Comfort Food Without Borders Volume Three

Book excerpt: In Comfort Food Without Borders, Volume Three: Happy Endings, chef Sia Ayrom teaches home cooks how to make many of the international favorites they enjoy at restaurants. The last of three volumes, it includes chapters on frozen desserts; custards; Fried desserts; Healthy desserts; truffles and other small bites; cookies, brownies, and other pastries; pies; and cakes. Home cooks will learn how to make amazing ice creams such as apple pie gelato and plombiere, plus popular custards like burnt bourbon. Dessert favorites from other countries include saffron and rose rice pudding and blueberry cheddar piroshki. For pies, Ayrom explains how to make the perfectly flaky pie crust before sharing his twist on French comfort classics tarte tatin and peaches and cream schnapps pie. Cookie recipes cover some unusual menu items such as raspberry cobbler cookie. Home cooks get tips on elevating the cake recipes they regularly make at home to restaurant-quality versions in the book's final chapter. Grand Marnier cake as well as a boozy amaretto torte are among those detailed. With each easy-to-follow recipe, Ayrom shares context from his twenty-plus years in the restaurant industry and from his personal life. His final offering, honey bee torte, pulls from the culture of his ancient Persian ancestry, the inspiration for this final volume.