Buy, Borrow, Skip Cookbook Review

*Please ignore the Zingerman's Bakehouse Cookbook in the photo above. It snuck in by mistake!

I am not a chef, a food critic or someone who preps a show-stopping meal every weekend. I am a home cook trying to navigate the politics of the table (in all the sense of the word). These reviews reflect my love of baked goods and my need to get dinner on the table at 6:30. The three questions I ask when I read a cookbook are:

Utility: are most of the ingredients, pans, and cooking strategies easily obtainable?

Ease of Use: is the book (and are the individual recipes) well organized and readable?

Appeal: does this book inspire me to get into the kitchen?

With these 3 questions in mind, I recommend:

Buy: purchase the book

Borrow: get it from a friend or your library whenever you’re in the mood

Skip: Have a cup of tea and relax instead

I do not receive any proceeds from these reviews. I have not received free copies of these books. I do not receive commission from any of these links. 

King Arthur Baking Company: Big Book of Bread by Jessica Battilana, Martin Philip, and Melanie Wanders (2024) Skip

This book feels like it was written by committee, or maybe by AI. This book is clearly for “home bakers,” but its intro and help sections are wordy and condescending and, even worse, the “key take aways” are buried within giant paragraphs. The first recipe I tried, and then had trouble finding later was “Basic Brioche Bread,” located in the index under “basic” not “brioche.” This recipe actually omitted an initial rise before refrigeration! The bread was an absolute failure. I went and looked up other brioche recipes and every single one requires an initial rise before refrigeration. The next recipe I tried, their pain de mie/pullman loaf requires a half pullman pan. Most recipes offer amounts so that you can use either size pan. While the recipe worked as written, it had a very short rise time and little flavor. In fact, I really prefer the pain de mie/pullman recipe listed on the King Arthur website. It has way more flavor and works with different pan sizes. Lastly, I made their focaccia, and again there were problems. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the ingredients list and doesn’t mention the 3-4 more tablespoons you will need to finish the bread! The focaccia was fine, but again, there are better recipes elsewhere. SKIP this cookbook. If you’re really curious, borrow it, but there are way better bread recipes out in the world.

Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan recipes for Every Day and Celebration by Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine (2024) Buy

Olga Massov is a Washington Post Food Editor and Sanaë Lemoine is an author who worked at Martha Stewart. Hot Sheet has a hint of the old charm of Martha Stewart “one pot” recipes but modernized for more adventurous palates. The recipes in this book are generally easy. They use pantry staples with a little bit of (occasionally unnecessary) extras. I made “Chicken with Clementines,” “Arrabbiata and White Bean Cheesy Ravioli,” and the “Gnocchi with Broccoli and Lemony Ricotta.” Although I made tiny changes to each recipe, (and the amount of ravioli was clearly wrong in the “White Bean Cheesy Ravioli",) each recipe was a burst of flavor with little mess. In fact, the Gnocchi with Broccoli was so good it didn’t need the Lemony Ricotta that is offered as a dressing. My only complaint about “Hot Sheet” is that even though the recipes all rely on one sheet pan to be cooked, they use more bowls than are really needed. I bought a copy of “Hot Sheet,” and I don’t regret it at all. I’ve got lots more to cook out of it. BUY

AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni by Kiano Moju (2024) Buy

I LOVED cooking from this cook book. Kiano Moju’s “AfriCali” is home cooking at its best. Moju relies on a mixture of local ingredients and flavors combined with flavors, ingredients and cooking techniques of her immigrant parents. Her recipes are quite spicy and there is a lot of frying things in oil, and that’s fine with me. However, even if that’s not your style, there will still be recipes here that will make your day, but your use of this book will be more limited. My only note about this book is that Moju offers no help on how to adjust peppers for the heat to be appropriate for most American kid temperaments. You’ll have to google your own pepper substitutions. The first recipe I made was “Swahili Chicken Biriyani.” The flavor depth was fantastic for how few ingredients were in it and it was a winner with everyone. Next, I made “Chai cookies” and I had some quibbles with the amount of work and texture of the cookies, but my eldest son and husband liked them enough to ask me to make them again. For breakfast I made “Koko’s Pancakes” which were absolutely perfect. My family has decided that these thin and fluffy pancakes are their new favorites. The last recipe I made had mixed reviews: Moju’s “Berburger Pasta” is a take on “hamburger helper” style pasta seasoned with Berbere seasoning. My husband and younger two kids thought it was “not the best.” BUT this recipe both fulfilled a deep childhood craving for me and gives my palate the zing that I love (even though I did cut the spice in half). My 10 year old and I ate so much of this pasta that we both had to skip dessert. It was worth it. Buy It.

MAKE IT FANCY: Cooking At Home With Sad Papi by Brandon Skier, 2024 Skip

I generally avoid cook books by “restaurant” chefs, but Sad Papi’s recipes looked well explained and so I decided to give it a go. First, I made his “Roasted Baby Carrots with Spiced Labne and Pistachio Dukkah.” It was good, I really liked the savory roasted carrots with the Pistachio Dukkah. The “Spiced Labne” was heavily spiced to the point where I felt like I was eating a jar of spices with some yogurt mixed in. The next recipe I made was Dukkah-Crusted Lamb Rack with Burnt Honey Gastrique. The Gastrique was a failure. It tasted burnt in a bad way, so I used a pear reduction that I happened to have on hand in its place. The lamb tasted uninspired. Nobody hated it but the Dukkah didn’t stand up to the lamb. The last thing I made was the “Leek and Herb Butter.” I was frustrated by how little butter is left after all of the straining. It’s personal preference but I’d rather have some bits of herbs and leeks in my butter rather than waste butter. Overall Skier’s instructions were clear, I didn’t see any errors in the ingredient lists, and none of the recipes were absolute failures, but none were all that good. Unless you’ve got a thing for Sad Papi and a desire to do restaurant level sauces, reductions and prep, SKIP.