Cookbooks Worth Waiting for in 2024 Part 2 - A Recap

It’s time for a recap of the cookbooks I hoped would be ‘worth waiting for’ in the second half of 2024.

We’ve had some great new releases this year, and this collection continues that theme. There is quite a different selection of books here, in that they are all pretty different and each would add something quite different to your cookbook collection. My only feeling after living with these books a little while, and maybe after some of the other releases this year too is, how many books from the same author do we really need? Do you ever wonder if there is a limit to how many useful/purposeful books someone can release, especially when their new releases are so regular?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below - did you add any of these cookbooks to your collection too?

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Previous editions of Cookbooks Worth Waiting For can be found here, and if you would like these cookbook reviews plus those that feature exclusively in my newsletter, sign up to my weekly newsletter Friday Food Chat with Kath.

*Thanks to HardieGrant and Murdoch Books for gifting me copies of Sofra and Karkalla at Home respectively.

Ottolenghi Comfort by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (Ebury Press) - A new release from the Ottolenghi team is always worth waiting for! While Simple still remains my absolute favourite of all Ottolenghi’s cookbooks, Comfort has a great selection of recipes, and the influence of the other authors (Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley), give Comfort a point of difference from other more recent Ottolenghi releases. The influence of Helen’s Malaysian/Australian background is clear with much use of Asian flavours and ingredients, while still having a very ‘Ottolenghi’ feel. I am starting to feel I’m not sure how many more books I need from Yotam Ottolenghi, we have quite a collection now and while the introduction of co-authors has been a great way of diversifying the recipes published and giving each book a unique focus, I do feel (as with many authors who churn out books on a regular basis), there must be a point where we reach capacity in our collections for these authors. Out of Comfort, I am keen to try the Salmon Fishcakes with Chermoula Remoulade (p.80) and Verena’s Potato Salad (p.224). 

Sofra by Karima Hazim Chatila and Sivine Tabbouch (Quadrille*) - Sofra feels like it is filled with love. It is a personal look at Karima and Sivine’s deep personal connection to Lebanon, specifically through food. Family stories and weaved through the book, and the way their family now comes together through food is shown as a staple of Lebanese food, culture and family. The chapters are divided into various ‘spreads’, so dishes you can make and serve together for a crowd. These recipes really do feed a crowd, and those of us who have smaller families or households may have to adapt (halve recipes), or feel contented in the knowledge that leftovers will continue to feed us for a few days more. Many of the recipes require some time and effort, and would great to make on the weekend when you might have more time to spend on making a meal. Karima and Sivine give tips on how to prepare things in advance and how to plan out making their menus in each chapter so you are in good hands.

As you might know by now if you read previous cookbook reviews of mine, I love books like this one that share personal stories and capture recipes that have been in families for a long time. Cookbooks such as Sofra not only provide us with a view of the authors connection to a place or time, in this case Lebanon, but give us an avenue to create our own through their recipes. The photography in this book is wonderful, and the table shots of the whole menus are stunning - which of course they are as the photographer is Luisa Brimble! Queen of the top down table scape shot! In terms of recipes I am keen to try the Muhammara (p.144), Ejjeh (courgette and herb fritters) (p.150) and the Maamoul (p.196-7). 

Bake with Brooki by Brooke Bellamy (Penguin) - The hype around this baking book (and the Brisbane based bakery itself) is crazy, I think thanks mostly to social media. Bake with Brooki has basically sold out, and did so very quickly after it’s release. It’s a more substantially sized book than I was expecting, it definitely isn’t just a quickly put together piece of merchandise to capitalise on the social media hype around Brooki Bakehouse. If you are a fan of the bakery, or it’s owner Brooke, I think you’ll find the recipes you are looking for in Bake with Brooki. The chapters cover the famous Brooki cookies, brownies, cupcakes and whole cakes, cheesecakes and more. If you are a seasoned baker you might notice that many of these recipes look like iterations of the same thing with a different flavour profile, but if you just want the recipes from the bakery then the book definitely delivers that.

