We’ve mentioned that there are a lot of new cookbooks coming out this spring. We’ve covered new and upcoming vegetarian books and cocktail-focused books—and all the others we’re excited to page through in the coming months when we’re debating what to make for dinner. But perhaps the most important list is here: new dessert books from some of our favorite authors, plus bread-baking guides that’ll keep you in fresh brioche. Preheat your ovens and scroll down to see the baking books we’re most looking forward to digging into.
Ravneet Gill—author of Sugar, I Love You and The Pastry Chef’s Guide—focuses this baking book on simple pleasures to share with friends and family (or enjoy on the couch by yourself.) Some of the recipes feel advanced (choux pastry filled with coffee crème mousseline and topped with craqueline) but plenty seem easily achievable, while still worthy of serving to visiting friends. I have my eye on the sticky date pudding flavored with a touch of malt, 5-ingredient mango crème brulée, and a chocolate loaf cake that holds a surprise tunnel of peanut butter.
Natalie Paull closed her popular Melbourne bakery after 11 years in 2022; in this second baking book she shares favorites from the shop as well as “recipes that were waiting to find their cake stand.” There’s a buckwheat-crusted banana cream pie with sesame toffee crunch, a yuzu soufflé cheesecake, and sumac blackberry shortcakes with kefir cream. We’d happily wait in line for these at any stand.
An acclaimed Netherlands baker shares his methods for baguettes, fougasse, stollen, brioche, and other breads, then focuses on giving you the tools to make your own adjustments: You’ll gain a sense of what strengthens the crust, or what makes it more delicate—what will deepen the flavor of your bread, or lengthen the freshness of your crumb.
Head to the Scottish coast, where Coinneach MacLeod frosts his chocolate cake with a whisky crémeux, and fills golden Ecclefechan tarts with dried fruit and walnuts moistened with orange juice and…more whisky. There are a few savory recipes here, but the highlights are the homey sweets: rock cakes for tea time, caraway and lemon-scented Shearing Cake, steamed pudding with cherry jam, and shortbread sandwiched with marmalade.
If you’re the person who volunteers to bring dessert to every dinner party, you really need the latest book from the endlessly creative author of The New Way to Cake and A Good Day to Bake. The desserts are meant to be cozy and fun—more casual than cheffy—and we’re excited to bake every one of them. There’s a big cherry slab pie (with a touch of balsamic in the filling) that’ll feed a big crowd, and brownies topped with chocolate pudding and hazelnut-cornflake crunch. We’ve got our eye on the miso and nutmeg custard pie, and the tres leches cake inspired by Hong Kong milk tea.
“In the Arab world, homemade sweets and desserts are gestures of welcome and celebration,” writes AttarBashi, a chef and TV host. “These sweets are known for their crunch and fragrance.” Start with Kunafa Cheesecake sprinkled with pistachios and rose petals, or rice pudding scented with orange blossom water and garnished with pomegranate.
Start here if you’re looking for ideas for whole-grain baked goods sweetened with fruit, honey, maple, or unrefined sugar. London based pastry chef Giovanna Torrico offers some gluten-free recipes throughout, like a chocolate loaf cake topped with whole small pears, an olive-oil-enriched clementine almond cake, and a hazelnut Bundt sweetened with maple.
Two chefs with Chez Panisse experience offer 100 flavors of ice cream, sherbet, granita, and frozen yogurt to make at home. This book focuses on classic flavors, but we’re tempted by the arborio-infused risotto-inspired ice cream, the London Fog (made with Earl Grey tea), and the amaretto ice cream with dried cherries.
Grimes, who runs The Toasted Pine Nut blog, shares tips and recipes for gluten-free baking: almond-flour based salted brown butter slice-and-bake cookies, fudgy oat-flour brookies, and lots of no-bake dessert ideas.
“When I was growing up, the food at my family table fit neatly into one of two categories: Filipino or American. They coexisted but never coalesced,” writes Arlyn Osborne in the introduction to this book of baking recipes. Here Osborne invites the two to really come together. She adds buttermilk to banana-leaf-wrapped bibingka that’s studded with fresh berries, and stirs creamy red bean paste into brownies. She torches the top of the classic mango sago, and reimagines pan de coco as a sticky bun. The pie and tart section called my name: pineapple pie, pandan coconut cream, a bubble tea tart…You may have trouble choosing what to make first.
