The Cookbook Junkies

It’s that very special time of year. Fall cookbook releases are right around the corner!

Below I share a few words about each of the books that have caught my attention.

Grandbaby Cakes from my pal, Jocelyn Delk Adams, is a stunner baking book out this Fall. It’s a must have! Also, please see the bottom of this post on how to enter to win a copy of this wonderful book!

My review:

Cakes like grandmothers brought to the table but with a modern twist is the focus of Jocelyn Delk Adam’s debut cookbook, Grandbaby Cakes. We’re headed in to explore this tempting world of cakes, grab a glass of milk and join us.

The Overview

Jocelyn Delk Adams, has been writing about cake for over three years now. She started her blog as a tribute to her grandmother when she realized that she inherited the family baking gene. Grandbaby Cakes is a collection of her time honored recipes, modernized for today’s baker. The subtitle of the book says it all — Modern Recipes * Vintage Charm * Soulful Memories. Jocelyn serves up exciting bold new cake recipes made with the heart and soul of her past.

Chapters are organized by cake type – Pound, Layer, Sheet, Baby Cakes, Celebration and Seasons & Holidays with a wonderful variety of flavors and combinations. Photographs of the finished creations will have you eager to get into the kitchen, sifting flour and cracking eggs in no time.

What We Loved

Sea Salt Caramel Cake, S’more Lava Cakes and Peach Cobbler Shortcake are extraordinarily beautiful and if they taste half as good as their photographs look we will be thrilled. We love the soulful memories that Jocelyn shares about her family and especially her grandmother. Her Grandbaby Notes on the recipes are there to assist us in making the best product possible. Being “from scratch” bakers we love that the recipes use wholesome ingredients but also for those that might not be ready to dive head first into full blown cake baking, the author gives permission to use a cake mix on some of the recipes to get us into the kitchen. The Snickers Cake, Blood Orange Mimosa and Arnold Palmer Cake also are tempting and truth be told, every recipe is in this book is crave worthy.

The From Scratch Mix is a prepare in advance hack to avoid having to use a store bought cake mix – make a batch and use when needed. Perfect for a busy weekend when you are juggling dishes for a get-together as half the measuring work is done.

What Inspired Us

We are inspired to try Dreamsicle Punch Bowl Cake, Original Gooey Gooey Cake and Nana Puddy’s Tiramisu Cake which would become the centerpiece of our dinner tables just as Jocelyn’s grandmother’s cakes were the centerpiece of her table. The recipes in this book will create a modern show stopper cake while adding a touch of nostalgia. There are cakes that would be wonderful for a dinner party and will impress your guests and cakes that you can surprise your family after a Sunday dinner.

Want to take your cake presentation skills to another level? The Real Deal Caramel Cake is a stunner of a cake with ripples of caramel dripping down the sides onto your cake plate. The Ultimate Birthday Cake is another cake that will leave them thinking you are a cake boss.

What Intimidated Us

The Peach Cobbler Shortcake which is stunning might intimidate some with it four components and half page of ingredients.  Most of the recipes are not quick and easy. There are numerous books on quick and easy and while these recipes might not be quick – they are not overly complicated or difficult to execute. After all, we want recipes that will challenge us and impress ourselves and guests with great taste and beautiful presentation when we decide to bake from our heart and soul.

The Food Lab, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s James Beard nominated Serious Eats column comes to cookbook form. Again, I have a piece coming out soon for TasteBook on this gem. Everyone needs this book! Joy of Cooking on steroids.

Sweet Middle East, by the well respected star of Middle Eastern cooking, Anissa Helou, offers us 70 classic desserts enhanced with spices, honey, dates, and nuts. I love exotic cookbooks and this one will be on my shelves!

Mission Chinese Food The wildly popular restaurant, Mission Chinese Food, finally will arrive in our homes to up our cooking game. I love Danny Bowein’s fusion of Chinese and American classics. Kung Pao Pastrimi anyone?

Zahav is Israeli cooking at it’s finest with some of Solomonov’s star recipes from his Philadelphia restaurant. Not all restaurant recipes but his famous hummus and pomegranate-glazed lamb shoulder recipes are included. If you love Middle Eastern food this is the book for you.

Gjelina California Cooking from Venice Beach Gjelina, is a highly acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant featuring Cal-Med cuisine. The book shares 125 of the restaurants recipes that have patrons waiting for tables since the restaurant opened. Gorgeous book with stunning photography.

