Practically Raw Desserts: Flexible Recipes for All-Natural Sweets and Treats

One of my passions is collecting cookbooks, and since I have a notorious sweet tooth, I especially love books that focus on desserts! I also love exploring raw meals, and Amber's first cookbook Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make is one of my absolute favorites. When I saw that she was coming out with a dessert book, I eagerly pre-ordered it -- and am definitely not disappointed! Once of the things I love about this book (and Amber's previous one) is that she takes the time to educate you about certain ingredients -- what's good/nutritious about them and how they work in a recipe. She includes tables to help you determine things like how long to soak various kinds of nuts, and explains things like the difference between coconut oil and coconut butter. After the introductory section, the first chapter focuses on how to make your own milks, butters, flours, and syrups. There are some seriously fantastic photos in here -- including a five-sequence shot of the inside of a food processor to show you what your nut butter consistency should be like. What is also outstanding is how Amber gives ingredient substitution lists for most of the recipes, as well as instructions for how to make some of the items in an oven if you don't have a food dehydrator (which I don't). The substitution list is especially helpful if you have a hard time finding certain ingredients in your area. Another great thing is that this book purposefully uses ingredients that you most likely already have on hand if you're using raw cookbooks. She makes a point of eschewing harder-to-find items like maca or lacuma powder, and instead uses things like nut butters and flours, fresh fruit, cacao powder, etc. If you don't have the nut butters, flours, or mylks at the ready, she also shows you how to easily make them. The book is also 100% vegan, and doesn't use any honey. Last night, after this arrived, I made the Almond Butter Melties. They came together in five minutes, and were delicious! Whether your weakness is cookies, cakes, cobblers, puddings, ice creams, pies, or energy bars -- this book has it all! As I said in my review title, this book is going to be dangerous for my waistline, but it'll be so worth it! In all seriousness, though, the ingredients in all of the recipes are so healthy that eating dessert feels like you're doing something good for yourself! UPDATE ON 4/6/13: I made two more recipes today -- and they came out delicious! I wanted to add two things to my review. One is that this new book puts two-page recipes on facing pages, so you don't wind up having to turn the page to get the second half of a recipe. I'm so happy that they made this change, since Amber's first book didn't do this. The second thing I wanted to add is that a lot of the cookies don't even have to be made in the oven or dehydrator; you can freeze them for a few hours. I'm quickly becoming obsessed with all the yummy treats in this book! UPDATE ON 4/10/13: Someone asked me in the comments section about the use of soy, nuts, and flours in this book, so I thought I'd add the info from my reply into my review so it's easier to see. It looks like about 75% or so of the recipes use nuts, but I don't see any that call for soy products. The main flours that she uses are coconut flour, cashew flour, and almond flour. The only one that she said you need to use the actual product for is coconut flour; you can sub other flours for the nut ones.

Best money I have spent all year. This book is amazing! Recipes are so easy to follow with substitutions included. They are simple, healthy, delicious and will have you feeling like a professional raw food chef without the complicated, difficult work. Though you will spend a bit more on quality, healthy ingredients such as nuts, seeds, coconut flour etc you will certainly gain more health, vitality, energy, mental acuity and overall enthusiasm for looking and feeling your best! If that isn't worth the extra money, I don't know what is. This book is also great because it introduces you to healthy ingredients that you may not have heard of but you can still use your every day ingredients if you're not wanting to get to the health food store just yet. I've found trying these new items exciting, it opens up a whole new world of tastes and flavors that are amazing. I am vegan and generally love to turn others on to great vegan food. I tend to make batches of vegan baked goods and take them to various events. People rave about them but I don't eat them so much because even though they are vegan, they are still made with flour and sugar which I try to avoid. Fortunately, you will not find unhealthy vegan desserts in this book. With the "Practically Raw Desserts" book, I can finally eat the desserts I make... the downside is I am not so inclined to share because they are so healthy and good! Oh one final thing, the smells of these recipes are incredible! I didn't think making raw food would create such wonderful smells that linger and attract others but they do. People who have entered hours after I made one of these desserts have asked "what smells so good in here!?!"

