Rosemary Black - The Kids Holiday Baking Book: 150 Favorite Dessert Recipes from Around the World

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Contents

To my mother,

Dorothy Greene Black,

who taught me how to bake and how to live

Acknowledgments

Writing this book was pure joy for me because it involved my favorite activities: spending time with my kids, baking desserts, and eating sweets. It was also an incredible learning experience, as I researched unfamiliar holidays and tested and tasted cakes, pies, and cookies that Id never even known existed. Of course, there were a few snafus along the way that tested my patience! My car that I was still making payments on was stolen, along with my only pair of eyeglasses, which came in handy for reading fine print. Four days later, lightning destroyed the hard drive on my computer and made me thank God that Id backed up my half-finished book on disc. A few short months later, winter storms had me scrambling to rearrange the photo session for the cover. That the book came in right on deadline is due (in part) to my two decades of working as a reporter and editor for a big daily newspaper, where late is a very bad word. The other side was the wonderful family and friends who provided me with everything I needed, from a treasured recipe to a sympathetic ear. Without each and every one, this book wouldnt have been possible. My thanks go to:

Steve Lopez, my wonderful husband, for his unflagging support, computer expertise, and willingness to try each and every dessert in this book (and offer his comments with total honesty!).

My six wonderful children, Miranda, Molly, Karla, Kevin, Kerrie, and Madeline, for being my constant inspiration and source of energy, for testing recipes, and for always loving the desserts Ive made for them through the years.

My precious father, Marcel Black, for his love, wisdom, sense of humor, recipes, and for picking up the slack after the untimely death of my cherished mother, Dorothy Greene Black.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law, Dr. Robert and Marjorie Lopez, for their support, encouragement, and recipes.

My sisters and brothers, Chris Black, Maryellen Albanese, Janie Powers, Peggy Savage, Dorothy Barnes, Nancy Logan, Paul Black, Johnny Black, Barbara Price, and Betsy Black, for their memories and reminiscences, and special thanks to Dorothy Barnes and my sister-in-law, Joanne Black, for their help with the cover photograph, and to my nephew, Scott Black, and my nieces, Lauren and Rebecca Barnes, for appearing on the book cover, along with Kerrie and Madeline. My Aunt Puthie, Uncle Bob, Aunt Ginny, and Uncle Jim, for their memories and recipes.

My agent, Laura Williams, and her colleague, Martha Kaplan, for believing in this project right from the start, and my editor at St. Martins, Marian Lizzi, for her patience and intuitive sense of what this book is about. And the other St. Martins staffers for their help: Julie Mente, Shea Kornblum, Michael Storrings, Milenda Lee, and Jennifer Reeve, and to the illustrator, Durell Godfrey, and the photographer, Anthony Loew.

All my Pleasantville friends who contributed recipes, advice, and testing, in no particular order: Carol Lampert, Shari Applebaum (especially for letting us take photos for the cover in her kitchen), Sanda Krasnansky, Pat Eisemann, Lisa Friedman, Cathy Andreycak, Rosemary Carlough, Cathy Martyn, Sheri Xavier, and Regina Hogan.

My friends and colleagues who contributed recipes and advice, including Mila Andre, New York Daily News staffer and expert on Russian cookery; Nick Malgieri, author of many wonderful baking and Italian cookbooks; Julie Sahni, author of several excellent Indian cookbooks, Vandana Naik, pastry chef at Thom Restaurant, Doreen Novotny, Susan Waksman, Lenore Skenazy of the New York Daily News , Anjali Roye, Melissa Buyum and Zhao Sunny Zeng of the China Institute in Manhattan, and Karima Maloley of Al-Noor School in Brooklyn.

Introduction

A Years Worth of Desserts for Special Occasions

Think back to some of your all-time favorite occasions. Chances are that many of the happiest times you remember center around holidays like Christmas, Chanukah, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. And however you celebrate these special occasions, a big part of the festivities is likely to involve dessert.

Maybe your family always decorates cookies together at Christmas, or you make a special honey cake for Rosh Hashanah. Just the aroma of a freshly baked pumpkin pie conjures up thoughts of a house spilling over with relatives whove gathered for Thanksgiving. And Halloween, the quintessential childrens holiday, means parties, candy apples, popcorn balls, doughnuts, and cider.

Even though every month has at least one holiday that you probably look forward to each year, there are plenty of special occasions that kids in other parts of the world celebrate but that you may never have heard of! For instance, in Mexico, right around when we celebrate Halloween, children celebrate The Day of the Dead ( El da de los Muertos ) by eating a special sweet bread and candied pumpkin. In Italy, children observe St. Josephs Day in March by feasting on delicious fried doughnuts.

On each of these special days, the kids in those countries eat traditional sweets that are lovingly prepared, year in and year out. In much the same way that you eat pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, kids in other countries have particular desserts that they associate with special feast days.

Even on Christmas, kids around the world eat cookies that taste very different from the ones youre used to. In Germany, kids eat pfeffernsse , which are little spicy drop cookies, and in Greece, they love koulouria , which are buttery little twists that are so tender they melt in your mouth. In Cuba, children help make buuelos , which are prepared with a vegetable called yucca and flavored with anise, a spice that tastes something like licorice.

Here in the United States, dessert is our favorite course. We always look forward to a sweet after eating the salad, main dish, and vegetables. Holiday desserts are fun to make and to eat, and I would love to show you how to make traditional cakes and cookies, pies and tarts, candies and custards, and creamy drinks that we enjoy on holidays. My own children (five girls and one boy) often bake desserts with me, and in this book, Ive given recipes for all their favorites and more. While most of the recipes are for baked goods, Ive chosen some that are chilled, or frozen, or that are ready right awayno oven needed!

I hope you enjoy learning about how children in faraway lands as well as right here in the United States celebrate holidays with sweets. I also hope not only that you will make holiday desserts with your family for the special days you celebrate, but that you start some new baking traditions at your house!

Just one more important note before you start cooking: This book isnt aimed only at kids, nor is it written for children of any specific age. Instead, my book is meant for parents and children to read and to use together. Thats because cooking, besides being about good smells, wonderful tastes, and a means to satisfy us when we are hungry, is about being together and sharing a pleasurable activity with those we love. So enjoy, have fun, and lets eat dessert!