The Gift Guide for the Adventurous Homebaker

Hello and welcome to Newsletter No 10 here on Substack! Thank you for stopping by. Grab a seat if you are interested in recipes as well as tips and tricks to make the most of our increasingly eclectic pantries - and make sure you hit that subscribe button if you don’t want to miss any future posts!

The phrase “time flies” somehow takes on a whole new meaning when you have a little one running around. And so while it still feels like we just brought a newborn home from the hospital here we are about to celebrate Christmas for the second time as a family of 3 (and this time with an energetic toddler around). Admittedly it doesn’t feel particularly Christmassy yet - we have yet to buy (or decorate) a tree, the list of Christmas presents I still need to buy is significantly longer than the presents I have already bought and all I have to show for in terms of Christmas baking is one batch of the Cocoa & Garam Masala Snickerdoodle Cookies I shared the other week. 

So for anyone also still in need of some present inspiration, I thought I would share my gift guide for what I like to think of as the Adventurous Homebaker. Someone who is comfortable with the basics of baking and making desserts but is maybe ready to start branching out - to try new recipes and start experimenting with different techniques and unusual flavour combinations. (And yes, that Adventurous Homebaker might even be yourself - after all, we should not forget to treat ourselves from time to time!) 

Ingredients

Depending on where your Adventurous Homebaker lives, tracking down somewhat unusual spices, condiments etc. - key to lots of delicious (new) flavour combinations - may not be so straightforward. So I can’t think of a much better gift idea for an Adventurous Homemaker than to prepare a hamper / box with lots of interesting pantry ingredients for them to experiment with over the coming years. Here are some suggestions for what to include: 

Spices like Black Cardamom, Black Lime, Licorice Powder, Mahleb, Saffron, Sumac and/or Tonka Beans. 

Condiments like Miso, Orange Blossom Water, Preserved Lemons, Rose Water, Sake or Tahini. 

Teas and Infusions like Cascara (dried coffee cherry husks), Hibiscus, Hojicha, Jasmine and Lapsang Souchong. 

The above will allow for plenty of experimenting - be it to see which fruit goes best with Tonka Beans (my money is on Raspberries or Rhubarb!), to see whether there are any recipes that don’t benefit from a touch of Miso (the jury is still out on that one!), to up your fruit salad game with dustings of Sumac or flavoured syrups made with Jasmine tea for example, or cover every cake and cookie in a shocking pink glaze made with Hibiscus just because!

Tools

Having the right ingredients is one thing, but that only gets you so far if you don’t have the right equipment. Below are some examples of the types of tools I turn to again and again for all my recipe testing (and some that are on my own wishlist). 

We all know that starting with whole spices is better than buying spices pre-ground but finely grinding spices with a mortar & pestle takes some real elbow grease. Having a decent spice grinder is therefore key if you want to make your own spices mixes or simply experiment more with different kinds of spices. Bonus, an electric spice grinder will also turn that Hibiscus I mentioned above into a fine powder in mere seconds so you really can cover your next cake in a neon pink glaze! I just upgraded to the one pictured above from Cuisinart which has a larger capacity than my previous one, and comes with two containers (so if you want to use it to grind coffee, you can use one of the containers solely for that and avoid your coffee tasting of whatever spice is your flavour of the month!). 

By now, Microplanes no longer need an introduction. Ever since discovering them myself they are the kitchen utensil I most gift to others. Microplanes are scarily sharp (and as I can attest, stay scarily sharp for years and years) and are perfect for grating not just parmesan, ginger or garlic, but are also perfect for grating things like nutmeg, tonka beans, long pepper, black limes, etc. These days Microplanes come in different sizes but for me the classic narrow one is still my go-to. 

Dough scrapers - I originally started using different types of dough scrapers (flat plastic ones, both firm and more bendy, plus stainless steel ones) when I started baking sourdough bread. They are handy not just for dividing and shaping dough but especially the slightly bendy plastic ones are also great for cleaning out your mixing bowls. I now use them for all my baking and even cooking - they are also great for cleaning counter tops and cutting boards (and, for those sharing their house with a food throwing toddler are also handy for picking up soft foods like pasta or rice that may have landed on the floor). 

Before you start playing around with caramelised sugar you might not realize not all spatulas are equal. As it turns out, some are heat-resistant, others are … not. And how do you realize that? By watching your spatula slowly melt into the caramel you are making. So do yourself (or your favourite Adventurous Homebaker) a favour and buy a heat-resistant spatula. I don’t have a preferred brand but your best bet are professional kitchen stores like Nisbets for example. 

If you bake (or plan to bake) a lot, investing in some Silpat is really no investment at all. That thing will pay for itself in no time whatsoever. Just use it whenever you would use parchment paper to line a baking sheet - be it to bake cookies, tarts, galettes or buns for example, but for things like making caramels, nut brittles, granola etc. 

A kitchen torch. Now, a kitchen torch is actually on my own list for Santa this year. I am already excited to add a new tool to my repertoire - to torch meringue mainly, but also brulee some sugar - for crème brulée, but maybe also bruléed cookies or buns. 

And once you start experimenting in the kitchen more and more, you need a notebook so you can write down your recipe ideas, tips and tricks discovered along the way, testing (and tasting!) notes etc. (because trust me, you will not remember whether your sumac-macerated strawberries tasted best with the 1 tsp of sumac you added initially or whether it was best after you added another ½ tsp or another whole 1 tsp of sumac). While I’m partial to Moleskine notebooks for my recipe notes, these Stone notebooks are intriguing - water and greaseproof they seem like the perfect present for someone experimenting in the kitchen a lot!

Cookbooks

Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s Sweet - these days Yotam Ottolenghi no longer needs an introduction. Sweet, co-authored with Helen Goh, was Yotam’s first foray into a book focussed on cakes and desserts and it is full of recipes for the kinds of delicious cakes and small bakes (and desserts) you’ll be familiar with if you have been lucky enough to pass by one of his delis in London. 

Greg and Lucy Malouf Suqar (pictured above)- the perfect book to start delving into Middle Eastern or Middle Eastern inspired sweet recipes and figure out how best to work with ingredients like Cardamom, Orange Blossom Water, Pomegranates etc.

Natasha Pickowicz More Than Cake - I think the best way I have seen Natasha Pickowicz be described is as a creative force. An award-winning self-taught pastry chef, recipe developer and activist Natasha really is a force to reckon with. I don’t even know what she is famous for more - her delicious recipes or her ability to organise the most kick-ass fundraisers with all her delicious bakes. Either way, her debut cookbook definitely belongs on your bookshelf - even if you never bake any of her recipes (although you totally should, they are as divine as creative - I mean who comes up with the idea of serving a cake with fried capers?!) her book is a delight and is bound to provide plenty of creative inspiration. 

Alice Medrich Flavour Flours - yes, the title is a bit cringeworthy but this is an excellent compendium of recipes for using lots of different types of flour ranging from buckwheat over sorghum to teff, whole and ancient grain flours as well as nut flours etc. from one of the world’s most famous pastry chefs. 

Last but not least, Niki Segnit Flavour Thesaurus Volumes I and II. Volume I is the book I have gifted the most to friends and family and while both volumes contain some recipes, these books are less about recipes and more about all of Niki’s notes on flavour combinations. They are both so well written I enjoyed reading them front to back like a novel but also love dipping in and out of them from time to time when looking for more ideas. And as fantastic as Volume I already was, Volume II is possibly even better!