Zabar's Blog

Recipe for Mexican wedding cookies

from Sweet Paris by Frank Adrian Barron
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This perfectly gorgeous book is filled with lovely cakes and sweets. Curl up and read about them, then after your armchair trip to Paris, run into the kitchen and bake! Today’s recipe is for a cookie that deserves to be on your dessert platter all year long. Next on my list: Gâteau Orangette, a marvelous chocolate cake with candied orange peel; Pain d'épices (Alsatian gingerbread); and a savory cheese board. 

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Recipe excerpted with permission from Sweet Paris by Frank Adrian Barron (HarperCollins)

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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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