When the publisher of Green Market Baking Book: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet & Savory Treats asked if I’d be willing to review their book, I was super excited. I’ve been on sort of a baking kick lately and was looking for something seasonal, and that used mainly natural sugars. I found it!
Laura Martin has curated over 100 recipes from some of the best chefs and bakers in the slow food movement. Many are gluten or dairy free (or she explains how you can use that option).
The introductory chapters are quite informative and includes
- why eat local, seasonal, organic, and natural
- description and explanation of ingredients
- pantry list
- substitution guidelines for flours and sugars
The recipes themselves are divided into spring, summer, fall, and winter and includes an introduction on choosing produce. Unfortunately, with baking a lot of the recipes don’t quite fit into those categories, so I think it could have been organized in a more helpful manner. Especially since at least in Michigan the seasons are so short that fruits (especially berries) are frozen for baking later anyway.
I found myself marking several of the recipes to try, and did make Energy Bars, Blueberry and Corn Skillet Bread, and Honey Wheat Bread. All of them turned out, although somehow the oven temp was omitted in the Honey Wheat Bread recipe. I figured it out by checking other bread recipes to see what temps those were baked at.
Concluding the book are chapters on
- preserving the harvest
- growing your own
- sample menus
- contributor biographies
which were nice but not necessary as the star really is the recipes. Oh, and the index is nice and thorough–something I’ve come to appreciate as I’ve added to my cookbook collection.
If you’re looking for an everyday sort of baking book, this is one to consider.
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