There is a definite American feel to this book, especially the photography (which I’m not super keen on, I prefer naturally lit photos which isn’t a big thing in American style cookbook shoots it seems), however Brooke’s major influence in baking, developing her famous cookie recipes and successful bakery has largely come from American bakeries and baked goods discovered on her travels. However, every recipe does have an image, so in terms of practicalities when actually making the recipes you should be able to clearly see what the recipe should look like in the end, which is of course a major purpose of food photography in cookbooks! As a Caramilk lover, I am keen to try the Caramilk Blondies (p.79) and I’d like to make the Biscoff Cookies (p.34) as well after having tried them from the bakery last year.

Karkalla At Home by Mindy Woods (Murdoch Books*) - Karkalla at Home brings native Australian ingredients and flavours to our kitchens by using them in recipes you might otherwise recognise. Mindy has given the reader everything they need to know about cooking with ingredients indigenous to Australia and our First Nations communities, from understanding the seasons via Indigenous cultural practices, to explaining everything we need to know about various Indigenous ingredients specifically, and even where to buy them from Indigenous owned/run businesses. The recipe section of the book is divided into meal/recipe types, and in the header of each recipe is a quick list of the specific Native ingredients needed for each recipe. I think this is a really helpful element for each recipe, as in some cases the Native ingredient may be the thing you need to seek out and buy before starting to recipe if you didn’t already have it.

I think the array of specialised ingredients could seem overwhelming to some, though I do think Mindy has gone to a lot of effort to make this element of the book extremely accessible - and to be honest if you aren’t interested in buying a few new ingredients and learning about Indigenous Australian food and culture, then you are probably missing the entire purpose of this cookbook. As author Mindy says in her introduction, “I believe that to truly understand a culture you must experience its food”, and I think Karkalla at Home will be a great addition to anyone’s cookbook collection who wish to do that. In terms of recipes, I am keen to try the Campfire Eggs with Native Dukkah (p.78), Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes with Macadamia Praline Butter (p.84-5) and the Prawn Skewers with Macadamia Satay (p.102). 

Pistachio Filled Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies

The internet seems to be having a big pistachio moment right now. I have been having a pistachio ‘moment’ for many years now, I am happy to see everyone else is catching on to how delicious everything pistachio is.

There are a few recipes floating around that use a pistachio cream (crema di pistacchio) as a filling for cookies, plus a few bakeries selling cookies like this too. I am all for pistahcio cream anything, however, when it comes to using it in baking at home I really consider how I am going to use it.

Crema di pistacchio is an expensive ingredient, and sometimes not easy to buy. I have had multiple times I’ve found a brand of pistachio cream I like, only for the shop I bought it from to never sell it again. I’ve got the impression that these shop’s suppliers find it hard to import these products from Italy for whatever reason. But it’s really annoying to find something, enjoy it, then never be able to buy it again.

And that’s not to mention the price per jar, which is usually around $20AUD for a 180g or so jar. If I’m using a whole jar in one recipe, that’s an expensive bake.

There are Australian based brands that are making/selling pistachio creams/spreads that you could use. One of the brands I found was genuinely disgusting in flavour, and the other has quite a low percentage of pistachios in the spread. While the second brand I thought flavour wise was pretty good considering the low percentage of pistachios and the price, baking with it is still a rather expensive exercise. I also didn’t love how many ‘extra’ ingredients were contained in some of these spreads, compared to the imported Italian varieties.

Considering all that, I decided if I were going to make some cookies/biscuits stuffed with a pistachio spread, I was going to make the spread myself. A homemade pistachio spread or butter will have a better flavour than many of the bought pistachio creams, plus it won’t be quite as expensive!

I have been making pistachio butter/spread like the one in the recipe below for years (if you have my ebook Cosy Winter Bakes you might recognise the pistachio butter recipe!). The addition of white chocolate gives the pistachio spread a sweetness and creamy texture that is similar to the bought varieties.

When using homemade pistachio spread/butter as a filling in cookies, you won’t get that oozing of the pistachio spread out of the cookie (when the cookie is broken in half) like you would when buying a cookie like this or making one using crema di pistacchio. However, I think its a small price to pay for a delicious cookie, that doesn’t have to use up your very expensive jar of pistachio cream, and is decidedly less messy to eat as well!

