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"Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery"

By Erin McKenna
Photographs by Tara Donne
Clarkson Potter -- 2009
Buy It at Amazon

Note: While testing the vanilla frosting recipe, we accidentally used soy flour instead of the the soy milk powder the recipe called for. The two are easily confused but not interchangeable, as our results demonstrated.

When Erin McKenna opened BabyCakes NYC in 2005, her gluten-free, vegan baked goods became a huge success, giving hope to the gluten-intolerant and converting legions of dairy-worshipping skeptics. Her new cookbook is both a how-to guide and winning, chatty account of McKenna's journey from junk food junkie to gluten-free goddess (she changed her Twinkie-loving ways in 2004, when she was diagnosed with wheat and dairy allergies). Pretty much everything in the baked good pantheon is here -- cupcakes, blueberry corn muffins, scones, cake and cobbler -- ensuring that while the gluten and dairy may be missing, absolutely nothing else is.

Takeaway Tips: McKenna writes in a clear, humorous and reassuring voice that makes you feel like you're baking in the company of, if not an old friend, then an endlessly understanding and forgiving teacher. She provides ingenious advice on making simple, natural food coloring (who knew that a pinch of turmeric made gorgeous yellow icing?), and her incredibly helpful ingredients glossary at the beginning of the book (from agave nectar to xantham gum) removes a lot of the considerable intimidation factor inherent in gluten-free, vegan baking.

See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Continue reading 'Babycakes' - Cookbook Spotlight

Most Americans equate tacos with a "run for the border," but a really good taco takes far longer than the average fast food.

"Tacos," written by the founder of the Coyote Café in Santa Fe, N.M., is a vision quest of sorts for lovers of all things tortilla. You will learn the basic philosophy of this traditional Mexican street food; it isn't until you get into the recipes, though, that you realize just how laborious it can be to make that yummy treat.

Along with approximately 44 taco fillings, Miller shows how to make homemade tortillas, offers a slew of salsa recipes and even gives a Mexican breakfast section sure to make you salivate.

Miller does a bang-up job pairing each of his taco fillings with a wine or beer choice, a tortilla recommendation and the proper salsa accompaniment. With the latter, it gets tricky: If you see a salsa paired with the filling, plan on an extra hour for the preparation.

Takeaway tips: Tacos take work ... lots of it!

1. The word taco comes from the Nahuatl word "ac," which means flat.
2. Make your own tortillas at home.
3. Sixty percent of a chile's heat is in the ribs or veins.
4. "If you can do as much of the preparation as possible in advance, you can have everything ready and waiting for your guests." Live that warning, love it and you'll be a happy taco eater/chef.
5. Be warned: You will have to buy exotic ingredients that may be hard to find.

Quality of pictures: A varied assortment of luscious taco shots peppered with ingredient closeups

We tested: Smoky Bacon Tacos with Cascabel Chile-Blackened Tomato Salsa and Chicken with Chorizo Tacos with Salsa Fresca
These recipes looked delicious and having made some laborious Rick Bayless gems, we were hoping they wouldn't be quite as much work. We were wrong.

The Smoky Bacon Tacos seemed quick enough -- fry up the bacon, fry up the onion in the bacon grease, mix together with honey, salt and two chile powders. However, the salsa -- Cascabel Chile-Blackened Tomato Salsa -- took a bit more than the 20 minutes listed as the prep time, and we couldn't even find cascabel chiles in Whole Foods (so we substituted with a blend of arbol and chipotle). That said, these were delicious and original, and we'd make 'em again.

The Chicken with Chorizo Tacos were somewhat easier, though we had to pull the leaves off an entire bunch of cilantro (add another 15 minutes to prep time) and let the chicken marinate for more than an hour. The results were subtle and good, though not quite as tasty as the Smoky Bacon Tacos.

Slashfood started dinner at 6 p.m., ate at 9:45 and gave up trying to make corn tortillas from scratch because of fatigue.

Worth the investment: These are labor-intensive recipes -- only for those who love their Mexican food and are willing to put in the hours to get it.

