Fortunately, around the same time I received a copy of the Green Market Baking Book, by Laura Martin, for review. This book provides 100 recipes for sweet and savory treats, and includes additional details on how to incorporate natural sweeteners into your own home cooking. The books also includes detailed information on local and seasonal produce, and provides an interesting chapter on substitutions.

The book is divided into seasons, a great help when eating what is currently ripe and ready, and has a brief section on preserving the harvest, with tips for freezing, canning and drying your favorites.

This summer, I tried the Peach and Nectarine Upside-Down Cake (page 82), and while it was very juicy, the cake received good reviews. Not the most attractive dessert, but with maple syrup and brown syrup as the sweeteners, it was refreshingly devoid of refined sugar.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful; it makes a good evening read. And each season has a highlight of what is good and fresh for that period, along with simple botanical drawings of the fruit and vegetables.

Many chefs have contributed to the book, but the author has managed to keep the recipes and voice similar throughout. Many recipes are also highlighted as dairy-free, low-fat, vegan and gluten-free.

My one gripe with the book is that it seems as though some of the chef-created recipes included in the book have been modified from the original recipe to include a natural sweetener, without the testing necessary to ensure a good quality product. There are many included recipes which are clearly tested and provided by the chefs with the natural sweeteners, but every once in a while a recipe will appear that has been included in the book, but not necessarily created using natural sweeteners. Since many of these sweeteners are liquid (maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey), I think this leaves the end product open to less success.

Some recipes in the book don’t use any sweeteners, so they are included because of the seasonal produce in the recipe, that is ok. But several recipes have also been included as pure product recommendations (Pesto Pizza with Goat Cheese and Figs, page 100), and a couple from Eden Natural Foods, Bob’s Red Mill, the National Honey Council and U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council. It is nice to show breadth of recipes, but eventually it starts to feel a little commercial.

I also see a few recipes that could be more specific in their details, for example, Persimmon Bread (page 142) which does not specify Hachiya or Fuyu persimmons (big difference). And realistically, many of these recipes are quite a bit more expensive than their refined counterparts (to be expected). I made the Green Market Baking Book Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 31) and priced them out to be about $18 a batch, as opposed to the Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 30) which are closer to $6 a batch and don’t require additional trips to the grocery store.

On the plus side, there are a few recipes which have been really vetted with natural sweeteners, including Pumpkin Pie and Custard (page 130) and a few recipes which are no brainers for natural sweeteners, such as Applesauce (page 148) and Honey Strawberry Jam (page 68). It is good to build awareness about what is natural and not in baking, and this book helps that cause.

Would I buy the book? Probably. I like all the recipes with honey, and I think the illustrations are great. I also like the layout of the book, reinforcing the eating seasonal objective I share with my family. It would make a nice gift this holiday season for someone looking to reduce/eliminate refined sugars in their diet. This book provides a good starting point and enough information you point you in the right direction.

And just in time for apple season, here is the Apple Cake recipe from the Green Market Baking Book:

Brioche

I feel as though the early 80′s were a time of change in the local food culture in San Francisco Bay Area. Alice Waters was gaining traction at Chez Panisse and encouraging the local food movement; ethnic foods were moving into the mainstream; and Alice Medrich was bringing the chocolate truffle to the masses. With my first taste of a truffles, and with each subsequent chocolate cookbook, I have become a huge fan of Alice Medrich’s work and when the opportunity to interview Alice was presented, I jumped on it!

On a many-city book tour, Alice visited Fog City News in San Francisco last week to promote her new book, Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies, a collection of old and new recipes, designed to be a one-stop-source for all your cookie-baking needs. I was able to sit down and talk with her before the book signing and tasting, and learned a few interesting factoids:

- The first thing Alice ever cooked in the kitchen was apple pie dough scraps with cinnamon and sugar
- In elementary school, Alice’s teachers were mostly strong, interesting, single women who inspired her, but sometimes made her cry
- After graduating with a degree in Latin American history, Alice took off for a post-doc in Paris. Her favorite souvenir was a French truffle recipe provided by her host mother.
- Alice’s favorite chocolate is Scharffenberger, another East Bay original
- Alice’s favorite food to eat, outside of chocolate, is fresh fish and shellfish
- And the strangest chocolate-food combination she ever tried was Asparagus with cacao nibs

We also spent some time talking about the differences between the books, and I discovered that since my favorite Cookies and Brownies is no longer in print, the new Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy is an update along with many new cookie and brownie recipes. Alice has new entries for Gluten-Free baking, as well as whole grain flours and reduced fat options. She also played around with many of her standards and provides new-and-improved versions. I baked both the Anzac Cookie and Rocky Road Bars, both which were gobbled up by the family. The book is easy to follow, the recipes are well written, and my only complaint is that there are not enough pictures. I like how the book is divided out into sections by texture of cookie, which makes it easy to find something based on what your taste buds are in the mood for.