Homemade Pistachio Butter/Spread

Pistachio Filled Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies/Biscuits

Ingredients:

170g raw pistachios

160g caramelised white choc (e.g. Caramilk, or any white choc)

120g unsalted butter, melted

180g caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp slivered pistachios (or roughly chopped whole pistachios)

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line a tray with baking paper. Place the pistachios on the tray, and roast in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until they are lightly golden and fragrant. Allow to cool. You won’t need your oven again for a while so you can turn it off for now.

Make the pistachio butter by blitzing the toasted pistachios in a food processor until they form fine crumbs. Measure out 50g of the pistachio crumbs and set aside, this will be used in the biscuit dough later. 

Melt 60g of the caramelised white chocolate, then add to the blitzed pistachios. Keep blitzing until the pistachios form a paste (this will take around 10 minutes, depending on your food processor). Scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl now and then to ensure everything is processing evenly. Once done the pistachio butter will be smooth and creamy, and the texture will seem light and soft. Place the pistachio butter in a bowl or container and leave in the fridge until it has chilled and firmed up (at least 1 hour, but you can do this step in advance and leave overnight).

To make the biscuit dough, place the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, milk and egg in a large mixing bowl, and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, the 50g pistachio crumbs you set aside earlier, and the baking powder. 

Roughly chop the remaining caramelised white chocolate (100g), until you have small chunks. 

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix with a wooden spoon until almost combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until everything is combined.  

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. 

Once the dough has chilled, divide it into 12 equal portions. 

Take one of the portions and remove about 1/3 of the dough. Press the remaining larger portion of dough into a flatter disc, allowing the sides to curl up like a birds nest. Place a heaped teaspoon of the chilled pistachio butter inside the dough. Bring the sides of the dough up around the butter, then place the remaining 1/3 of dough over the top of the pistachio butter filled biscuit and smooth out so there are no gaps. Gently roll the filled biscuit between your hands so it is a nice round shape. 

Continue with each of the portions of dough so you have 12 pistachio butter filled individual dough balls. You should use most if not all of the pistachio butter across the 12 biscuits. 

Place the dough balls on a lined tray or in a container (or similar), cover, and place in the fridge for 3 hours (or overnight). 

When ready to bake the biscuits, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Ensure you have two large baking trays lined and ready. 

Spread the dough biscuit balls out over the prepared trays leaving enough room around the biscuits as they will spread. Sprinkle with the slivered pistachios, pushing them into the dough a bit.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until they are gently golden in colour. Rotate the trays in the oven at least once during the cooking time so the biscuits cook more evenly. If you can’t bake the biscuits all at once leave the dough balls in the fridge until you have oven space.

Allow to cool on the trays for 10 minutes before eating. 

Makes 12 large biscuits.

These cookies are a more cake-y style cookie, so they are the absolute best the day they are baked. You can store them in an airtight container or jar, however they will have a slightly softer texture than when they were first baked. You can refresh them a bit by putting them in the oven for 5-8 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.

Strawberries and Cream Rocky Road

I really enjoy a good white chocolate rocky road, so when the idea came to me for a strawberries and cream version I knew I had to make it ASAP. The strawberry element comes from homemade strawberry marshmallows (made using fresh strawberries) and some freeze dried strawberries too. The cream element comes from the white chocolate,

I have written before that I love marshmallows. I know they can be a divisive thing, people have strong opinions about them. Most of these opinions are formed by the marshmallows found on supermarket shelves. Those marshmallows pale in comparison to homemade ones as are used in this recipe, so please don’t judge them before you try them! Everyone I know who says they don’t like marshmallows has liked these homemade ones, and been very surprised at how different they are to bought ones and how fresh the flavour is (as they are made with fresh fruit not artificial flavourings).

You can make the marshmallows a few days in advance and make the rocky road another day, this recipe can’t be done in one day anyway as the marshmallows need time overnight to set.

You won’t need all the strawberry marshmallows for the rocky road (or you could probably make a double batch of rocky road if you were thinking of using them as gifts), however they are superb on their own, and last around 3 weeks in an airtight container. The marshmallows make wonderful gifts on their own too.

