Recent Cookbooks on My Shelf - Late 2023/Early 2024

A Bit of a Baking Theme from Some New(ish) Releases - Extra Food Chat with Kath

Welcome to another edition of Extra Food Chat with Kath!

Here is a round up of the books I’ve added to my cookbook shelves in the last few months!

These are books that fall outside of my regular cookbook series ‘Cookbooks for Waiting For’. However, they are no less worthy of some cookbook chat for not being on those lists! I try to keep the amount of cookbooks I review at any one time to around 4 or 5 so, which means there are always more cookbooks to chat about in between my regular cookbook review schedule. There is a bit of a baking theme with this collection of cookbooks, which was unintentional but welcome nonetheless. I hope you will agree!

The links provided to each book are just for your reference, and if you are keen to find copies of these books at a local bookshop, either near you or via purchasing online, check out https://yourbookstore.io

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Now, on to the cookbooks!

A New Way to Bake by Philip Khoury (Hardie Grant)* - While I am not one to jump at many vegan cookbooks, the premise of this book being vegan baking was quite intriguing. I haven’t made any of the recipes as yet, so I can’t speak to how they work and what they taste like, but what I have appreciated from this book is the deep explanation of ingredients from the author in the introductory section of the book, and the fact that there aren’t any strange ingredients used in the recipes as a substitute for eggs or dairy. I personally don’t understand the point of eating vegan when the alternative to eating something that has a perfectly sustainable and ethical option, is something highly processed. There aren’t any of those ingredients in A New Way to Bake, and I think possibly for that reason this book may appeal to those with food allergies (notably dairy/lactose and egg) as well as those choosing to eat vegan. Here is another review of A New Way To Bake that you might find useful from one of my favourite Substack newsletters, Apples & Elderflower.

Pasta Everyday by Meryl Feinstein (Varacious/Little, Brown and Company) - This book was gifted to me by a friend for Christmas, what a lovely gift to receive! I had heard a little about Meryl’s Substack newsletter Pasta Social Club, so it has been nice to find out more and see it all in cookbook form. Meryl guides the reader through making pasta doughs then of course how to shape them, then what sauces to make to serve with the pasta.

Meryl, like others who have pasta based cookbooks, fell in love with homemade pasta on a trip to Italy - from my experience with pasta cookbooks, the author is either tapping into their familial love of pasta and Italian cooking/heritage, or has fallen in love with it after visiting Italy and found it’s comforting process and of course the actual eating of it, blend into their lives back home. Pasta seems to have this way of being so many things to so many people, and due to its diversity there seems to be always a new shape to learn, a new sauce pairing or a new way to flavour or colour the dough to try.

Every time I get a new cookbook about pasta I think surely I don’t need anymore, but here I am loving another pasta cookbook as much as the others I have! I really like the layout and photography in this book, which is unusual as I often don’t love the photography style in American cookbooks, but this one feels calm and engaging plus the process photos of making the pasta look really helpful. I am really looking forward to trying Meryl’s potato gnocchi recipe (p.66), the Sweet and Sour Eggplant Sauce with Buratta (p.286) and Braised Onion Ragu (p.289).

Scandinavian From Scratch by Nichole Accettola (Ten Speed Press) - I had been eyeing off this book in bookshops for a while before I bought it, when when I had a voucher to use I knew this was the book I wanted to get! I love learning about the baking traditions of other nations and cultures so this book, which focuses on those from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, was right up my alley. The author Nichole lived in Denmark for sometime, before returning to the US and opening a Scandinavian style eatery called Kantine. Scandinavian baking, which is the overarching theme of this book, has a very comforting feel to me. They may not be recipes I will bake in the hot humid summer of Sydney, however my to bake list for when the weather cools down is long - Finnish Almond Matchsticks (p.43), Caramel Slices (p.47), Raspberry Squares (p.57) and Coconut Dream Cake (p.71) to name a few.

Scandinavian From Scratch has a nice selection of biscuits, cakes and yeasted bakes, as well as brunch fare such as flatbreads, crispbread and waffles. There’s also a chapter on Rye Bread and the various things you could eat with that. I like that this cookbook has a nice variety of recipes, and I think that will appeal to many people who like baking. Sometimes when a baking cookbook has many yeasted bakes and breads or involved layer cakes and the like, I can enjoy the book but I know I probably won’t actually end up making many things from it. I prefer less involved recipes, and don’t have the time or energy for lots of ‘baking projects’ so Scandinavian From Scratch is perfect.

Baker Bleu Bake It Till You Make It by Mike Russell (Murdoch Books)* - I was generously sent this book by the publisher Murdoch Books, and what a lovely thing it was to receive. I have never been to the Baker Bleu bakeries but I’m sure I’m missing out for never having been! This book is definitely one for the sourdough lovers, as most of the recipes use a sourdough starter which Mike guides you through creating for yourself. From there you can make all the recipes in the book from a traditional Country Loaf (p.46-51), Focaccia (p.61-63) and Bagels (p.90-95). Some recipes have multiple uses, for example the bagel dough can be used to make Pizzette’s and Empanadas. There is also a recipe for croissant dough (p.133-136), that can then be used for multiple things. There are also a few non-bread based bakes like pies and biscuits (I have my eye on the Pistachio, White Chocolate and Cherry Cookies (p.172)), plus some suggestions on how to use your homemade sourdough, and how to ultilise leftovers as well. This is a book for bakers who love a slow paced baking project, and who relish the idea of bakery quality bread at home.

A Whisper of Cardamom by Eleanor Ford (Murdoch Books)* - I don’t have any of Eleanor Ford’s other cookbooks, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from A Whisper of Cardamom. It is a delightful book, that is equal parts informative and beautiful. In the introductory section of the book Eleanor gives a brief history of spice, and explains pairings and qualities of various spices and how to incorporate them into your baked goods. The way everything is explained reminds me a lot of the way Niki Sengit explains flavour in her two The Flavour Thesaurus books, using pie charts to categorise and explain the spices and what they work well with. I personally really like this style of explanation as it is easy to take in and quickly check what spice might go with what if you were wanting to swap something out of a recipe or adapt the flavour of an existing recipe.

The recipes themselves are so interesting, and are all sweet. The sweet focus of this book means Eleanor also gives a great explanation about the various types of sugars and what their best uses are. If you have read other cookbook reviews I have written you may have noticed I love a well researched book that educates me about something new on top of the recipes contained in the book. The introductory section of A Whisper of Cardamom does just that, so I am enjoying reading this book as much as I imagine I will soon enjoy baking from its. The recipes come with an example of an alternative spices that could be used in the recipe, and the recipes range from baked goods, to desserts and drinks as well. The New Zealand Ginger Crunch (p.104) is the first recipe on my to bake list from A Whisper of Cardamom, then The Lightest Pistachio Biscuits (p.60), then the Masala Chai Snickerdoodles (p.98) round out the top three of my list!

*These books were gifted to me by their respective publishers. Murdoch Books was gifted with the understanding a review would be written, Hardie Grant was not. All opinions expressed are my own, and to be honest I would have purchased these books myself if they had not been gifted to me. Links to all books are just for your reference.

I hope you enjoyed this Extra edition of cookbook chat! Do you have any of these books? I’d love to hear your thoughts about them in the comments.

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I’ll see you again on Friday for more food chat!