One was Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great 
Food. There's a recipe for Chick-pea Ricotta Gnocchi that's supposed to bring a little health and protein 
to gnocchi. There are guides to making toast and eggs with a Chinese twist. There's a savory Poblano Custard for breakfast. There's even a section titled "Grain Griddlecakes." This will definitely become a new go-to cookbook and hopefully teach me how to bring a little more health into my vegetarian diet.
Another was The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
by Peter Reinhart. This is where my favorite recipe for bagels comes from. The images in the book are just gorgeous, and they take you through how to proof, knead and twist extraordinary breads. Following the complex recipes 
promises to yield you "some of the best breads under the sun." It will teach me how to make breads I never knew existed. Apparently, bread isn't worth anything if the process doesn't take at least two days.
I also got two beautiful copies of Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. This is a cookbook I've been coveting for some time. Baked is a delightful bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that carries these absolutely perfect chocolate peanut butter crispy bars. I don't know what to make first from here, but I'm pretty sure it has to happen within the next week. Perhaps the Double-Chocolate Loaf with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Spread (the ultimate gift) or the Mississippi Mud Pie (A), aka Coffee Ice Cream Tart. Yum.
I'll be returning one and getting Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
, also by Matt and Renato. 
It's got a brown-sugar caramel sauce I'm just dying to put over ice cream. There's a minty grasshopper cake that seems fresh and springy. Both books are filled with photographs that just make the food look more delicious.After I recover from last night's Ethiopian dinner party (many, many recipes to come), I can't wait to get started baking from these.
I have three of the four...don't have MB Veg, just the red MB HTCE. Want to cook/bake something together sometime? lol
ReplyDeleteKayte! I would love to bake something together! I'm just getting a feel for how this food blogging works and people have such creative arrangements. Baking through cookbooks together. Challenging each other to complete recipes each week. I love it!
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about being in a group cooking/baking through a book is that you feel you really get the use/money out of your cookbook! On my own I would not make near the amount of recipes that I do when I am in a group. Also, I would not challenge myself to try new products/recipes/tastes/foods with the same regularity that I do with a group. It's fun. Okay, pick a recipe and we can bake something together! Thanks!
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