Wild Sugar: Sweet Treats Inspired by the Mountain West

(Hardback)

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Description

This beautifully photographed dessert cookbook is loaded with seasonal recipes that look aspirational but are made achievable with detailed directions and how-to tips and hints to make stunning cookies, pies, cakes, and other sweets.

Lindsey Johnson, along with Chase Reynolds Ewald, often find their cooking and baking muse from life in the West. Flavor profiles, ingredients, and artistic decorating ideas are all sparked by the romantic and rustic western mountains. In Wild Sugar: Sweet Treats Inspired by the Mountain West, Johnson teaches you how to create amazing desserts via more than 50 recipes plus additional frostings, fillings, and toppings that are based on seasonal ingredients. These recipes are designed for the home baker, and her detailed instructions along with decorating tips and hints, will have you serving showcase cookies, pies, cakes, and sweets in no time.

While some of the recipes are for special occasions, many are easy to make. Give the Vanilla Shortbread Cookies with Pressed Flowers a try or the Mint Chip Cupcakes. If you are feeling fancy or having a party, the Blackberry Buttermilk Pie with Vanilla Whipped Cream or the Apple Spiced Cake Layered with White Chocolate Ganache and Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting might do the trick.

Johnsons stories and adventures in Wyoming bring additional fun to the cookbook with tales of Christmas tree hunting gone wrong, farm animal antics, huckleberry picking, and baking with kids. She also provides table setting and serving ideas using repurposed items and help from nature.

Reviews

After moving from California to Wyoming with her family, interior designer Johnson discovered a new creative outlet in baking, ultimately leading to a thriving business and a reputation for creating buzzworthy artisanal wedding cakes. Inspired by the beauty of the American West, Johnson now wants to share her new culinary passion with home bakers through an array of more than 50 sweet treats in this book coauthored by Chase Reynolds Ewald. Arranged seasonally, the recipes include everything from old favorites like snickerdoodles to hummingbird cake frosted in spiced-rum buttercream, with Johnson frequently putting her own spin on things; see her transformation of classic lemon bars into lemon-rhubarb poppy seed squares. Given her baking origins, it isn't surprising there is a special emphasis on cakes and how to gussy them up. Basic techniques and tools are covered as well as some tips on high-altitude baking and a sprinkling of essays on topics near and dear to Johnson's heart. VERDICT Bakers with some experience in the kitchen, especially fans of the Pioneer Woman brand of cookbooks, will find both culinary and philosophical inspiration in this sweet debut.--John Charles "Library Journal" (2/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Author Bio

Lindsey Johnson is an artist, interior designer, content creator, baker, photographer, and foodie. Shes also the mother of three boys and the keeper of chickens, pigs, goats, a dog, and a gentle Jersey cow named Trouble.

From her childhood in Southern California to her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Interior Design Institute in Newport Beach, California, Lindsey has been a lifelong student of the arts. She designed interiors in custom residential homes in Newport and Laguna Beach for a decade before she and her husband decided to relocate their young family to Wyoming. There, Lindsey nurtured her passion for baking by pursuing a professional career in artisan cakes, confections, food styling, and photography. Known for her inventive wedding cakes and artful baked goods, Lindsey is inspired by a wide range of influences including travel, books, and the mountains, wildlife, and wildflowers in the corner of the West she calls home. She lives with her husband and three boys on a 20-acre ranch in Freedom, Wyoming.

Chase Reynolds Ewalds career encompasses sixteen books, two Western Design Conference Sourcebooks, and hundreds of magazine articles. A graduate of Yale and U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, she is a writer and editor who helps clients craft their stories. Her most recent release is Design Mixology: The Interiors of Tineke Triggs, co-written with Heather Sandy Hebert. Other titles include At Home in the Wine Country, By Western Hands: Functional Art from the Heart of the West and Rancho Sisquoc: Enduring Legacy on an Historic Land Grant Ranch. Chase wrote Cabin Style, Rustic Modern, American Rustic, New Western Cuisine and the multi-award-winning Bison: Portrait of an Icon in collaboration with photographer Audrey Hall. An enthusiastic cook and road-tripper around the West, Chase lives in northern California with her husband, Charles, and their four daughters.