About the Author: Mary Cech is an award-winning pastry chef and culinary instructor living in Park City, Utah.
About the Photographer: Noel Barnhurst is a San Francisco-based photographer.
Review: Oh Mary had me at HELLO- just look at Noel's cover picture of the Chili-Grilled Eggplant and Sweet Roasted Pepper Tartlets in Poppy Seed Shells! If that picture doesn't make you want to open the book, I don't know what will! And the pictures get better form there! Literally, every page I turned I was salivating over! And then, I got to the recipes! YUM!!!!!!!! I love the concept of everything doesn't have to be sweet- but can be full of savory flavors. There are sweets, main courses, side dishes and appetizers. Everything is covered!
Her Sour Cream Fig Spiral Cookies are pretty much my Mom's family recipe for date spiral cookies and definitely YUMMY! I wanted to try EVERY recipe in the book! We decided to try one of the simple recipes first, as we actually had all the ingredients in the pantry (concept!). Here's the recipe:
Sour Cream and Dill Muffins
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cps all-purpose flour2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cp finely chopped dill (or 2 tsp dried dill- which we used)
2 eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cps sour cream
1/3 cp whole milk
dill seed for garnish (if desired)
Instructions:
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees
2. Butter and lightly flour insides of 8 muffin cups.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in large bowl, gently.
4. Mix dill, eggs, butter, milk and sour cream in second bowl, and whisk well.
5. Pour dill mix into flour mixture and gently blend together to form a soft dough.
6. Divide batter between each muffin cup and sprinkle with dill seeds, if desired.
7. Bake until the tops spring back, 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack.
8. When cool, turn pan upside down and tap the corner, to release the muffins (or use silicone liners like we did and you can skip this step!).
9. Muffins will last up to 1 week if well wrapped and stored in an airtight container, then refrigerated.
As you can see, they have a great rustic look to them, and they were quite large! When I make these again, I am going to add 1/4 cp shredded Parmesan and 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper. I think that will the perfect touch! We also figured out that the dough would be perfect for using for chicken and dumplings (using the drop method). You could also add shredded Mozarella and bacon bits and make them for breakfast! The basic dough is VERY versatile! We ate them plain with butter-very moist and as we like dill, we all loved them! Then we served the rest with gumbo and they were PERFECT. Because they were more plain, they offset the spiciness of the gumbo perfectly!
The Parmesan Cheesecake is calling me next, as are the Smokes Salmon Crepe Torte, the Shitake Mushroom and Garlic Souffles and the Fig Rosemary Spread! It will be FUN to get through all the recipes in this cookbook!
If you know anyone who loves to cook, this book will be the prefect present! AND it would be a superb housewarming gift, as Mary covers the basic necessities and equipment for baking in the first chapter! And don't forget Mother's Day will be here before you know it!
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book from Chronicle Books, via Hachette Book Group, free of charge,for review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it either.
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