Before She Wrote Cookbooks, Maida Heatter Created Hit Recipes for The Times

I had to laugh at Ms. Laskey's comment about those of us who have all of Maida Heatter's books. Now I have to pull out my own butter-stained copies and make her flourless chocolate cake! She was a treasure, but her recipes live on!

My first Maida Heatter book was "Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts". Just pulled that book off the shelf and it fell open to "coffee cognac cream pie", my go-to dinner party dessert. A glorious creamy, dreamy confection that guests could not turn down, even though full from dinner. The last dinner party where I served that pie a guest said, after taking only one bite, "Is there another piece left in the kitchen?" "The Best Damn Lemon Cake" and "Palm Beach Brownies" were favorites, also. What I liked most about her books was knowing that every possible instruction was provided. Read carefully, a baker would encounter no surprises. That, and her absolute love of manipulating and consuming chocolate. I recall her instruction for making chocolate cigar curls started with the advice that if you had a big block of chocolate, time on your hands, and temperature/humidity were fine, you could spend a pleasant morning making big chocolate curls to store in the freezer for when you've created something fun that would benefit from a big curl! 102. A life well-lived.

I've all 7 of her cookbooks and cherish them. In 1995, I met and had her sign the "Book of Great Chocolate Desserts" at the now closed "Cooks Library" on 3rd street @ Orlando here in Los Angeles She introduced me to Bridge Kitchenware @ 214 E 52nd street in NYC but has moved to East Hanover, NJ. Love the "New York City Brown Stone Front Cake" and the "East 62nd Street Lemon Cake"

Maida Heatter’s dessert cookbook was the second cookbook I ever bought as a newlywed (the first was the Grossinger’s cookbook because we honeymooned there!). I still have it in all it’s compact, paperback, $3.95 bargain purchase glory. What a relevation her recipes were! Black pepper cookies? Craig Claiborne’s cheesecake? Everything was perfect. RIP Maida.

When I was a teenager in the ‘70’s and I wanted to bake by myself my mom gave me the Maida Heatter Chocolate cookbook and said “if you want to learn to bake only use books with full proof recipes.” She told me if I read the recipe carefully and followed Maida Heatter’s instructions I would always be successful. All of Maida Heatter’s recipes were throughly tested....tried and true. Her books and food brought joy to so many people.

A favorite mentor who taught me, through her cookbooks, to be first an intrepid and then (and therefore) an accomplished home baker. Her New Book of Great Desserts is on my shelf to this day. I am particularly proud that I have owned the exact blouse she wears on the cover since before I bought the book in 1980. I've never been intrepid enough, however, to make all those beautiful desserts at one time and create my own cover photo with me at the center, in the blouse, in her place. Perhaps I still will. Cookbooks and blouses from that era tended to last a very long time. May she rest in peace and may she have known how many good home bakers she inspired.

YUM and thank you Ms. Heater for all the guilty pleasures you created over so many years. Looking for your early cookbook in my bookcase now.

Time get out her cookbook and bake this weekend.

Thank you Maida. Though we never met, you were a great teacher to me, your recipe prose so precise and exuberant that I could feel your presence and encouragement from afar. Palm Beach Brownies with chocolate mints may be the most perfect brownie ever dreamed up. 102 years from now, people will still be baking your recipes. Thank you.

I have such fond memories of Maida Heatter’s book on cookies. In 1982, I was fresh out of college and could not find a job in my field. So, I went back to my parent’s home, pieced together some jobs and baked my way through the book. The more complicated the recipe, the better - in a way, by working through the book I regained some sense of my own potential. No, I didn’t write a book like that young woman that did the same thing with Julia Child’s cookbook, but I did eventually find a starter job in my field. Thanks Ms. Heatter for teaching me practice, patience and perseverance.

My mom had one of the dog eared, stained, and nearly falling apart paperbacks you described - which I still have tucked away - until I found her a hardback copy at a used bookstore back in the 1980's. My mom, my aunt, my sisters, and I have all baked from Maida Heatter's cookbooks for decades, and her recipes are favorites of my three daughters as well. What a wonderful legacy she has given us.

