Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland

(Hardback)

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Description

America's heartland, its Midwestern states, can lay claim not only to hot dish casseroles and amber fields of grain, but also to a hearty dessert tradition brought over with a rich immigrant heritage. German, Scandinavian, Polish, French, and Italian families baked their way to the American Midwest, instilling in it pies, breads, cookies and pastries that manage to feel distinctly American.

Author Shauna Sever began her culinary career in sunny Los Angeles before leaving her flip-flops behind, and resettling her family in her home state of Illinois. As she stretched her wings in her new Midwestern kitchen, she developed what she calls the 5 tenets of Midwest baking: Bake Big, Bake Easy, Bake with Purpose, Bake from the Past, Bake in the Present. Artisan profiles and interviews round out 100 recipes: Rhubarb Swedish Flop, Streuselkuchen, Secret-Ingredient Cherry Slab Pie, Apple Dapple Cake, Scotch-a-Roos and more, custom-designed to make any kitchen feel like a Midwestern home.

Reviews

Midwest Made is a stunning ode to everything that's great about baked goods of this region: they're cozy and crave-worthy, and tied to generations-old recipes that are perfect for making during a snowstorm. Shauna has packed so much soul and deliciousness into this book that you'll have no choice but to start creaming the butter and sugar immediately.---Molly Yeh, author of Molly on the Range and host of Girl Meets Farm
Baker Sever (Pure Vanilla) highlights more than 125 sweet and savory Midwestern dishes in this enticing and homey cookbook. ...Sever delivers hit after hit in a collection that will appeal to bakers of all skill levels.---Publishers Weekly, starred review
I am absolutely in love with Shauna's book. It's filled to the brim with all the simple, sentimental kinds of baked goods that are so much a part of the heartbeat of the midwest. They all belong at family gatherings, on a window sill, at a casual celebration. This is the kind of cookbook that could never just sit on my shelf. It will be covered with flour and smears of butter in no time!--Ree Drummond, best selling authorof The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Longtime blogger, baker, and book author Shauna Sever is also a native Midwestener, and this cookbook pays homage to all the wonderful baked goods of the region, many of which have roots in various immigrant cuisines....You'll be throwing more potlucks just for an excuse to bake these recipes.---Chowhound
Regional baked goods shine in Shauna Sever's Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland... A lot of yum in these pages.---Star Tribune
Sever's newest book [is] grand and gorgeous, --- Louisa Chu, Chicago Tribune
Shauna Sever's deep look at the Midwest through its carbs in Midwest Made took me by actual surprise. Maybe it's that you can feel her connection to this place through stories about kranskakes, kuchens, runzas, and the people who bake them, or maybe it's because it feels like she's right there with you when you read her prose. Whatever the magic is, Shauna and her Midwestern glitter has made me want to BAKE!--Vivian Howard, award-winning host of PBS's AChef's Life and author of Deep Run Roots
The baking traditions of the Midwest are as deep as anywhere I know of. That said, I'd want to eat anything Shauna Sever bakes, no matter where in the world she is.

--Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table

The great baking traditions of Europe have been passed down through immigrant families in the Midwest for generations. Sever is determined to share each and every one of them: from a nutty Slovenian (or Croatian, depending on who you ask) potica to an airy, meringue-filled German schaum torte, there's a dessert here for everyone.---Epicurious
When it comes to her recipes, there's no stopping (and no choosing): coffee caramel monkey bread, Cleveland-style cassata cake, red berries and cream gelatin mold, Swedish limpa, big soft pretzels, State Street brownies (born in 1893 at the Palmer House in Chicago), Dutch letters from Pella, Iowa, and something simply called a pan full of happy. Great color photographs, clear directions that soothe home bakers, and an oven's worth of tips solidify this as a must-read and -have.---Booklist
Don't even open this book unless you're prepared to rush to the kitchen to bake-it's that inspiring. With Sever's new book, we enter a world where home baking is treasured, where recipes are passed down through generations, where bakers, new and seasoned, revel in the bounty of the region, and where there's always something sweet on the kitchen counter. Midwest Made is as warm, generous, and inviting as an Ozark Skillet Cake.--Dorie Greenspan, award-winning author of Everyday Dorie and Dorie's Cookies

Author Bio

Shauna Sever is the author of Pure Vanilla, Marshmallow Madness, and Real Sweet. She is a radio contributor for The Splendid Table, and has appeared on the TODAY Show and Food Network. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Food52, Bon Appetit, The Kitchn, Family Circle, Real Simple, Midwest Living Magazine and many others. She lives with her husband and two children in Chicago.