Strawberries & cream Rocky Road

Ingredients for the Marshmallows: 

275g pureed fresh strawberries (the seeds can be strained if you wish, however the total weight still needs to be 275g)

50g gelatine powder

115ml water

820g white/granulated sugar 

320g glucose 

50g potato flour/starch

50g icing sugar (pure or confectioners)

cooking spray

Method: 

Spray a slice tin or lamington tray (at least 30x20cm) with the cooking spray and set aside. A slighly deeper tin will work well for this. If your tin is quite shallow, you may wish to prepare a second smaller tin) or grease some baking paper for any excess marshmallow that doesn’t fit into your main prepared tin.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly mix together the strawberry puree and the gelatine powder. Leave for now, ensuring the whisk attachment is fitted and everything is ready to go once your sugar syrup is ready. 

In a medium/large saucepan place the water, then the sugar, then the glucose. Place over high heat and cook until the syrup reaches 120 degrees Celsius on a candy thermometer.

With the mixer on low, gradually pour the sugar syrup into the strawberry mix. Whisk on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture turns a more opaque colour. The mixture will also start to thicken. Then increase mixer to high speed for about 8 minutes, until the marshmallow has tripled in volume and has thickened. 

Pour marshmallow into the prepared tray, tapping it down on the bench to remove any air bubbles and to ensure it is sitting in the tray evenly. 

Leave to set overnight before cutting (room temperature is best, preferably covered with a food net or cover).

Once the marshmallow is ready to cut, in a small bowl whisk together the potato flour and the icing sugar (sift if necessary). 

Dust some of this mixture onto your clean work surface. Remove the slab of marshmallow from the tin, use a spatula to pull the sides away from the tin and tip it onto the dusted work surface. 

Dust more of the icing sugar mix over the top of the marshmallow slab, and around the sides. Using a large sharp knife, cut into cubes, by cutting the slab into rows, then cutting rows in the other direction. Dust your knife regularly with the icing sugar mix, and continue to dust the marshmallows as they are cut. The size you cut the marshmallows is completely up to you, I like cutting them into larger cubes (as pictured). 

Ensure every part of the cut marshmallows are covered in the potato flour and icing sugar mix. Toss them around on the bench to remove any excess.

Store in an airtight container. The marshmallows will keep for about 3 weeks. 

Ingredients for the Rocky Road:

700g white chocolate - choose one you like to eat (I used Cadbury Dream)

80g flaked or slivered almonds, lightly toasted

20g (approx.) freeze dried strawberries (sliced or roughly chopped whole strawberries)

500g homemade strawberry marshmallows 

Method: 

Line a square baking tin (approx. 22-23cm) with baking paper - I like to use small bulldog clips to hold the paper in place. 

Have all the rocky road elements ready to go next to your prepared tin. 

Melt the chocolate by placing a small pot with a little water on the stove and allow to simmer. Plate another pot or bowl that will comfortably sit over the top of the water pot, on top of the smaller pan, and add the chocolate to this pot/bowl. Gently mix the chocolate until completely melted. 

Pour about a third of the chocolate into the base of the prepared tin and allow it cover the base completely. Scatter in half the marshmallows, and one third of the almonds and freeze dried strawberries. Cover with another third of the chocolate, then place the remaining marshmallows and another third of the almonds and freeze dried strawberries. Cover with the remaining chocolate, and scatter over the remaining almonds and freeze dried strawberries.

Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set (especially if you are working in warm or humid conditions), however you can prepare this in advance and cut the next day.

Once set use a large sharp knife to cut the rocky road into desired sizes. 

I prefer to keep the rocky road in the fridge. Keeps for about 2-3 weeks. 

Makes 8 generous blocks of rocky road. 

Macadamia and Davidson Plum Melting Moments

I love a good melting moment. They are a classic Australian sandwich biscuit (or cookie if you are outside of Australia), and paired with macadamia and Davidson Plum they just end up being a little more Australian for it.

