Gale Gand's Brunch

Stephanie from the The Happy Sorceress and her friend Cath of A Blithe Palate are co-hosting a new edition of Cookbook Spotlight on April 17 with Gale Gand’s new book, Gale Gand’s Brunch!

If you are familiar with this event you may remember from the last few Cookbook Spotlights that food bloggers select recipes from the same cookbook, make the dish, and blog about it. They follow with a round up of everyone's choices and photos. Stephanie contacted me and offered me and a few others a copy of the cookbook. How lucky am I!!!!! This is Gale Gand and this is a new cookbook to try...how could I refuse!!!

"Every weekend is worth celebrating when you can relax over a good brunch," says Gale. She has long made brunch a part of her life because it's the easiest way to gather around the table with family and friends. Gale Gand is a James Bread Award-winning pastry chef and co-owner of the Chicago restaurant Tru. She is the host of "Sweet Dreams" on the American Food Network.

Her new cookbook Gale Gand's Brunch starts with an enticing assortment of drinks such as White Hot Chocolate, Thai Iced Coffee and a Three-Alarm Bloody Mary. In subsequent chapters, Gale hits the sweet and savory high points, from pancakes and doughnuts to onion tarts and cheddar grits. She amps up classics like French toast by using sliced almonds and ciabatta bread and transforms others, so that a bacon-scallion scone, for instance, comes out light and flavorful rather than resembling the usual floury hockey puck. She also mixes things up with less common items such as pretzels, pot stickers and a lemony wheat berry salad. For those who think cooking brunch is a chore you will find this cookbook to be inspiring.

It was hard to choose just one recipe from the book. Sorry but we are not able to reveal the recipe we have chosen. But if recipes such as Torta Rustica, Caramelized Apple Crepes, Goat Cheese Cake with Slow-Cooked Quince, Blackberry Bread Pudding, Ginger Scones with Peaches & Cream, Pear Streusel Coffee Cake, Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts, Panini Finger Sandwiches, Potstickers with Soy Dipping Sauce, Poached Salmon with Cucumber Yogurt, Gooey Camembert in a Box with Cranberry-Black Pepper Compote, Goat Cheese & Chive Hash Browns or Heirloom Tomato Bisque have you salivating you must add Gale's cookbook to your collection.

I chose to make Spiced Apple-Raisin Turnovers which is a combination of sweet and spicy apple butter, applesauce, apples and raisins encased in puff pastry and drizzled with glaze. According to Gale, "Fragrant, spicy apple butter, which you can usually find at the farmers market, farm stands or at gourmet grocery stores year-round, is a quick and easy spiced apple filling for homemade turnovers. Kids can help make these. They will especially enjoy drizzling the icing at the end."

I highly recommend this diverse cookbook the latest in Gale Gands collection.

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