Who Wants Seconds?

Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are poised to release their second cookbook this week and I couldn't be more excited about its subject: desserts! Their first offering, The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, which was published in 2011, was a tremendous hit, sold internationally with excellent reviews from critics and readers alike. The ‘heirloom’ function of the book, which is designed to be interactive, makes it extremely special among cookbooks. Amidst the pages are envelopes for readers to keep and collect their own cherished recipes and my copy is now stuffed with several of my mother’s handwritten family recipes for some of her most treasured (and delicious) dishes: my great grandmother’s plum pudding, my grandmother’s christmas cake, my aunt’s cherry squares and my uncle’s tabouleh, plus many more of my own favourites gathered over the years from friends.

That so many of the recipes I’ve held on to and love are recipes for desserts is no coincidence. Desserts, for me, have the biggest impact on my childhood food memories: chocolate icing on my birthday cakes, the warm apple filling in my grandmother’s pie at Thanksgiving, and all that Christmas baking!

The Beekman 1802Heirloom Dessert Cookbook, which comes out on Tuesday, contains Brent and Josh’s favourite dessert recipes, compiled with the help of food editor Sandy Gluck, formerly of Everyday Food magazine. The photographs, by PauletteTavormina, look as decadent as the desserts themselves: moody, rich and enticing. The book is organized seasonally (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring) with recipes that make the most of the season's freshest ingredients and contains the same treasure-keeping envelopes for amassing your own collection of family heirloom recipes with blank pages for additional notes and instructions.

Among the recipes are peach cobbler biscuits, banana pudding with vanilla wafers, one-bowl chocolate almond cake, baked manhattan ice-cream cake (can you imagine?!), plum upside-down cake, creamsicle pound cake, German chocolate cake and oatmeal cream pies with ginger cream. Dig in!