So, for my last day of the 12 Days of Local Christmas, I give you a cookbook written by an author and food expert whose influence on the exciting food culture that exists in the Bay Area is well known and appreciated. And I also give you a recipe, one of Alice’s favorites, since she is currently on a sesame seed kick!

Sesame Sticks

from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy Melt-in-your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich
Irresistible to sesame lovers, these thin, addictively crunchy yet delicate cookies pack a wallop of flavor.

makes thirty-six to forty-six 4- or 5-inch sticks

1 1/4 cups (5.625 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (4.625 ounces) sugar
1/3 cup (1.625 ounces) lightly toasted sesame seeds (see page 397)
1/3 cup (1.125 ounces) ground blanched almonds
Scant 3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cold water

A 5-x-9-inch loaf pan (optional), lined on the bottom and sides with foil
Cookie sheets, lined with parchment paper or greased

Put the flour, sugar, sesame seeds, almonds, and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to blend. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives until the butter is reduced to small pieces. With the fingertips of both hands, lightly toss and rub the mixture together until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine the vanilla and water in a small pitcher or cup. Stir the flour and butter mixture with a fork while drizzling the water and vanilla into the bowl. Continue to toss and stir lightly with the fork or your fingers until all of the dry ingredients are slightly damp. The dough should remain crumbly and stick together only when pinched (see Tips for Sticks, page 56).

If using a loaf pan, dump the mixture into the lined pan and spread it evenly. Press it very firmly, making a thin layer. Or dump the mixture onto a piece of foil on a baking sheet and distribute it evenly over an area about 4 by 9 or 10 inches. Press it firmly, squaring up the edges, to make an even compact layer about 1/2 inch thick. Fold the foil over the dough and wrap it tightly. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

Unwrap the dough and transfer it to a cutting board. Use a long sharp knife to cut the dough crosswise into 1/4-inch (or thinner if possible) slices. Use the knife to transfer each slice to the lined or greased cookie sheets, placing the slices 1 inch apart. The slices will be fragile and require the support of the knife in transit; the results will be worth your careful effort.

Bake for 12 to 18 minutes, until the cookies are golden with golden brown edges. Rotate the pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking.

For lined pans, set the pans or just the liners on racks to cool; for unlined pans, use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to racks. Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing.

May be kept in an airtight container for several days.

Disclosure: I did receive a copy of Alice’s new book for review, however, the review and my adoration of Alice are mine alone and were no way influenced by a book that I could have bought on Amazon for $16.42. This kind of admiration has no price tag!

The cookbook is divided into cakes and fillings, with a bazillion options to integrate the two. I chose a very standard, traditional Whoopie – the Chocolate Marshmallow Whoopie Pie. Because of the season, however, I was also tempted by the Pumpkin Whoopies with cream cheese filling. There was even a savory Jalapeno Cornbread model. Something for everyone.

I like the down-to-earth and funny descriptions and instructions, especially when the authors suggest that measuring your ingredients carefully is a great idea, just not one that they always follow. This is definitely the book for me.

And then a funny thing happened when I went through my stack of recipes to try (you know, the stack you have on your counter of all the recipes you rip out of the newspaper and magazines and keep meaning to try, but never get around too?) and found that the San Francisco Chronicle had done an article on Whoopie Pies back in June, and they included recipes for Chocolate Whoopie Pies with classic Marshmallow Filling. For your enjoyment, I present:

However, Maggy, one of Pam’s daughters, proposed a Sunday Supper blog fest, in which several of us would make a recipe or an entire menu from the book to share with our friends or loved ones. This is a challenge I can get around, especially since the book makes it so easy with prepared menu plans for every occasion.