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes – Lucky Peach – Asian Recipes. Enough said.

Lidia Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine  Lidia – Italian Enough said.

The Violet Bakery Cookbook A promising book from the ever popular London bakery owned by the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse utilizing natural sweeteners, whole grain flours and seasonal ingredients.

Simply Nigella Nigella – Enough said.

Home Baked Another gem from the Yvette van Boven. Her previous three titles are favorites in my kitchen. This book, of course, focuses on baking and includes step-by-step instructions to recreate deliciousness in our homes.

Metamorphosis of Taste is the highly anticipated debut cookbook of Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in America to be awarded two Michelin stars. Her food focuses on organic, sustainable ingredients with stunning presentations.

Four Seasons of Pasta by Nancy and Sara Jenkins, famed mother and daughter duo, deliver a book containing 120 recipes for pasta dishes from easy to extravagant.

Tacos Recipes & Provocations New York City chef Alex Stupak explores the world of tacos in this title. Moles, barbacoa, carnitas and more are tackled.

This is Camino from Chef Russell Moore the famed Oakland, California restaurateur delivers wood-fired cooking favorites. If you don’t have a wood-fired oven – have no fear – stovetop recipes are included here as well.

Sarabeth’s Good Morning We’ve been waiting for a follow up to Sarabeth’s From My Hands to Yours and it is here. Breakfast and brunch favorites await us in Sarabeth’s Good Morning.

Nomad Cookbook Daniel Humm is back with a true chef’s cookbook with a back panel that hides a second book on cocktails. To some this will be a coffee table book – to others – a source of inspiration.

Nopi Ottolengthi. Could say enough said but a little more – this book delivers head chef Ramael Scully’s Asian-inspired cuisine with Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern influence and delivers the restaurant’s favorite dishes. Now, enough said.

Hot Bread Kitchen Hot Bread Kitchen is a bakery that employs and empowers immigrant women, providing them with the skills to succeed in the culinary field. Hot Bread Kitchen delivers authentic multi-ethnic breads from these talented bakers.

Bien Cuit is a serious bread bakers book. Recipes from the Brooklyn bakery which is known for super-crusty, dark breads are compiled in this bread baker’s dream book.

Tacopedia An encyclopedia on tacos from Phaidon. A must have.

Mexico Inside Out Enrique Olvera, chef owner of  Pujol was ranked the #1 restaurant in Mexico and #20 in the world at the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. Mexico Inside Out is his debut cookbook on Mexican cuisine from Phaidon.

Chef Next Door Amanda Freitag, Chopped judge and chef at New York’s Empire Diner has finally delivered a cookbook to teach us to create restaurant quality meals in any kitchen.

Arzak Secrets Juan Mari Arzak is the owner and 3 Michelin star chef of the Arzak restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain. His restaurant is now rated 8th best in the world, and Juan’s daughter Elena, who cooks with him, was voted best female chef in the world in 2012.  He finally delivers his wonderful book in English.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees offers an introduction to Chinese home cooking, focusing on its basic cooking methods from culinary expert Kian Lam Kho.

Soup for Syria – celebrity chefs, recipes and all profits go to food relief — win win win.

Other titles coming out this fall that you may wish to check out – a few I will be covering in my TasteBook column others will be hitting my shelves soon Near & Far, My Pantry, Olympia Provisions, My  Kitchen Year, Jacques Pepin Heart and Soul, Vegetarian India, Heartlandia, Maverick New Mexico, A Real Southern Cook, Besh Big Easy and Something Sweet.

Random Number Generator picked #55 —  Tina Hoerauf congratulations! Email your mailing address to icywit@gmail.com.

GIVEAWAY:  Thanks to Agate Publishing, I have a lovely copy of GRANDBABY CAKES to give away to one of you. Please leave one comment here telling me which cookbook you are most excited about this Fall. For an extra chance, share this post on Facebook, Twitter and leave a second comment telling me you did. Giveaway open to U.S. addresses only. Good luck.  Giveaway will end on September 15th when a random winner will be chosen.

Links to Amazon are affiliate links (or when you shop now at the top of this page), I get a small fee to help defray the cost of maintaining this site and to fund giveaways! Thank you.

 

King Arthur Flour is my go to on all things baking. I shop their website frequently, use their flours and ingredients, and enjoy their cookbooks and new magazine, Sift.

I am honored to be a part of King Arthur’s better biscuits campaign and have some tips from them to share to ensure your biscuits are the best ever.

