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I got it on my iPad, and it is almost unusable because of horrible digital version implementation.First, good luck finding what you want (or even what's here) without paging through the ENTIRE book. There is a high-level table of contents that just takes you to "Ice Cream Cones," "Ice Creams," "Sorbets and Granitas," "Ice Cream Toppings," "Ice Cream Drinks." There is no further granularity that that. It even will return the unusable un-linked index reference to vanilla ice cream.But the worst of all is that the list of ingredients is on a separate page, linked from the instructions as "Recipe" (this Kindle version was obviously not prepared by a cook). Suppose you'd like some recipes for Vanilla Ice Cream: don't just try "vanilla" because you'll get a hit to every reference to vanilla in the book -- over 1,000. I had expected to have the same functionality, so I purchased the Kindle version. OK, try "vanilla ice cream" and it still includes about 30, many of them references in some other recipe to "or you could use a vanilla ice cream and." (which isn't linked to the vanilla ice cream either). are disabled, so only AFTER you have spent $11.99 do you find out how bad this electronic version really is.
I use my iPad a lot during cooking, and have favorite online recipes bookmarked. Oh yes, there is an index, but it's not hot-linked to the recipes, nor is there any reference (like their "Location 447") and there are no page numbers, so it is absolutely useless. DO NOT BUY on the Kindle. It was a really bad decision -- if you want this book, get the paper copy. There is a "Searchable Terms" list, but it returns any reference to the term as "Location 281: (some text except)" which does not give you any context -- is it a recipe, or a variant, or a comment that 'this might be nice with.'. Unfortunately, Amazon mixes the reviews of the paper book (content) with the Kindle edition reviews. ALL it would take to solve this would be a page behind each of the high-level pages with a list of the recipes in each section, each hot-linked to the recipe page.
How bad is this. There is no link-back from the ingredient list to the main portion of the recipe, except by the back arrow on the book navigation controls -- but don't turn the page, because you'll be on the ingredient list for a completely different recipe. This is the sort of book that gives electronic books a bad name. The book appears to have a lot of recipes, and I purchased it because of the good reviews. That would probably be a day's work, at most, including QA, if the publisher cared about the book having a value.There is no usable index, either. Even worse, there are NO RECIPE TITLES on the ingredient list, so if you do page through the ingredients and see something interesting, you'll have no clue what recipe the ingredients are for.Finally, one might suggest "well, why not download the sample first." I did -- but the links to the ingredients list, search function, etc.
The best part about this book is that it gives lots of ideas for variations of each ice cream recipe. So far we've made three recipes and all were very tasty. This book was recommended to us by an employee at Bed Bath and Beyond as we were purchasing an ice cream maker. There is a recipe in here for everyone.
But in all, I give the book high marks -- every recipe in my Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker has worked beautifully. -- delicious. THEN comes the cream, etc.). Then again, I'm probably a fairly savvy cook, and it could be a challenge for a beginner. I really like this cookbook and I've had enormous success with every single recipe. The latest was Raspberry Ice Cream, which was an interesting variant of technique (the egg yolks actually cook in the processor by drizzling boiling hot simple syrup over them. As to reviews which bemoan the book's explanations of techniques, well, I didn't have that problem.
Duh. What IS Philadelphia-Style. Seriously. Naturally, the next day, I had custard with a bunch of brown banana bits in it (as bananas are wont to do, when removed from their peel). Someone should have proofread these recipes. The author does not explain the different between each "ice cream" recipe and it's "Philadelphia-Style" counterpart.
I've not seen this in any other ice cream book. In this day and age when gelato, and the healthier frozen yogurt are so popular, how does it not even get a mention. (Philly-Style is ice cream with no eggs). How hard is it to mention that in the almost non-existent intro. I'm pretty obsessed with my ice cream maker this summer, creating all kinds of frozen goodies. I found myself wanting to take shortcuts, but inevitably sticking to the recipes, only to end up with brown bits in my custard.Also, adding flour to ice cream is completely unnecessary. Did Philly suddenly develop an ice cream culture when I wasn't looking. The custard was still kind of brown, but definitely edible.
Whaaaaa. I should have followed my instinct and not done this. I like the innovativeness of some of the flavors, but there are some that are pretty "out there".My biggest beef with this book came with the Banana Ice Cream recipe on page 16. Other such ingredients really made me shake my head and wonder where these recipes came from. There really isn't much explanation about what makes good ice cream, why one needs a food processor for everything (you don't), and why you need to boil milk first for many recipes (you do). I was appalled when I got this book and there were zero recipes for both gelato, or frozen yogurt. And honestly, avocado. So, I had to strain out the brown bits, and add new bananas, before freezing in the ice cream maker.
I got way better results and more of a variety from that book. A much, much better alternative is The Perfect Scoop from David Lebovitz. I really, REALLY wanted to like this book. The recipe instructed you to make the custard, then add bananas and chill the whole mixture in the fridge overnight. I had to search the Web to get that kind of information which absolutely, without a doubt, should have been presented in this book.
I know some people are complaining about the variations because they're often simple, but personally I think it's nice to be reminded of all the small, subtle ways we can change recipes and create amazing flavor combinations. I was even able to substitute a bit in such ways as using soy cream instead of dairy cream, and the recipes still work.The book doesn't have pictures, which I know annoys some, but I actually prefer it that way because that way there's more room for recipes. Let me start off by saying that I am a fervent cookbook collector AND a very active home cook/ baker. I have made many of the recipes in this book and they've all gotten raves. I also enjoy the "theme and variations" format because I'm always on the lookout for nifty ways to change up a recipe.
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