Kaffeehaus [Hardcover]

The chapters cover:

Basic batters, doughs, and glazes 14 recipes such as puff pastry
Simple Cakes 19 recipes such as gugelhupf and roulades
Fancy Cakes 14 recipes such as Sachertorte and Linzertorte
Strudels 7 recipes such as apple strudel
Sweet Yeast Breads 11 recipes such as brioche
Sliced desserts 14 recipes such as berry meringue squares
Cookies and doughnuts 10 recipes such as vanilla cresents
Pancakes and sweet omlets 8 recipes such as crepes
Sweet dumplings and noodles 4 recipes such as prune pockets
Puddings 7 recipes such as chocolate pudding
Hot and Cold beverages 6 recipes such as coffees, wine, and tea
Glossary of ingredients, equipment, and techniques

Coffeehouse guide to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest
Mail Order Sources
Bibliography

Coming from paternal grandparents who were born 40 miles east of Vienna, this book made my eyes misty in rememberance of my grandmother's baking. The book does not rely on store-bought puff pastry and does not hold back on liquer flavorings. The book does give excellent recipe for strudel dough, but it does not go so far as to have you make your own filo dough. I guess that will be in his book on Greek or Turkish baking. A sidebar on properly handling filo sheets is invaluable.

The glossary of techniques is excellent. My only wish was that the author would have made some mention of chocolate sold by specific weight of cocoa butter, as Vahlrona and, I believe, high end American producers such as Sharfenberger and Jacques Torres do. This is so much easier than troubling over imprecise terms like semi-sweet and bittersweet. One concession to American home bakers is the exclusive use of measurements by volume rather than by weight. I really feel that if you are about to take the trouble to make strudel and make your own strudel dough, the effort needed to accurately weigh ingredients is of little consequence and may improve the results.

The photographs of old Austrian coffee house interiors are gorgeous. I would have really appreciated captions. One has simply no idea whether the room is in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, or Brooklyn. I'm sorry the editors at Clarkson Potter wouldn't have thought of this.

This book deserves a place in the serious cookbook library for both it fabulous recipes and it's historical perspective.

I have spent a lot of time in central Europe, and I can report that Rodgers'
recipes are the best in English...ever. The Brown Linzertorte he offers (with
a dash of cocoa for color, not flavor) IS the most popular one. Who really
needs a recipe for Eiskaffee (iced coffee with a scoop of vanila ice cream
and Schlag) or for Turkish coffee (requiring a special pot)? I have made at
least 20 of the desserts, and all were fantastic. Try the Linzertorte,
Apricot Coffee Cake (very simple, but still good), Orangentorte (made with
bread crumbs, almonds, and an unusual orange-curd icing), Leschanztorte (an
outstanding chocolate mousse cake), Ischl Tartlets, Vanilla Crescent Cookies,
and especially the Milchrahmstrudel (a warm farmer's cheese strudel).

I have to think that the failures the baker in Albuquerque has experienced
are due to high altitude, or a lack of appreciation for the subtle palate of
central European desserts. Rodgers has opened up an entire new world of
tastes that you will not find in other books, even the very few books out
there on the same subject. His attention to the historical and cultural
elements around the coffeehouses and their desserts is nothing short of
amazing, and the kind of thing that elevates one cookbook above the others.