• BE GENTLE: Avoid overworking the dough after adding the liquid.
• CHILL OUT: Starting with very cold fat (butter, shortening, lard) will help create flakier biscuits.
• USE A BISCUIT CUTTER: The cleaner the cut, the higher your biscuits will rise.
• FREEZE BEFORE BAKING: Freeze your shaped biscuits for up to 20 minutes before baking to improve texture and rise.

King Arthur Flour also has a baker’s hotline for any baking questions — at 855-371-BAKE.

 

We love black pepper in our home – so I whipped up some black pepper and bacon biscuits with maple butter for you — these biscuits worked great here in the mountains – so perfect for high altitude baking.

Black Pepper and Bacon Biscuits with Maple Butter

Makes 8 to 10

2 1/2 cups of King Arthur self-rising flour

3/4 teaspoons of coarse black pepper

1 stick cold salted butter (cut into small one inch cubes and placed in freezer for 10 minutes)

1 to 1 ½ cups of cold buttermilk

3 slices of crispy bacon, crumbled

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine the flour and black pepper into a medium sized bowl.

Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut the small very cold flour into the dry ingredients.

Add the cold buttermilk slowly until you reach the right consistency. The dough will be sticky and wet.  Add the crumbled crisp bacon to the bowl.

Dump the mixture onto a floured board or counter and fold – five to ten times with your hands using a little flour if needed (I used about another 1/4 cup). Pat out to a two inch thickness and using a three inch biscuit cutter – cut out your biscuits. Again, the dough will be wet – but with some folding and flour – will pull together and you will think – this isn’t going to work – but check out my photos – they bake up beautifully. (You can place the biscuits in the freezer for a few moments as directed above, but I didn’t this time.)

Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12 – 18 minutes until golden brown. Check them after the twelve minute mark for doneness. Here in the mountains my biscuits were done in 12 minutes.

Serve with maple butter (recipe below).

1 stick of softened butter

4 tablespoons of pure maple syrup

Combine butter and maple syrup together and refrigerate until chilled. Serve with hot biscuits.

Thanks to King Arthur for providing me with products to make these beautiful and delicious biscuits for you. Now get out there and make some biscuits!

Scook, The Complete Cookery Course, Anne-Sophie Pic’s latest cookbook, is a vibrant, photograph filled tutorial of French cooking which detail a 100 recipes. Step-by-step photographs help guide us from souffles, puff pastry, and macarons to Poached Egg with Snail Foam, Galangal and Artichokes. Have no fear there are many approachable recipes that don’t include snail foam.

Fresh Morels with Tarragon and Parmesan Cream, Saint Marcellin Cheese Croquettes, Ravioli Gratin with Caramelized Onions and Light Nutmeg Bechamel and Rum Baba with Chestnut Sauce and Vanilla Whipped Cream are a few of the stunners in this book. I am putting the ravioli gratin on my must make list after vacation along with a dozen other recipes from Scook.

I love the detailed instructions on How to Peel and Dice Tomatoes, How to Make Melba Toast, How to Make Au Jus and many more lessons of this type that are included. The book is divided into five sections of cooking segments: Entertaining, Everyday, Classics, Home and For Children.

Pic’s focus for this book is what she cooks and is filled with creations inspired by her childhood and professional experience. There are recipes from basic to complicated and I appreciate that in a cookbook that will take you out of your comfort zone or allow you to try something simpler.

Cinnamon and Cherry Clafoutis, Iced Grand Marnier Souffle, Chocolate Mint Profiteroles and Almond Pannacotta with Raspberry Confit and Crumble are a few of the desserts that will be sure to impress your family and guests. The recipes in the Children Section include Boulangere Potatoes with Bacon, Raspberry Swiss Roll and Pain Perdue with Strawberry Jam — with them broken down into “Fast but Good Food”, “Nurturing a Love of Fine Food” and “Childhood Favorites”.

This book is a must have for serious cooks and cookbook lovers. Here are a few gorgeous photos from the book —  Courtesy of Quarto Publishing Group USA. 

Poached Vanilla Pear

Coconut and Lime Iles Flottantes

Random Number Generator chose comment #21 — Allison Harper. Allison, I have sent you an email. Congratulations! GIVEAWAY:  Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group USA – I have a copy of this gorgeous book for one of you.  The giveaway is open to US Addresses only and Random Number Generator will choose a winner on September 1st. Leave a comment here telling me your favorite French dish. Good luck!