Tammy Donroe Inman - New England Desserts: Classic and Creative Recipes for All Seasons

Born in Maine, bred in New Hampshire, and a Massachusetts resident for more than 30 years, Tammy Donroe Inman is a New England writer, trained chef, and Boston-based cooking instructor. Her first book, Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home, has been praised by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Edible Boston, and The Kitchn. After earning her chops in the test kitchen of Cooks Illustrated magazine and the television show Americas Test Kitchen, she spent nearly 20 years writing about food and developing recipes for Fine Cooking, Parents, Yankee, the Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Cape Cod Life, and Serious Eats. She taught hands-on cooking classes for adults and children at the Newton cooking school Create a Cook for 5 years. Inman has been interviewed by NPRs All Things Considered, CBS Evening News, and The Atlantic about her perspective on food. She was also the force behind the beloved blog Food on the Food. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, younger son (the eldest has flown the coop!), and two high-maintenance cats. To learn more, visit tammydonroe.com.

This book was a true labor of love, and many members of the community helped make it possible. First, my heartfelt thanks to my agent Amaryah Orenstein of GO Literary for championing this project and gracing my professional life with her enthusiasm and energy. I was delighted to work with Amy Lyons and the entire talented team at Globe Pequot knowing their long history of publishing books of regional interest. Im thrilled with the result.

Thanks to my family for their support and good humor during this process, which involved turning the dining room into a photo studio and cramming the refrigerator, freezer, and all available kitchen surfaces full of baked goods, some highly questionable. Shout-outs to my teen sons: Nathaniel (chief chocolate consultant and brutal truthteller) and Max (for his super-taster skills and morale-boosting Spotify playlists). Special thanks to my husband, Rich, for washing untold numbers of dishes and putting up with my constant talk to the hand gestures.

Other folks Id like to thank individually:

Carolyn, Bob, and Owen Manchek, my most called upon taste-testers, who have seen the frightening extremes of my baking habit and still live to tell the tale. And also for letting me raid their cabinets for ceramics, dishtowels, placemats, napkins, and random ingredients in a furious panic. The big bin of quilting fabric was the cherry on top.

Amy DiMatteo and Erin Jensen for recipe ideas, pandemic porch-based brainstorming, and tough love sessions. (Turnip cake? That sounds disgusting.)

My sister, Trish Michael, who encouraged me to give this photography thing a try despite all evidence that it would be a complete disaster.

Eva Kosmas Flores and Bea Lubas, whose photography and food-styling classes made all the difference.

Hollis Schachner, for her beautiful handmade ceramics that grace many pages of this book.

Cathy Meyer for the old dog-chewed table that has become my favorite shooting surface. Susanna Baird, Betsy Ellor, and the entire Carrot Cake writers group in Salem for their support in all sorts of writing endeavors.

Erin Puranananda, Leslie Routman, Shona Simkin, and Juliet Harrison for their steadfast friendship over the years.

Sonia Pacheco for help with immigration research.

Tony Russo and the entire staff at the now former Russo's in Watertown, Massachusetts. There's a hole in my food-loving heart.

A huge thanks to my army of volunteer recipe-testers in New England and beyond (including a sizable Canadian contingent, one Aussie, and a gaggle of good-natured high school and middle school students). They include Amy Ayers; Carey A. Bates; Christine Bergsma; Katie Brossa; Adrienne Bruno; Katherine Candib; Don Chase; Tammy Schuetz Cook; Amy and Kristian DiMatteo; Kristen DiRocco; Katherine Elizabeth; Sarah Fitzpatrick; Nan Fornal; Tara R. Greco; Mimi Gross; Amy Viens Hutchinson; Sarah and Remy Jang; Erin and Jane Jensen; Kate Kendall and Dave and Claire Akeson; Karen Kirsten; Sandra Kogan; Michele Kosboth; Sarah and Simon Lewis; Jessica and Claire Mailman; Carolyn Manchek; Linda and Liam Manning; Maria May-Mardikis; Kristen and Peter Marriott; Cindy, Eliza, and Xander Martini; Rebecca Oja; Julie Peterson; Erin Puranananda; Jodi Riehl Ross; Amy Rothman; Hollis Schachner and Liat Stock; Rachel and Paige Seremeth; Shona Simkin; Marika St. Amand; Bronwen Tate; Erin and James Taylor; Lori and Mason Wiesner; Celeste Woodside; and Eileen Wozek.

Finally, Id like to thank all the family and community-oriented farms and makers throughout New England. They include but are not limited to Carver Hill Orchard, Waltham Fields Community Farm, Drumlin Farm, Land's Sake Farm, Spring Brook Farm, Brigham Farm, Winter Moon Roots, Red Fire Farm, Codman Farm, and Chestnut Farms. Without them, we wouldnt eat nearly as well.

S pring is a time of unbridled excitement in New England. Only after the long, cold winter can you truly appreciate the first signs of spring: crocuses peeking out of the snow, the first robin, a sudden, unexpected warm spell. Its a slow start, to be sure. First comes the wind. Then the rain (and maybe also snow, just to keep you guessing). Then, out of a thick and luxurious mud, the greening of the landscape begins. Trees bud and unfurl their leaves, apple and cherry trees blossom, fat tulips defy gravity on their slender stems. Around here, the white-throated sparrow, with its high-pitched Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody reminds me to start planting my garden. My sons and I head out to the woods with boots and binoculars in search of migrating birds, salamanders, and rare mushrooms.

Even before the calendar turns to spring, when those first warming days bump up against cold winter nights, the first trickle of maple sap signals springs stealthy approach. The change in pressure causes the sugar-rich sap in the trees to move from the roots to the tips of their branches during the day, stimulating leaf growth, then back down to the roots again at night. February through April, depending on the latitude and elevation, youre likely to find maple trees all over New England sporting metal buckets and spiles for collecting maple sap. This sap is collected, boiled down, and bottled, often in sugar shacks, tiny cabins billowing telltale steam across the landscape.

By the time spring arrives in earnest, the seasonal larder is nearly bare. Weve had our fill of heavy winter food, but local strawberries are still weeks, if not months away. This is when local bakers get creative, making good use of the regions farm-fresh eggs, rich cream, fresh butter, and hearty whole grains, like oats, cornmeal, buckwheat, and barley. April showers plant the seeds of summer in our minds. Come May and June, we nearly burst with anticipation as rhubarbs green stalks emerge, blushing pink to crimson, and the first early strawberries whet our appetite for summers bounty.

Spring-dug parsnipsthick, straw-colored taproots similar to carrotsare one of the earliest pleasures of springtime. Farmers will often leave part of their fall harvest in the ground to overwinter, which concentrates the sugars, yielding an even sweeter flavor. You might not think of the humble parsnip as the basis for dessert, but consider how much we love carrots in cakeparsnips are just as good. If youre lucky, youll stumble upon a stall with spring-dug parsnips at the seasons earliest farmers markets, and then you can try them in the Maple Brown Butter Parsnip Cake (page 21).