A Recipe for Bolder Baking

By Samantha Seneviratne

Raise your desserts to a whole new level of flavor with The New Sugar & Spice, a collection of more than eighty unique, unexpected, and uniformly delicious recipes for spice-centric sweets. Veteran baker Samantha Seneviratne’s recipes will open your eyes to a world of baking possibilities: Her spicy, pepper-flecked Chile-Chocolate Truffles prove that heat and sweet really do go hand-in-hand, and a fresh batch of aromatic, cinnamon-laced Maple Sticky Buns will have the whole family racing into the kitchen.Discover new recipes from around the globe, such as Sri Lankan Love Cake or Swedish-inspired Saffron Currant Braid. Or, give your classic standbys a bold upgrade, such as making Raspberry Shortcakes with zingy Double Ginger Biscuits. Filled with fascinating histories, origin stories, and innovative uses for the world’s most enticing spices—including vanilla, cinnamon, peppercorns, and cardamom —The New Sugar & Spice guarantees that dessert will be the most talked-about part of your meal.

TSG Review

Cool looking book with a simple introduction and each chapter covers a particular spice.

I followed all the recipes exactly as written.

Hot Honeycomb Candy

Makes about 1 pound of candy

The main flavors in this bad boy are honey chocolate and cayenne. I have to admit I may have gone on the high side with the pepper. The recipe gave me an option of how much to put in so I went with the large amount, didn't seem like much, but when I was eating the candy I think the cayenne pepper actually got hotter. If I made it again I would use the 1/8 tsp option instead. Now my fire breathing friends thought it was great and even though it was hot I did too.

Mango Pops

Makes 10

How often do you get to pull a frozen yummy from the freezer and have it be good for your to? Not very often right? Well these pops have refreshing mango-yogurt in it as well as spicy cardamom which has its own health benefits like being an anti-carcinogenic and antidepressant agent to name just a few. Very refreshing after mowing your yard on a hot summer day.

Butter Rum Snack Cake

Makes 16 pieces

Rum cake reminds me of Hawaii every time I try it. This one did too with its light rum infused cake topped with crushed macadamia nuts. However it did have a downside that I think took away from how good this could have been. It was drenched in ginger. I like ginger but this was too much. It used more ginger than I have ever put in a recipe before, both fresh ginger and crystallized. I think it the ginger was cut down to where you could still perceive it but can taste the other flavors I would like it much more.

Strawberry Thyme Semifreddo

Serves 8

Full Recipe

A lot of elbow grease and folding went into this light ice cream like dessert. It uses a custard and whip-cream in hard peaks to get the fluffiness into this pink block of yum. I felt that the thyme got lost in this even though you could see the fresh thyme leaves suspended throughout the semifreddo. Doesn't matter, tasted so strawberry good I loved it. Sliced it like a loaf of bread and served that topped with more candied strawberry slices. Makes a lot but freezes well and lasts for months!

Summary

Ingenious takes on popular treats and deserts. I really liked this book and because these kind of recipes are tended to be shared there is no need to give it low marks because its not made for one person. You make the entire thing then take what you don't want to work or a family dinner. I feel that some of the recipes over did the spice they were highlighting, but I think it's easily fixed on the second go around if you did want to try it again. Well written and easy to follow this recipe book will get your friends and family talking when you show up with one of these dishes.

The New Sugar & Spice