Dazzling Desserts: Over 100 recipes from Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Central Europe and More. This book is to be cherished for its simple and easy to make recipes. The measurements and ingredients are given in familiar terms that even a beginner can understand. Paying homage to the beautiful illustrations on the covers of this book, we are featuring fruit desserts in many of our recipes. Although fruit had been eaten by humans and animals long before recorded time, this collection of recipes focuses on fruits as dessert ingredients. Fruit is found in all manner of preparation and combinations: fresh, stewed, and baked in cakes, pies, cookies, tortes, as well as in frozen dishes. Platters of assorted cut-up fruits are common as desserts and on party buffet tables. Today's supermarkets offer such beautifully arranged fruits, taking the time and effort required out of a hostess's hands. For those on low-calorie or low-sugar diets, fresh fruit provides a delicious and beautiful dessert. Fruits that were previously available in this country only in season are now to be found all year long, coming from Central and South American countries whose growing seasons are opposite our own. So there is no reason not to have berries, melons, peaches, and pears all year long. Dried fruits also provide color and crunch to cookies and cakes. All of the recipes in this book have been chosen for readily available ingredients, standard sizes and shapes of pans and utensils, ease of preparation, and clarity of instructions. There has been no attempt to include information about dietary restrictions or substitutions of ingredients for that purpose.
About the Author: About the Author Miriam Canter is a lover of cookbooks and cooking, with a deep interest in nutrition and diet. She has edited dozens of cookbooks for Penfield Books since its inception in 1979. As a child in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Miriam attended Grant Wood's summer artists' colony in nearby Stone City. She attended the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, where she majored in Latin American studies. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. During World War II, Miriam served in the Army Signal Corps Intelligence Division and was a member of a team that succeeded in breaking the strategic Japanese code. Later, she taught Spanish at the University of Iowa for two-and-a-half years. The Canters have lived in Iowa City for more than fifty years. Miriam's husband, Arthur, is a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Iowa. Their daughter, Andrea, is a retired psychologist in Minneapolis and a jazz journalist and photographer. Their son, Laurence, an attorney, is a writer and publisher in Northern California. Dazzling Desserts is a revision of two earlier, out-of-print books by Miriam Canter, also published by Penfield. Front and back covers: Marie Schneider of West Amana provided the books containing the original Prestele color illustrations. The Museum of Amana History in Iowa has a display of Presteles. We thank Madeline Roemig, former director of the museum, and historian Larry Haldy, the museum's current director, for their research about the Prestele artists.