Recipes Blog

Recipe for Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese Spread from Boards by America’s Test Kitchen

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This book is filled with ideas for platters of food you can set out for your next brunch, drinks party, or cookie swap. Try one of these cream cheese spreads with your nova and bagel sandwich. Next on my list: a cheese board and grilled vegetable platter. And some pretty cute cookies for dessert.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Boards by America’s Test Kitchen

Enter the Giveaway of: Boards by America's Test Kitchen and Zabar's Upper West Side Appy Bundle Basic on Instagram (Beginning on Sunday, 6/12 - check back then!)
You can also enter by emailing info@zabars.com.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Pat's Pancakes from Always Home by Fanny Singer

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This memoir is sweet. I loved Fanny Singer’s stories of her childhood. Imagine Alice Waters packing your lunchbox. The memories are lovely, and the recipes tempting. Next on my list: a fruit galette, and the charmingly named egg fried in a spoon in the fireplace. Have fun making these pancakes.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Always Home by Fanny Singer (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

Enter the Giveaway of: Always Home by Fanny Singer and Zabar's New York Breakfast Basket on Instagram (Beginning on Sunday, 5/29 - check back then!)
You can also enter by emailing info@zabars.com.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Cheese Blintzes with Blueberry Sauce from Zabar’s: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Grandma Lilly Zabar left me an enormous pile of dessert dishes and ice cream bowls. Every Sunday, my large and still growing family gathers around the table for lunch, and we fill those dishes with dessert, often birthday cake, Lilly’s blintzes, or my cookies. Whenever Lori Zabar shared a meal with us, she would reminisce about her summer birthdays, celebrated with cake in those very dishes. 

We lost our dear Lori a few months ago, but she left us with countless memories of her smile and her laughter, and this book, her memoir of the Zabar family and the store. We will miss her forever.

Portrait of Louis & Lillian Zabar

From Zabar’s: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar. Copyright © 2022 by Lori Zabar. Excerpted by permission of Schocken, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Enter the Giveaway of: Zabar’s: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar on Instagram (Beginning on Sunday, 5/8 - check back then!)
You can also enter by emailing info@zabars.com.

 

Click on the book cover to buy:



Click to shop Zabar's Blintz:

Click to shop Zabar's Blueberry Preserves:

Recipe for millionaire's shortbread from a good day to bake by Benjamina Ebuehi

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This lovely book will inspire you to go into the kitchen and bake. The millionaire's shortbread was a hit with everyone in my family. Next on my list: potato & cauliflower curry pie; cherry & coconut tahini cake; and chocolate & fig bostock.

Recipe excerpted with permission from a good day to bake by Benjamina Ebuehi, published by Quadrille

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Pletzel from The Savory Baker

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Pletzel is an onion-poppy seed flatbread, which bakeries apparently don’t make any more. It’s time that we home bakers do! Although the dough is somewhat sticky and difficult to work with, it’s worth the challenge. I added the water a little at a time, and ended up using less than noted in this recipe. Try it, it’s a fun, stuck-in-the-house-day project. Then, go on to bake through this book, which is bursting with amazing recipes for all sorts of hand pies, stuffed breads, and even a savory tarte tatin, made with apples and fennel. Next on my list: spinach pie, cheese bread, and another tart, this one covered in smoked salmon and leeks. Oh, and one more—a rustic pie made with phyllo dough, stuffed with tomatoes and eggplant. 

Enter the Cookbook Giveaway of The Savory Baker & Zabar's New York Goodies Box. (Beginning on Sunday, 2/27 - check back then!)

You can also enter by emailing info@zabars.com.

Recipe excerpted with permission from The Savory Baker (America’s Test Kitchen)

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Mezzi Rigatoni with Raw Tomato Sauce from Lidia’s a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Our friends, Lidia and Tanya, have created another gem of a cookbook. This one is filled with simple one-pot meals. Try this easy pasta dish that has the bright taste of basil mixed in with the tomatoes. Throw in some chicken or tuna, and you have a one-dish dinner. I would be happy to have the leftovers, cold, for the next day’s lunch. Next on my list: Italian wedding soup, skillet sausages with fennel and apples, and a bread pudding with berries.

Enter the Cookbook Giveaway of Lidia’s a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl.

From Lidia’s a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Copyright © 2021 by Tutti a Tavola, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Kir Royale from The Cocktail Deck of Cards by Elouise Anders

Illustrations by Sarah Hankinson
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This box of recipe cards has cocktails galore to toast the new year. Each one is illustrated with a lovely watercolor. Try this champagne/berry mixture. Happy 2022!

Recipe excerpted with permission from The Cocktail Deck of Cards by Elouise Anders, illustrations by Sarah Hankinson (Smith Street Books)

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Frosted Spiced Cookies from The Italian Bakery: Step-by-Step Recipes with the Silver Spoon

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

These festive holiday cookies will make your house smell heavenly. When I made these in the shape of gingerbread people, I had everyone bite the legs off first, so the cookies didn’t run away. Next on my list: a lovely ricotta and black cherry tart with chocolate; strawberry mousse on a pistachio sponge; and a date and apple cake. Oh, and a coconut cake with a layer of mousse. Happy baking!

Recipe excerpted with permission from The Italian Bakery: Step-by-Step Recipes with the Silver Spoon (Phaidon)

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Candied Fruit Cake from French Pastries and Desserts by Lenôtre

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Gaston Lenôtre was one of the great French pastry chefs of all time. This cookbook is an updated version of my tattered edition from the late 1970s. Try this simple cake, studded with candied fruit. When the filling was used up, I made another version in the book, with dried fruit and nuts. Next on my list: raisin rolls, made with brioche dough; strawberry Charlotte; and the adorably named Little Prince Cake with red currant jelly, for the littlest Zabar, three years old.

Reprinted with permission from French Pastries and Desserts by Lenôtre (Flammarion)

Click on the book cover to buy:

Recipe for Snowman Cocoa Bombs from Cocoa Bombs by Eric Torres-Garcia

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Cocoa bombs are spheres of tempered chocolate, with cocoa powder and little marshmallows inside. You place one inside a mug, and pour hot milk over. The bomb explodes, and there's your sweet treat. Buy the book for detailed instruction on how to temper the chocolate and fill the molds. What to make next? Perhaps the adorable dark chocolate reindeers with pretzel antlers or one with peanut butter and milk chocolate. I will sit in front of the fireplace and decide with a mug of this hot chocolate.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Cocoa Bombs: Over 40 Make-at-Home Recipes for Explosively Fun Hot Chocolate Drinks by Eric Torres Garcia, Ryland Peters & Small 2021. Photograph by Alex Luck © Ryland Peters & Small 2021

Click on the book cover to buy: