Weeknight Baking

August 19, 2019
Lopez, founder of the baking blog Hummingbird High, delivers a helpful, if somewhat misleading, debut cookbook. While some of the desserts, such as pumpkin spice bread and chocolate chip cookies, can be made on a weeknight, several cakes and pies require several nights of work to pull off (her pumpkin pie recipe is broken down into four days). This multiday process may be convenient for home bakers with busy schedules, but it will disappoint those looking to quickly satisfy their sweet tooth cravings. Still, Lopez provides plenty of helpful tips on topics including ingredient substitutions (“you can use bittersweet and semisweet chocolate interchangeably”) and how to bring ingredients to room temperature quickly (for instance, placing eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes), and offers fun variations on classics, such as peanut butter cup banana bread, cranberry white chocolate oatmeal cookies, and halva blondies (halva is made with tahini or nut butters). Readers on special diets will appreciate a handful of vegan and/or gluten-free desserts, such as vegan chocolate chip almond cookies, Meyer lemon cornmeal torte, and peanut butter pretzel pie. The recipes are on the mark, and this volume of fun and accessible recipes will help beginning bakers work more efficiently, even if over the course of a few weeknights.

August 23, 2019

This debut by Lopez (blogger, Hummingbird High) defines itself by a strict adherence to a theoretically time-saving policy: you will make delicious baked items in 30-minute increments, not counting baking, resting, or refrigeration time. Baking is possible even while working full-time or balancing family care and a social life. In practice this means some recipes are broken out over several days: key lime pie takes three days; sugar cookies take two. This has the effect of making simple recipes seem overly complicated and unmanageable, when the opposite effect was probably intended. Other recent titles, such as Gemma Stafford's Bigger Bolder Baking: A Fearless Approach to Baking Anytime, Anywhere, provide simple recipes for time-crunched bakers. The exhaustive front matter is directed at the baking novice and provides extensive notes regarding cookware, pantry staples, and substitutions. Additional tips are liberally sprinkled throughout. VERDICT An optional purchase presenting straightforward recipes that will appeal to fans of Lopez and those who want advice on how to bake with limited free time.--Rebecca Brody, Westfield State Univ., MA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2019
Lopez, the Hummingbird High blogger whose Instagram boasts triumphant creations like rosewater cookies decorated with edible flowers, gains real-world cred with an early confession that the kind of baking she shares on social media "can only happen on the internet...where we choose to present only the best parts of ourselves." But Lopez bakes after long days working in a highly technical field and is more than able to share her strategies for success. Prep and work time are distinguished, allowing a baker to schedule these 5- to 15-minute chunks of time into busy days. More elaborate recipes are broken into manageable tasks over several days. Lopez writes with a friendly confidence and a dash of self-deprecation (see "single lady chocolate chip cookie," a lone, large cookie that must be gobbled up before completely cool). Special techniques are only mentioned when crucial to success, and few recipes require them. The inclusion of finishing touches and little splurges offers busy bakers small ways of tapping into the thrill of creating elaborate masterpieces in minutes a day.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)