Scone Queen Bakes: 100 Recipes for Scones, Muffins, Cookies, and More from the founder of The Hungry Gnome
by Danielle Sepsy
After watching Danielle Sepsy compete on the streaming series The Big Brunch, I was excited to try some of the sea salt chocolate chip and white chocolate toffee cookies that her Hungry Gnome supplied to a local delivery service. They were delicious so I was even more delighted to find out she had a cookbook, The Scone Queen Bakes, of 100 of her recipes for a variety of delightful baked treats. On the show Sepsy was dubbed the “Scone Queen” and If you enjoy tea and scones, like I do, then you will be excited; she has one for each month of the year. I am particularly interested in trying her red bean scones with sesame crust and butter pecan scones. She even lets us in on her secret recipe for her famous chocolate chip scones. I’m also a huge muffin fan and she has a variety of tasty muffins including raspberry ricotta muffins, chocolate chip pancake muffins, double chocolate muffins (that include a variation with a bit of cream cheese), and several more. I think people living here in the Hoboken area, with our large Italian American population, will be particularly excited by the family recipes she has from her Sicilian heritage like pignoli (pine nut) cookies. I found the autobiographical details about her childhood learning to bake through starting her own business charming.
Baking Across America: A Vintage Recipe Road Trip
by B. Dylan Hollis
My family is a fan of B.Dylan Hollis fun short streaming cooking videos online where one never knows if the quirky historic recipes he bakes will be hits or misses. His previous cookbook, Baking Yesteryear, featured recipes broken up by decades (1900’s-1980’s). We tried several of the cookies for Christmas and found some that will be regular on rotation in the future including the Anzac biscuits and the Potato chip cookies so we were excited to check out his newest work, Baking Across America. In this work the recipes are organized by regions that each one comes form. New Jersey is represented by a chocolate cake recipe that incorporates tomato soup! Another unusual ingredient recipe is the Hatch Chile and Cheddar Apple Pie from New Mexico. It includes some of my favorites like whoopie pies and beignets. Both those who are looking for nostalgic bakes as well as those who are adventurous eaters will find recipes to try.
Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 