Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Joy of Vegan Baking or Secret Ingredients

Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets

Author: Colleen Patrick Goudreau

Whether you want to bake dairy- and egg-free for health, ethical, or environmental reasons, The Joy of Vegan Baking lets you have your cake and eat it, too! Featuring 150 familiar favorites -- from cakes, cookies, and crкpes to pies, puddings, and pastries -- this book will show you just how easy, convenient, and delectable baking without eggs and dairy can be.

A seasoned cooking instructor and self-described "joyful vegan," author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau puts to rest the myth that vegan baking is an inferior alternative to non-vegan baking, putting it in its rightful place as a legitimate contender in the baking arena. More than just a collection of recipes, this informative cookbook is a valuable resource for any baker -- novice or seasoned.

Learn just how easy it is to enjoy your favorite homespun goodies without compromising your health or values:

  • Chocolate Chip Scones
  • Cranberry Nut Bread
  • Lemon Cheesecake
  • Dessert Crкpes
  • Strawberry Pie with Chocolate Chunks
  • Cinnamon Coffee Cake
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
  • Raspberry Sorbet
  • Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
  • Soft Pretzels
  • Blueberry Cobbler
  • Chocolate Almond Brittle

Free of saturated fat, cholesterol, and lactose, but full of flavor, flair, and familiarity, each and every recipe will have you declaring "I can't believe it's vegan!"

Complete with luscious color photos, this book will be an essential reference for every vegan.



Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Whys and Wherefores of Choosing Vegan     9
A Journey to Compassionate Cooking     9
Why Vegan?     15
The How-to's and What-nots of Vegan Baking     17
Better Than Eggs     17
Better Than Cow's Milk     24
Better than Buttermilk, Condensed Milk, and Evaporated Milk     27
Better Than Butter     29
How to Read a Recipe     32
Rise and Shine: Muffins, Biscuits, and Scones     37
Cozy Comforts: Sweet and Savory Quick Breads     53
Cause for Celebration: Cakes and Cupcakes     71
Timeless Temptations: Pies and Tarts     93
Familiar Favorites: Cookies, Brownies, and Bars     109
Bearing Fruit: Crumbles, Cobblers, Crisps, and Whole Fruit Desserts     131
Decadent Delicacies and Elegant Eats: Strudel, Crepes, Blintzes, and Pastries     151
Ancient Wonders: Yeast Breads and Rolls     165
Creamy Concoctions: Mousses and Puddings     181
Sweet Somethings: Confections and Candy     193
Frozen Treats: Sorbets, Shakes, and Smoothies     203
Fundamental Foundations: Crusts for Pies and Tarts     211
Restorative Refreshments: Hot and Cold Beverages     219
Over the Top:Frostings, Sauces, Syrups, and Spreads     229
Last But Not Least: The Appendices
Stocking Your Vegan Pantry     240
Baking Staples: A Guide to Ingredients     240
Essential Kitchen Tools     248
Resources and Recommendations     252
Making Sense of It All     258
Glossary of Terms     258
Cake Pan Substitutes     262
Common Ingredients: Yields and Equivalents     266
Baking Soda and Baking Powder: What's the Difference?     268
Suggested Reading     270
Suggested Viewing     272
Finding Your Way: The Indices
General     273
Seasonal     283
Celebrations and Occasions     285
Acknowledgments     286
About the Author     288

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink

Author: David Remnick

Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker–literally. As the home of A. J. Liebling, Joseph Wechsberg, and M.F.K. Fisher, who practically invented American food writing, the magazine established a tradition that is carried forward today by irrepressible literary gastronomes, including Calvin Trillin, Bill Buford, Adam Gopnik, Jane Kramer, and Anthony Bourdain. Now, in this indispensable collection, The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing on food and drink, seasoned with a generous dash of cartoons.

Whether you’re in the mood for snacking on humor pieces and cartoons or for savoring classic profiles of great chefs and great eaters, these offerings, from every age of The New Yorker’s fabled eighty-year history, are sure to satisfy every taste. There are memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems–ranging in tone from sweet to sour and in subject from soup to nuts.

M.F.K. Fisher pays homage to “cookery witches,” those mysterious cooks who possess “an uncanny power over food,” while John McPhee valiantly trails an inveterate forager and is rewarded with stewed persimmons and white-pine-needle tea. There is Roald Dahl’s famous story “Taste,” in which a wine snob’s palate comes in for some unwelcome scrutiny, and Julian Barnes’s ingenious tale of a lifelong gourmand who goes on a very peculiar diet for still more peculiar reasons. Adam Gopnik asks if French cuisine is done for, and Calvin Trillin investigates whether people can actually taste the difference between red wine and white. We journey with Susan Orlean as she distills the essence of Cubain the story of a single restaurant, and with Judith Thurman as she investigates the arcane practices of Japan’s tofu masters. Closer to home, Joseph Mitchell celebrates the old New York tradition of the beefsteak dinner, and Mark Singer shadows the city’s foremost fisherman-chef.

Selected from the magazine’s plentiful larder, Secret Ingredients celebrates all forms of gustatory delight.


Publishers Weekly

This volume of food writing from the New Yorkerproves again that famous weekly's reputation for literary and journalistic excellence. An anthology of reporting both recent and vintage, this book takes readers from the oyster beds of Long Island to the bistros of Paris, from artisanal tofu joints in Japan to a Miami restaurant serving Basque food to homesick Cubans. Along the way, lucky readers get to travel to fun food towns like San Francisco and New York, drink martinis with Roger Angell, make fun of menus with Steve Martin and reminisce about Julia Child's winsome public television series. A particularly wonderful profile introduces a wild-foods forager capable of making a 10-course meal from ingredients in the field near his house; he and the author dine on cattails and watercress while canoeing through an icy November river. Another winning profile explores the life and times of a cheese-making nun with a Ph.D. in microbiology. But perhaps the greatest pleasure here is the gorgeous prose of masters like M.F.K. Fisher and A.J. Liebling. Liebling, in particular, knows how to turn meals into stories; though he wrote of Paris before the war, his descriptions are so immediate and enticing that a reader wants to run out and buy the first plane ticket to France. (Nov.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Shelley Brown - Library Journal

In this delicious, diverse, and satisfying book, there is something to suit every appetite and pique readers' interest. A wide range of authors are represented, from the familiar A.J. Liebling and M.F.K. Fisher to the piquant Anthony Bourdain and the delightful Calvin Trillin. Those seeking an introduction to fiction and nonfiction food writing would do well to graze this work; seasoned readers will enjoy the nostalgic places and tastes depicted, and the quintessential New Yorkercartoons are a delightful addition. The fiction portion of the anthology adds an unusual twist; the stories provide an excellent illustration of the darker sides of hunger and the lengths that people will go to, to satisfy it. John Cheever's "The Sorrows of Gin" and Roald Dahl's "Taste" convey perfectly the pitfalls of greed and addiction. This collection is warmly recommended for public libraries and libraries with strong culinary collections.



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