I suspect that, like many people, my introduction to Erin Jeanne McDowell was through her videos on Food52. It’s hard to turn your back on her sunny personality and immense baking knowledge. At the time of this blog post, McDowell has 464 recipes on the site. On top of that, she’s authored three cookbooks: ‘The Fearless Baker’, ‘The Book on Pie’, and, as of this month,’ Savory Baking.’
‘Savory Baking: Recipes for Breakfast, Dinner, and Everything in Between’ is broken down into these chapters:
- Easy and essential bakes
- Stovetop Savories
- Breads
- Flatbreads, pizza, and stuffed breads
- Pastries
- Snacks, bites, and appetizers
- Pies and tarts
The recipes that I think sound particularly interesting are:
- Pine nut and salami quickbread
- French onion muffins
- Green chile sausage gravy
- Garlic Parmesan pancakes with tomato jam
- Flaky frico
- Smoked salmon breakfast buns
- Homemade Gournay-styled cheese
- Lahmacun with chiles
- Lasagna kolaches
- Tomato, corn, basil, and burrata brioche buns
- Root vegetable pastilla
- Sour cream and onion knishes
- Garlic thumbprints with tomato jam
- Cobb quiche
- Broccoli rabe, sausage, and ricotta galette
- Crispy kale skillet galette
But the recipe that I immediately had my heart set on was for the “English-ish Muffins.” And lucky for me, this recipe is marked “difficulty: easy.” Her recipe is made from bread flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water, some butter, and then semolina or cornmeal for dusting. It does require planning though, as you mix the dough the night before you want to make them. The next day, when you roll and cut the dough, you’re just using a knife or other straight edge to cut into squares. You’re not asked to use a round cutter which not everyone has, and also means less waste. After the second rise, the muffins are browned on the stovetop and finished in the oven.
I never made English muffins before, but they were always on my “to-do” list. Overall, these were uncomplicated, and I was pretty happy with the overall results. I didn’t get much by way of nooks and crannies when I split the muffins, but that could have been due to something I did. The book doesn’t an a photo of the interior so I’m not really sure what the intended results are. The recipe makes 16 muffins, but I scaled back by half which was very easy to do as the book provides both volume and weighed measurements. I’ve eaten all of my muffins already so I will definitely be making these again.
The other recipe I tried was the scrambled-egg tartlets with peas, which also involves making her press-in tart dough. The dough makes enough for one 9-10” tart crust, or four 4” mini-tarts. Is this press-in tart easier than a rolled out crust? Hard to say. I’ve only made tart crust once before. And I probably only average to two pies a year. I think it comes down to personal preference, but either way it was very tasty. I think next time I make it, I’ll add a touch more water but that’s my fault and not a fault of the recipe. The recipe specifies to add extra water in teaspoon increments if the dough isn’t coming together. I thought my dough was ok, but my results were a touch too delicate – still sturdy enough to unmold the crust and plate but they easily crumbled once the filling went in.
The filling recipe was simply a layer of ricotta covered with soft scrambled eggs made with peas, cream, and chives. Out of habit, I did not make soft scrambled eggs. Visually, they were less luxurious looking than I had intended, but thankfully the flavor is the same.
Since I was annoyed at myself for not making soft scrambled eggs, I riffed on the fillings for a second mini-tart. This time, I remembered to soft scramble the eggs, but instead of peas, I used shiitake mushrooms. Both tarts are tasty, and great options for brunch. Ooh, this would be a lovely option for a special breakfast like for Mother’s Day. You can bake the tart cases the day before if you need/want to, which saves time when you plan to serve them.
Not a surprise whatsoever, but I have nothing bad to say about this book. I am, however, highly amused at the amount of non-baking recipes included in this book. Even outside of the Stovetop Savories chapter, you still find items like frybread, corn tortillas, dumplings, and pierogi. While there are a lot of options in this book for easy recipes, I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to a beginner. I’d worry that a beginner would get easily overwhelmed. But bonus point! It has a feature that I always appreciate: all recipes have both volume and weighed measurements (grams, not ounces). So bakers everywhere can enjoy this book, especially if you don’t have a sweet tooth. (But also don’t worry if you do have a sweet tooth – there are some sweet variations of recipes included.)
Disclaimer – I kindly received a review copy of this book from Harvest/William Morrow Group for this review. I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own. The book is available for purchase now through your favorite retailer.
Reference Links:
Awesomesauce Eats 