Sweet Days Ahead - March in the Lamb's Ears Cookbook Club - Lambs Ears and Honey

We’ve never specifically focused on a dessert cookbook in the cookbook club before – but there’s sweet days ahead for everyone in March!

As expected, February was full of fun in the Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club, and Nagi Maehashi’s new cookbook Recipetin Eats Tonight was a hit. However, I’m predicting some very sweet days ahead with the March cookbook selection, What’s For Dessert by Claire Saffitz.

I love Saffitz’ work – for all the obvious, diabetes-inducing reasons – and also because she’s so thorough. Her recipes are reliably well tested and they always just work. The book has a wonderful selection of baked desserts, frozen dishes, and stovetop recipes, and has a section on her approach to some essential techniques. It will absolutely suit either the accomplished home cook, or those who just want to explore the delicious world of accessible sweet dishes a little more.

I’ve made several recipes from What’s For Dessert and they’ve been greedily gobbled up almost immediately, and I’ve got her Skillet Chocolate chip Cookie (it’s full of seeds, so obviously it’s a health food ????), Rhubarb and Oat Crumb Cakes, and the Roasted Lemon Tart all earmarked for the coming weeks.

As I mentioned last month, this cookbook will be available in most libraries as it’s a 2022 publication, and you will find lots of her recipes on Claire’s YouTube channel, if you can’t get hold of the book for any reason.

Dessert is not really an area of home cooking that we’ve explicitly explored, so I’m urging you all to get on board this month. Please don’t think you can’t do desserts – Claire Saffitz is going to definitely show you otherwise, so embrace the sweet days ahead and give it a try!

So what did we cook in February?

Unsurprisingly, Nagi’s new cookbook was warmly embraced by our cookbook club members. Her no-nonsense approach, along with almost idiot-proof directions make working with her recipes wonderfully achievable. Some of the more heat-seeking among us wanted to amp up the flavours a little but, nevertheless, there’s been a very busy rush of posts on our Facebook group. Here’s just a few of them.

Korean BBQ chicken from Denzil O’Brien

Supreme soy hokkien noodles from Chloe Haseltine

Tomato Pasta with Crunchy Garlic Parmesan Crumb from Renata Grech

Mary Matthews Brownie Cookies

What’s happening in April?

Late last year everyone’s other Australian cookbook favourite, Donna Hay, published another book to add to her body of work. Too Easy is exactly what we all need to get delicious, enjoyable meals on the table quickly. This is Hay’s 28th cookbook (!) and one of her easiest books so far. It absolutely does what is says on the tin and she’s tried to take a shortcut to just about everything – as chapter headings like “Faster Than Takeaway”, “Shortcuts on a Classic”, and”Superfast Snacks” suggest.

The one thing she hasn’t cut corners on is flavour – always delivering on the principal feature of her recipes is what we all love about her food. I think we’re going to enjoy this cookbook.

However, now it’s time to focus on some truly indulgent sweet days ahead. Even if you’ve never attempted a proper dessert before, March is definitely the month to expand your repertoire. Grab a copy of Claire Safftiz’ What’s for Dessert – you might just surprise yourself!

SO, 2025 IS LOOKING LIKE THIS SO FAR

Your whole-year cookbook will be any ONE cookbook from your own collection

April – Too Easy by Donna Hay
March – What’s for Dessert by Claire Saffitz
February – RecipeTin Eats Tonight by Nagi Maehashi
January – Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky