In New Book, Food52 Shares Recipes for Busy Bakers
Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week is Food52 Baking: 60 Sensational Treats You Can Pull Off in a Snap by the Editors of Food52 (Ten Speed Press), a community-based recipe site.
Gif by Samntha Bolton
Food52 founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs originally wanted to call their new cookbook, “Uncommitted Baking.” That title was about as popular as “rain at a beach party,” and yet, it does communicate just what Food52 wanted to create and share with this book. The recipes, which include some that have never appeared on the popular community food site, range from breakfast treats to everyday cakes to cookies and bars, and are the kind of baked goods you can tackle “once the dinner dishes are cleared away and the kids are asleep — without having to stay up so late that you’re bleary-eyed the next day.”
This is baking for those of us who relish some quiet time in the kitchen with just flour, butter, eggs, and something to add a sweet or savory note. We probably want to enjoy that feeling more often, but simply do not have the time – or perhaps not the inclination — to spend several hours following a new recipe.
Overnight Orange Refrigerator Rolls (Photograph: James Ransom)
This means you’ll find cookies that require no fussy decorating or finishing, no-knead pizza dough, and a fruit dessert that makes crumbles seem complicated. There’s also no special equipment or impossible-to-find ingredients, which adds to the overall approachability of the recipes, and makes the book a good match for less-experienced bakers.
This kind of accessible, effortless baking could easily become boring, but there’s nothing ho-hum about this recipe collection. French toast, that Sunday morning stand-by, is presented in an easy overnight version, but dressed up with cardamom and citrus. Turnovers made with frozen puff pastry couldn’t be simpler, but fill them with a bagel-inspired combination of tomatoes and cream cheese, and they’re completely original and new.
Sour Cream Cheesecake with Chocolate Cookie Crust (Photograph: James Ransom)
Twists on familiar favorites are common throughout the book and oftentimes the secret is using unexpected ingredients. Oatmeal cookies, for instance, are reinvented when coconut, chocolate, wheat germ, and Grape-Nuts cereal are added. Even a beginning baker can handle folding a few extra ingredients into batter, especially when those add-ins are already in your pantry or can be easily found at your local shop.
Early in the book, the Food52 team says that “the key to being a good baker is choosing good recipes,” and that may indeed be true, but learning a handful of solid techniques is also going to help, which is why you’ll find tips sprinkled throughout the cookbook. Alongside the recipe for Summer Fruit Galette, there’s a quick overview of how to cut butter into flour and other dry ingredients. You need to know this to make the galette, but it’s also an essential method for almost any pie dough made by hand. With advice like this, Food52 is guaranteeing your success, but they’re also sneaking in the lessons that are going to make you a better baker.
Visit Yahoo Food throughout the week for recipes from Food52: Baking.
Check out other books from Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week:
My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl
NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully
A Modern Way to Eat by Anna Jones
