A Sweet Quartet: Sugar, Almonds, Eggs, and Butter: A Baker's Tour, Including 33 Recipes

by Fran Gage

Fran Gage calls sugar, almonds, eggs, and butter "the DNA of desserts." Simple as they seem, they make possible a profusion of pastries and other sweets, from the elemental lollipop to the ethereal realms where marzipan, meringue, and puff pastry hold sway.

In A Sweet Quartet , Gage tells the story of each ingredient, from its origins to its transformation into culinary gold, drawing upon her travels, tastings, experiments, and remembrances. She crowns each section with a baker's half-dozen of recipes that show off the multiple talents of the ingredient.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2002

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. My favorite chapter was butter.

[Caryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The egg chapter was a bit long. Butter was better.