Davidson Plum is an native Australian fruit, purple like many plum varieties, however not technically part of the plum family. Often called ooray by Indigenous Australians, this fruit was traditionally eaten raw and used for medicinal purposes. Now it is often found in freeze dried powder form.

The freeze dried powder gives an intense purple colour, though quite a mild flavour when used in smaller quantities (such as this recipe). Davidson Plum is quite sour, so if you want to increase the quantities in the icing, just keep that in mind and taste and you go.

If you don’t have access to freeze dried Davidson Plum powder, you can substitute with freeze dried blackberry or raspberry powder.

Macadamia and Davidson Plum Melting Moments

Ingredients:   

65g macadamias                                    

300g unsalted butter, softened

120g icing sugar/mixture

450g plain flour

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar/mixture

2 tsp Davidson Plum powder

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

Place the macadamias on one of the prepared trays, and toast in the oven for about 5-7 minutes, or until the macadamias are lightly golden.

Allow the macadamias to cool, then chop roughly into small pieces. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.

Add the flour and chopped macadamias to the creamed butter, and mix on low speed until a dough forms (cover your mixer with a tea towel to avoid the flour going everywhere). 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each). Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure a even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. Then add the Davidson Plum powder and mix until combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together. 

Cookbooks Worth Waiting for in 2024 Part 2

This round of cookbooks worth waiting for was hard to choose. I don’t quite feel the same level of enthusiasm for the cookbooks due to be released in the second half of the year as I did in the first half - maybe the demise of Booktopia has something to do with it and having one less place to buy them from. 

There are also a few books being released later this year (not included in the list below), that I would really like to have a look through in person - so they don’t fit the ‘worth waiting for’ criteria as I would actually like to wait and see what they are like! They are titles from authors I have cookbooks from already, and I’m not 100% convinced their new title will add value to my cookbook collection. This feeling is based on their previous works, and a wonder about whether I need too many more cookbooks on one particular topic (and from the same authors). 

I think a few trips to book shops will be in my future to work out my feelings on some of the other new releases coming soon (what a hardship haha!), but for now, let’s get to those cookbooks I think will be worth waiting for!

Let me know in the comments what your top picks for the rest of the year are!

Ottolenghi Comfort by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (September 2024) - I generally look forward to all of the Ottolenghi groups books, though I have to say I am excited about this one as I enjoy Helen Goh’s recipes and use of flavour so I’m thinking this book may just be really good. No Ottolenghi cookbook has surpassed Simple (published in 2018) for me, and I can’t say I use the last three or so releases (Flavour, and the two Test Kitchen books) as much as I do Simple and those published before it. So while I know that this new title may not surpass Simple for me, I’m willing to give it a go since this book is touted as comfort food Ottolenghi style. And that sounds very good to me!

Sofra by Karima Hazim Chatila and Sivine Tabbouch (September 2024) - I came across this book on social media and was immediately interested in it. A debut cookbook from a mother daughter duo, this book is described as a love letter to Lebanon. It sounds like my kind of book as it will contain recipes, but also stories about the food and the authors connection to Lebanon and its cuisine. 

Bake with Brooki by Brooke Bellamy (October 2024) - After being sent some of the Brooki Bakery cookies by a friend last year, I am keen to see what this cookbook will be like. Baking books like this one feels like aren’t always my style - is the social media hype of the successful bakery in Brisbane going to translate well in cookbook form? I have found cookbooks that stem from social media success a bit lacking in the past. Despite being at a point where I’m not sure how many more baking books I need, I am interested to see how this one pans out and whether the cookbook can provide substance to the hectic social media and bakery pace owner Brooke seems to be riding. 

Karkalla At Home by Mindy Woods (September 2024) - The beautiful design of this cookbooks cover caught my eye first, and then the subtitle (‘Native foods and everyday recipes for connecting to Country) and description kept my interest going. Author Mindy Woods is a restauranteur, and brings her deep knowledge to this cookbook by sharing stories and profiles of our continents most readily available native ingredients. I love that this cookbook is described as a ‘please-use-me- cookbook’ (I suppose the hope of all cookbook authors!), and promises to bring native foods into our kitchen. 

