The New Sugar & Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking

The New Sugar & Spice

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Chapters about cinnamon and vanilla promise more conventionally flavored sweets as well.

The New Sugar & Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking

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All Access Sign Up Login. Save to Recipe Box. Saved Add to List Add to List. How to Dry-Age Beef at Home. Classic Tomato Soup Recipe. Two of our favorite contributors have just published first-time solo cookbooks. Private Notes Edit Delete. Comments Leave a Comment. Leave A Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. What We're Cooking Now. Collection Editors' Favorite Holiday Cookies. The stories were inspiring and you could feel her love of baking come through.

There are 80 recipes and they are broken into spice categories. The recipes are easy to follow and the ingredients are fairly easy to find. The author includes basic baking information in the begining which is helpful for the begining baker. The book is layed out well in an easy to follow manner and the pictures were simple yet beautiful. Great book that I highly recommend. Dec 31, Becca rated it really liked it Shelves: A really beautiful cookbook!

I love the concept - baking with more spice. It has a lovely variety of recipes, including: Also, from other chapters: M A really beautiful cookbook! Even just a few spices or ethnic condiments that you can keep in your pantry can turn your mundane dishes into a culinary masterpiece. Stories of her life as the child of a first generation Sri Lankan family, about the history of the spices and herbs she cooks with, and most importantly, the history of the consumption of sugar in the US and the health issues it causes.

Sugar and Spice is a cookbook, yes — but it is also a highly enjoyable book to simply sit and read for the wonderful stories she tells. The recipes do use sugar, but much less than standard recipes. Instead, Samantha focuses on true flavours instead of the tasteless, over-sugared offerings so common today. Real cocoa powder, fresh ground spices, all provide a level of clarity of flavour that is a treat to all of the senses. I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review.

Aug 18, Aimee rated it it was amazing. I was really impressed with this book. The author shows how to use spices to add flavor to your baking so you can cut some of the sugar while still creating a great tasting dessert.

A Recipe for Bolder Baking

Several spices are discussed in the book including cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, ginger, and several others. For each spice the author gives her personal family history with the spice, a history of the spice including where it comes from, tips on how to buy and store the spice, and finally some wonderful recipes. The rec I was really impressed with this book.

The recipes in this book are wonderful. Some of the ones that I thought looked really great are salt and pepper caramel brownies, summer berry focaccia, frozen eggnog pops, and my all time favorite gingerbread. I will say that I would not recommend these recipes to a beginning cook. They seemed a bit time consuming and difficult for a newbie. Someone who has been baking for a while though should have no problem with these fantastic recipes.

I would highly recommend this cookbook. Dec 28, Michelle rated it it was amazing Shelves: Beautiful book, interesting recipes, very nice! Aug 07, Lisa rated it liked it. So I didn't hate this but I didn't love it either. I think that it was just ok. I wanted more pictures, and easier recipes. If I can't see what it is supposed to look like that is not going to make me want to make this.

Many of the recipes seemed to have a huge amount of ingredients to use for one recipe. I just wanted more. Feb 13, Karyn rated it really liked it Shelves: I really liked this cookbook and plan to check it out again. Apr 02, Beka rated it liked it Shelves: With a focus on spices and desserts that aren't overly sweet, I really enjoyed this book. Lots of good ideas! Sep 06, Kim H. As someone who is attempting to eat a healthier diet might, I always feel a bit guilty having dessert.

But I love it so! Now here's an "all things in moderation" the limited sugar diet idea I can rally behind! Seneviratne has famil As someone who is attempting to eat a healthier diet might, I always feel a bit guilty having dessert. Seneviratne has family in Sri Lanka and spent time there visiting them during her childhood. I love the stories and anecdotes she includes in both the introduction to her book and before each recipe.

This gave me the sense I was in the kitchen with a friend who was happily recounting the tales of how the recipe came to her. It also stirred my imagination and wanderlust as I pictured the lush gardens in which her grandparents and their siblings grew the very spices included in so many of the recipes.

The cookbook divides the recipes according to the spice or spice family used in the recipes. Each chapter begins with a brief history and geography lesson recounting where the spices originated and grow and their importance in establishing world commerce via the spice trade routes. I found it a fascinating part of the book's charm. I found some of Seneviratne's comments about the dishes endearing.

She writes of the True Love Cake, "This cake doubles as aromatherapy" p. Regarding the "Bombay Cream" as opposed to Boston Cream for her Cardamom Cream-Filled Sugar Doughnuts she says, "Cardamom mixed with cream is one of the loveliest things on the planet" p. Having dipped my grandmother's Christmas bread which features cardamom in warm milk for a heavenly treat, I'd have to agree!

The recipes in this book are arranged in a manner that makes it easy to assemble your ingredients and follow the detailed, step-by-step directions. I believe even those without much kitchen experience will find recipes with which they are sure to be successful. Many of the recipes are accompanied by full-page, gorgeous photography that makes you long for a fork and a nibble of the finished product.

S'more Pie, I'm looking at you! Her spicy, pepper-flecked Chile-Chocolate Truffles prove that heat and sweet really do go hand-in-hand, and a fresh batch of aromatic, cinnamon-laced Maple Sticky Buns will have the whole family racing into the kitchen. Or, give your classic standbys a bold upgrade, such as making Raspberry Shortcakes with zingy Double Ginger Biscuits.

She blogs about dessert at Love, Cake Lovecommacake. Mar 05, Anne rated it it was amazing Shelves: A feast for the eyes as well as for the soul. I love the author's approach to baking as she shares stories of her Sri Lankan heritage, her summer trips to visit her grandmother, and memories of the native spices that grow on the land. This legacy has formed the influence of her unique approach to baking, with emphasis on the use of different spices to create delicious desserts.

The use of sugar in the recipes is much less predominant than in most traditional baking practices. Recipes are organiz A feast for the eyes as well as for the soul.

Recipes are organized into chapters about a particular spice with an introduction to the history of that spice. This is a beautiful cookbook. Sep 01, Janis Hill rated it really liked it Shelves: Wow, what a book. Starting the book with such a touching and personal experience, and then beginning each new chapter with a personal story about the spices, as well as a historical tale — wonderful. As for those recipes? But there were more than a few recipes that I really wanted to try.

I admit, due to annoying food intolerances and allergies I would need to tinker with a few, but others I could see myself jumping right into and giving a go. I can see hubby liking some of the Chocolate-dipped ginger macaroons appearing on the Christmas table this year. Having grown up in the tropics and loving most of the spices used in this gorgeous book, it was lovely to see a cook book dedicated to showing them off to their full potential.

Firstly I found the instructions for each recipe a little too long winded. Plus the recipes would have fitted to the pages better. I freely admit this could just be me being overly pedantic — reader error rather than a flaw in the book. The other problem I had is that the book is clearly written for an American audience, rather than an international audience. As in, I would have liked the ingredients to have also been listed in grams as well as Celsius listed in the temperatures.

Again, this could just be me being overly picky. Would I recommend this book to others?

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Despite the very minor flaws mentioned above, this is a wonderful book. The recipes are enticing and easy to follow and the stories that come with it just make it something to be shared. Would I buy this book for myself?

Plus, they look and sound so delicious! As corny as it sounds, if you want to spice up your life with some baking — this would be a good book to start with. The only bad thing about this book is that there is no recipe index at the beginning so you can get to specific recipes quickly. There is an index in the back, but it is a general one and, for reasons that defy logic, you have to page through the Table of Contents to get to it because it is not listed on the Kindle pull-down menu.

Fix that, Ten Speed Press. You know better than to be that sloppy. That's just a fact.

And I almost resisted the temptation of this one successfully except two factors: Samantha Seneviratne was affiliated with my favorite cooking magazine Fine Cooking -- which has never disappointed me. I think it was David Lebovitz who once quipped that there are two kinds of dessert people: I think he was only partly right.

There are also spice people. My pantry is testament to which we are in my household. Seneviratne's goal in this book is to show how delicious desserts can be made less overwhelmingly sweet by treating sugar as a spice and spice as a focal point.

The Kindle edition contains a reasonable number of photos, although they probably present better in print. Ebooks still haven't figured out how to best handle photos IMO. Recipes are groups by spice: Peppercorn and Chile 2. Clove and Cardamom 5. Savory Herbs and Spices Each chapter starts with an overview of the spice history, cultivation, description, buying and storing tips followed by recipes. There were only two ingredients that made me think, "Now where will I find that? The author starts the book talking about family and her background, so I was afraid this was going to end up being yet another cookbook where the author is more interested in TMI about themselves than recipes, but Seneviratne kept her focus and used the background stories to lead back to a particular spice or recipe.

