I am reviewing this book after having only baked two of the recipes, but this is my fourth cookbook from Medrich and I find that her approach to flavors and baking really matches what I am trying to do as a cook. My interest in the last couple of years is to explore ingredients and to try and make the most of their inherent flavors to produce healthy (mostly), simple (mostly), good food that doesn't rely on artificial ingredients or large amounts of fat, salt and sugar.
I first made the buckwheat nibby butter cookies using Buerre d'isigny unsalted butter. Even though I think these cookies were moderate in their fat content the taste of the butter really came through. I am looking forward to trying the different variations. I enjoyed the simple rich taste with the contrast of the nibs, but others might not find them sweet enough.
The second recipe was the chocolate wafers 3.0. First I discovered that my food processor wasn't large enough ( it is small), and so I had to improvise, the resulting dough was counterintuitive as it looked like sand. But when I compacted it it did come together. On the first day I wasn't overly impressed, but day after day the flavor continued to improve. I think this would be a perfect recipe for working with specialty cocoas, or just to taste different cocoas.
I really love that Medrich reduces fat and sugar to punch up flavor. As a result several of her recipes that I have tried have become 'go tos' in my kitchen. ( )