Megan Carle - Teens Cook Dessert

Copyright 2006 by Megan, Jill, and Judi Carle
Photography copyright 2006 by Jessica Boone

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carle, Megan.
Teens cook dessert / Megan and Jill Carle, with Judi Carle.
p. cm.
1. Desserts. I. Carle, Jill. II. Carle, Judi. III. Title.
TX773.C342 2006
641.86dc22
2005024343

eISBN: 978-1-60774-143-5

Cover and text design by Toni Tajima
Food styling by Liesl Maggiore

v3.1

While were sure there are dozens of people we could dedicate a book of desserts to, we decided the most fitting was our grandfather Bob. From his insatiable sweet tooth to his nearly world-famous popcorn, he was a true food lover who would never even consider skipping the most important meal of the day, dessert. He was our inspiration for attempting to create unusual desserts, and no matter how weird it was, his eyes would twinkle with pleasure and he would eat every bite.

After our first book came out, we questioned the need for publicity, as our grandfather was taking care of it, one person at a time. We figure he did a good job because we asked to write one book and they let us write two. What a bargain! And he would have loved that too.

We love you and miss you.

To Lorena Jones, publisher extraordinaire, Toni Tajima, designer par excellence, and the most outstanding editor, Lily Binns (whose name should be a Harry Potter character) go our undying gratitude. You believed in our books, asked for our opinions and actually listened, and treated us with respect. Be careful, we could get used to that.

Many thanks to Jessica Boone and Liesl Maggiore. You made our food look great, put up with the heat and the endless musicals blaring on the television, and still managed to make the photo shoot fun. You are the best.

Yvonne Govea, we salute you! Anyone who can put up with our nonsense, clean up our messes, and keep our mom sane through this whole process deserves a medal. And to Jim Govea, thanks for taking one for the team. We know it was tough eating all those desserts, but someone had to do it.

To our friends Patrick, Elvin, Robin, Amber, Tommy, Noelle, Nick, and Emily, we knew you were good friends, but sitting outside for photos in 116-degree heat goes above and beyond. We promise if we do this again it will be in January.

And always last, but never least, thanks Dad! You are our number one taste tester, put up with our messes, deal with our moods, and still manage to offer encouragement. What more could we ask for well, maybe a car?

We love making desserts. Thats how we got interested in cooking and its still what we like best. We started helping our mom in the kitchen when we were three. (Although calling it helping is probably a huge exaggeration.) Of course, we only wanted to help with the fun stuff like cookies and cakes. When we finally learned to follow a recipe by ourselves, the fun really started. No recipe was safe.

We went through the food-coloring stage, when nothing could be its natural color. We made blue cakes, red cookies, green cupcakes, cakes with different colored layers, and even cakes with two colors swirled together. Then we moved on to candy. We chopped up every type of candy imaginable to add to cookies. Some of them, like the Malted Milk Ball Cookies, became family favorites. Others were not so successful. (Did you know gummy bears melt in the oven? They looked so sad.)

Around that time, our mom began editing cookbooks and the world of fine-dining desserts and pastries was opened up to us. We were the only ten- and twelve-year-olds on the block who came home from school and made tuiles. In fact, we were probably the only kids on the block who even knew what tuiles were. As with most kids that age, we were fearless. We made them in all different flavors and rolled, folded, and twisted them into any shape we could think of. We learned to make ice cream and sorbet. We learned about ganache and anglaise. We learned to use phyllo dough, puff pastry, and other kinds of dough. And then came the most revolutionary idea we had heard yet, individual desserts. We really latched on to that one. We layered things, stuffed things, and put together some of the most interesting combinations you can imagine. By the time we were thirteen and fifteen, we were making so many desserts that our mom called a local homeless shelter and they began picking them up every week.

The good news is that even though our passion for baking hasnt cooled, we have learned a lot about which combinations work and, more important, which ones dont. Weve toned down our experimenting and come to realize that a lot of the classic food combinations are really good. (Which would be why they became classic in the first place.) Our experimenting shifted from trying to reinvent the wheel to making adjustments to old favorites and taking pieces of different recipes and putting them together in different ways.

We have compiled a variety of old family recipes, some things we concocted over the years, and a few recipes that we came up with just for this book. We tried to come up with a good mix of traditional stuff, cool stuff, and fun stuff. (Those are technical terms.) Many of the recipes are very simple and a few not so simple. But dont let the more involved recipes scare you. As our dad always says, No guts, no glory. Read through the whole recipe first, then just take it one step at a time. It may not be perfect the first time, but youll get there. And if not, maybe youll make food history. When you read the kitchen history sidebars, youll be surprised to find out how many common desserts are the results of mistakes or accidents.

Although we love to make great desserts, we are basically lazy. That means if were making a pie and there is a store-bought piecrust in the refrigerator, well use it. But if we dont have one, well make it from scratch because its easier than driving to the store to get one. The kitchen shortcut sidebars reflect this attitude, and they are things we may do depending on the day, the time, our mood, or the weather. In other words, sometimes we use them, sometimes we dont. Feel free to do the same. Unlike math class, we dont require you to show your work; the end result is all that matters.

So go aheadpick a recipe and give it a try!

Megan and Jill