Sweet & Simple: Dessert for Two

Very nice used book. Perfect condition. Fast shipping .Plus we love the recipes.

My husband has a sweet tooth and thus is an understatement! We cook at home so that we have a better idea of what is going into our food and most if the local restaurants we used to enjoy are gone for economic & ‘other,’ reasons. I also need to watch salt content and oxilate content due to a bout with a kidney stone. So, we eat reasonably healthy meals and love an occasional sweet after dinner. We do not need an entire cake, an entire fruit cobbler, or numerous other 9x13, Bundt pan or double & triple layer cakes around with remains that will eventually get thrown out anyway. These recipes are either common ingredients and can still last 3 to 4 days when we decide we want a little something sweet. The Small Carrot Cake is amazing, as is the Very Vanilla Cake that I made for my husband’s birthday. The Pecan Pie Carmelita’s were so good that I have now doubled the recipe and made in an 8x8 square pan since my husband will eat a few more than I will eat but I understand why as these are really tasty. As others have indicated, I have tabbed so many recipes and I have not tried them all, but I will definitely be trying the Olive Oil Cakelets as I used to make a large Olive Oil Cake when the family was here and it was incredibly delicious so I look forward to smaller portions for two of us to enjoy. The Individual Peach Crisps are on my list as well. I want to make some of the pudding recipes as I like the occasional dish of pudding but my husband is not really a pudding kinda guy so I can make a recipe of a pudding and put a few in the fridge and eat them when I want a little something. The recipes in this book are super easy to double if desired (when family will be dropping by), and I generally double the cookie recipes as we will usually go through cookies more than the richer and more decadent desserts. It is tough to go from cooking for a family to cooking for two, but I also really enjoy cooking one meal a day and having leftovers for lunch the next day. This has substantially cut down on the grocery bill, and I spend a lot less time in the kitchen. It’s great to use this Dessert for Two cookbook and be able to whip up a great little something sweet for after dinner in a short amount of time too! I highly recommend this book!

Baking for two? Christina’s your girl! The genius mind behind the hugely popular blog Dessert for Two, Lane is the queen of minifying desserts and baked goods for one, two or just a few sweet lovers! The Sweet & Simple recipes are organised by type of baking pan and it will give you a new appreciation for pans which you most likely already have in your cupboards. Even if you only have a small kitchen with minimal cupboard space, you’ll likely be familiar with a Mini Baking Sheet, a Classic Loaf Pan, a Muffin Pan, Ramekins and Small Jars, an 8-inch Square Pan and 6-inch Round Cake Pans – right? If so, you’re good to go! There’s a handy ingredient guide at the start of the book followed by a comprehensive guide to the bakeware you’ll need for the recipes (and explanations about things like whether to choose light baking pans over dark and why, useful stuff like that!) The book is full of tempting recipes – batched DOWN versions of your favourite baked goods – and since each only makes servings for two, maybe four, go ahead and get baking! The cookie recipes, for example, only make between 6 and 10. A loaf pan brownie recipe will yield enough for two large brownies (because let’s be realistic, you can never just eat one brownie). Ramekins (also one of MY favourite things to bake in) make individual serves of things like cobblers, panna cotta, crème brûlée, cheesecake pots, puddings and even little brownies. I love that there are recipes for from-scratch pastries but options to use store-bought as well (since if we’re keeping it simple, time can sometimes be a factor to consider as well). Christina’s gorgeous photos make you want to stick a Post-it in each page, marking it as “one to make”. I love the simple images she shoots – not overly propped or styled so the FOOD really shines. Indeed, I challenge you to flip through the book hungry and NOT want to immediately get in the kitchen and bake!

I love this cookbook, but more importantly I love the concept behind it. Christina Lane discovered a hole in the vast field of cookbooks -- making small-batch recipes if you have fewer people to feed. As someone who loves to bake but only lives with one other person, it's nice to satisfy my urge to whip up cookies but not be tempted by 2 dozen leftovers. That is why I love Sweet & Simple. There are many recipes in this book that I return to time and time again -- I can't get enough of the coconut sugar cookies! A great feature of the cookbook is that even though some of her recipes call for 2 egg whites or 1 egg yolk, she'll give you a full list of recipes in which to use the leftover part of the egg. Brilliant!

