The cookbook is to food artisans as the signature fragrance is to pop stars; a rite of passage, a sign that you’ve made it. This being Brooklyn and all, there is no end to the options of ways to recreate what you love most about our markets, food trucks, shops, and restaurants in the comfort of your own (very small) kitchen. In this issue, we’ve highlighted just a few new releases for cookbooks brought to you from our borough’s best to help you with your menu planning.
Give into your cravings with Liz Gutman and Jen King, who bring you Liddabit Sweets—an innovative candy brand that started as a side project a mere two years after first meeting at the beginning of pastry school and “accidentally” bloomed into their full-time career shortly afterwards. Keep your fingers on the pulse with brothers Max and Eli Sussman who cook for Roberta’s and Mile End Delicatessen, respectively, and have been named on both Forbes (for Max) and Zagat’s (for both) lists of top thirty under thirty food professionals. Or, check in again with Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, now veterans of the cookbook racket with their third publication inspired by the beloved Baked.
The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook
I consider myself a good baker and cook. But for some reason, making candy has always been my downfall. Every single attempt—from the time I tried to make Fluff by microwaving marshmallows when I was seven, to when my caramel sauce never made the transition from a mass of melted sugar a few months ago—has resulted in complete disaster. As a candy lover, this has always upset me greatly. I would have given up on the idea entirely if it had not been for The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook, by Liz Gutman and Jen King. See, this isn’t just a collection of scrumptious recipes (we’ll get to those in a minute), it’s the best textbook you’ve ever had.
The first chapter is a fifty-five page crash course on Candy 101 and it’s packed with both practical and entertaining information. There is a surprising amount of science behind your sweets, and Gutman and King lay it out for you in a way that’s simple to understand and easy to translate to all of your endeavors in the kitchen. There are ten pages alone dedicated on how to melt chocolate—if something this deceivingly simple can be so complicated to warrant that word count, then no wonder candy-making can be tough to master! This section is full of tips, tricks, and troubleshooting, so it’s useful for both your practical needs and for arming you with the knowledge to truly understand what you’re doing in the kitchen. Reading about breaking down your dessert into chemical processes may sound like a bore, but fear not. Gutman and King’s voices are inviting, encouraging, and full of charm. You would think reading all this would make the idea of candy-making even more intimidating but, while they make no effort to hide that (it is complicated and requires a good deal of effort), I’ve never felt more ready to take on the challenge than after reading this book.
Good thing they provide you with an awesome collection of recipes to try while you’re all pumped up. They’re broken down into candy categories: Chocolates, Gummy and Chewy (caramels, jellies, marshmallows), Creamy (fudge, maple candy, pralines), Crunchy (lollipops, toffees, brittles), Homemade Candy Bars, as well as a catch-all category for Party Favorites (candy apples, cake balls, caramel corn). If you’re familiar with Liddabit Sweets from their stands at the Brooklyn Flea or Amsterdam Market (or pretty much anywhere in the city where the cool kids buy food), you’ll recognize their tendency to take something we all know and love and make it better by translating it to a more homestyle feel. You’ll find the recipes to their signature offerings here, including Snacker Bars—the creation that started it all with their take on Snickers, King Bars (a riff on Elvis’ favorite sandwich of peanut butter and banana), Beer and Pretzel Caramels, and Honeycomb Candy. But there are plenty of new things to try like Chocolate Toffee Matzo Crunch, Chai Latte Lollipops, or Hip-To-Be-Squares, which are, to put it in their words, “a creamy-crunchy combination of chocolate, hazelnut, and delicately crispy feuilletine wafers.” If you’re one of those people who, like my dad, lament that “you can’t get just chocolate ice cream anymore!” and are tired of all these crazy concoctions, there are tons of classics, too. We’ve got your truffles, turtles, cherry cordials, marzipan, Turkish delights, and their adorable homemade gummy bears, just to name a few.
Whether you’re looking to impress people with your array of homemade sweets at potlucks or to impress people with your newfound knowledge (I look forward to an opportunity to reference the “thread stage” of sugar in casual conversation), there’s something here for you. Even if you never try a single recipe, you’re sure to have fun simply spending time with The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook.
This Is A Cookbook: Recipes For Real Life
The essence of Max and Eli Sussman’s This Is A Cookbook can be summed up in a single sentence: This is a cookbook with a foreword by Rob Delaney. Everything—from the range of recipes to the not overly stylized photographs, to the fonts—makes you feel like you’re hanging out with your coolest friends. Both brothers are hard-working food industry professionals (Max is the chef de cuisine at Roberta’s, and Eli is a line cook at Mile End Delicatessen) who live together in a sweet Brooklyn bachelor pad and, accordingly, the recipes have the feel of what cooks make for themselves at home on their day off—simple but not plain, comforting, nothing too labor-intensive, and just the right amount of trendiness.