Cookbooks Worth Waiting for in 2024 Part 1 - A Recap

Now the wait is over for all the books on my last cookbooks worth waiting for list, it’s time to let you know what they are like, and where they worth waiting for?! (Yes).

You can check out the original Cookbooks Worth Waiting For list for these books here.

What Can I Bring? by Sophie Hansen (Murdoch Books)* - As I mentioned previously, my family loves all of Sophie’s books (we even have duplicate copies of them so no sharing is necessary!). What Can I Bring? has the same use of seasonal ingredients and unfussy easeful recipes that I have come to expect from her books, but with the added bonus of recipes from others which adds more variety to the mix here. I have made the Strawberry Jam Crumble Slice (p.55) (with rhubarb jam, another of Sophie’s recipes from a previous book!), which was really nice and writing this reminds me that I do really need to make it again. My Mum made the Really, Really Good Roast Chicken with Orange and Bay (p.102), and confirmed yes it is, really, really good!

I love the bright colourful design of the book, and Sophie’s photography always makes me want to join in on whatever is happening in the scene (mostly eat the food!). This is the third cookbook (or fourth if you count Around the Kitchen Table co-written with her mum Annie Herron), that revolves around the theme of feeding people and sharing food with others. I think it’s something Sophie clearly does very well, however I find myself keen to see something a bit different if there is another cookbook in our future from Sophie (and hopefully there is!). Maybe a book purely dedicated to baking, or even something inspired by the podcast Sophie co-hosts with Germaine Leece, Something to Eat and Something to Read. Either way, I love all Sophie puts out into the world and her recipes and work remain firm favourites in this household. 

Beatrix Bakes Another Slice by Natalie Paull (Hardie Grant)* - Another joyful cookbook from Natalie Paull of former much loved Melbourne bakery Beatrix! While my hope of a few more simple bakes would be included in this second instalment of Beatrix Bakes (and of course this opinion is tempered with the fact that what you consider simple bakes may differ from mine!), there are a few more biscuit recipes than last time - I have tried the Macadamia and White Chocolate Chonky Chip Cookies (p.49) and they are very good (and very massive!). This book is definitely a ‘baking projects’ kind of baking book (there is even a chapter called ‘Day-off Baking Projects’). However if baking projects are your thing, or you like a nice selection of more involved things to make for when the occasion calls for it (again a very subjective thing!), this and Natalie’s first book are for you. 

Natalie has a way of explaining even the most complex baking techniques in a way that make you feel she is in the kitchen with you, gently supporting you through. The advisory sections throughout the book are well worth reading to help you get the ultimate outcome for all your baking efforts (and learn lots too!), along with the specific tips on each recipe on how to change things up. I also love a cookbook that utilises cute illustrations and lovely photography to give the book an inviting and interesting feel, that is also useful to the reader or potential baker - which Beatrix Bakes Another Slice has in spades (or should I say in slices!?). My next bake from this book will either be the Triple Ginger Gingerbread Hoops (p.57), which are something I remember buying and enjoying from Beatrix on my one visit there in 2019, or the Jammy Crumble Crostata (p.129)

Bethlehem by Fadi Kattan (Hardie Grant) - As I mentioned on the original list for this lot of cookbooks, I knew Bethlehem would be a cookbook I would be interested in. I was not wrong, and it is probably one of the most interesting cookbooks I have added to my collection in a little while. Fadi really takes the reader on a tour of Bethlehem, where we share in memories of Fadi’s family, and meet many people along the way who are part of the food culture of Bethlehem today. The location photography in particular is really fantastic in this book, as are the portraits of those Bethlehem natives who Fadi profiles in this book. Their stories are captivating and it really adds to the story of Bethlehem that Fadi is telling through food to highlight these people, like Um Nabil whom Fadi affectionately dubs the ‘Queen of Herbs’.

The impact of colonisation and the Israeli occupation are weaved through the story of Bethlehem, their impacts cannot be ignored. The diverting of water ways into settler communities away from their natural course, has changed the landscape and what can grow there. Fadi explains for example what his childhood memories of Jericho were and the types of herbs that grew there and the date tree farms. Now Fadi laments the loss of these things, and the displacement of the Bedouin population who had settled in this area, due to the encroaching Israeli settlements and the diverting of water to those settlements.  

