Bread and Butter by Erin Mckenna

 As I sat in the sweltering heat, waiting for people to make purchases at my garage sale-- Bread & Butter was the book I flipped through. The fact that anyone has been able to crack the code of baking both gluten-free and vegan is pretty incredible to me. What are pastries without butter, flour and eggs? Thanks to Erin Mckenna, they aren't tasteless bricks.

This book is spunky, feisty and fun. I can only guess that it is a reflection of Mckenna herself. The colors are all vibrant shades of pastel. Babycake's retro-glam style definitely shows through in this book. This photo of Erin in a puff of flour is my absolute favorite image of the book. There is just something so joyful and fun about it.


I kept finding recipes I wanted to make-- only to realize I didn't have any of the ingredients on hand. I find myself in sort of a hard place with this book. I bake gluten-free often, but I am not vegan. For me to make these recipes I would have to invest quite a bit of money into various flours, xanthan gum, etc. Most of the recipes require a mix of different flours, so you really need to own them all. I just don't know if that is really worth it to me.

That doesn't make it a bad book. It would probably be a fantastic book for those who are gluten-free/vegan. I can see it being an indispensable resource for a small audience. For now though I think I'll stick with baking sourdough. I love David Lebovitz, who did the forward and whose quote is featured on the back.

He says "It's bread that is the stuff of life, and I'm thrilled that Erin has created this collection of baked goods not just for the wheat-free crowd, but for everyone who enjoys good, fresh, honest food as much as I do."     

Perhaps he should have added-
and doesn't mind dropping the money to buy all the additional ingredients to make the recipes.

All of that aside, I think Erin certainly needs to be applauded for this book. I can't imagine how much recipe testing went into getting these recipes perfected. I get frustrated trying to make recipes gluten-free and often give up. She certainly accomplished something impressive with this book!

I received the book for review purposes from Blogging for Books, however opinions are my own.