Their introductory brunch chapter alone shows their wide range of cuisines, but it manages not to feel haphazard. A flip of the page goes from Chilaquiles (or “breakfast nachos” as I believe they’re traditionally called), to Fried Chicken and Waffles, to Latkes. The variety continues through the rest of the chapters: Backyard Grub, Night In, Dinner Party, Midnight Snacks, and Sweet Stuff. Korean Short Ribs, Turkish Baked Eggs, Avgolemono, Thyme Spaetzle, and Nutella Buns somehow all blend into a cohesive narrative. Along with the recipes, there are lessons interspersed throughout the book on how to tackle the culinary trends, including how to smoke your own bacon, pickle your own vegetables, and make your own pasta.
The mélange of recipes, the DIY element, and the design of the book itself are all quintessentially Brooklyn, but one bump in the road is that there’s a whole section on grilling. It seems a bit out of place in a book that otherwise assures you that great food can be made in the smallest of kitchens. But that’s not to say that the recipes themselves are unappreciated—hello, Grilled Figs with Burnt Honey and Pistachio Yogurt! Fifth-floor walk-up dwellers can easily adapt most of the dishes in this chapter to their stove tops or ovens with some know-how and creativity. Other than that, This is a Cookbook would fit right into the urban twenty or thirty-something lifestyle that it aims to reach. It’s accessible, but not boring. You’ll likely learn about a few new dishes, and it’s not restricted by expensive or hard-to-find ingredients. It’s the kind of book that you can pick up and actually use to make dinner on an average weeknight of your real life, not that fantasy version that you’ve portrayed on Pinterest that so many other cookbooks cater to. And for all you tablet-lovers, the digital version sounds incredible. It’s loaded with behind-the-scenes videos, pop-up tips and stories, step-by-step galleries, and even links to iTunes playlists curated by each brother. Overall, This is a Cookbook is a fun, charming, and useful book that would make both a great addition to a cook’s collection or an introductory volume for someone first making their way into the culinary world.
Baked Elements : Our 10 Favorite Ingredients
Baked Elements, the third cookbook from Baked owners Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, presents its recipes organized by ingredients, which is kind of genius. The urge to bake almost always comes from a craving for a certain ingredient. For Lewis and Poliafito, they were quickly able to come up with their shared top ten ingredients that grace their creations time and time again: peanut butter, lemon and lime, caramel, booze, pumpkin, malted milk powder, cinnamon, cheese, chocolate, and banana. (They do include recipes for homemade peanut butter, pumpkin puree, chocolate syrup, and three different caramels, if you want to be totally impressive.) There are seventy-five recipes here, and almost all of them manage to feel new and fresh. Dessert recipes often seem to be recycling the same ideas over and over again, but even the classics have their own Baked twist to them—like how their Key Lime Tarts have a pretzel crust. This book is presented more on the Martha Stewart side of the spectrum, but despite the fancy packaging, the recipes aren’t particularly high-end or pretentious. Most of them are pretty manageable, and have the added bonus of making it look like you spent a lot of time and effort on them.
Each section begins with a bunch of fun facts about the ingredient and an ode praising its value (Did you know that Milton Hershey’s initial venture was the Lancaster Caramel Company, opened in 1886, and he only learned about chocolate-making because he was looking for new ways to coat his caramels?). I especially enjoy the introductory sentence to the recipes: “If you have ever woken up with a slight hangover and a dubious, half-remembered, half-eaten jar of peanut butter at your side, we can empathize.” There’s a part of me that feels a bit guilty saying that some of their best recipes are to be found in their Booze section, from their Whiskey Peach Upside-Down Cake to their S’more-Style Chocolate Whiskey Pudding with Whiskey Marshmallow Topping to the Triple Rum Black Pepper Cake. But I was most intrigued by the malted ilk section, since it is an ingredient I think it’s safe to say most of us have very little experience with. It seems a bit old-timey to me, mostly associated with the malted milkshakes of old-school soda fountains (there’s a recipe for that), so it’s fitting that the chapter opens with homemade Devil Dogs With Malted Buttercream Filling. It also features updates on old favorites like Malted Milk Chocolate Pots de Crème and Malted Madeleines.
Their range of recipes transcends seasons and occasions. Of course, the lemon and lime recipes are suited to be enjoyed in the summer (oh for the Lemon Lime Champagne Granita on a hot day) and the pumpkin recipes in the Fall, but for the most part, you’d be able to turn to Baked Elements throughout the year. They also strike a nice balance between lighter and richer offerings and between more casual treats and decadent affairs. And while this is, in essence, a book of desserts, there are a handful of recipes that are just savory enough to be enjoyed as a breakfast or snack like their Good Morning Sunshine Bars, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, Honey Banana Poppy Seed Bread, and their brilliantly named Lacy Panty Cakes—which are essentially pancakes amped up with graham crackers and whiskey sauce. They subtly incorporate a few trends like the boozy milkshake (bourbon, vanilla, and chocolate), whoopie pies (banana), and pretzels (whole-wheat cinnamon sugar) too so it feels especially current. (Okay, so pretzels might not be a full-on trend yet, but they’re on the cusp of being the next big thing—you heard it here first!) This comprehensive collection leans towards being a companion for special occasions, but is rarely so far-reaching that it couldn’t be picked up to add some delight to an average weekend.
