5 New Baking Books to Gift This Season: A Chat With Margaret Roach
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
If you are looking for a gift for the baker in your life, good news: you have lots of options this year. You also face a difficult decision: which one to buy??
I recently spoke with my friend Margaret Roach, the master gardener behind A Way to Garden, about five new baking books, all of which are fabulous, all of which provide both volume and metric measurements, all of which promise to fill your kitchen with deliciousness this winter and beyond.
You can listen to our conversation over on A Way to Garden, where you also can enter a five-book giveaway 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Margaret and I are each giving away a copy of the five books we discuss in our chat. Find the giveaway details below.
PS: Margaret Roach’s Garden is Magical
PPS: Margaret’s book, A Way to Garden, is a must for the gardener in your life.
Sarah Kieffer’s 100 Cookies
In 100 Cookies, Sarah Kieffer writes: “In my childhood kitchen, cookies were a foundation, a stepping-stone to baking, a rite of passage.”
I love this sentiment, and as we potentially head into another quarantine, this book would be such a great one to have on hand, especially for budding bakers. There are metric measurements for each recipe, and as Margaret noted in our conversation, paring this book (or any of the others) with a digital scale would make a great gift.
My 9- and 10-year-olds have been weighing out all of the ingredients, and then we’ve been assembling the cookies together. We are loving the brown butter chocolate chip cookies and the brown sugar cookies, but I have no doubt every recipe in this book is a winner.
Sarah is an incredibly reliable recipe writer, and I love her precise instructions, in particular that she gives weights for the actual portioned cookie dough balls — so helpful!
If you are a fan of Sarah’s pan-banging cookies, there are 12 variations of that cookie in the book as well as an extensive troubleshooting section about that cookie alone.
Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Cakes
Yossy Arefi describes a snacking cake as “a single layer cake, probably square, covered with a simple icing — or nothing at all — and it must be truly easy to make. It’s a cake that makes an ideal breakfast to-go, wrapped in a paper napkin, and a perfect little sweet to have alongside coffee in the afternoon.”
I am loving Snacking Cakes for a number of reasons, but namely:
- The recipes are simple: truly, none requires much more than a bowl, a whisk, and a reasonably well-stocked pantry.
- As promised, some of the recipes come together before your oven reaches temperature.
- Because none of the cakes requires creaming butter and sugar (but instead calls for oil or melted butter), most of them come together in a single bowl.
I have made the powdered donut cake several times, and my children devour it every time. I love the lemon-olive oil cake, and I’m dying to make the cocoa yogurt cake, which I heard Yossy say in an interview is maybe her favorite recipe in the book.
Erin Jeanne McDowell’s The Book on Pie
In The Book on Pie, Erin Jeanne McDowell writes: “Pie has a miraculous ability to be simultaneously comforting and special occasion worthy, both homey and fancy. “
So true.
The Book on Pie not only celebrates pie but also demystifies the pie-baking process. Throughout the book, you very much get the sense that Erin is trying to remove the fear from pie baking, an intimidating process for many home cooks.
I love that you can feel Erin’s love of teaching in every page of this book. In the introduction, Erin says she “wanted to create a true handbook filled with all the things [she’s] learned.”
She succeeded.
I am finding her explanation of parbaking and blind baking — probably my least favorite thing to do in the kitchen — very helpful. She inspired me in fact to parbake the crusts for my Thanksgiving pies this year. (More on this soon!)
The pies in this book vary from classics such as apple, lemon-meringue, chess, and chocolate-pecan but there are so many fun and inspiring ideas, too: cherry clafoutis pie, cheesecake pie, Tres leches slab pie, to name a few. There are savory pies, too.
Claire Saffitz’s Dessert Person
In Dessert Person, Claire Saffitz writes: “Rolling out a pie crust or cutting biscuits is my version of doing yoga. Dessert is in my DNA.”
I love this. If you have made any of the dessert recipes in Bon Appetit in recent years, you’ve likely made one of Claire’s. This rhubarb custard cake is one of my favorites, so I loved reading in the introduction that fruit desserts are her preference.