For all the hardship, and there has been generations of this as those of us in the West are finally catching up with, Fadi and those he profiles in his book are proud to be Palestinian, and from Bethlehem. They are connected to their land and culture through the food they grow and cook, and how this food connects them as people and how it is used to celebrate holidays and mark everyday rituals. The recipes Fadi shares are separated by the seasons, and there is much to choose from. There are recipes like Falafel (p.220) and Shawarma (p.126) which you may expect to see from many cookbooks from the Middle East. However there are surprises (to me anyway, only having two other books dedicated to Palestinian food I am clearly still learning) such as Dibs and Tahina Shortbread (p.113) (dibs is grape molasses of which I have a jar and now with this book have quite a few recipes I could use it for!), Quince Jam (p.168), Poached Peaches in Pomegranate Juice (p.171) and Teta Julia’s Christmas Cake (p.230). 

Greekish by Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury Publishing)- Georgina’s cookbooks are pure joy and this one is no different. The recipes shared in Greek-ish are Georgina’s take on traditional Greek recipes made a bit simpler for everyday cooking and eating. Unlike Georgina’s previous books which have drawn from her Greek Cypriot heritage and family more directly, this book uses this as its inspiration to create recipes that are shaped by Georgina’s “busy family life”. She has simplified some much loved Greek favourites, and utilised traditional Greek ingredients to ensure flavour and ease at the same time. Much to my approval, there is a large use of both feta and halloumi in this book (see page 62!) so I’m assuming that will be a big win for any cheese loving people out there. There is even a biscuit recipe containing feta cheese for those that need this delicious Greek staple in almost every meal (p.232). 

Recipes like Filo-Wrapped Feta with Spiced Honey (p.64), Beetroot and Dill Tzatziki with Fried Capers (p74), One-Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice (p.114) and Sticky Date and Tahini Aubergine (p.189) are top of my to cook list from Greekish (though I have marked many more recipes with sticky notes!). All the recipes have notes if they are vegetarian, dairy free or gluten free, and I think there is a nice selection of recipes to cater for meat eaters, vegetarians and everyone in between (for very excellent vegan recipes check out Georgina’s book Nistisima). 

I’ll Bring Dessert by Benjamina Ebuehi (Hardie Grant Quadrille)- If you have either of Benjamina’s previous books, you will be familiar with her distinctive use of flavour and ability to create recipes that stand out from the sea of baking books out there. I think this book is no different, but rather than a focus on cakes and baked goods the focus has every so slightly shifted to desserts (which thankfully (for me) still includes some cakes!). With this cookbook, Benjamina is hoping to assist all of us in becoming dessert people, the people who when asked to bring something to a gathering, will echo the name of the book and say ‘I’ll bring dessert’. Some of us may need little assistance in becoming dessert people in terms of eating, but new recipes ideas are always welcome when it comes to actually cooking dessert. As with Benjamina’s previous two books, the recipes are divided up into flavour profiles (e.g. something fruity, something creamy, something nutty etc), which I personally really like and find useful. 

The photography is also a real stand out in this cookbook, it is simple yet inviting and the lighting of each photograph feels just right. There are make ahead suggestions for each recipe, and the variety of desserts is so varied you will no doubt find something to suit what you might be looking for. I would really like to make the Rhubarb Meringue Cake (p.29-30) and the Poached Quince and Custard Crumble Cake (p.48-9), however those temped to stray past having cake for dessert will find all sorts of pies, crumbles, tarts and puddings (and lots more). 

I think for me, in terms of looking at I’ll Bring Dessert and Benjamina’s previous two books, I only prefer the previous two (A New Way to Cake and A Good Day to Bake), as I am more a cake/baking person than a dessert person and am more than happy to have cake for any meal of the day including dessert. 

*These books were gifted to me by their respective publishers. Murdoch Books was gifted with the understanding a review would be written, Hardie Grant was not. All opinions expressed are my own, and to be honest I would have purchased these books myself if they had not been gifted to me. Links to all books are just for your reference. Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.