Cookbook Display
On Thursday night, I dropped by Baked‘s new-ish Tribeca location for Dessert-apoolza, a cookbook signing and tasting event that raised moneys for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and Getting Out and Staying Out. The former organization, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is one with which I have a personal connection, and, well, having dessert for dinner is just one of those perks of being a grown-up (the other is having dessert for breakfast), so this was right up my alley. If you’re looking for some cookbook ideas for this holiday season, check out these ones that were at the sweets-fest last week:
Ample Hills Creamery – Egg Nog and Drunken Thanksgiving Ice Cream
Samples of two seasonal flavors of this local ice cream company were available for tasting. The Egg Nog was a creamy, frozen version of its namesake holiday party beverage. The Drunken Thanksgiving combined pumpkin, gingersnaps, and bourbon. This can take the place of pie at my holiday feast any year.
Baked – The Tri-Color Bar Wintermint Cake
The hosts for the evening put out this seasonal, festive mini-cakes for everyone to try. They have several cookbooks as well as a range of baking mixes. Really, though, stopping by one of their shops to pick out treats to take home (or to eat on site) is the way to go.
Baked Ideas – Cookies
I’m a big, big fan of cookies, as I’ve mentioned in the past, so it was no surprise that I wanted to hang out at this table for a while. Patti Paige had several different kinds of cookies, including gluten-free ones, available for the guests to try. She even had decorating supplies for us to create our own designs. My cookie frosting M.O., however, hasn’t changed since childhood and is just to slather on a glob of icing and to pop it in my mouth, which wasn’t exactly what I think she had in mind.
Butter & Scotch – S’mores Pie
Samples of the fabulous S’mores Pie and Bourbon-Ginger-Pecan pie from Butter & Scotch were available at this tasting, so I tried to limit my self to just one sample of each, along with copies of Allison Kave’s terrific book First Prize Pies. Aside from Ample Hills’ ice cream, I’d take any of these pies on my holiday dinner table, as well. Keep in touch with these ladies, as they’re opening up a brick & mortar shop in Crown Heights any week (day?) now.
Dorie Greenspan signing cards
No discussion of the year’s best cookbooks, or must-have baking books in general, would be complete without mentioning ones by Dorie Greenspan. I had a chance to talk to one of the women who worked on testing the recipes for her most recent volume, and she glowed as she raved about how delicious all of them were, including the Palets des Dames and Limoncello Cupcakes we could taste during the event.
Ovenly display
Two of my favorite kinds of cookies – Salted Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter – were on the table by the Ovenly folks on Thursday. I always enjoy seeing their baked goods around town, as I know that they’ll be something special. Fortunately, these were packed up for me to take away to save to eat later.
Buon appetito!
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