I decided to start with a Sunday Supper of Braised Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes, Aromatic Vegetables and White Beans. I served it with a salad of butter lettuce and fennel (almost one of the recommended side dishes). The lamb shanks were easy to put together, especially since I had shanks from my Sierra Farms Lamb order this summer. I used carrots from our Two Small Farms box, as well as tomatoes from Mariquita Farms. The only short-cut I took was using canned white beans, but it would be easy enough to pressure cook a pound of cannellini beans to add to the recipe.

The recipe was very easy to follow – utilizing a large roasting pan, the entire dish was made in one pot, although I used both the stove and oven. My family enjoyed the dish, and leftovers the next night were even better!

The second dish I tried was One-Pot Penne with Turkey-Feta Meatballs. As usual, I made the dish my own, skipping the cheese, adding in my favorite whole grain cracker (instead of saltines) and using fresh, crushed tomatoes. It was an easy dish to put together mid-week, good for working parents. My family did not love it, mostly because the pasta was overcooked (my Italian friends are no doubt slapping their foreheads, thinking to themselves, “well, duh, Gudrun, if you are going to cook it in one pot, and not in boiling water, then you are going to run into trouble”). Next time, I would break out a second pot to cook the pasta al dente, the way we prefer. Husband does the dishes anyway, so who cares. Wink.

I did not try any of the optional side dishes, but one of the great benefits of this book is how they put together whole menus, so you can easily chose an entire dinner to put together for a Sunday Supper, or even a mid-week family dinner. My one complaint with the book, which is small (but I like to appear balanced) is that it would be nice if the ingredients were given in cups and pounds, instead of amounts. For example, in the lamb shanks dish, the recipe called for 6 large lamb shanks, without any weight recommendations, which made it hard to know if the four I used were over or under recommended weight. And with the onion, it called for one large, but a large onion can vary in size, so in this instance, a cup measurement would have been more helpful.

That said, this is a great book for any level cook, and would be most beneficial to beginning cooks and any busy cook (or mom!) looking to expand their repertoire and menu planning. With photos to follow and easy to read text, it is a book that would also make a great gift for your favorite cook this holiday season!

Other bloggers participating in the Sunday Supper with Perfect One-Dish Dinners are:

• DadCooksDinner.com
• RecipeGirl.com
• ArtofGlutenFreeBaking.com
• ThisWeekforDinner.com
• MyBakingAddiction.com
• Wenderly.com
• BluebonnetsandBrownies.com
• TheSensitivePantry.com
• WhatsCookingBlog.com
• TwoPeasandTheirPod.com
• WhatsGabyCooking.com
• Bellalimento.com
• SmithBites.com
• MyFavoriteEverything.com
• FoodForMyFamily.com
• Savor The Thyme
• Ivoryhut.com
• DineAndDish.net
• GlutenFreeGirl
• Picky-Palate.com
• TickledRed
• SheWearsManyHats.com
• WhatWereEating.com
• SugarCrafter.net
• GoodLifeEats.com
• HowTo-Simplify.com
• RookieMoms.com
• SteamyKitchen.com
• Celiacs In the House
• LaPommedePortland.com

My initial reaction when receiving the invitation was to decline – I am not interested in vegan cooking, I like meat, and really consider myself an omnivore. However, I also like cooking with more vegetables and grains, and I was curious to learn more about incorporating those items into my recipes. Plus, I have always wanted to take a class at the California Culinary Academy. So, what the heck, let’s give it a try…

IMG_0093

The class was held in one of the school’s classrooms, and included chefs-in-training as well as head chefs from the school. It was exciting to sit in the classroom with the presentation kitchen, including cameras. After a brief slide presentation, Chef Tal launched into his demonstration.

A few key elements of vegan cooking that he demonstrated included Cashew Cream, Nutritional Yeast Flakes, and meat analogs (fake-o meat for those carnivores among us). Chef Tal also used Earth Balance, a vegetable oil-based spread, a vegan butter substitute. We also had the opportunity to taste Gardein, a protein made from whole grains including quinoa and amaranth, and we watched as Chef Tal used a massive VitaMix to blend everything from Cashew Cream to soup.

IMG_0095

“Chicken” scaloppini with shiitake sake sauce

My favorite recipe of the day was a Celery Root soup with Granny Smith apples, and one that I would probably make again. Check out the tip for adding salt to a pan as it heats, to create a non stick environment.

