If you are kind enough to ask me about myself, I will tell you I’m a baker. If you are unwise enough to have follow up questions, I will feel compelled to provide immediate clarification.
Baking yeasted bread is not especially enjoyable for me because, to quote Lizzie Acker on The Great British Bake Off, “You never know what it’s thinking.” While I made my family’s bread for years, and recently started again to redirect my baking impulses into something less calorically suspect, I don’t really enjoy it because I can’t seem to get dependable results despite the time involved, mess, and a consistent approach. It’s maddening.
Things like patisserie are out of my realm as well. I’m not whipping up a dacquoise, or mille-feuille, or triumphantly decorated cakes and entremets. I’m not an artist whose medium is a piping tip and a sugar cookie. Why? To quote my mother, “I can’t be a perfectionist because things aren’t perfect,” and the sad fact is that if I spend wallops of money and time on dollops of cream and icing for a result that is imperfect or sub-standard, it greatly displeases me. I can make something that tastes good. Making it look good is a separate skill set. It’s akin my issues with bread, just with more expensive ingredients. I have been heard to exclaim, “What am I made of eggs?!” when reading an indulgent recipe.
I had a crisis of baking faith about a year ago when I organized a holiday cookie exchange at work. Everyone was so effusively praising every morsel that I suddenly felt any claim I had to being a good baker was a lie. “What even is a cookie?”, I wondered. It seemed to me that people complimenting my baking did so simply because it was there or tasted like childhood, and not because of any skill I might have or even, and this is what it all comes down to, chose a good recipe. Or maybe we just don’t appreciate cookies, squares, and simple cakes any more because they are generally commercially available but middling or they’ve been tarted up to look fancy. They look like they’re supposed to taste good, but do they? It makes homely baking seem less impressive by comparison. Patriarchy is also involved, but that’s a discussion for another day.
All of this is to say that I am what people call a “home baker”. I make a nice cookie. Which is not to say I don’t take pride in baking things that take a reasonable amount of time, taste grand, and do not require any of my non-existent fine motor skills. I want to make things that are straight-forward, yummy, and comforting. This finally brings me to Snacking Bakes.
The photo above includes books I also recommend*, but, most relevantly, the top two are Arefi’s Snacking Cakes and Snacking Bakes. Each post-it note represents a recipe I tried and marked to make again. The slim bookmarks show recipes I want to try – and there would be even more, but I don’t bake with nuts which creates some limitations. There is a lot of paper in those two books and it shows a tremendous return on investment. Getting one or two truly amazing recipes makes the cost of a cookbook worth it to me. I’ve tried four Snacking Bakes recipes in two weeks and three have post-its! I’ve no doubt there will be more after this coming weekend.
Yossy Arefi’s recipes deliver consistent, more-ish results using a practical approach, suggestions for alternatives, and readily available ingredients. Snacking Bakes also includes vegan and vegetarian options for those so inclined. Nothing is complicated for the sake of being so or trying to “level up” a beloved classic. I am giving her my money every chance I get and you should, too, if that’s what you are looking for.
Websites: Yossy Arefi and Apt. 2B Baking Co.
*Every baker should own Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts.