Baker’s Rack: Reading Cookbooks as Literature
A couple years ago, I started doing reading challenge checklists each year. I easily get overwhelmed with the infinity of decent options when it comes to books, and it can be paralyzing, so I find that having a few checklists to go through can help me just pick something when I feel I’m at an impasse. I’ve grown to love this challenge lists because it’s something my reader friends and I can bond over (“what on earth are you going to do for prompt #12?”) and it’s also a way for me to expand my interests.
This year, on the reading challenge list put out by the Professional Book Nerds Podcast, one of the prompts is to read a cookbook and then make a recipe from that book. I have a quite impressive collection of cookbooks at my disposal, many written by well-known bakers, cooks, and chefs, but it occurred to me as I considered this prompt that I’d never actually read any of them. I’ve made recipes out of most of them, sure, but there were lots of writing I skimmed over or skipped entirely to get to the meat of the thing. The ingredients list. The instructions. End of story. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to change that.
The book I chose to fulfill this prompt is the latest release from one of my favorite food personalities, Claire Saffitz. I originally got to know her by her presence on the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen YouTube Channel, specifically for her series “Gourmet Makes.” When that whole situation over at BA imploded, I was happy when Claire started her own channel and started releasing cookbooks.
Her first cookbook, Dessert Person, came out in fall of 2020. It was my birthday, it was peak pandemic, it was just a few months after I’d bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer for Mother’s Day - in other words, it was a perfect storm. It quickly became one of my favorite references, even though there’s just a handful of recipes I ever tried out of it. The poppyseed almond Bundt cake has become one of those “tried and true” recipes I reach to if I need a good cake and need it quickly, the almond butter banana bread is decadent and savory-sweet, and the malted brownies are simply exquisite.
So, I’d had What’s for Dessert on the shelf for a few months before finally picking it up to read for this challenge prompt. Let me tell you, I’m so glad I tackled this part of the challenge so early in the year, because it has completely revolutionized my whole approach toward cooking and baking.
I’ve already made six recipes from this cookbook in the past month, which is twice the amount I’ve made from her first cookbook, which I’ve had over two years now! I have to attribute this to sitting down and reading the book as, well, a book, and not treating it like an inconvenient presentation for recipes.
For starters, I read all these recipes when I was comfortable and relaxing, and I read them in my preferred reading format of an eBook. I wasn’t standing in the kitchen, hunched over the counter, trying to find adequate lighting while my young children ran screaming in circles around me. I have a bad habit of skimming through the instructions when I’m reading a recipe for the first time this way, or worse, not reading them at all. This almost always ends in unpleasant surprises midway through the cooking process.
There’s also a lot of really great writing I was missing by skipping over the chapter introductions and recipe descriptions. It made me realize I’ve really been disrespecting the hard work that cookbook authors put into creating these great references when I don’t take the time to read over these sections. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Finally, it’s made selecting a recipe a lot easier! There were several times I read through a recipe, thought “this sounds delicious,” and then realized that I already had everything I needed at home to make it! Even more times I realized I only needed one or two simple ingredients and was able to add those to my shopping list for future trips to the grocery store.
All told, I’ve decided to read through all these great cookbooks I own but haven’t really cooked out of, because I’m pretty sure I’ll achieve the same result of making better connections and having the memories of reading through the recipes to allow me to actually use these as functional references! I can’t recommend enough that you do the same.
Recipes I’ve Baked From What’s for Dessert (So Far)
Seedy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
Salty Cashew Blondies
Crystallized Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake
All-In Shortbreads
Crunchy Almond Cake
Flourless Chocolate Meringue Cake
