Zabar's Blog

Recipe for Kir Royale

from The Cocktail Deck of Cards by Elouise Anders, Illustrations by Sarah Hankinson
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Recipe for Kir Royale from The Cocktail Deck of Cards by Kat Purcell 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!

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

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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!

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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

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Recipe for Chocolat Chaud

from Fireside Food for Cold Winter Nights by Lizzie Kamenetzky
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

There is a gorgeous French onion soup that was calling my name, and a goulash too. But this French hot chocolate called louder. Next on my list: Swiss chard gratin; a Bubbe-worthy schnitzel; and Gateau de Savoie, a light, lemony cake, studded with bits of citrus peel and served with whipped cream and boozy cherries. Lovely.

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From Fireside Food for Cold Winter Nights: More than 75 Comforting and Warming Recipes by Lizzie Kamenetzky, Ryland Peters & Small Photo: Nassima Rothacker © Ryland Peters & Small 2015, 2021

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Recipe for Turkey Leftovers

from Betty Crocker Best 100
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

I love old-fashioned recipes that work today. After the holiday, try this wonderful pot pie instead of another turkey sandwich. Then, bake some sweets from this amazing cookbook. Perhaps a pumpkin loaf, studded with chocolate chips; an apple bread glazed with caramel; or some rainbow-frosted doughnuts.

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Recipe excerpted with permission from BETTY CROCKER BEST 100: Favorite Recipes from America’s Most Trusted Cook © 2021 by Betty Crocker. Photography © 2021 by General Mills. Reproduced by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

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Recipe for Banana & walnut bread

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

There are lots of yummy banana bread recipes in this sweet cookbook, some with caramel or chocolate chips. I loved a clever version with passion fruit in the batter and dried banana chips topping the sweet icing of the finished cake. But start with this classic, studded with nuts. Next on my list: tea bread that is soaked with booze; Japanese sponge cake; and pain d’épices, a spicy cake that is way better than any gingerbread I have ever tasted.

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Recipe excerpted with permission from Banana Breads, Loaf Cakes, & Other Quick Bakes: 60 Deliciously Easy Recipes for Home Baking, Ryland Peters & Small Recipe: Julian Day, Photo: Steve Painter © Ryland Peters & Small

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Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce

from The Essential New York Times by Amanda Hesser
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This amazing cookbook is bursting with over one thousand recipes. You will be cooking through the book for years. Buy the book to get the marinara recipe. Your repertoire needs that one too. Next on my list: baked mushrooms from 1877; sweet potato Cecelia; Lee Lum’s lemon chicken; the classic purple plum torte; and the world’s best chocolate cake.

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Excerpted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record, 10th Anniversary Edition. Compilation copyright (c) 2021, 2010 by The New York Times Company and Amanda Hesser. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Recipe for Little Jam Flower Cookies

from La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark, photographs by Charlotte Bland
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

These little morsels can be made in any shape for your sweetie. Buy the book for the jam recipe mentioned in the headnote. Next on my list: Torta della Nonna; Chocolate, pear, brown sugar and hazelnut cake; and the One True Apple Cake. What could be better?

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Recipe excerpted with permission from La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark, published by Hardie Grant Books, June 2021

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Recipe for Semolina gnocchi in broth from Istria by Paola Bacchia

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

What to cook this weekend? Gnocchi. These little dumplings will warm your heart and tummy. Next on my list: hand-rolled macaroni with asparagus, walnuts & mint; goulash; and apricot strudel.

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Recipe excerpted with permission from Istria by Paola Bacchia

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