Erin Jeanne McDowell will be the first to tell you she has “an insatiable sweet tooth.” If you have a copy of her New York Times bestseller, “The Book on Pie,” or have watched her demonstrate everything from gingerbread house-making to cupcake-decorating on Food52′s YouTube channel, you’ve undoubtedly already gathered this.
Lately, though, she’s been leaning more heavily into what she calls her “salt tooth” when the urge to bake something new strikes. That could mean filling a danish with creamed spinach instead of jelly, swapping the cinnamon and sugar in pull-apart monkey bread with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese, or griddling jalapeno-infused cornmeal batter for waffles to pair with queso instead of syrup.
Those are just a few of the innovations she’ll tempt you with in “Savory Baking: Recipes for Breakfast, Dinner, and Everything in Between” (Harvest, $40).
“I’ve always wanted to write a book dedicated to savory baking: the cheesy, the crispy, the melty, warm, and doughy,” she explains in the introduction. Needing an easy to serve, make-ahead idea to serve a crowd for Christmas breakfast, I baked up a batch of her “Wee Quiches” in pastry-lined muffin tins, which fit the bill perfectly and provided a handy template for countless future variations. While still in recovery from holiday sugar-overload, I’m eyeing other potential projects to fill my kitchen with cozy smells during the quiet days of January.
Most of McDowell’s recipes are grounded in classic techniques she explains in detail: cornbread, drop biscuits, dumplings, puff pastry, phyllo, pizza dough, tortillas. Each is rated on a scale of difficulty, from Easy (Weeknight Focaccia, Parmesan Sables) to Medium (Bagels, Double-Crust Mushroom Potpie) to Hard (Moules Frites Tart, Ham and Cheese Croissants.)
To balance all that richness, she offers instructions for her favorite vinegary salad that can pair with pretty much anything.
And when you’re craving a “sweet-tooth break,” she’s got you covered there, too‚ with PB S’mores Pretzels, a traditional cinnamon-y variation of Smoked Salmon Breakfast Buns, and a streusel topping and icing to turn cornbread into coffee cake.
Let the 2023 baking season begin.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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