Fallen in Love With...Friday (finally)

This edition of Fallen in Love With...Friday comes with a sheepish grin since it's actually Saturday night. This week I thought I would share some of the cookbooks that have enchanted me over the past week. These tomes that I have recently acquired from the local library to peruse at my leisure and cook from for my pleasure have had me salivating in my dreams over new baking cuisines, confronting my baking fears, and running out of sticky notes trying to mark every page I want to try!
Let's line up the suspects:

New cuisine: 'Turkish Bakery Delight' by Deniz Gokturk Akcakanat.
I must admit I had never considered Turkish cuisine as a future baking frontier but Limonlu Mereng (lemon meringue cookies), Aycekirdekli Susamli Ekmek (sunflower and sesame seed bread), and Pogaca (breakfast buns with ricotta) have me taking a gastronomic baking journey across the Mediterranean. I can't wait to dive in!

Confronting my fears: 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day' by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.
I admit it. Some parts of baking scare me, especially bread and pastry. I don't think that I am alone in my fears that somehow the flour will turn against me and leave me with soggy, crumbly, or parched baked goods that even the crows don't see fit for consumption. So I have decided that the only reasonable way to allay these fears is to confront them. Even though bread is not chickpea friendly I yearn to be able to make yeast my baking ally; to use it at my will to leaven bread, give brioche bounce and create crumpets worthy of Elizabeth David. So I borrowed this book hoping that the former physician (Hertzberg) and Culinary Institute of America trained pastry chef (Francois) could impart some yeasty wisdom onto this challah challenged chickpea. As I write this post my dough is resting in the refrigerator in preparation for tomorrow morning's breakfast and I can't wait to slide my first loaf into the oven and await the smell of a golden loaf wafting through the house to wake up my family.

Running out of sticky notes: 'Savory Baking' by Mary Cech.
I marked nearly every page in this book, and so I decided that it would be far easier to buy the book than keep persuading the library to let me borrow it out a million times in succession until I had baked my fill. Sweet baked goods have always held my heart but I am ready for a casual relationship with its savoury cousin. Who can blame me when such tempting goods as scones stuffed with caramelized red onions and brie (page 34) or sesame eclairs with honey-soy asparagus (page 113) are on offer? First on my list though is the pumpkin-hazelnut spice loaf (page 46) perfect for a midwinter morning tea!

Now I think it's time for me to get back in the kitchen!