She keeps the personal relevant and interesting, conjuring sensory-rich images of pollinating and harvesting vanilla or of the trees surrounding her great aunt's home and how she discovered the puzzle of mace and nutmeg by playing among them. I've got about a dozen recipes earmarked to make, but so far the few I've had time to make have been delicious: Aug 27, Virginia Campbell rated it it was amazing Shelves: Author Samantha Seneviratne brings a whole world of flavors to your very own kitchen through the pages of "The New Sugar and Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking".

When you open your spice cabinet, what do you see? Seneviratne will open your eyes to new ways to use familiar spices, and she will make you want to explore they myriad spices, herbs, and seasonings available in today's market. I save my spice jars, and I often use little bits and dabs of spices to make my own seasoning blends. Saman Author Samantha Seneviratne brings a whole world of flavors to your very own kitchen through the pages of "The New Sugar and Spice: Each chapter focuses on a particular ingredient: My two favorite spices are Nutmeg and Bay Leaves.

Nutmeg reminds me of holidays and happy times, and it just adds an extra something special to baked goods and other foods and beverages. Bay Leaves are aromatic and add a pleasing pungency to sauces, soups, and other dishes. With over 80 recipes, lovely food photos, and interesting and informative insights, this book will delight veteran chefs and novice cooks alike. Here's a sampling of the recipes: Oct 19, Heather rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book shows you how other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaves, cloves and lavender can balance out the sweetness in desserts to produce more full flavors.

Author Samantha Seneviratne opens the book with an introduction on how she began baking and sharing her creations with her dearly beloved brother whom she later lost , the hours spent in her grandmother's kitchen in Sri Lanka, the transition that had her making over traditional American overly-sweet desserts to more full-flavored desserts spiked with things like cinnamon and cardamon.

The chapters are organized by spice ingredient: I was so excited to open this book for the first time. It looks and feels high quality. There is beautiful photography throughout to entice you, charming stories shared by the author. The recipes are easy-to-follow and have some pretty common ingredients that should be easy to come by.

I love complex flavors and textures, and this cookbook is right up my alley! Aug 29, Jenn Ballmann rated it it was amazing. A digital copy was provided through NetGalley. As always, all opinions are my own. I was immediately captivated by her imaginative flavor profiles and beautiful photography. Over the past few months her blog has become one of a small handful This book was sent to me for review by Ten Speed Press through the Blogging for Books program. Over the past few months her blog has become one of a small handful I turn to when I'm looking for inspiration.

As soon as I found out she was writing her first cookbook I added it to the list of books I wanted to read ASAP this year the list is about a mile long, all my favorite bloggers are coming out with books. I finally got my hands on a copy this month courtesy of the publisher and couldn't wait to dive right in. I was hooked from the first page. If you've done any baking at all you've surely dealt with some of these, but I was fascinated with the chapters dedicated to more spicy and savory options.

There are a number of recipes that pair ingredients together in ways I've never thought to. Black Pepper, Dark Chocolate, and Sour Cherry Bread p21 , Plum Galatte with Hazelnut Frangipane p63 , and Buttery Shortbread with Coffee and Cardamom p are three great examples of the mouth-watering flavor combinations to be found within these pages.

This book is proof that there is more to dessert than high sugar content. I'm glad Sam thought to remind us all of that.

Mar 11, M. Even knowing this to be a crass manipulation of my emotions, I inevitably fall for it. So is a cookbook just a collection of recipes? This one most definitely is not. The opening story relates the closeness of a brother and sister. The sister, attending culinary school, shares her class projects mainly desserts with her brother throughout the years. Then he unexpectedly dies.

Did she ever tell him she loved him? Well, her luscious sweets probably imparted her feelings to him as well as words ever would. Are we giving gifts of love to our friends and relatives or giving them obesity and diabetes? The answer is in the title of the book. The author ups the dose of spices and cuts back on the dose of sugar in her recipes. In addition, she gives a history of her interesting family. First generation American, she lived in Connecticut and made lots of trips to Sri Lanka where her grandparents lived. Really nice read and good recipes.

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