Raised in the suburban U.S., but going back to Sri Lanka to spend summers with her grandparents, Samantha Seneviratne experienced unusual combinations of foods and flavors. Convinced that most modern American desserts rely too heavily on sugar and are overwhelmingly sweet without having enough flavor, she wrote The New Sugar and Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking to provide a resource of recipes that are balanced in sweetness and spice.
The recipes are grouped by their primary spice: the "Cinnamon" chapter includes a summer berry focaccia and cinnamon toast bread pudding; "Ginger," a sticky apple date cake and chocolate-dipped ginger macaroons; "Nutmeg" features banana fritters and frozen eggnog bars; and so on, to cover peppercorns, chiles, vanilla, cloves and cardamom, too.
With beautiful, understated photos, a history of each spice's production and use over the centuries, and lovely stories about Sri Lanka and Seneviratne's grandparents, The New Sugar and Spice is a baker's dream come true. Including a handful of recipes that may be unfamiliar to Western cooks (jaggery flan, Sri Lankan true love cake), The New Sugar and Spice provides some Eastern flair along with its spicy deliciousness. And exceptional variations on popular desserts--like brownies that include black pepper and caramel, and an apple Danish with caraway cream--make it perfectly appropriate for bakers who are tired of making the same old things. Sure to please sweet tooths everywhere, this slim volume will be a welcome addition to any cookbook library. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm