November is the time for warm ovens and the smells of something baking. From the more traditional pies and tarts of the season to wonderful and experimental cupcakes and a heaping helping of life reflections and advice, the books the library is adding this month offer a range of tasty recipes and general warm feelings.
First up is Spread Love (and Buttercream!): Recipes & Reflections Where Love is the First Ingredient and a Sweeter World is Ours for the Baking by local queer and non-binary chef Coltan J. Schoenike. Around cupcake recipes for all skill levels, Schoenike offers insights about how to be kinder to ourselves and get over the need to be perfect inside the kitchen or outside of it. There’s cupcakes for every palate, as well, from Root Beer Float to Pink Champagne, and even one recipe of “pupcakes” for our four-legged companions.
From the author’s website:
“Life's too short not to have dessert first... or at least put some extra love into it. With Spread Love (And Buttercream!): Recipes and Reflections Where Love is the First Ingredient and a Sweeter World is Ours for the Baking, you have everything you need to show some extra love to yourself, your relationships, and your sweet tooth. Among delicious cupcake recipes, Author Coltan J. Schoenike, MS sprinkles in supportive and meaningful conversations about how we can make the world a sweeter place with more love and affirmation in our lives and relationships. This cookbook is a journey from start to finish. It opens with beginner-friendly cupcake basics and lays a solid foundation for enhancing our most important relationship-our relationships with ourselves. As you get further into the book, the recipes advance with more intricate and show-stopping recipes and the conversation turns toward how we can put more love and kindness into our relationships and the world as a whole.”
Next up is Crumb: A Baking Book, by former Great British Bake-Off finalist Ruby Tandoh. This book covers a wide range of bake-ables, from sweet treats to savory flavor combinations, with plenty of advice and tips for beginners and more seasoned (get it?) chefs. It’s a bit of a doorstopper, as well, weighing in at over three hundred pages of baking wonderment!
From the back of the book:
“Enjoy the pleasures that baking has to offer, from the exertion of a long knead to the crackle of a loaf cooling on the countertop. Crumb presents a simple yet exuberant sort of baking, with recipes such as Chamomile Vanilla Cupcakes, Rosemary Pecan Pie, Fennel Seed & Chile Crackers, and Chocolate Lime Mud Cake that excite the palate and bring bliss to everyday baking. A delight to read as well as to cook from, Crumb covers a range of projects from sweet to savory--including cakes, cookies, crackers, bread, pastries, pies, tarts, and more. This is baking stripped back and enjoyed for its own sake, with recipes you’ll return to over and over again.”