Are you still trying to think of the perfect gift for Mum for Mother’s Day (or need a hint to drop to your family)? How about a lovely baking or cook book? Some beautiful volumes have been sent to us recently to review. There are so many lovely new release titles that would make a lovely Mother’s Day gift.
Victoria The Essential Tea Companion, favourite recipes for tea parties and celebrations, is a gift book that would delight any tea lover. It has the most wonderful photography and includes beautiful tea sets and table settings that will have you planning your next high tea. The Essential Tea Companion explains how to brew the perfect pot of tea , advice on selecting pretty tea cups and saucers, and other tea time essentials. Tea is the universal gesture of hospitality and different varieties of tea are explained. The book is interspersed with lots of lovely recipes for hot teas, iced teas, tea based punches, and even a rosehip tea cooler. Recipes for tea time treats, such as savouries, breads, spreads, cookies, cakes, tarts and puddings are also included. This is a lovely book to look through with lots of interesting facts and details about the history of tea and fine china. It includes some lovely ideas for setting a pretty tea time table. The appendix even includes a list of favourite tea salons throughout the world.
All in all, we would recommend this book to anyone who loves tea. It would make a beautiful gift and could be partnered with some speciality tea.
Victoria The Essential Tea Companion is available from Booktopia.
Book Details:
Format: Hardback, 204 pages
Publisher: Hearst Books
ISBN: 9781618371348
RRP: $34.99
Homemade Doughnuts, by Kamal Grant, shows techniques and recipes for making sublime doughnuts in your home kitchen. Doughnuts are a universally popular treat and this book has lots of step by step photos that will have you making your own dough, cutting, hand shaping, frying and more. What we love about this book is it includes a selection of doughnut recipes in a range of styles including: yeast doughnuts, cake doughnuts, fritter doughnuts, biscuit style doughnuts, and pie crust doughnuts. It has a chapter of different glazes and icings, included salted caramel icing, maple icing, pink lemonade icing and more. It also has a selection of delicious fillings including apple butter filling, vanilla Bavarian cream filling, coffee custard filling, and then has a selection of accoutrements such as candied bacon, lemon lime dust, chocolate curls and more. You can then use your own imagination and creativity to come up with a selection of doughnut treats. Kamal Grant is the owner of Atlanta’s Sublime Doughnuts. If the range of doughnuts in his book is anything to go by, would love to visit his bakery!
We recommend this book to doughnut lovers. It has lots of clear photographs showing each step and will have you make delicious doughnuts in no time at all.
Book Details:
Format: Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN: 9781592538454
RRP: $34.99
Sweets & Desserts from the Middle East, by Arto Der Haroutunian, is a lovely book that shares some of the wonderful, exotic recipes from the Middle East. To be honest, we don’t know much about Middle Eastern sweets. This book includes lots of stories about the culture of the region which is really interesting. In addition to well known favourites such as baklavas, halvas, and Turkish delight, the book includes recipes for lots of local delicacies – pastries, fritters, ice-creams and sorbets, jams and preserves, drinks and sherbets and many more. Some of the recipes we would love to try are: rosewater sorbet, saffron pudding, yoghurt spice cake, coconut jam, cinnamon and clove tea, and so many others. What we love about the book is the way the recipes are intertwined with the stories from the author about the history of the dish,information about the ingredients, and cultural anecdotes. It is a very interesting cook book to read (tell me I am not the only one who likes to read cookbooks?) and the stories of the region are really fascinating. Unfortunately not many of the recipes are photographed.
We recommend this book to anyone who enjoys middle eastern food and culture. This book would make a lovely gift, partnered with a box of Turkish Delight.
Sweets and Desserts from the Middle East is available from Booktopia.
Book Details:
Format: Hardback, 224 pages
Publisher: Grub Street
ISBN: 9781909166073
RRP: $39.99
Kitchen Workshop Pizza, by Ruth Gresser,promises hands on cooking lessons for making amazing pizzas at home, and it really delivers! This book will have you mastering all the techniques and skills you need to make fantastic pizza’s at home. What I love about home-made pizzas is that you can customise them to suit everyone’s food preferences. This lovely book which has mouth-watering photos, will show you had to make a variety of crusts including: gluten-free, whole wheat, multi grain and deep dish varieties. Kitchen Workshop Pizza includes all the classic pizzas such as Pizza Margherita , Pizza Quattro Formaggi, and Calzone. It also includes recipes for making the iconic pizzas from the authors Washington restaurants. It shares lots of techniques and information on a wide variety of toppings such as chickpeas, beets, tuna, eggs, pumpkin, tofu and more. It also has a fruit section and shows how you can incorporate fruits such as cantaloupe, pears, cherries, apples and bananas in a pizza. What we love about this book is the mouth-watering photographs, and the clear step by step instructions.
We would thoroughly recommend Kitchen Workshop Pizza to anyone who loves gourmet pizza and wants to take this home made pizza to the next level. It would make a great gift paired with a pizza cutter or pizza stone.
Kitchen Workshop Pizza is available from Booktopia.
Book Details:
Format: Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN: 9781592538836
RRP: $34.99
The Constance Spry Cookery Book, by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, is a classic British cookbook first published in 1956. It has been recently republished so a new generation can enjoy it. It comes packaged in a beautiful presentation cover. The book is like a kitchen bible and is a comprehensive selection of recipes included in its 1000+ pages. It is the hints, tips and techniques that are invaluable and will guide you through everything you need to know in cooking. It is the sort of reference book that you would keep in the kitchen and regularly turn to for instructions on making anything from making a paper piping bag, how to boil an egg, how to cook crepes, how to make pastry, and recipes for pheasant. With this book you could image writing notes in the margin and then passing it down from mother to daughter. It is such a beautiful, elegant volume and has such a wealth of information amongst its pages. The book has no photographs but the recipes and techniques are very well explained.
We recommend this book to anyone who loves classic English and French cookery.
The Constance Spry Cookery Book is available from Booktopia.
Book Details:
Format: Hardcover, 1069 pages
Publisher: Grubb Street
ISBN: 9781909166219
RRP: $79.99
Disclaimer: We receive review copies of the books from publishers/distributors. All opinions are our own.
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