This book is filled with fruit desserts, and unlike the three previously mentioned books, this one is more of a general dessert cookbook. There are recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, bars, and more. There are savory baking recipes as well.
One thing that struck me: Claire believes there’s no such thing as a foolproof recipe, which more and more I am learning to be true — from ovens and pans to humidity and altitude, the many variables affecting how a recipe will turn out in someone else’s kitchen simply cannot be controlled.
Because of this Claire gives lots of indications — visual cues — throughout the recipes to help you along. For instance, she’ll never just say: “bake a cake until a tester comes out clean.” She’ll tell you how it will look, how it will feel, and how it will smell. How nice?
I have yet to bake anything, but these three recipes are calling my name:
- Blood Orange and Olive Oil Upside-Down Cake
- Goat Cheese Cake with Honey and Figs
- Minty Lime Bars
Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake
In A Good Bake, Melissa Weller writes about an aha moment she had upon thinking about the cookbooks she learned from early on in her career: “If those recipes had just given a little hint about this or that, a little more detail here or there, my baked goods would have turned out looking like those in the pictures that inspired me to want to make them to begin with. I knew then that I wanted to write a cookbook.”
A Good Bake is a compilation of 15 years of training, working, and note-taking — it’s the book Melissa Weller wishes she had when she was starting out.
Melissa trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and worked at Babbo, Jim Lahey’s restaurants, Thomas Keller’s restaurants, and Roberta’s. But before she was a baker, she was a chemical engineer.
If you are someone who appreciates a scientific approach to baking, you will love this book. In the introduction, Melissa writes: “Asking questions — lots of them — is integral to being an engineer: a chemical engineer or an engineer of dough.” Melissa attributes her love of science and baking as well as her curiosity for shaping her career in pastry and bread.
Like Dessert Person, A Good Bake is an overall dessert cookbook, with recipes for breads, pastries, pies, tarts, cakes, quick breads, cookies, bars, and more.
If you want to learn how to make laminated pastry, from croissants to kouign amann, this is a great resource. If you want to learn how to make flaky buttermilk biscuits or tender, buttery pie dough, Melissa will show you how. If you want to learn how to build a sourdough starter from scratch, there’s a tutorial for that, too.
I have yet to bake anything, but these three recipes are calling my name:
- Black Sesame Kouign Amann
- Cinnamon Swirl Sour Cream Bundt Cake
- Flourless Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
To Enter the Giveaway
A Way to Garden and I are each giving away five cookbooks. To enter, answer this question in the comment box at the bottom of the page (then copy and paste it into the comment box over at Margaret’s website):
Tell us what your favorite new cookbook is and what recipe you are loving from it.
We’ll each select 5 winners on December 13th and notify you then. UPDATE: The Giveaway is closed. The winners — Thao, Jenn S., Xenia, Urszula, and Samota — have been emailed.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
511 Comments on “5 New Baking Books to Gift This Season: A Chat With Margaret Roach”
Thanks for your information on these cookbooks. I have your cookbook and bake your bread recipes every week, but recently I am trying to perfect pies, especially the crusts.
My current favorite cookbook is truthfully Bread Toast Crumbs! This book has absolutely helped me keep my sanity through this year. I’ve learned that baking is so cathartic for me! My favorite and most used recipe from the book is the pizza dough. I had never made a pizza from scratch and enjoyed it prior to this. We now make pizzas regularly! Thank you!!
Thank you Christine 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you for hosting this giveaway! The books look amazing. Im about to make the tahini sesame buns from Sami Tamimi’s Falastin cookbook!!
Love your website! My favorite recipe this weekend was the cranberry sauce made with wine from your website. I also love “Jerusalem, the cookbook” and the sweet and sour fish is my favorite from there.
Your sourdough is my favorite one to make!
20th century cafe is amazing!! My favorite recipe is the apple strudel. I just made it as a weekend project, and it was just as good as anticipated!
Truthfully I”ve been making the buttermilk dinner rolls over and over from Bread toast Crumbs. Always a hit, great to share with friends,:& even if the rise isn’t great they still taste yummy.
