By Marty Meitus
Scripps Howard News Service
You can always tell what I'm most interested in when I look at the spring crop of cookbooks. Sure, I might flip through books on grilling, semi-scratch meals and low-fat cooking, but I make short work of them and pull out instead anything to do with baking.
The one that caught my eye recently is a reissue called Good Housekeeping Great Baking (Sterling Publishing Co., $29.95). After all, there is that big piece of luscious chocolate cake staring out at me.
Because it's a reissue, you may already have the cookbook in your collection. The book has 600 recipes for cakes, cookies, breads, pies and pastries.
It's good for ideas on decorating, with pictures to show you how to make chocolate ruffles, curls and wedges. It also has some of the basics, such as the use of pie weights when baking an unfilled piecrust.
Here's a recipe for phyllo tartlets:
Phyllo Tartlets
(makes 12 tartlet shells)
Ingredients:
2 Tbs. butter or margarine, melted
6 sheets (16-inch-by-12-inch each) fresh or frozen (thawed) phyllo
Filling Ingredients:
sweetened whipped cream
pastry cream or sweetened ricotta or fresh fruit
Prepearation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On surface, brush one phyllo sheet with some melted butter. Cover remaining phyllo with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
Cover with second phyllo sheet; brush with some melted butter. Repeat with third sheet of phyllo. With long sharp knife, cut phyllo into 12 (4-inch) squares. Gently pat one square onto bottom and up side of 12 (2-1/2-inch) muffin-pan cups.
Repeat buttering, layering and cutting into squares with remaining three phyllo sheets and melted butter. Arrange one square at a right angle on top of each phyllo square in muffin-pan cups.
Bake 12 minutes, or until phyllo is crisp and golden. Cool in pan on wire rack. Carefully remove from pan. Fill just before serving.
To fill, spoon in filling of your choice. Garnish with whipped cream, berries, fresh fruit or chocolate.
Nutritional information per serving:
45 calories
1 gram protein
5 grams carbohydrate
2 grams fat (1 gram saturated)
no fiber
5 milligrams cholesterol
65 milligrams sodium
--Good Housekeeping Great Baking
(Contact Marty Meitus of the Rocky Mountain News at www.rockymountainnews.com.)
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