While I think you could make argument that baking is an activity good for every time of the year, I find that this season we're heading into now - the chilly, cozy, pre-holiday days - makes for the best baking. There's something about the shorter days and thinner sunlight that cries out for pies (sweet potato or pumpkin), quick breads (carrot or apple) and lots of soul-warming, fragrant spices.

For those of you wanting to dig into fall-time baking, but also want to experiment with other sweeteners than just your standard granulated sugar, you must check out the new cookbook by Mani Niall, called Sweet! Niall understands the important of a good treat at any time of day, but also recognizes that lots of folks want to reduce the amount of sugar they consume while upping their whole grains. This book walks that line with ease and a great deal of delicious grace.

The book opens with a short history of sugar and then introduces the wide variety of sweeteners out there that you can turn to in place of the standard, white stuff. Then he moves into the recipes, offering up ways to do Breakfast Treats, Cakes, Pies/Tarts/Cobblers, Cookies, Spoon Desserts, Candy and Frozen Desserts. The final chapter is devoted to Main Courses that have both savory and sweet flavors. My only complaint with this book is that it doesn't offer much in the way of pictures. I understand that fewer pictures saves money, but the four pages of images are so lovely that I would have enjoyed seeing how more of recipes looked in the hands of the photographer/food stylist.