Ready to move beyond dips and carrot sticks for your soirees, but not ready to face the Full Martha? This is the guide for you. The book is divvied into sections highlighting each season's freshest ingredients and simple, elegant ways to show 'em off. Bonus -- a goodly bit of space is devoted to party planning tips, basic recipes (mayo, risotto, pizza dough), a glossary, techniques for handling veggies and a guide to what is freshest when.

Takeaway tips: Freshness is your best ingredient. Using seasonal ingredients means you'll need to do little to adorn them -- just make sure to use cooking methods, seasonings and pairings that show them off to their best advantage, and add flavor in layers. Specific methodologies are generously shared throughout the book.

Quality of pictures: Appetizing -- if a little washed out by the matte paper. Not step-by-step instructive, but oriented toward the finished product.

We tested: Pan-Seared Spring Lamb Chops with Mint-Pistachio Pesto and Olives and Feta Marinated with Lemon and Ouzo
Recipes were incredibly easy to follow, accessible, thorough and aided by sidebars offering further explanations of ingredients' flavor profiles and best methods for use. Lovely balance of veggie-friendly dishes and slightly heartier fare.

Worth the investment: Would make a great hostess or shower gift, or smart inspiration for anyone who's ready to bump their parties' sophistication level up a notch or two.

Fans of savory pies need no longer fear getting hung up at Heathrow security due to the suspicious scent of smuggled Stargazy pie and Cornish pasties emanating from their person. Angela Boggiano's pastry-centric paen to traditional British fare allows the rest of the globe to tuck into cold Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and hand-held Grimbsy Town Soccer Pies in the comfort of their very own homes.

There's a serviceable nod to the dessert end of the spectrum, but the meat and fish based recipes are the sweet spot.

Takeaway tips: Pastry crust isn't difficult to make, so long as you follow the author's three golden rules:

Quality of pictures: Seductive and instructive

We tested: Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and Eccles Cakes
Recipes were thorough, easy to follow and quite approachable for home cooks and fledgling pie makers. The U.S. edition translates all measurements into non-metric quantities. Our one quibble was a single digit omitted from the Eccles Cakes baking temperature (50F? Really?) but we took our best guess, and both pies turned out as pictured and previously sampled while we were in their native land.

Worth the investment: Yes, for Anglophiles, ex-pats, lovers of lard and the gluten averse -- she includes recipes for wheat-free pastry.

Exhibit A: The reason I still go to book sales.

Over the weekend I unearthed this gem in Montclair, N.J. With an introduction that begins "women of the world, take heed -- men have arrived in the kitchen," how could I not spend the buck?

Cory Kilvert promises to offer men "expert advice on how to develop their untapped talent to a level of awesome excellence." (Emphasis mine).

How he does it, the full cover and an awesome chauvinist pig after the jump.

Continue reading Really? Really? No ... Really?

I'm not gonna lie -- I'm rough on my books. There's a school of thought treating the physical manifestation of the written word as a sacred object, and I fully respect that. However I, for one, shove an old copy of "How to Cook a Wolf" into the bottom of my bag with the notion that at some point it'll sustain me on an overextended subway ride. I read "The Devil in the Kitchen" in the bathtub, A.J. Liebling over a lunchtime reuben, and good gosh a-mighty are my cookbooks covered in schmutz.

But hey, it's thematic goo; "Molto Italiano" is spattered in tomato sauce, "Pie" -- seen above -- is all a-smear in lard, "Charleston Receipts" in Otranto Club Punch and "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" slicked with a fine mist of rendered rind bacon. To my mind, these books are being honored, used, proven. Should these books at some point have a subsequent owner, they'll know what's been tested, made and made again.

Still, am I dishonoring the object or the authors when I'm getting the books all mucky? I posed the question to Matthew Lee (whose book "The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking" I've doused in all manner of pickling brine), and he noted that he and his co-author, his brother Ted have debated pre-mucking-up copies of their book to nix the blank canvas factor. The recipes therein are warm of heart and humble of origin, so it's not out of character, but would, say, a gellan-gumming of Grant Achatz's "Alinea" be a crime against the rather expensive and exceptionally lovely object?

Do you keep your cookbooks in pristine condition, or do you just accept page stains as collateral damage?

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