The Cookbook Junkies

I’m not sure when it happened.   The point where I turned from loving only the comfort food type of books to falling for the lighter vegetable based cookbooks.   It is as surprising to me as anyone.  Fried chicken and waffles are still a favorite – but I’m being drawn more to plant-based inspired meals — if only I could bring my husband along for the ride.  His heels are planted firmly in the dirt and he will not budge.  For the most part, I cook to please my husband’s palate but occasionally when he is out of town or working late and I have some advanced notice – Andrew and I can eat all the pretty colorful food that vegetarian meals allow.

Sarah Britton is the voice behind the beautiful blog My New Roots and her first cookbook by the same title is exactly what you would expect if you are familiar with her work.  Stunning photographs and healthy flavorful recipes fill this book broken down by seasons.

Spring brings us freekeh pancakes with wilted Swiss chard and poached eggs, life-changing loaf of bread with olives and caraway, spring cabbage wraps with couscous, za’atar and spicy tahini dressing and savory spring hand pies. Early summer entices us with tempeh mushroom breakfast bowl, carrot top and garlic scape pesto, caramelized onion, olive and kale calzones, and 4-ingredient spelt pizza dough.  Late summer promises cornmeal pancakes with gingered plum compote, zucchini firecracker corn bread and sundown carrot and grilled corn salad.  Autumn, my favorite season, provides recipes for vanilla rose apple cider, hazelnut flatbreads with maple spice pumpkin butter, and fig and buckwheat breakfast tart.   Chunky banana bread granola, chipotle sweet potato and trumpet mushroom breakfast tacos, trippy tie-dye soup and four corners lentil soup bring winter to a warm, happy close.

My New Roots will tempt us all to break out of our self-inflicted bindings and try new and good for us and not feel like we are eating health food.

Keep your eyes open for my next post – a huge Spring round up – plus a giveaway of Cookie Love and a cookie press! Thanks for reading.

Thank you Blogging for Books for this review.

 

 

The farmer’s market in my town has a bread vendor that sells an incredible lemon and white chocolate bread.   The lemon isn’t overpowering and the white chocolate isn’t overly sweet — it’s just perfect.  It’s that bread maker that turned me on to lemon and white chocolate as a flavor combination.

My son, Andrew loves magic bars also known as seven layer bars or Hello Dollies.  I love to experiment with different flavor combinations in my desserts.   Since it is Spring and I recently ordered some lemon chips from King Arthur, I thought a lemon and white chocolate magic bar would be nice – and I was so right.  (I always tell my husband – if you would just go in knowing that I am right, life would be so much easier).

 

 

While I was experimenting, I decided to try a brownie based magic bar with miniature peanut butter cups – this one I’m calling chocolate overload.  I shared both of these bars with friends and with the ladies at the thrift store – and while I was checking out the cookbooks (surprise) I heard moaning from the front register – they were very pleased.

Recipes for these bars follow the GIVEAWAY.  The lovely folks at King Arthur are offering to one of my U.S. readers a care package to throw together these lemon magic bars.  It will include a bag of the lemon chips (these are so delicious – fresh and lemony), a bag of their unsweetened coconut flakes and a bag of mini white chocolate chips.  Please leave a comment on this post and let me know which bar is calling your name – lemon or chocolate overload. A random winner will be chosen on April 13th.  Good luck. Random Number Generator picked #5 Laurel Eden! Congratulations!

Lemon Magic Bars

8 x 8 baking pan (parchment lined to cover the bottom and up the sides to allow you handles to remove the bars)

1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup of butter melted

pinch of sea salt

Mix the above ingredients and pat into the bottom of the 8 x 8 inch pan.  Set aside.

8 oz. of sweetened condensed milk (or more)

3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes (sweetened is fine)

3/4 cup of white chocolate chips

3/4 cup of lemon chips

2/3 cup of pecans, chopped

We like our magic bars a little thicker — you can eye ball these amounts.