Celery root soup with granny smith apples

Sea salt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium celery roots, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 quarts faux chicken or vegetable stock (try Better Than Bouillon brand)
1 bay leaf
1 cup thick Cashew Cream
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Granny Smith apple, unpeeled, very finely diced
Chive Oil (recipe follows)

Place a large stockpot over medium heat. Sprinkle the bottom with a pinch of salt and heat for 1 minute. Add the oil and heat for 30 seconds, being careful not to let it smoke. This will create a nonstick effect.

Add the celery root, celery, and onion and sauté for 6 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft but not brown. Add the stock and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the Cashew Cream and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Working in batches, pour the soup into a blender, cover the lid with a towel (the hot liquid tends to erupt), and blend on high. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls. Place a spoonful of the diced apple in the center of each serving, drizzle the Chive Oil around the apple, and serve.

Makes 6 servings

Chive oil

1 small bunch chives
½ cup canola oil
Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Blanch the chives for 30 seconds in boiling water, then drain and chill in an ice bath. Drain, wrap the chives in a towel, and squeeze the moisture out. Place in a blender with the remaining ingredients and blend for 2 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Put the chive oil in a plastic squeeze bottle with a small opening or use a spoon for drizzling it on the soup.

Makes 1/2 cup

Cashew Cream

If you’ve thumbed through the recipes in The Conscious Cook, you’ve seen the ingredient “cashew cream” a few times. It’s a vegan-chef staple that stands in for dairy in a variety of ways. In the raw-food world, where it originated, it’s used in lots of desserts. When you cook with it, though, it can be so much more—from cheese filling in ravioli to heavy cream in soups. It can be stored 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to 6 months (although after it’s defrosted it can be a bit lumpy, so it’s good to give it a spin in the blender to smooth it out before using it).

The trick when making cashew cream is to use raw cashews. They have no flavor of their own; they’re just a vessel for fat and creaminess. (It’s the roasting that brings out the familiar sweetness in cashews.) Because it has a nice fat content, cashew cream reduces in a pan even faster than heavy cream. (Soy milk, which some people use in vegan cooking, has no fat, so it doesn’t reduce into a thick sauce—it’s really not an alternative.)

For different applications, there are different consistencies—thick and regular. (I’ve also included a recipe for Whipped Cashew Cream, which is a great accompaniment to desserts.) Both are easy to make but not quick, because the cashews need to soak overnight. A shortcut is to put the cashews in a pot with water, bring them to a boil, then shut off the heat and let them soak for an hour. But this starts to leach out the sweetness, so you’re better off with the overnight method. Also, there’s at least one decent brand of store-bought nut cream, called Mimic Cream, which combines cashews and almonds; you can usually find it on the shelves or in the refrigerated section near the soy milk. Of course, nothing compares to homemade, and once you get used to it, there may be no turning back.

2 cups whole raw cashews (not pieces, which are often dry), rinsed very well under cold water

Put the cashews in a bowl and add cold water to cover them. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the cashews and rinse under cold water. Place them in a blender with enough fresh cold water to cover them by 1 inch. Blend on high for several minutes until very smooth. Strain the cashew cream through a fine-mesh sieve.

To make thick cashew cream, which some of the recipes in this book call for, simply reduce the amount of water when they are placed in the blender, so that the water just slightly covers the cashews.

Makes about 2 1/4 cups thick cream or 3 1/2 cups regular cream
Prep time: 10 minutes, plus soaking overnight.

Recipes provided by Gardein and Chef Tal Ronnen.

Fortunately, I have three books that I turn too when I am in need of a good cookie. I would recommend any of these for your special baker this holiday season:

One Dough – Fifty Cookies, by Leslie Glover Pendleton

I am sure I have commented about this book before, I love it so. The concept is simple – make one Master Dough, then flavor it with different items to make 50 excellent tasting cookies. For best results, use a stand mixer to make the Master Dough, and use it right away to make your cookies. I had a bad experience making the dough ahead – when I was ready to mix-in my different flavors, it was rock solid from being in the fridge. Learn from my mistakes.

