A Delicious Win

I recently had the absolute pleasure of winning this scrumptious cookbook, or should I say - 'bakebook'...from the lovely Kathleen over at Purple Flowers, who's sister-in-law Emily Luchetti (love that name) was the authoress, along with her 'baker in crime' Lisa Weiss. Emily is the executive pastry chef at Farallon & Waterbar restaurants in San Francisco...Lisa is a food writer and stylist.
This is my third bloggy-giveaway win and I am beyond thrilled..and not just a little bit surprised as my past history with contests and the like does not have the best reputation....so happy that I am now developing a much better track record in this department!

The book is so clever, delightfully illustrated, and chock full of recipes that will have me baking up a storm and hopefully, developing some new, mad (and fearless) baking skills...
such as mastering the art of *Dessert Sauces*!
I've never made Chocolate Sauce or Caramel Sauce from scratch and I think it would be lovely to learn how to do so as Mr. 24 has ice cream every single night no matter what and I can just see these two sauces being added to the nightly routine (somehow...he has managed to do this for years without gaining a single pound...totally unfair and something I think science needs to take a closer look at!).

The name of the book "The Fearless Baker" was created when Emily kept hearing how 'fearful' many of her family and friends were in the baking department. She had the brilliant idea of turning them into 'fearless bakers' by baking along side of them whilst Lisa recorded their conversations. This resulted in the little talk bubbles that grace almost every recipe and are full of the same kind of questions and thoughts you or I might have when making for example the Lemon Creme Brulee below (who wouldn't have questions while making that?!).

"Can you put the custards under the broiler? Seems like that would be easier." Good one!
Answer: "Some people do but you have less control over the browning of the sugar, and if you leave them in to long it can curdle the custard." - So smart!

And..."How far ahead can you brown the sugar?"...Great question!
Answer: "About thirty minutes. I like to do it right before I'm ready to serve them and sometimes get my guests to help me. Just make sure they haven't had to many drinks with dinner." Good point!

There are also all sorts of mouth watering fruit desserts to choose from and since we are headed into most abundant time of year for luscious fruits, I am very much looking forward to trying some of these...the first being...

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie! This time of year I always make tons of regular Rhubarb Pie but I've never made a strawberry rhubarb...and it's about time I did!

Look at the cute lattice crust illustrations...I'm going to give this a go as well. Normally I just smush my crust on as best as I can...time to get fancy!

Love this teetering tower of muffins that help to usher you into the "Breakfast" chapter....oh yes! Apple Muffins, Blueberry Streusel Muffins, Raspberry Corn Muffins, Golden Raisin-Lime Scones, and my all time favorite, Maple-Oatmeal Scones, which I've made before and I'm very curious to try Emily's version...the more varieties the merrier if you ask me!

So a very big thank you to Kathleen, for the opportunity to win this wonderful new addition to my cookbook collection, and a huge thank you to Emily for creating it in the first place....I'm thrilled that you will be rooting me on with your "be fearless" message every step of the way in all of the baking endeavors I'm going to attempt from your truly inspiring book...it will be just as if you are in the kitchen with me...and how cool is that?!!