It’s very possible that only Samantha Seneviratne could have written this book. She grew up in Connecticut to parents from Sri Lanka, but she often traveled to that native land to cook and even pick spices with her grandmother. A foodie by birth and by training and by career, she graduated from the Institute for Culinary Education and worked as a food editor in major publications: Good Housekeeping, Fine Cooking, and Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food.
With all that experience and evolving skills, her intrigue with the spices and cuisine of Sri Lanka never lagged. And, living in sugar-rich America, she developed a concern: we do eat too much sugar and sugar is a poor flavor substitute for the richness of those very spices that have triggered the creation of empires and transition of cuisines. The spice trade was important for two reasons: money and flavor. Today, the money is less important. The flavor remains key.
The New Sugar & Spice has a key subtitle: A Recipe for Bolder Baking. Here the idea is simple. Less sugar, more spice. Better flavors. And healthier. It’s a positive tradeoff that has to be explored. And you’ll be instantly tempted to explore as your turn the pages of this book. Here you discover chapters devoted to the dominant spices Samantha considers:
- Peppercorn and Chile [yes, in a baking book, trust her]
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Clove & Cardamom
- Vanilla
- Ginger
- Savory Herbs and Spices
What treats are in store for you here? Let me give you a baker’s dozen of the recipes:
Sweet Fig and Black Pepper Scones
Salt and Pepper Caramel Brownies
Cinnamon, Hazelnut and Date Buns
Ricotta Cheesecake with Bourbon-Raisin Jam
Indonesian Spiced Layer Cake [heavy with cinnamon]
Concord Grape Streusel Cake
Orange-Clove Pull-Apart Cake
Orange and Honey Baklava
Cardamom Cream-Filled Sugar Doughnuts
Apricot Raspberry Cobbler with Hazelnut Biscuits
Pavlova with Lime Custard and Basil Pineapple
Gingerbread Pancakes
Big Chewy Apricot and Ginger Cookies
Apple Danish with Caraway Cream
Blackberry-Lavender Clafoutis
Oh you counted? I said a baker’s dozen and there are fifteen ideas here, fifteen very sophisticated ideas. That’s the only problem with The New Sugar and Spice: once you start with this book, you won’t stop.
With her extensive education and experience, you’ll find the recipes here are, as I say, sophisticated. There is a real and quite successful attempt to present ideas that are lovely extensions to classic desserts, like that Pavlova with Lime Custard and Basil Pineapple.
These are low sugar recipes, but sugar is not absent. Samantha is just creative, not crazy. Will you miss the sugar? Oh, Lord, you’ll be so overcome with flavor you won’t notice one missing grain. But you will gain a new appreciation for spices. Who knows, you might want to visit Sri Lanka yourself to stock up in the very land some people think was the Garden of Eden. After using The New Sugar & Spice, you might agree.