Favorites from this book: Mocha Butter Balls, Shattered Chocolate Balls, Russian Tea Cakes, Chocolate Toffee Cookies, Walnut Maple Syrup Cookies

Martha Stewart’s Cookies

Over the last year, and especially when baking cookies with my daughter, I often turn to this cookbook from the Martha Stewart Cooking Empire. Yes, she might be overbearing and a little too confident with household chores, but the woman does know her cookies. Recipes are fairly straight forward, and there are enough pictures to make a cookie chef drool. Important note – some recipes make very small batches, like 2 dozen. Make sure you double check before starting, so you are not surprised. Some cookies, IMHO, need to be made in ginormous batches. Chocolate chip, for example.

Favorites from this book: Ne Plus Ultra Cookies, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, Chocolate Thumbprints, Cream-Filled Chocolate Sandwiches

Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

This book has much more than cookies, but cookies are such a strong suit for Greenspan that I find myself turning to this book often for inspiration. In addition to many sweet treats, she also includes a few savory cookie varieties, perfect with a glass of wine. Some pictures, lots of variations, all-in-all a good book. Only downside is that it is still only available in hardback, a bit more of an investment. Good gift option, though.

Favorites from this book: World Peace Cookies, Parmesan Sables, Midnight Crackles

Any of these books would be helpful in the kitchen this holiday season!

Photos courtesy of Amazon.

Once we started getting an organic, local vegetable box each week, I decided I had to be more knowledgeable about ways to use all these (sometimes) unique vegetables. Julia, in writing up the Ladybug Newsletter, often included recipes inspired by the Victory Garden Cookbook, which all worked out well, so I thought this would be a good book to add to my collection.

Originally published in 1982 by Marian Morash, the Victory Garden Cookbook is a product of Marian and her husband Russell’s experience in the garden. The experience started when Russell, a TV producer, was asked to produce a new gardening show, with Jim Crockett, a well-respected gardener and TV host. Crockett’s Victory Garden stayed on the air, and now as The Victory Garden on PBS, is in its 34th season.

Marian got her first start in the kitchen with the help of Julia Child, the host of one of Russell’s first television shows. Can you imagine working along side Julia? What an experience! As Marian’s interest in the kitchen grew, so did Russell’s vegetable garden and subsequently, her repertoire of vegetable recipes. Along with Judith Jones of Alfred A. Knopf publishers (yes, the same company that produced Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking), Marian created this lovely cookbook with loads of vegetable recipes for anyone.

I like the the book because it is laid out alphabetically and includes almost every vegetable you could imagine (Salsify, anyone?). Along with cooking tips, Marian and Russell include growing tips, in case you are interested in reproducing their garden at your home. She covers everything from basic cooking of each vegetable to more elaborate ways to use the harvest. A quick box of special information for each vegetable includes the highlights on storage, preparation (including canning and microwave) and special hints. And both sweet and savory recipes, as well as recipes with animal protein are included.

Some of my favorite recipes from this cookbook include Braised Fennel, Leek and Potato Soup, Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage, and Lamb, Kale and Barley Stew. The chapter on Summer Squash and Zucchini alone could keep you busy for weeks!

Fennel, Bean and Tomato Soup

Fennel, Bean and Tomato Soup

My one complaint about this book is perhaps the quantity of information – there is so much on each vegetable that sometimes I am overwhelmed with choice. If you are a cookbook reader (like I am) it is a wonderful book to curl up with over a cup of tea – just be sure to bring your Post-It notes to highlight your favorite recipes.

If you are moving towards a more vegetable filled diet, or are looking for new inspiration, I heartily recommend this book!

Photo courtesy of http-mart.

Not so, Hello, Cupcake!

From the outset, the book’s tone is very casual and comforting. The authors, Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, lay out the steps in easy to follow directions. The very beginning of the book covers the basics of cupcake decorating, and shows loads of useful techniques, including piping frosting from Ziploc bags and dipping cupcakes to create a smooth finish.

My favorite technique was learning how to make the multi-colored frosting used for grass and puppy fur. The book also includes recipes in the back for cake and frosting, although the authors are quick to point out they prefer using canned frosting for some of the effects.

On July 5th, we had the opportunity to use the book, as my kids wanted to make the Corn on the Cob cupcakes (all by themselves!). And as you can see below, they turned out pretty good!

I recommend this book for home bakers who like to experiment, culinary kids, as well as more serious bakers looking for new techniques. Tell me, have you tried any recipes from this book?

For some reason, the pickling bug hit me hard this summer! Every fruit and vegetable that came through my kitchen was eligible for pickling, and most of that is because of my new pickling book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich.