"Where to start?" That's exactly what I said after receiving and reading this book! Amber has put so much information in this book and being new to eating raw...or healthy, I really appreciate the way she makes it so easy for me. In this book she is showing me/us how to make our own milks, butters & flours, not only in type but also with incredible pictures! So much to choose from! And the recipes...cookies, bars, brownies, cakes, pies, candies, sauces....OMG! There are so many to choose from and with my sweet-tooth I may be in trouble! I not only like how yummy the recipes sound and look but I also like that if I don't have what is called for in the recipe Amber helped out by giving us several alternatives we could use instead! Talk about making it easy on you! I've never seen that in any other cookbook and you know we all run out of things, try to make a recipe and say "Oh no" when it comes to that ingredient that you forgot to replace at the store. Now I know what alternative will work best and I don't have to stop in the middle of making something to run to the store! I think the only way she could have made it any easier for us is for her to have come with the book! LOL The first recipe I went for was the Coconut Butter Fudge! Oh yeah! That is good! The only thing I did different was instead of cutting them into 9 pieces I cut them into 18...now I can have two and not feel guilty! Heehee, like I would really feel guilty...nothing in them to feel guilty about! And that is another thing...growing up my sweet-tooth was fed sugar laden goodies..the more sugary goodies you eat the more you want...never a good thing! With these recipes the sweetness come's in a healtier form...dates, coconut nectar, fruit, maple syrup... and with the fruit's and nut's filling me up I don't feel that need for more...I feel my sweet-tooth is satisfied. Ok, I can go on and on about how great this book is, how delicious the recipes are, how wonderfully written the book & how great the pictures are or how easy Amber has made it for us to chose healthy sweets to make and eat but... I have to get back to my book and decide what I am going to make next! Order this book for yourself..you WON'T be disappointed! YUM!!!!!

Es ist kaum zu glauben, was für feine Sachen es gibt! Die nicht nur einfach und schnell gemacht sind und super schmecken, sondern auch noch das Auge erfreuen - so dass man ohne Probleme die Kuchen und Torten auch erlesenen Gästen bei einer Einladung offerieren kann - die sind dann jeweils ganz begeistert und wollen gar nicht glauben, dass das feine "Gebäck" komplett roh und ohne Zucker ist! Ganz abgesehen davon, dass man sich anschliessend auch noch körperlich wohl fühlt, ganz im Gegensatz zu üblichen "Kaffee-Einladungen", wo man sich anschliessend ganz krank fühlt. Die Bilder lassen einem das Wasser im Munde zusammenlaufen und die Rezepte bestechhen durch ihre Einfachheit - mit nur einer Hand voll Zutaten kann man so die feinsten Torten und Kuchen kreieren. Nach nur einer kurzen Einführung geht es auch schon mit den Rezepten los, so dass man wirklich auf seine Kosten kommt. Für jeden, der nicht nur selber gerne Süsses ist, sondern - vor allem! - Freunde und Kollegen mit roh-veganen Köstlichkeiten überraschen und damit Anhänger der Roh-veganen Ernährung gewinnen will, ist diese Buch ein Muss!

How has this author escaped me for so long? Most of the recipes are very easy to make. Each recipe has a calorie breakdown for total, carbs, protein and fat. Common substitutes are given for the specialist ingredients. Methods to make some of the ingredients are given (specific nut flours, frosting) when store-bought equivalents don't exist or are expensive. A good overview of why the ingredients used are good for you is also given. Some recipes even have a lower-fat version!

Love the flexibility of these recipes. I am not a vegetarian, but love these recipes, they're a fun and healthy change from the every day! The carrot cake is AMAZING.

douée la petite

Loads of ideas, lots of adaptability, ingredients easy to source. I've made lots from this book and they've been very well received.