The Best Cookbooks List

COOKBOOK REVIEW: Homemade With Love

 

Homemade with Love: Simple Scratch Cooking from In Jennie's Kitchen by Jennifer Perillo

This big beautiful book is also a very handy guide to making simple fast food for your family. Really fast. The recipes are easy to follow. There are markers on each one identifying them as gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, under 30 minutes to make, dairy-free, egg-free, make ahead and freezer friendly. And the recipes have few ingredients. 

What I also like about this cookbook is the ingredients. I love that Jennie uses natural cane sugar, local eggs, natural sea salt and fresh herbs. You could cook from this and feel good about serving what you make to your family and loved ones. I made the Homemade Cheese Crackers first and they came out superb. I also made the Ginger-Lime Slow-Roasted Carrots. I took them to a picnic to eat cold and they got rave reviews.

My favorite so far is the recipe for the doughnuts on the cover. I had to go out and buy a special doughnut baking pan to make them, but it was worth it. Lovely and light. Here's Jennifer's recipe for:

Lemon Buttermilk Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup natural cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 lemon, juiced and rind grated
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
•   confectioners' sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 6-count doughnut pan, and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.
3. In a measuring cup, use a fork to beat the lemon juice, buttermilk, egg and melted butter until well blended.
4. Pour over the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to mix together until just combined.
5. Evenly spoon into the prepared doughnut pan and bake for 8 to 9 minutes until the doughnuts are lightly golden and spring back when touched.
6. Let the doughnuts cool in the pan for 2 minutes. Unmold the doughnuts and transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely. Use a small strainer to sift confectioners' sugar over the tops before serving, if desired.

My next recipe to try is Jennie's Vanilla Birthday Cake, pictured above. It looks just like the ones my grandmother made for my birthday as I grew up. Lovely.

Homemade with Love: Simple Scratch Cooking from In Jennie's Kitchen

COOKBOOK REVIEW: Flavored Butters

Flavored Butters: How to Make Them, Shape Them, and Use Them as Spreads, Toppings, and Sauces (50 Series)

     Goat's milk butter! I make my own butter, because I love the taste and I love to add in crunchy fleur de sel. But I never thought of making goat's milk butter---and I think it is a wonderful idea.

     From the very first few pages of this new cookbook, I was inspired. The photography just reeled me in. On page 11 there was a shot of butter that had been made in a classic French mold, making me want to run to find one. Page 16, there was a picture of how to "roll" butter. Page 45, a photograph so beguiling I could taste the page: caviar butter on a bagel. And the photo on page 63 of green-tea sesame butter was so beautiful I could smell the page. This is the first time I have reviewed the photography in a cookbook, but I am so impressed by the styling and thoughtfulness of the photos done by the author of the book. Not only is she superb at creating intriguing recipes, but she is superb as a food photographer.

     Lucy Vaserfirer created this little cookbook gem. Within the 90 or so pages you will find a wealth of inspiration. Take for instance, the port butter recipe. What a great way to charm someone on Valentine's day. Her picture is of a juicy steak with a heart shaped portion of ruby-colored port butter melting on the top. And because I recently posted a recipe on my blog about making maple flavored homemade butter, I was drawn to Lucy's rendition, which took the idea to a higher level by adding cinnamon and brandied raisins.

     Her salted caramel butter recipe is destined for my popcorn this weekend, and her gorgonzola chive butter on a bulky sandwich. Run out and buy this cookbook. You're going to love using it.

COOKBOOK REVIEW: The French Cook: Sauces

  by Holly Herrick 

The joys of making classic French sauces, with their heady aromas enveloping a dish and taking it to another level, are brought home by Holly Herrick in this the first of her new cookbook series: French Cook: Sauces  

Sauces is about cooking, about quickly learning fundamental combinations that underpin classic French cuisine. Each chapter focuses on introducing bullet-proof recipes to turn out brilliant sauces, including: bechamel, fonds, veloutes, emulsions and tomato. What I love about this cookbook is Holly’s reader-friendly writing style and mouth-watering recipe titles, coupled with the beautiful photography of world-class photographer, Steven Rothfeld. His capture of the essence of preparing sauces, from the gleaming copper pots they are made in to their final destination, draped and swirled,  evoke exactly what Holly conveys with her words and instruction.

This is a resource you will want to keep in the kitchen for inspiration and for all time. It is a book that over time will accumulate stains from spoons and drippings from ladles because of heavy use. And it is the kind of book you will want to pass on and gift.

The French Cook: Sauces, by Holly Herrick (Gibbs Smith, March 2013) is available on Amazon.com.