Welcome to Litsy!

Made “Oreo” cookies from this book, while listening to Solito

This book was a complete and utter surprise! Not only did it include some great basics but Parks went above and beyond to include up to 4 variations per dish and start every chapter with history on the dish of choice. Did you know that there was a real man called Captain Licorice? How about what we consider as fudge today had roots in a sorority bedroom? I didn't either till reading this and i loved the history just as much as the recipes!

A pick on two accounts:

1) Parks includes fascinating historical accounts of many of our favorite treats. Where else would you learn that graham crackers caused bakers to riot? (Well, their creator did, at least).

2) Perhaps more important, but the recipes are good. Pictured is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and carrot roses. The red wine velvet cake is so tender (and no weird food coloring). The brownies are the best ever - extra fudgy.

“Truth be told, watery pie wasn‘t an issue in the days of yore because it‘s easy to avoid if you know how. Simply macerate the apples until they shrink before you shape the pie, then avoid cooking them to death. That‘s it. While old times bakers relied on intuition, we have something better: a digital thermometer.”

My sister and I are going to get my mom a cookbook for her birthday next month. She loves to bake, and we are the happy beneficiaries of her baking. Working at a library makes the pre-shopping book research easy 📖 🍪

I am not a baker *at all* but I still loved this cookbook. I might just buy a personal copy. Beyond great recipes and pretty pictures, I super enjoyed the introductory histories of familiar foods.

Heads-Up: THE perfect Snickerdoodle recipe is contained within these pages.

Yep, I am gonna wear out my copy of this book. I want to make all the things...and even the writing is good!