cookbook on my third go-round; and I just might have to make the Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Filling in the very near future!

SO SWEET! will be available this week -- October 4th. It's a fun cookbook loaded with lots of decadent recipes and I can pretty much guarantee that sweet-tooths everywhere will love it.

Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this cookbook.
 
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