Every luscious flavor imaginable is grist for the chill in "The Perfect Scoop," pastry chef Lebovitz's gorgeous guide to the pleasures of homemade ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and more.

Reviews

Lebovitz, who was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, for 12 years, is the author of three other cookbooks, including Room for Dessert. Here, he offers dozens of recipes for delectable frozen treats, from Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream to Cherry Sorbet to Blood Orange Granita. All the classics are here, along with more innovative creations (Parsley Ice Cream, anyone?). Lebovitz also includes a good introductory section and a short chapter on homemade ice cream cones, meringue nests, and the like. For all dessert collections. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Lebovitz, a former Chez Panisse pastry chef and author of The Great Chocolate Book, credits his "first and craziest, most insane summer job"- as an ice cream scooper at a soda fountain-with inspiring his lifelong devotion to ice cream. The author's 25 years of experience as a frozen-dessert maker are put to excellent use in this wittily written, detailed volume. Step-by-step photos and advice on selecting an ice cream machine will reassure ice cream amateurs. Experts and novices alike will appreciate tips for selecting the best citrus and creating unusual but complementary pairings (apricots go nicely with Olive Oil Ice Cream). An impressive array of flavors is available for the making, like Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, Fresh Fig Ice Cream and Pear Pecorino Ice Cream. Sorbet, sherbet and granita also are explored in depth, as are ice cream "vessels," such as brownies and crepes. Great photos and plenty of practical advice combine to make this an appealing and useful resource for the dessert aficionado. (May) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"The original ice cream tour de force."
--Cookbooker.com, paperback edition review, 6/2/10
"Here is the rare book in which the recipes live up to the delicious promise of their names . . . The collection of ice creams ranges from the sophisticated to the delightfully childish."
--New York Daily News
Amazon 2007 Top 10 Editor's Picks in Cooking, Food & Wine
"The Perfect Scoop digs right into what you need to know for successful ice creams, sherbets, gelatos, sorbets, frozen yogurts, and granitas."
--New York Times
"Having churned out ice cream at home and in professional kitchens for a quarter century, Lebovitz can guide even a beginner to a great frozen experience. . . . Truly the Good Humor man of home ice cream."
--San Francisco Chronicle
One of the best gift books of the year: "The scoop in the title is perfect, and so is everything else about this cookbook on homemade ice cream. It's informative, full of charm, and loaded with irresistible and impeccably tested recipes."
--Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Everything you need to know about making anything remotely connected with ice cream . . . Lebovitz is an entertaining read . . . the recipe headnotes alone are worth the price of the book."
--Oregonian
"Packed with beautiful photos and great-sounding recipes."
--Omaha World-Herald
"If you are one of those people who' 'scream for ice cream, ' then you will whoop for The Perfect Scoop. . . Ice cream aficionados should be delighted with The Perfect Scoop. It is delicious."
--Peter Franklin's Cookbook Nook, United Press Syndicate
"The author's 25 years of experience as a frozen-dessert maker are put to excellent use in this wittily written, detailed volume. . . . Great photos and plenty of practical advice combine to make this an appealing and useful resource for the dessert aficionado."
--Publishers Weekly
"If you love cold sweets but never dared own an ice-cream machine for fe