Maida Heatter’s Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake recipe has been delighting my family for many holiday celebrations. I am so grateful to my dearest friend who shared it with me. As a cook who is shy of baking, I was a bit intimidated by the recipe. First few times it tasted way better than it looked but oh my when it came together, what a treat. I hope to make it until I am 102...

I did cry when I read she had died. I've been making her recipes since the chocolate mousse torte appeared in the NYT. When I posted about her death on a message board, one response was, "102. Wow, cake must be good for you." Her cake most definitely is. How can bringing smiles to the faces of everyone who has some not be good for you?

Cannot wait to try these recipes!

Years ago when my son was at NYU, we spent a Saturday together when he kindly agreed to one “mom” destination; a quick stop at Bonnie Slotnick’s cookbook bookstore in the Village. I spied one of the few Maida Heatter cookbooks I did not own and brought it up to Bonnie to purchase. We shared a few words about Heatter and I saw her open a drawer and pull out an index card, jotting down a few notes. She saw me watching, with obvious curiosity, and told me that Heatter had asked her to keep a record of anything any customer had to say about her or her cookbooks! When I was in my 20’s I baked cookies for the Coolidge Corner movie theater in Brookline, MA and her “peanut butter pillows” were a huge hit. I highly recommend them!

I have my copy of the 1972 NYT Magazine original, protected between plastic sheets in a recipe notebook. That article may have been the first time I'd heard (seen) Maida Heatter's name. When her books came out, I gobbled them upj. They never disappointed (or disappoint). Her enthusiasm for chocolate matched mine. I trusted her. And now such wonderful chocolate is available to the home baker. In those days it was mainly Baker's Unsweetened one-ounce squares, Hershey's Cocoa, and Nestle's Semisweet Chocolate Chips.

I discovered Maida Heatter almost 40 years ago, as a new-ish lawyer desperate to find something that would let me forget me of the horrors of working in a law firm (which I left for public interest law a few years later). Her books were so interesting, fun and knowledgable. I became a very accomplished baker thanks to her excellent tutelage. From book to book, I learned how to create tarts, how to treat my pans, how to moisten cakes. The payoff was not just knowledge but consistently delicious results. Without Heatter I would have never had the guts to approach more complex baking like Beranbaum's The Cake Bible. I still use Heatter's books all the time. Everything I make is a hit. But the absolute best is her Chocolate Mousse. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Rest in Peace, Ms. Heatter. Thank you for the good times and delicious cakes.

I just baked the Sour Cream Chocolate Loaf and Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies to honor Maida Heatter. Her Poppyseed Cake, Rugelah, Hamentaschen, Lemon Cake, and endless varieties of cookies are my go to recipes. I have all the books and they are well worn, full of sticky notes, my comments and lots of 'evidence' of all the ingredients. Rest in Peace, Maida, and know that you brought joy to so many who will continue to bake and remember you.

102! God bless Maida Heatter! I love her East 62nd St. Lemon Cake. I make it all the time. It's the perfect lemon cake. I got the recipe years ago from Women's Day. They did not credit her but they kept the name she gave it. What a treasure she was and will continue to be thru her recipes.

I have all her books, and bake from them regularly. I’ve been making her black and white poundcake at Christmas for more than 40 years, and the Palm Beach biscotti ( with candied ginger) for almost as long. What a wonderful legacy she’s left us.

When this chocolate mouse cake recipe first appeared it became my go to dessert. As I recall everyone loved it and there were no reports of illness. These days, I am not sure I would be so eager to serve a dessert that contained raw eggs.

A paid subscription to the NYT is worth every last penny to have access to Maida Heatter's recipes. Her dreamy chocolate mousse torte, East 62nd Street lemon cake, 86-proof chocolate cake, and her chocolate cheesecake brownies are what dessert dreams are made of. These treasures have never disappointed nor cease to bring wide, brimming smiles to the faces who have devoured those treats when I made them. I am deeply saddened by her passing, but I am so thankful and grateful for her memorable gifts from the kitchen. Every time I make her mousse torte, I always toast the first slice in her honor.

As soon as I saw the name "Maida Heatter" I immediately thought "East 62d Street Lemon Cake," the recipe for which I got from the Times many many years ago.