Much like Christina's previous two cookbooks (which I also own and cook from), this cookbook is wonderful. The recipes feel approachable and all things that I would normally want to bake anyway, just scaled down to suit a single gal. I really appreciate how the recipes are separated into the types of pans/bakeware needed to bake each recipe, reminding me that I need to make another trip to the bake shop for a 6x2 round cake pan! (like, seriously!) I baked the sugar cookies from this cookbook last night and even though I am a total dork and forgot to separate my egg and used the whole egg instead of just the yolk (never bake while distracted by thunderstorms) the cookies still came out delicious...just a little cakier than I think the recipe intended. I will be trying the recipe again tonight and fingers crossed won't be distracted. The small baking approach works well for me on several levels. For one, it makes each recipe really, really approachable--meaning, I don't have to be intimidated by multiple cups of flour nor do I have to feel bad if I mess up a batch and have to toss it out...because you're only tossing a dozen cookies instead of three or four dozen. I also like the speed of oven to mouth ratio of the small batches. And I like that most of the recipes don't call for a ton of ingredients and usually all the ingredients are things I already have on hand or can at least get my hands on fairly easily. I just really appreciate Christina's commitment to small batch baking and can say in all honesty that hers are the cookbooks I turn to most often and I look forward to cooking my way through this one, as well.

Others have trotted out this for-two recipe idea, but Ms. Lane is THE doyenne of duo-baking and cooking. In a quick look-through of the latest, I dog-eared recipes I absolutely must try. See customer image. In other words, that's nearly half the pages. (Note, the other half are food photos.) The only meh for me was brules/panna cotta only because I don't love them. If you do, there are recipes for you. I loved her Comfort&Joy cookbook, it had meals as well as treats, but that's not to say her Dessert for Two wasn't outstanding. All the recipes I've tried are accurate and easy to make. Now comes more goodies--I frequently visit the land of Gooey Butter Cake (St. Louis, MO) so that caught my eye. But so did the chai bars and chai pudding. I've bought the small pans and this book is broken down by cookware for my convenience. Upside-down Banana cake or Very Vanilla cake must come first, unless I opt to make the cheesecake in a loaf pan or Banana cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting. Or the Chocolate Hazelnut cookies. Argh! The problem is, most ingredients are pantry items on hand. And the small portions can be shared without tempting leftovers. It's win-win-win. Now to pick one...

I LOVE this cookbook (and her website). I've always liked baking but don't do it very often because I rarely want the leftovers, but this book solves that issue! So far I've made the vanilla sheet cake (one egg, 15 minutes in the oven, seriously you're all done in less than 30 minutes total), the chai bars, citrus olive oil muffins, and the sprinkle cupcakes. Largely the recipes require one bowl and you will not have to bring out ALL the baking gear you normally might, but they also utilize things you likely already have in the pantry, after you acquire the mini sheet pan (for the sheet cake YOU DO) and 6" round, because c'mon you already have a bread pan. I even bought a 10" cake stand to show off these mini treats. Genius!

It's easy to be obsessed with this (to date) trio of cook books. I'm admittedly not the most amazing or well versed cook, and I can make anything in these which is a testament to Christina's thought in each recipe. I enjoy having family and friends over and creating these recipes together. It's been a beautiful journey to make and taste through each recipe all the while having fun and making memories. Christina, your time and efforts are appreciated. I hope you find this worthwhile that even one family got into the kitchen, went to estate sales and found awesome small batch cookware in honor of your amazing goodness you have going. I find myself in awe and thanks that you have made me enjoy this new found art (in my world) of cooking. Also, thanks for a ton of beautiful pictures that I flip through often and salivate like Pavlov's dog. You're a true professional :)

I bought this so I can satisfy my sweet tooth without making an entire layer cake or a whole pie. The recipes are perfect size and I didn't need to buy a dozen specialty products for them. So far I've only tried a few recipes, but they've all been delicious.

Quite a nice book but all the ingredients are in US Cups Sticks and Tablespoons which I find a real trial. The sample book I downloaded prior to buying this had Metric alternatives and I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had realised that this was all American.

As much as I love Christina Lane and her recipes, I must say I've been disappointed by this book! This book has a lot of great visual aids, the recipes are easy to follow and have yielded great results but, I've found that many of them I've already made or read on Christina's blog and from her previous book. Considering the cost, I expected to find great new recipes not the same old ones! The recipes are still wonderful but if you have internet access and/ or "Dessert for Two" this really isn't worth the investment.