The Sweet Life
Kate Bracks
Ebury Press
“Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not.” An apparently anonymous quotation which enjoys perennial popularity whenever the subject of dessert comes up. The collection in this appealing hardback adds up to an irresistible choice that ranges from downhome favourites like apple pie through classics such as strawberry mousse to contemporary creations that include vincotto figs with caramelised walnuts and mascarpone.
Kate Bracks adds her own twists to many a standby favourite, creating items like brown butter cheesecake and “sandwiches” of chocolate filled with peanut butter icecream.
She’s the MasterChef Australia Season 3 winner and, judging from her picture on the front cover, she looks like a person most of us would choose to be our cookery teacher. Then on the back flap you read that not only is she a winning chef and dessert fundi, but also a primary school teacher who lives in New South Wales with husband Luke and three children.
Which explains why reading this title comes across as a delicious series of cookery lessons. Bracks organises her text into chapters that start with the basics for a particular dessert technique. Once mastered, they can be built on to create the more complex recipes in that section. Along with notes and tips, she includes a difficulty rating – ranging from one to four wooden spoons – to guide beginners and nervous cooks.
Contents start with syrups and sauces, follow with meringues, custards, icecreams and sorbets and frozen desserts. Finales using gelatine make one chapter, pastry another and cakes and baked puddings share a section. Bracks offers a choice of pear, maple and macadamia upside-down cake, iced individual retro coffee cakes, (the first dish she produced for MasterChef) and an easy melt-and-mix chocolate cake. She finishes with a trio of sweet endings, mouthwatering professional finales good enough for upmarket restaurants. These include her favourite, a chocolate terrine with spiced praline, mandarin oil and crème fraîche.
Bracks says in her introduction that her parents laugh at the fact that she is a foodie, as she did not enjoy a good relationship with food as a child. She hated vegetables, ate only one type of meat and refused to try anything new. But she was always ready to enjoy sweet treats, and cooking and scoffing these still give her the most pleasure today. There are plenty who would agree with her.
Most of the recipes are illustrated with mouthwatering photographs. The recipes are indexed and, in addition, there are indices of gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free desserts. - Weekend Argus