Savory Snackable Bakes . . .

Hello peeps and welcome to my first (FREE!!!) paid newsletter. I wanted to give ALL my subscribers the opportunity to check out what I’ll be offering to my paid subscribers on the off chance some of the unpaid newsletter folks might want to jump on the paid bandwagon (at the cost of $50/year). 

Each paid letter will contain VERY different content than my free letter - including:

• An exclusive recipe from  the cookbook I’m presently working on, Savory Snackable Bakes (coming at you in October of 2024!!)

•  A little BTS (aka “behind the scenes”) look at the cookbook writing process

• And a FAQ section where I answer your questions about the cookbook writing process 

So here you go, my sweet (and savory) newsletter friends - an example of the fabulous paid content I’ll be sharing each month is below. Enjoy. 

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The summer is half over; the year is half over; my binge-watching of The Americans is half over (yes: I’m a few years behind in embracing this utterly fab show) and I won’t lie, the first six months of 2023 have been a tiny bit on the busy side for me. Not only did I start hosting a baking podcast for the Cherry Bombe Podcast Network, She’s My Cherry Pie, start writing a regular easy-peasy baking column for Bake From Scratch Magazine, but I’m writing my 4th cookbook, Savory Snackable Bakes, hitting shelves in October of 2024, and I created this paid newsletter because I want YOU to be part of the cookbook writing process. 

The new book is very similar to my last book, Snackable Bakes, in that every recipe is easy, can be assembled in 20 minutes or less, with ingredients that are already in your pantry (or easily found at the supermarket) and with no special equipment (aka stand mixers, food processors, etc.). BUT in this book, every recipe is savory (think lots of cheese . . . ). To give you a little taste (both figuratively and literally) of the kind of recipes you’ll find in the new book, I am sharing a variation of one of the recipes. I’m not able to share an actual recipe, or my publisher would not be pleased, but I am hoping you will not tell them that I am sharing this variation (shhhh . . . ).

This recipe calls for feta cheese and za’atar, which is both an herb and a spice and is delicious with creamy, briny feta. An Exclusive Recipe from Savory Snackable Bakes

Za’atar, Feta Cheese and Lemon Snacking “Bread”

*this photo pictures a different spice blend, FYI . . . 

2 tablespoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (100 grams), plus 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 large eggs

¾ cup (170 grams) buttermilk

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

4 ½ tablespoons za’atar spice blend, divided

6 ounces (170 grams) Greek feta cheese, cut into ½ to ¾-inch cubes

1½ cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour 

Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with a large piece of parchment paper that extends up and over two opposite sides of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar and salt with your fingers. Whisk in ½ cup of the oil, and then the eggs, one at a time. Whisk in the buttermilk and then vigorously whisk in the baking powder and baking soda, one at a time; and then 3 tablespoons of the za’atar mixture. Fold in the feta and flour with a flexible spatula, just until the last streak of flour disappears.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Combine the remaining 1 ½ tablespoons of za’atar with the remaining 2 ½ tablespoons of the olive oil and brush over the top of the bread before baking.  

Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb or two. Let cool until you can easily lift the bread out of the pan by its parchment handles, about 10 minutes, running a knife around the edges if it resists. 

Bread is best eaten on the day it is made, but, tightly wrapped, will last overnight in the refrigerator, or in the freezer for up to a month. To reheat leftover bread, toast cut slices or wrap them in tin foil and place them on a baking sheet in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes (defrost frozen bread before reheating).

A Little BTS of the Savory Snackable Bakes writing process . . .

Savory Snackable Bakes is a leap of faith for me after having written three books exclusively about making sweets of the baked variety. And you may be asking yourself, why is Jessie (the queen of easy sweets making) writing a savory cookbook??

I’m not gonna lie – it wasn’t my idea, it was my publisher’s idea. I had proposed another cookbook about baking easy sweets, different than Snackable Bakes, but very much on the sweet spectrum, and they (tragically) said no. They suggested I write a savory baking cookbook, which immediately made me cry (I mean not really, but I was sad) as I was like, “Wait, I don’t want to work with cheese and salt and pepper - I want to make things with sugar and chocolate!” Over time, I changed my mind, but I still wasn’t sure I could do it. I’m not a spontaneous, fluid, flexible savory cook and I was fearful about the learning curve - and it’s been steep, I won’t lie, but I’m really enjoying it - and maybe, just maybe, becoming sort of good at it?

Oh, and because photos are always fun: here are two photos of the BTS of the Snackable Bakes photo shoot: the first is of all the photos taken at the shoot in Polaroid form:

And this one, is of me and my photo shoot “team.”

Ask the Snackable Baker (the FAQs)

Because I get so many questions about developing recipes and writing cookbooks, I’ll be answering some of the most frequently asked Qs as part of this paid newsletter. 

Here’s what readers tell me they want to know:

Q: Can you walk us through the cookbook writing process?

A: The process is different for everyone. When you submit a proposal to a publisher, they want to know what the book is about, obviously, and what the “hook” is. In other words, why does the world need this book, why does this book need to be written by YOU and what will be in it? A table of contents is also a necessary component of a proposal, which includes the names of all of the recipes that will be in the book, as well as the chapter headings. This doesn’t mean that you will have developed all of the recipes at that point, but the publisher has to know what kind of recipes you’re thinking about.

Q: Then what happens?!

A: Once I sell a proposal and have a book deal, I sit down and develop and write the recipes that I’ve listed in the table of contents. If you’ve never written a recipe, that might sound daunting. But that’s actually what recipe developers do. So even though writing 100 of them is kind of intense, coming up with the titles, the flavors, the ingredients, the directions, etc. is not. I get inspiration from all sorts of places – foods I like to eat, from my cookbook collection, from the internet, sometimes from social media. Once the recipes are written, I go into my kitchen and start testing the recipes I’ve written to make sure they work and that I like them. Once I have finalized a recipe, I have a recipe tester try the recipe in their home kitchen, and that’s invaluable.

Q:  Do you ever have a recipe that doesn’t work?

A: Oh, yes! And it’s incredibly upsetting, if I’m being honest, I’m the type of person who will read a book to the end, even if it’s not good - so if I’ve developed a recipe and it doesn’t work, it’s really hard for me to let it go and throw in the towel (baking pan??).

And there you have it, peeps: the first of many newsletters all about the writing of Savory Snackable Bakes. Hope you’ll consider subscribing and please share any and all thoughts about what you’d like to see in future cookbook-focused letters.