Durand - Bakeless Sweets: Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluff, Icebox Cake and More No-bake Desserts

Published in 2013 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS

Text copyright 2013 Faith Durand
Photographs 2013 Stacy Newgent

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Durand, Faith.
Bakeless sweets : pudding, panna cotta, fluff, icebox cake, and more no-bake
desserts / By Faith Durand.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-61769-014-3
1. Desserts. 2. Quick and easy cooking. 3. Cookbooks. lcgft I.
Title.
TX773.D823 2013
641.86dc23

2012035639

Editor: Natalie Kaire
Designer: Amy Sly
Production Manager: Tina Cameron
Food Styling: Simon Andrews
Prop Styling: Deborah Williams

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I love pudding. Given an option, Ill always choose the creamy thing to be eaten off a spoon. My favorite desserts are all spoonful sweetsbutterscotch pudding, silky chocolate mousse, tiramisu, and peach jelly made with real fruit.

It seems there is a cookbook for nearly everything these days, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was no one-stop shop for spoonful desserts, no single cookbook that gathered these sweets into one place. I could find no pudding cookbooksand very few no-bake cookbooksand certainly nothing that included everything from homey pudding to elegant panna cotta to crowd-pleasing icebox cake.

I wanted that book on my shelf, so I wrote it.

This book contains desserts that spend no time in the oven. Even the pie crusts in the icebox desserts chapter are no-bake. Why? Because it often seems like baked desserts get all the attention, and I wanted to throw this easy, pleasurable category of sweets its very own party. My favorite sort of dessertpuddingis mostly a no-bake proposition. And although there are custards, rice puddings, and pots de crme that are baked, you wont find any of those in this book.

Puddings and fruit jellies are treats heavily associated with boxed mixes and preflavored powders. This is a bit silly, as people were making these homey sweets long before instant pudding in a box existed. I wanted to show how easy making pudding from scratch can be and inspire you to never buy another box of instant pudding.

The same for fruit gelatin: Why use Jell-O from a box when you could make it just as easily from natural fruit juice thickened with plain gelatin?

If youve ever eaten a chic dish of panna cotta at a restaurant you have probably sighed over its silky texture and wished you could make it at home. You can! Home cooks need to see how simple many restaurant-style desserts actually are, so I offer several varieties of panna cotta, mousse, and other so-called fancy desserts. The little secret of restaurant pastry kitchens is that these rich puddings are actually among the easiest, quickest desserts known to man or woman.

No-bake desserts showcase a wide variety of sweets from around the world, sweets that go beyond traditional Western cookies and cakes. They include candy, like marshmallows and brittle, and stovetop desserts from India, Thailand, China, and other cuisines, as most non-Western cultures dont traditionally use ovens. No-bake desserts could also include simple uncooked fruit platters, as well as desserts that may leave your oven cold but call for baked store-bought goods, like meringues or crackers.

The category of desserts that do not spend any time in the oven is so vast that there simply wasnt room to include them all! So my task here was to look for recipes I loved. This is a book for me, first of all. I have extensively tasted and love each and every recipe in this book. I also talked with some of my fellow home cooks and cookbook authors, asking them for memories and good tips, seeking out their favorite homey stovetop desserts.

I also only chose recipes that really can stand on their own as desserts. Personally, I consider most candies and brittles to be snacks or treats to be eaten between meals or under the Christmas tree, not desserts to close a meal. So with one or two exceptions, you wont find candy or sugarcraft here. Icebox cakes enjoy huge popularity (I have observed this firsthand!), so youll find some seriously crowd-pleasing pudding cakes. And I couldnt leave out other classic chilled desserts such as tiramisu, Eton Mess, and fruit trifle.

This seems to be the nearly unanimous response to any mention of the word pudding. People have nostalgic and happy memories of pudding, whether it came in a Snack Pack cup or out of their grandmothers copper saucepan.

I realize we live in a health-conscious age, but this is not a health cookbook. Youll find plenty of heavy cream, whole milk, and sugar in these pages. I make no apologies for this; in fact, I insist on using full-fat dairy most of the time. Why? Because it tastes better and is more satisfying. Personally, I believe that it is healthier to eat a spoonful or two of something deeply satisfying than a whole bowl of an insipid low-fat creation. An indulgent pudding can be extremely pleasurable in small doses. In fact, many of these puddings should be served in tiny cups for savoring in small quantities.

But on the whole, this is a book for people who enjoy cream and sweet things, and who arent averse to a spoonful of something truly, utterly delicious from time to time.

Most of the puddings and no-bake desserts in this book are naturally gluten-free, so if you eat gluten-free, I hope you see this as a delightful resource.