The book starts out with a Pickle Primer, going over many of the basics that the home cook needs to know before embarking on pickle making, including information about salts, vinegars, herbs and spices, necessary tools (a canner, a jar lifter, kitchen tongs, a large mouth canning funnel, jars with two piece lids, and a long chopstick or rubber spatula to remove bubbles), and storage recommendations. Armed with this information, you read through the rest of the book and find the recipes that strike your fancy.

I embarked on an exploration of the variations of watermelon pickle, making both the Minty Watermelon Pickles and Dark Watermelon Pickles. Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, I also made a batch of Cherry Relish, and when I am inundated with Zucchini, I plan to make Zucchini Bread & Butter Pickles and Zucchini Relish.

Ziedrich also taught me some tricks for pureeing tomatoes (use a stainless steel food mill with slightly cooked tomatoes) and suggested purchasing all-plastic mason jar caps to replace the metal rings once the jars are open.

The recipes are easy to follow, and in the case of Cherry Relish, because of how onerous pitting cherries is, Ziedrich made the recipe a manageable size. Some of the recipes are quite detailed (Watermelon Pickles and Sauerkraut with Juniper Berries both come to mind) but Ziedrich goes through the instructions carefully and clearly, which yields a good finished product. She also includes recipes from many cultures, and it is fascinating to compare pickles from Thailand, Vietnam and Japan.

If you are interested in learning more about pickling at home, I recommend this book easily. And then you can be like me, with a garage full of pickles jars in every shape and size!

Hardly a new book, Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, by Lorna Sass, is still a great resource for the home cook, whether you are a vegetarian or not. I have had this book for a few weeks now and have the opportunity to try several recipes, and would definitely recommend the book to others.

Like Lorna Sass’s other pressure cooker books (including Pressure Perfect, another favorite), some part of the book is spent explaining how to use pressure cookers. Lorna also makes pantry suggestions and menu plans, which is great when determining how to manage a more vegetarian diet [note: I am not a vegetarian, although I find our family diet moving more towards plant-based foods].

In the Grain section, Lorna includes her great recipe for Risotto, along with several variations. She also includes recipes that allow the use of different grains, depending what you have on hand, easy and adaptable. I appreciate this information as I cook, as I think it allows me to learn more, helping me determine what flavors are good for mixing and matching.

A couple downsides: the book was published in 1994, before Pressure Perfect (2004) and I think Lorna has refined some of her instructions and steps in her newer book. I find that I refer to Pressure Perfect sometimes when making a dish out of Great Vegetarian, since I know the instructions in the new book are easier to follow. Also, in Pressure Perfect, she has streamlined the process of cooking beans, and the instructions in Great Vegetarian are often more complex. However, I find the cooking time charts in Great Vegetarian to be easier to read and understand, a plus for this book.

Some of my favorite recipes so far include Warm White Bean Vinaigrette (see photo above), Zucchini Bisque with Tomatoes and Fresh Basil (great for using up extra summer zucchini!), and Quinoa Corn Chili. The Warm White Bean Vinaigrette made a great composed salad for lunch recently and would be a nice hot summer night dinner – definitely a cook-ahead option.

The reason I love this book is that Zoe and Jeff have made it so easy to have fresh, European-style, artisan bread every day. The premise is simple – create a wet dough, without kneading, and allow it to rise slowly at a cool temperature, basically, in your refrigerator. And it is so simple to bake the bread – 1 hour before you are ready to bake, take out a lump of dough, form it into a loaf and allow to rest. Preheat your oven, and after the dough rests, slide it onto the hot pizza stone.

I have made several of the breads and the taste and texture has always been excellent, although they don’t always end up looking exactly like the pictures (see Pain Epi above). Jeff and Zoe provide several key breads, then build new recipes off those – for example, I made the Cinnamon Rolls and the Pletzel from the same Challah master recipe. From their website, I also tried baking bread in my dutch oven, which worked extremely well. This is good to know, if you do not have a pizza stone!

My past experience includes baking bread from scratch, but I don’t think that is a requirement to use this book. The recipes are very simple and the conversational tone of the instructions makes it very easy to follow. I highly recommend this book to other interested home cooks craving easy homemade bread.

P.S. I am not affiliated in any way with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, I am just a happy customer!