The Peppermint Bark Cookbook is an unusual, very specialized baking book few bakers would benefit from owning. Dominique DeVito presents a large number of recipes, all based on the basic peppermint bark recipe or variations thereof. You need to be a dedicated bark maker to gain much. A predominantly holiday specialty introduced by Williams-Sonoma in the late 1990s, peppermint bark became a seasonal favorite in many homes, but few bakers attempt to make it. It is not hard to make but it takes time, and it takes know-how about working with chocolates. For the basic bark recipes (twenty-one listed), preparation time is forty-five minutes, reasonable for an experienced baker. After the basic recipes, DeVito gives you scores of others, including desserts that use barks as an ingredient like Bark Chip Cookies, Chocolate Mint Cake, and Candy Store Bark. It seems the author is forced to use barks to expand her repertoire, including fourteen beverages, both alcoholic and others. The recipes are easy to follow, but their layout is not user-friendly, as the book designer inserted photos so the baker needs to page back and forth. Some ingredients are available through online ordering only. The photo illustrations are are pleasing, if somewhat overwhelming. The index is strictly recipes by alphabetic order.
Reviewed By: George Erdosh
