I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: cookbooks are a great equalizer. Whether it’s because cookbooks allow us to experience so many ingredients and techniques, or cuisines and places, our kitchens become a place to culinarily try it all from the comforts of our own homes. Can I travel to Norwich, Vermont, to attend classes at the King Arthur Baking School? No (insert sad face here) BUT I can pick up a copy of their Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: King Arthur Baking Company: Baking School”
Tag: home baker
Book Club Tuesday: Snackable Bakes
I don’t often begin reviews like this, but here it goes: Jessie Sheehan‘s Snackable Bakes is marvelous, and I think everyone should have a copy. While I have a huge library of cookbooks, Snackable Bakes ranks near the Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Snackable Bakes”
Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf
“…when we sat down in that coffee shop and laid out our bakery dreams to each other, they were really about creating a space we wanted to go to every day. To build something that would address as many of the systemic issues we had seen in our own bakery jobs as possible. A place to foster creativity and feminist ideals. A business that would give more than it would take from the community and that centred sustainability in all its decisions. The results have not always been what we intended, and we are still learning how the systems in which we operate affect our biases and how we can continue to be better. It has been a financial challenge. Trying to operate in an effectively non-profit way in a capitalist system is fraught with compromises and disappointments. Luckily, we are resourceful folks and have had the honour of working with many amazing people over the years, so we feel like we have won the life lottery.” (4)
Over a decade ago, Nickey Miller and Josie Rudderham opened the brick-and-mortar version of Cake & Loaf in Hamilton, Ontario and now, they have a newly published cookbook (of the same name) to share with home bakers. I’m new to the Cake & Loaf world but as I read through the introduction, I learned that Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf”
Book Club Tuesday: Fabulous Modern Cookies
To us, cookies are the most approachable of all desserts. (9)
What Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin say in the introduction to their latest book, Fabulous Modern Cookies, is absolutely true! Of all the desserts, cookies are the most approachable. Thinking back to when I was little, one of the first things that I baked with my mom were cookies, and this is the case with my own daughter. It’s about having fun and enjoying the results. I remember that when Katie and I made animal crackers, hers weren’t that great looking, however, Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Fabulous Modern Cookies”
Book Club Tuesday: King Arthur Baking Company — The Essential Cookie Companion (Revised + Updated)
People love dichotomies, which exist in infinite number in the world of our kitchens. For example: cooking or baking? Gas or Electric? Cookbooks or websites? Cakes or Cookies? When it comes to this last one, I’ll be brave and say “neither.” Or maybe even: either. Which can I bake, with love, and share it with my family and friends? Baking is a Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: King Arthur Baking Company — The Essential Cookie Companion (Revised + Updated)”
Book Club Tuesday: The Cake Book
What’s not to love about cake? It’s a season-less dessert that is appropriate for any occasion — my occasion of choice is usually breakfast! Over the past several years I’ve really come into my own as a baker and, I found that cookbooks with inviting, accessible recipes helped me to develop my skills. Therefore, I appreciate Rebecca Firth‘s approach so much — having recipes that are easy, approachable, and (most importantly) fun, Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: The Cake Book”
Book Club Tuesday: Advent
When I received a copy of Anja Dunk’s latest cookbook, Advent, near the end of November, I took to my Instagram stories, and I did something I almost never do, I advised people to buy this cookbook before the holidays and not to wait for my review. You see, in flipping through the book and looking at the recipes Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Advent”
Book Club Tuesday: Baking with Dorie
This is my fourteenth cookbook, and it arrives exactly thirty years after my first. A lot has changed over those decades, but not the joy I get from baking. That’s constant and unfailing. If you’re a baker, you know exactly how I feel. If you’re not, the sweetest thing I can wish you is that you become one. Bake something and share it. It might change your life. It changed mine. (3)
People who adore Dorie Greenspan have a favourite Dorie book. I came to my favourite Dorie book when my (then) baby daughter was becoming acquainted with food. The mealtimes Katie enjoyed the most were the ones when I made pancakes or waffles. This is where Dorie comes in: Dorie’s fourth book, Waffles: From Morning to Night, is full of flavourful and beautiful waffle recipes Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Baking with Dorie”
Book Club Tuesday: Zoë Bakes Cakes
Zoë Bakes Cakes is about longing realized. Which of us hasn’t looked at pictures of beautiful baked goods online and sighed at the seeming impossibility of being able to bake like this at home? This is where Zoë François comes in — she enthusiastically creates the most incredible baked goods while demonstrating to home bakers how to achieve these same results for themselves. She comes across as
Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Zoë Bakes Cakes”
Book Club Pi(e) Day Edition: The Book on Pie
Let me tell you a story: when I was a kid, my mom would take my sister and I to her hometown so that we could spend the summers with my grandmother and all her extended family. My mom grew up in a charming little village in Ontario cottage country and the summers we spent there are some of the best summers in my memory. Down the road from my grandmother’s house was the two-story, white clapboard house that she grew up in, and it was where her unmarried sisters and brothers continued to live. Each morning my sister and I would Continue reading “Book Club Pi(e) Day Edition: The Book on Pie”