"Austrian Desserts" by Toni M. Morwald

My rating: 3 of 5 spoons
ggg

Austria has long been known for their amazing pastries, strudels, tortes...the list goes on. Toni Morwald and Christoph Wagner have put together a cookbook of over 400 recipes for Austria's amazing desserts.

My mouth waters as I browse through this thick book of yummy sounding recipes. Classic Coffee Cake, Raspberry Yogurt Schnitten, Torta Meringa, Kolaches, Apple Strudel...oh, my! I'm getting hungry! This book is definitely not for the budget concious, though. Multiple sticks of butter, crazy amounts of eggs (whether whole eggs, yolks, whites or combinations of them) and many hard-to-find or pricey ingredients make up many these recipes. This is not a book I will be jumping into often, but would be great for special occasions. I really appreciated the chapter "Snacking Doesn't Have to be a Sin" which took great recipes and by changing them up a little made them healthier.

There were some issues with the book. A few of the Austrian names are explained, but many are not and since there aren't a whole lot of pictures of finished ingredients, it kind of leaves you guessing. That brings us to the second problem. Instead of pictures with the recipes, there are some scattered throughout the book, but most do not have a picture. What makes it worse is that there are pictures all throughout the book of stuff like a cookie cutter filled with flaked coconut, poppy seeds, half a fig, etc. Many are repeated at least once. If some of that space had been taken and used for pictures of the actual finished recipes, it would have improved this book.

I received a copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.