Baking for the Holidays

by Sarah Kieffer

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Baking for the Holidays is a nice collection of festive recipes developed and curated by Sarah Kieffer. Due out 7th Sept 2021 from Chronicle Books, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a winter themed recipe collection full of tempting breads, sweet bakes, cookies, and candies for entertaining or gift-giving. The author says that although her family celebrates Christmas, the recipes are presented with an eye to end-of-year baking and entertaining and are aimed at "the holiday season". The book is certainly filled with attractive and enticing sweet treats.

The recipes are arranged thematically: morning breads & pastries, holiday desserts, gift giving, beyond Christmas, and extras (jams & curd, marshmallows, decorative caramel shards, and other partial ingredients. Each recipe includes serving yields, special notes, and prep times. Recipe ingredients are listed bullet point style along with optional ingredients. All measurements are given in American standard measures with metric measures in brackets (yay!). The directions are given step by step, with assembly tutorials which are accompanied by clear color photos. The nutritional information is not included. Each of the recipes also includes a serving photo in color. Serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate.

The recipes' ingredients are easily sourced and the resultant dishes are family friendly and appealing. Everything is well done and I heartily recommend the book overall. There are a number of these recipes which will get an appearance in my own family dinners/potlucks in the coming months. Probably worth noting, a lot of these recipes are quite chocolate heavy (there's a recipe for fruit cake with chocolate glaze included here). For folks who love chocolate on everything - this one has the goods. The other thing which struck me was that this is a very *stylish* book. Many of these recipes are just that little bit fancier than the average run. Some of them might be a little bit labor intensive for rushed and stressed holiday cooks (but they're so elegant).

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.