cover image Eclairs & Brown Bears CL

Eclairs & Brown Bears CL

Arielle Rosin. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $12.95 (56pp) ISBN 978-0-395-68380-4

The snappy food-styling and abundant color photographs give a distinctive look to these appetizing volumes from the Young Gourmet series. Each book supplies easy-to-follow recipes for a variety of gratifyingly fancy-looking treats. The approach could be described as Martha Stewart with a sense of humor. Pizzas & Punk Potatoes shows how to transform eggs, apples, potatoes and other ordinary kitchen staples into ingenious party snacks (e.g., hard-boiled eggs easily styled to resemble mice, chicks, porcupines; decorated chocolate-covered apples; potato pigs with pretzel legs). Eclairs & Brown Bears, stuffed with instructions for butter cookies, brownies, meringues and tarts (among other goodies), offers more than a little inspiration for would-be pastry chefs. Prefaces in each volume stress the importance of careful measurement and assembling necessary ingredients and equipment before beginning each project. Photos give aerial views of the utensils and ingredients for each recipe, and highlight the festive garnishes. Recipe sections are interspersed with two-page spreads filled with food facts, brief bios of famous chefs (among them Cyprien Ragueneau, the poetry-loving pastry chef immortalized in Cyrano de Bergerac ) and thoughtfully selected artwork. Tasty. Ages 8-up. (Mar.)