–WAVERLEY ROOT, “A New England Boyhood” ..MR0-

Cooks and shoppers have dreamed for years about desserts that, like doctors, are pledged to do no harm. Pulses raced when Entenmann’s introduced its fat-free cakes and cookies in 1989; other companies jumped in, but the excitement faded fast. According to research by the consulting firm FIND/SVP, manufacturers themselves “admitted that many consumers will find their products to be too dry, too moist or too gummy.” New products are still trickling in, but attention is turning to a couple of entirely novel ways in which home bakers can fight fat. Meanwhile, food lovers keep hoping that this time, with this cake, they’ll strike it skinny. Herewith, a dreamer’s guide to fat-free desserts.

First and most important, this is chemistry, not cuisine. Whether the fat substitute is Simplesse (a fake fat made from dairy protein) or some amalgam of egg whites, vegetable gums and sweeteners, neither will do well what real fat does so effortlessly: provide texture and carry flavors. An empirical, opinionated and wholly unscientific sampling of fat-free desserts from the supermarket came up with no winners, just sweets so repellent Oliver Twist would have balked. The Pepperidge Farm pound cake tasted medicinal, the Frookies and Health Valley cookies were acrid and flabby, and the Entenmann’s cakes were horrifying: gluey and deadly sweet. The fake ice creams tasted like cold, melted marshmallows. The only product worth eating was one that, strictly speaking, should not have been included: a sorbet-covered frozen yogurt bar from Haagen-Dazs that contains one gram of fat. But what a difference a gram makes. It’s excellent. ..MR.-

Then, ah, then, came the plum tar& hot, bathed in a flood of Cornish cream, steaming and flowing in the ample plate! How rich it was, how sweet and revivifying to my cold and enervated and above all young body! How its steam and savor engulfed and comforted me!

–M.F.K. FISHER ..MR0-

Certainly one of the most glorious reasons to master French puff pastry is the Pithiviers … Its hundreds of very very thin layers of dough, sandwiched between hundreds of layers of butter, puff into such an airy and tender delight when it is baked that it literally does melt in your mouth and to have that happen with a rum and almond filling, too, is one of life’s unforgettable experiences.

–JULIA CHILD ..MR0-