Dana Friedman
my latest obsession cookbook was given to me by my son-in-law. It’s Adeena Sussman’s Sababa. I love everything I’ve made out of it, and I’ve made a lot. My recent fave out of it was the Broccoli Cottage Cheese Pancakes.I think it’s time to return the favor and buy my son-in-law a new cookbook. Since he’s an engineer, A Good Bake might be just the thing. But I am a bread baker from ‘way back, so I’m looking hard at Bread Toast Crumbs.
The latest cookbook I have loved has been “Midwest Made.” I especially loved the banana bread, which is prefect for this time of year.
I use Love Real Food by Cookie and Kate often – the carrot cake is a favorite. I recently have purchased your cookbook as I love your website, blog and cooking classes and Well plated because I enjoy Erin’s recipes and blog too. Also just received Snacking cakes and made the brown butter pear and cranberry for Thanksgiving. Thanks for the info on these cookbooks. During these crazy times baking and cooking is therapy.
Vivian Howard’s “This Will Make It Taste Good.” Her Little Green Dress recipe is amazing!
My favorite cookbook right now is One Tin Bakes. Loving the recipes with tahini and the fact that all the recipes are made for the same size pan.
I haven’t bought a cookbook in a while as I keep moving around, but can’t wait to get my hands on Bibis kitchen. Sounds amazing for both stories and recipes!
My new favorite cookbook is Modern Comfort Food by Ina Garten and the Black and White Cookies are a favorite recipe from the book.
My favorite new cookbook isn’t a baking book — think it’s called Eating Out Loud — reinterpreted faves from regional middle eastern cooking.
My current fave cookbook is yours!! I’ve been baking my way through Bread Toast Crumbs for the last 1.5 years and my go-to is the quinoa flax bread. Yum!
My current favorite cookbook is Baked to Order by Ruth Mar Tam, and I loving her different adaptations for cheesecake!
My current favorite is definitely 100 Cookies! My mom recently got married, and for her small, socially distanced wedding I made 5 different types of bars to be served at each table. Four of them were from 100 Cookies, and the one that people couldn’t stop raving about was the White Chocolate Blondies with Toasted Sesame Caramel! Unique and amazing!
My favorite cooking/baking books are 100 cookies by Sarah Kieffer and Modern comfort food by Ina Garten!
My favorite new cookbook is vegetable kingdom by Bryant Terry! Everything is so thoughtful and creative, reading through his cookbook was incredible and my favorite dish is butterbean salad with roasted peppers. Though my favorite dessert book is “Sweet” by Goh & Ottolenghi – I would love to try some new dessert books 🙂 love this post and the information, thank you!
I’ve checked out 100 Cookies from the library so many times! It’s such an amazing book!!
I’ve made the vanilla buttermilk cake from Snacking Cakes three times now. Each time I used a different frosting and each time was incredibly delicious!! A huge hit with my family. Cheers!
My favorite dessert recipe ever is the dark chocolate creme brulee recipe from Ina Garten’s Cooking for Jeffrey! Except instead of bruleeing it, I top it with olive oil and flaky sea salt. It’s perfection and so decadent!!
I love the Blood Orange Olive Oil Upside Down cake. It’s from Claire Saffitz book.
Love your Bread Toast Crumbs! My kids Live off of sheet pan mac-n-cheese! We enjoyed make the no kneed thyme dinner rolls & buttermilk rolls for our Thanksgiving feast!
So nice to hear this 🙂 🙂 🙂
Not a cookbook yet—but I’ve been enjoying going through the stash of recipes from the days my family owned a bakery and recreating them. Lately I’ve had success with pumpkin pie and black bean soup!
It’s not new, but I’ve been loving Bravetart lately! Thank you for this giveaway.
My favorite new cookbook is the Violet Bakery Cookbook! Amazing recipes that combine American and European style into one pastry! So unique and natural!
My favorite new cookbook is actually 100 Cookies!! I have it from the library but would love my own copy :). Her rocky road brownies are to die for!
The Neapolitan cookies!!
From 100 Cookies!