Perfectly Golden: Adaptable Recipes for Sweet and Simple Treats

by Angela Garbacz

Overview

A cookbook of treats from the Great Plains to satisfy every sweet tooth.

Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, Goldenrod Pastries is a community bakery with an ambitious and talented baker at the helm. Angela Garbacz learned at her mother’s and grandmothers’ elbows, mixing up cookies and rolling sweet buns. Her training continued in New York City before she returned home and opened her dream shop.

From her grandma’s famous peach coffee cake to caramel-covered pecan rolls, lemon meringue pie and frosted brownies to fluffernutter buns and confetti cookies, Garbacz’s pastries come out of the oven perfectly golden and regularly sell out. At her bakery, she creates delicious treats without dairy or gluten, but every recipe in this book can be made with butter and all-purpose flour just as easily as any alternative. With her positive attitude and confident voice, Garbacz makes it easy and fun to bake a perfect dessert that everyone can eat. This beautiful cookbook—the photography, the philosophy, and the desserts!—is an instant classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682684764
Publisher:	Countryman Press, The
Publication date:	04/28/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,114,749
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Angela Garbacz is the owner of Goldenrod Pastries. Called one of the “most innovative women in food and drink” by Food & Wine, she has been featured in Forbes, Tasting Table, Food Republic, Martha Stewart Living, New York Magazine, Radio Cherry Bombe, and other outlets. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Editorial Reviews

05/18/2020

In this delightful debut, Garbacz, who owns Goldenrod Pastries in Lincoln, Neb., shares recipes for 100 healthy pastry shop favorites. Garbacz creates delicious-yet-healthy desserts with flexible, easy-to-make recipes using gluten-free flour blends, dairy-free milks, and other readily available ingredients that can easily be swapped out to accommodate bakers’ dietary needs and tastes. With the “You Do You” key for each recipe, bakers can choose gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, or traditional versions of dishes; for example, yeasted dough made with almond milk and gluten-free flour is perfect for cinnamon rolls, sticky pecan buns, her grandmother’s peach coffee cake, and Fluffernutter buns. Snack cakes intended for breakfast or tea include Goldenrod’s zucchini-chocolate cake, and for dessert there’s an almond-walnut crusted cheesecake and multiple squares consisting of apple, lemon, apricot, or chocolate ganache. Birthday cakes, pies, creams, and sauces round out the collection. Health-minded home bakers will delight in this friendly, accessible volume. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"I’m intrigued by Peach-Buckwheat Upside-Down Cake, using olive oil for the fat. And I suspect the vanilla custard filling for Graham Cracker Cream Pie made with coconut milk tastes even better than the traditional dairy version. I’m game to find out."

Susan Puckett

"Angela's recipes have the magic that every modern home baker is after: comforting, crave-worthy, and infinitely adaptable. In Perfectly Golden, her joyful collection of all-American treats are brimming with Midwestern charm."

Shauna Sever

"For those who haven’t been able to make it out to the Nebraska storefront, the popular bakery has finally repackaged the many beloved recipes into a cookbook so that you, too, can bake these otherworldly desserts in the comfort of your home."

Amy Schulman

"I've wanted Angela to have a cookbook from the first day I met her! She's a generous baker who wants everyone to enjoy her treats, regardless of any allergies or aversions, and that comes through loud and clear in every recipe."

Kerry Diamond

"Lessons from her mother and grandmother, as well as learnings from her community bakery, all found in this book, represent an inclusive philosophy that all bakers will benefit from."

Cool Hunting

"...A wonderful asset to all of us baking at home."

Jill Lightner

"This book is all about inclusive baking, and Garbacz's uncomplicated approach ensures that Perfectly Golden will become an invaluable resource for home bakers as well as dessert professionals."

Pastry Arts Magazine

"It’s the perfect baking book for those who want delicious treats, every time, no matter what they have stocked in the pantry."

Kelsey Youngman

"Angela Garbacz is the future of pastry. She possesses a rare mix of talent, diligence, and compassion, which she ignites with the spark of humor and wit. The beauty of Angela is that she prioritizes the art of baking and flavor while solving for the needs of otherwise ignored eaters."

Dave Arnold

04/01/2020

Garbacz spent years baking professionally in New York before she learned she had a dairy allergy. She spent two years developing dairy-free methods and recipes and sharing them online. In 2015, Garbacz opened Goldenrod Pastries in her hometown of Lincoln, NE, offering dairy-free, gluten-free baked goods. Garbacz's first cookbook celebrates her novel and flexible approach to "inclusive baking." The recipes—covering a broad range of baked goods including pastries, cakes, pies, and cookies—are simple and straightforward crowd-pleasers with a dash of retro whimsy. Almost every recipe in the book can be made gluten-free and dairy-free (and often vegan), or made traditionally using dairy products and all-purpose flour; these ingredients can be used interchangeably at a one-to-one substitution ratio. The straightforward ease of adapting the recipes to either accommodate dietary restrictions or utilize traditional ingredients will give home bakers a much needed sense of confidence, especially if they are trying gluten- or dairy-free baked goods for the first time. VERDICT An essential purchase for regional libraries and a top recommendation for all baking collections.—Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill Coll., Melbourne, Australia

Library Journal