Mother's Day is only a few days away, and between planning that celebration brunch and ordering flowers for your favorite mom, you may be short on time to shop for the perfect gift. I have put together a list of cookbooks to help you find that special little token, the perfect finishing touch to a happy Mother's Day.
Cake: I Love You by Jill O'Connor
The cake book that's on the top of this mom's list! Cake: I Love You is ingeniously divided into flavors - what are you craving today? Chocolate? Caramel? Banana? Blood Orange? Or something boozy? - master baker Jill O'Connor offers recipes for everyone for each flavor profile, simple cakes for the novice or the busy baker to the showstopper when something spectacular is on the menu. Just the coolest idea for a cake cookbook this passionate home baker has ever come across. 60 (divinely) Decadent, Delectable, and Do-Able Recipes from easy weeknight sheet cakes and loaf cakes to showstoppers layered with frosting and ganache, cakes for the more confident, experienced baker, including Pecan Praline Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Summer Nectarine Buckle, Tennessee Whiskey Pecan Cake, Lemon Bomb, Vintage Coconut Cake and Triple-Coconut Poke Cake, The Black Cow, Chocolate Peanut Butter Blackout Cake, and Banana-Butterscotch Loaf. And loads more. Cake: I Love You is a love letter to the cake for the cake lover mom in your life.
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Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes by Ronni Lundy
This sensational book is more than just a collection of recipes; Victuals is an exploration of the foodways, people, and places of Appalachia, exploring the little-known yet fascinating food and dishes of the Mountain South. Lundy regales the reader with a collection of stories of the region and its history, the farmers, the hunters, and the chefs who prepare the dishes and define its cuisine, alongside the traditional recipes gathered in her travels through the region. Victuals explores the primary ingredients of Appalachia - roots and seeds, beans, corn, salt, and apples - and includes such recipes as Speckled Butter Bean Cassoulet with Rabbit Confit, Succotash, Appalachian Fried Pies, Chipped Country Ham & Gravy, Morels & Ramps with Eggs, Sorghum & Apple Sticky Pudding and Apple Stack Cake. Victuals won the double-whammy of prizes this year, walking away with the James Beard Award for both best American Cooking Cookbook and Book of the Year and the IACP Award for Best American Cookbook. For the mom who is enchanted by traditional cuisines and discovering the country's food roots. Photographed by Johnny Autry.
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Fruit by Nancie McDermott
In the Savor the South Cookbook series, Nancie McDermott's wonderful little book Fruit brings together a mouthwatering collection of local and traditional savory and sweet recipes using a dozen of the South's bountiful indigenous fruits, from cantaloupe, figs, peaches, and blackberries, to pawpaws, Mayhaws, and scuppernongs. The mom who adores cooking and baking with fruit will love discovering Okracoke Island Fig Cake with Buttermilk Glaze, Old-Time Persimmon Pudding, Fresh Peach Fritters, Blackberry Fool, and Lamb Shanks with Damson Plum Sauce. And she'll not want to miss the Grape Hull Pie to Mayhaw Jelly–Glazed Shrimp! Mom'll also love Nancie's tips and histories of these Southern fruit.
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For the mom who loves spending time in the kitchen preserving, canning, and jarring, or who would love to start, here are 3 of the best preserving books around for both novices and the more experienced. Each book includes essential preserving, jarring, and canning techniques, tips and advice on equipment and ingredients and each book has an astonishing collection of recipes, both traditional and more unique, but each wildly different from the next. Try one, try all three, choose the one with the recipes that your mom will love the best.
Preserving Italy: Canning, Curing, Infusing, and Bottling Italian Flavors and Traditions by Domenica Marchetti. Domenica, the author of 7 cookbooks on Italian cooking and baking, Preserving Italy gives home preserving the intriguing twist of the "ever-alluring flavors and ingredients of Italy". From tomato sauces and classic giardiniera, to fresh cheeses, sausages and simple-cured meats, syrups and liqueurs, preserving in oil and vinegars. Recipes include peaches in grappa, limoncello, sweet-and-sour peppers, Marsala-spiked apricot jam, lemon-infused olive oil, and her grandmother’s amarene, sour cherries preserved in alcohol. Domenica accompanies instruction and recipes by stories of and from Italian home cooks and artisans.
Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry: Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving by Cathy Barrow includes detailed instruction on equipment, technique, and safety along with her recipes for the preserving of seasonal fruits and vegetables, meats and fish (smoking, salt- and air-curing, brining), homemade cheeses, jellies, stocks and soups. Candied or Maple-Bourbon Bacon, duck confit, Sugar Snap, Carrot, and Radish Refrigerator Pickles, barbecue sauces and rubs, Heat-and-Sweet Habanero Jelly, oversmoked fish jerky, Carmen Miranda Tropical Fruit Preserves, and so many intriguing, flavorful, unique recipes.
Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round by Marisa McClellan includes basics such as jams, jellies, and curds, pickles, chutneys, conserves, whole fruit, tomato sauces, salsas, marmalades, fruit or nut butters, seasonings, and condiments. I want to try the Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter, Boozy Canned Peaches, Roasted Corn Salsa, Grape Ketchup, Spicy Tomato or Rhubarb Chutney, Bing Cherries in Red Wine Syrup.
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A la Mode: 120 Recipes in 60 Pairings: Pies, Tarts, Cakes, Crisps, and More Topped with Ice Cream, Gelato, Frozen Custard, and More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough
Um, yes, please! What's better than pie (or crisp, or a cake) and a generous scoop of ice cream, gelato, or sorbet on top? Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough hit the nail on the head for this hungry mom and À la Mode is definitely on my Mother's Day wish list! Mark and Bruce's beautifully photographed (Eric Medsker) cookbook is a collection of extraordinary pairings: 60 decadent desserts and 60 glorious ice creams, frozen custards, gelatos, and sherberts as the ideal accompaniment, perfectly paired for the most unforgettable finale to any meal. How can you say no to Apple Cranberry Pie with Camembert ice cream; Chocolate Sheet Cake with Salt Caramel Frozen Custard; Espresso Cream Jelly Roll with Mascarpone Ice Cream; Coffee-Poached Pears topped with Creamy Hazelnut Gelato; Cinnamon Roll Cake served with Maple Frozen Custard, or.... Peanut Brittle Tart with Popcorn Ice Cream for the Cracker Jack lover in every mom. Nothing short of sublime. From ice cream basics and tips for perfect ice cream to cake (pound, sheet, Bundt, sponge, and more), crisps, cobblers, and other fruit desserts, bars, and more original and special treats.
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Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall
Fika is a beautifully, whimsically illustrated cookbook all about the Swedish tradition of fika, the twice-daily coffee break. This delightful book includes not only delectable recipes for traditional baked goods but information and anecdotes about Swedish coffee culture alongside both the traditions and modern incarnations of this warming, homey custom. Whether you - or your mom - are enjoying fika alone, with family or friends, indoors or out, this book guides you through the perfect break. Fika is a beautiful gift for the mother who needs, craves, or deserves a special new ritual in her life focused on relaxation and enjoyment, the appreciation of life's simple pleasures, and time spent cocooning away from the hustle and bustle of life and work. Anna and Johanna share close to 50 recipes from their homeland including cinnamon cardamom buns (Kanelbullar), saffron buns, and ginger snaps to rhubarb cordial and rye bread, rich, buttery chocolate balls (Chokladbollar), Sticky Chocolate Cake (Kladdkaka), and Blackberry Almond Cake (mandelkaka med björnbär). I'm a huge fan of Johanna's illustrations and this book is a treat!
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The Vanilla Bean Baking Book: Recipes for Irresistible Everyday Favorites and Reinvented Classics by Sarah Kieffer
Yes, I have to admit that most of my own Mother's Day gift list I send to my sons is made up of dessert cookbooks. I love baking (it's therapeutic and calming) and I love eating dessert. Sarah's gorgeous, luscious photos are enough to make me - or you - want everything in her The Vanilla Bean Baking Book, but slow down and your favorite mother will definitely find just what she wants to bake, from scones and muffins to pies and tarts, from cookies to bars, or the perfect party cake with a wide selection of frostings and buttercreams. Home baking - homey baking - at its very best, The Vanilla Bean Baking Book is a cookbook to savor. Includes Blackberry White Chocolate Cake, Strawberry-Cherry Slab Pie, Granola Chocolate Pecan Cookies, Blueberry-Apple Crumble Bars, Orange-Chocolate Scones, Coffee Blondies. And, ooooh, Chocolate Meringue Pie!
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Orange Appeal: Savory & Sweet by Jamie Schler
Of course, if your mom is a citrus lover, you can also pre-order my own cookbook Orange Appeal for her! Whether using the fruit of the orange, the juice and zest, the peel or even orange marmalade, orange blossom water, or liqueur, your mom will love discovering the astonishing transformation the simple orange can bring to a savory dish or a sweet dessert. A few of my favorite recipes? Oranges in Spiced Wine Syrup, Orange Braised Belgian Endive with Caramelized Onions and Bacon, Beef (or lamb) in Bourbon Sauce, a beautiful yeasted Glazed Apple and Orange Braid, Sweet and Sour Marmalade-Glazed Oven-Baked Chicken, Orange Ricotta-Goat Cheese Tart in a Sweet Orange-Almond Pastry Crust, Sweet and Spicy Caramelized Onion, Raisin, and Orange Compote, and Vanilla Poached Orange Slices with Gingerbread Oat Crumble. Beautifully photographed by Ilva Beretta.
Happy Mother's Day!