New York Sweets ─ A Sugarhound's Guide to the Best Bakeries, Ice Cream Parlors, Candy Shops, and Other Emporia of Delicious Delights

A tour of the city’s best dessert-makers, complete with recipes. The Big Apple is a city of sweets. Think about all the classic desserts that were made famous here: cheesecake, black-and-white cookies, the Broadway milkshake. Visitors from around the world make pilgrimages to bastions of butter and flour such as Magnolia, Ferrara, and City Bakery. And today there is a renaissance of young sugar-minded artisans who are crafting exquisite confections with fair-trade chocolate, organic gelato, and sea-salt caramel—many coming out of Brooklyn, and selling from street trucks. Paging through New York Sweets is like walking through a candy shop, where the design and packaging is often as beautiful as the desserts themselves. The book also functions as an inspired gastronomic tour guide—one skewed toward plenty of breaks for sweets. Each chapter walks through a different neighborhood, giving a sense of the melting pot of flavors that can be found only in New York—from apple strudel and baklava to turron and zabaglione. The recipes reveal the secret techniques behind such delights as Cherry Brownies (Baked), Crack Pie (Milk Bar), Icebox Pie (Billy’s), Macarons (Payard), and Creme Brulee Doughnuts (Doughnut Plant). As in other realms of culture, so many trends start in New York. This book gives the scoop on all the treats that everyone is buzzing about.

Susan Pear Meisel grew up in New York, where she started her own catering business. Today she is a photographer whose work is featured in numerous private collections. Among her previous books is Gourmet Shops of New York.