There's no reason to deny yourself the pleasures of dessert when you're cooking with Jacques Pépin, for he's assembled a delicious assortment of fruit desserts in Sweet Simplicity. From summer's Fragrant Melon Soup (with one scant gram of fat per serving) to the winter warmer Grapefruit Gratin, Pépin serves up swift and sweet endings suitable for every season of the year. Organized by type of fruit, the beautifully photographed book offers more than 115 recipes for old favorites such as Nectarine Crisp and Banana Fritters, as well as fanciful new dishes, including Grapes, Oranges, and Currants in Lime Cookie Cones and Pinwheels of Peaches with Strawberry Coulis. Nutritional information accompanies each easy-to-read entry, and as one might expect from Claudine's father and instructor, the directions are clear and informative (heating a lime in a microwave oven yields more juice than just pressing it on the counter before slicing, for example). Nearly all of the desserts in the book are low in fat and light in calories, and even the heartiest, such as Warm Raspberry Gratin with Sour Cream, have only about as much fat as a Snickers bar. To achieve this level of healthfulness in a dessert cookbook, Pépin doesn't rely on silly low-cal substitutes, but instead on the rich, sweet, ripe fruits themselves--and he's careful to note that the ripeness of the fruit usually determines the quality of the dish. --Rebecca A. Staffel

Seattle Times, July 21, 1999

Take Pepin's "Sweet Simplicity." These are straightforward recipes for the home cook, with roots in French country cooking...Pepin's recipes enhance the natural goodness of fruit, adding simple touches of preserves for sweetening and almonds for crunch. It's so refreshing to rediscover the quintessential flavors of fruit without the masks of heavy, overdone preparations. An experienced cook might be tempted to gussy up the recipes, but don't mess with the master. Try them as printed first. For instance, there are no eggs in the Cherry Bread Pudding. Could this be a mistake? Nope. The dish set up beautifully...One tester asked for the recipe "right now." This book is also lovely to look at. Each fruit is given its own chapter, with handsome black and white photos complementing the short text describing seasonal availability, varieties and uses.

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5 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding! Let the fruit's natural taste shine through!, Jul 8 2002

By	Jack & Vickie McKee (Batavia, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful guide to using fruit at its best, whether fresh, frozen, or dried. I'd thought for some time that "Greene on Greens" and "The Grains Cookbook" by the late Bert Greene needed a third companion volume on fruit. Pepin's solution is better. The first day I had it, I made blackberries in a honey cream sauce. I adapted the blackberry/kiwi recipe to use peaches instead of kiwi. I even like the melon recipes, and I don't even care for melon! Pepin does rely a bit on special liqueurs such as kirsch, Grand Marnier, etc. But the Pepin way is the spirit of experimentation, so substituting something else might be just the ticket (my homemade cognac vanilla extract was superb with the blackberries and peaches). Simplicity is the word. If you love fruit, you can't be without this serious book.

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4.0 out of 5 stars a user-friendly cookbook by the master, Jun 27 2001

By	audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Jacques Pepin is a joy to watch on television. He is a natural teacher with a flair for beautiful yet simple little masterpieces in the kitchen.

This is my first book by Pepin, and those same talents shine through. Sections are divided into various fruits, and a one to three page introduction to each section gives information about the history, origin and uses for the fruits (including apples, apricots, bananas, berries, cherries, citrus, grapes, dates, mangoes, melons, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums and mixed fruits) as well as Mr. Pepin's personal anecdotes. There are about 120 recipes and they are generally easy and not too time-consuming. Simple yet elegant. Each recipe contains information about yield, preparation time, and calories, protein, carbs, fat, cholesterol and sodium per serving.

The recipes I have tried have been well-explained and have come out as planned. Most, but not all, dishes are shown in color pictures. The index includes many ingredients so if you want to make something with, for example, red wine, you will easily find the eight recipes which use it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Endings, Dec 29 1999

By A Customer

Looking for something different to cap off a dinner party, I was loaned this book by a friend. I've tried several recipes - all work just as described. I especially like the many 'easy' recipes that take little time, and the fact that many recipes are light on fat. It's a lovely book.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
I have enjoyed all of Pepin's cookbooks. This was a little dissapointing in that the varitey of preparations was sadly lacking. Read more

Published on Sep 14 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent dessert cookbook for any level of cook!
Jacques has done it again! Each fruit has its own chapter with descriptions of varities of each fruit, ripeness tests, many color pictures of the finished results along with the... Read more

Published on Jun 9 1999 by Garnett Williams Bow (bluedog@...