On My Bookshelf: Sweet

If you haven’t picked up Sweet by Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi, add it to your Amazon wishlist immediately! I was gifted it over the holidays and haven’t stopped baking from it since. I own a lot of cookbooks (seriously, a lot) and this one is definitely one of my favorites.

While I’ve loved growing my cookbook collection over the years, I’ve come to realize that I am starting to lose track of what I have on my bookshelf. I’m thinking a serious organization project is in order. While I’m at it, I should probably re-organize my pantry. I went to ice some cupcakes yesterday and couldn’t find my icing tips. Any of them. How does that even happen?

I wanted to immediately bake everything in Sweet to show you all how amazing it is but I limited myself to just one treat for the sake of today’s blog post.

Have you ever tried Pavlova? I’m a huge fan of meringues so of course I knew I was going to love pavlova. The meringue-based dessert is the perfect combination of textures. Crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside.

Like other desserts that are made of egg whites, a reliable oven is key to a successful pavlova. If you’d asked me two weeks ago if my oven is reliable, I would said ‘of course’! I discovered that the oven in my apartment was from the early nineties. It was basically as old as me. No wonder the temperature varied by almost 100 degrees when I tried to set it. I complained enough and my leasing company replaced it. Now, the new oven temperature only varies by 50 degrees. I guess this is progress?

Despite the temperature challenges I faced, this rolled pavlova was still AMAZING. I swapped the fruits from Ottolenghi’s recipe because I had raspberries and pears on hand and wasn’t ready to commit to another trip to the grocery store. One of the things I’ve learned since moving to a winter climate is that there is no quick errand. Everything is a mission and if I want to go to buy milk or run out for eggs, I need to commit to the exterior layers, get in my car and drive 10 minutes. Rough.

But enough about my temperature challenges and back to this fancy pants dessert. Well, it looks fancy but if you follow the instructions it’s actually pretty simple. Plus the book gives really nice picture instructions in case you’re more of a visual learner.