Comments: As suckers for hors d'œuvre, how are we not going to be smitten with dessert recipes that essentially produce sweet hors d'œuvre?

This book of tiny treats can go in several directions. You can make several dishes and provide all the desserts for a pot-luck or a fancy party. You can just participate in the trend of making and serving bite-size desserts. Or perhaps you're the kind of person who only "wants a bite anyway." (Our leaning is to think up reasons to make several desserts at once and find a way to share them with lots of friends.)

Beatrice Ojakangas, who has written about half the cookbooks that are currently on the market, has turned her attention to more than 50 desserts that can be produced in one-, two-, or three-bite servings. The recipes are clustered in several categories – little cakes; little pies and tarts (we're going to dispense with the word "little" now – you get it, they're all small); fruit and berry desserts; mousses and chilled desserts; creams, custards, and frozen desserts; and pastries and sweets.

The recipes are mostly simple – many are very simple – and most of the ingredients are also easy to find. Some desserts are not especially fancy (to us, blueberry pancakes barely fit into the dessert category), but overall, there's a good mix of fancy and humble.

Ojakangas says downsizing desserts is a simple matter, just a function of using smaller dishes, cutting down the cooking time, and often, she says, also cutting the original recipe in half. She has done all the calculations for you in this case. She says her favorite approach to planning a multi-dish dessert party is serving something chocolate, something "pale or white," and something with fruit.

By far the greatest challenge in using this book and pursuing this approach on your own is finding enough small baking dishes. Ojakangas says she has been collecting small cups, ramekins, muffin tins, and even shot glasses for years. Fortunately, there is a boatload of miniature muffin pans on the market these days to get you headed in the right direction.

The index is fine, but the type is very small (too small).