On the graham cracker crust, spread a layer of almost all of the following ingredients (reserve a 1/2 handful for later) lemon chips, white chocolate, pecans and finally the coconut — drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top–if need a little more than the 8 oz. use it — should be almost covered (sometimes I carefully use an offset spatula to distribute the milk).  I then add the reserved lemon chips and white chocolate chips and a bit of coconut over the mixture.   Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes until it looks set.  Let cool and then cut into small bars.  These are rich — a bite or two is just enough for your dessert trays.  Option:  Feel free to add a teaspoon of lemon zest to the condensed milk to give it more pucker.

Chocolate Overload Bars

For the brownie base, use your favorite brownie mix or recipe — I used approximately a 1/2 of Ghiradelli’s brownie mix for this base and used the remaining batter to make some brownies in cupcake form.

Follow the package or your favorite brownie directions and spread 1/2 of the batter into a parchment lined (as instructed in the lemon bars) 8 x 8 pan.  Bake at 350 for approximately 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside.

2/3 cup of butterscotch chips

2/3 cup of chocolate chips

2/3 cups of mini peanut butter cups (or you can use peanut butter morsels)

8 oz. of sweetened condensed milk

2/3 cup of unsweetened coconut

2/3 cup of chopped pecans

While brownie batter is partially baked and still warm, start layering your chips, peanut butter cups, coconut and pecans — I pressed down lightly to compact the ingredients.  Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top of the bars.  Sprinkle with a  few chocolate chips and pecans if desired.  Bake at 350 degrees or 25 to 30 minutes until set.  Let cool and then cut into small bars to serve.  Option:  Feel free to add some caramel bits or the caramel center morsels that Nestle has available now.  I have ideas for mini snicker bites, butter finger bites etc.  You can make these your own.

 

 

Cheryl and Griffith Day, the married team behind the highly successful Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia have returned with their second book, Back in the Day Bakery Made with Love.

Made with Love has a little bit of something for everyone — sweet and savory recipes and a few crafting projects.   Artisan has graciously shared a few recipes with us as well as the beautiful photographs by Angie Mosier from the book.  Look for those links and photos at the end of the post.  I have plans for those biscuits this week.

As I paged through the book, my sticky tag notes got quite a work out.  I have tags on Eggnog French Toast, Mexican Spice Cake with Chocolate Glaze, Ginny’s Chocolate Chip Cake with Classic Chocolate Buttercream (Andrew’s pick), Strawberry Buttermilk Cake (another Andrew pick), Lemon Pudding Cakes, Orange Buttermilk Pie, Pimento Cheese Crackers, Janie Q’s Lemon cake with Lemon Meringue Buttercream, Alabama Lane Cake (a moist cake filled with a whiskey custard, coconut, dried fruit and pecans), Buttermilk Brown Sugar Cheesecake with Sorghum-Caramel Pecans (absolutely beautiful dessert), Chive Parmigiano-Reggiano Popovers, Lemon Buttermilk Fudge, Green Tomato Marmalade, Sweet Potato Comeback Sauce and Bee Sting Honey.  Truthfully, I wanted to put stickers on almost every recipe.   I can’t wait to try their extra fluffy pie crust as well as their flaky chocolate crust.  With recipes like this, it’s little wonder their bakery is thriving.

Reading this book made me revisit their first book The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook and all the tags I have on those pages — White Bean Soup with Bacon, Rustic Cheddar Pecan Rounds, Bacon Jam Empanadas, Pancetta-Fontina Bread Pudding, Plum Custard, Bourbon Bread Pudding and Southern Corn Cakes.   I did make their brown sugar tomato bacon jam when I first bought this book and it was delicious – I gave some to friends and they raved as well.  I used it on sandwiches and grilled cheese – yum.

GIVEAWAY:  Artisan Books is giving away one copy of Made with Love to one of my readers.  Please leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite baked treat is.  US addresses only.  A random winner will be chosen on April 13th.  Good luck.   Random Number Generator picked #47 May Watson you are the lucky winner!

Please remember to check out my other posts for giveaways.  I have two additional giveaways right now as well as an Instant Pot review and discount code.

Special thanks to Artisan for sharing several recipes from the book Old Fashion Biscuits, Caramel Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting and Salted Caramel Sauce.

“Excerpted from Back in the Day Bakery Made with Love by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2015. Photographs by Angie Mosier.”