Sweet!

Over the last five-plus years, food manufacturers and grocery retailers have helped to make once-obscure sugars and sugar substitutes like muscovado, turbinado, golden syrup, and agave nectar more readily available to U.S. consumers than ever before. Now Sweet! introduces home cooks and bakers to dozens of traditional and cutting-edge sugars and sweeteners that also include jaggery, panela, molasses, cane syrup, and many others. Drawing upon his years of personal and professional experience cooking and baking with these sweeteners, Mani Niall shows home cooks how to take full advantage of the various tastes and textures they provide with more than 100 recipes for cookies and bars, cupcakes and cakes, quickbreads, custards, pies and tarts, candy, and many other treats that showcase each sweetener’s most distinctive qualities.

Sweet!, published in 2008, was voted one of the top 25 cookbooks of the year by Food and Wine magazine and several recipes were included in their Best of the Best series, volume 12, publsihed in 2009.  Other reviews:

Reviews

Publishers Weekly, 11/3/08
“This is a unique addition to the baker’s shelf.”

Tampa Tribune, 11/30/08
"Offers lots of alternatives for bakers who avoid using processed granulated sugar…Should inspire cooks to experiment with more nutritious ingredients.”

South Bend Tribune, 12/14/08
"When it comes to the bottom line and the final delicious outcome, the trip to the organic food store proves well worth the effort."

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Covered in Honey: The Amazing Flavors of Varietal Honey

Did you know that a mere one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey equals the entire life's work of one bee? Or that a honey's color and flavor depend on which blossoms the bees visit? In Covered in Honey, chef Mani Niall reveals new culinary uses for honey and brings the story of nature's oldest sweetener to life, serving us food history and honey lore mixed with more than 100 delicious recipes to inspire and delight.

Recognizing honey's power to balance and enhance the flavor of other foods, Niall homes in on honey's tremendous versatility: When he pairs it with Thai bird chiles, he creates Sourwood Honey, Lemon, and Chile Glazed Halibut; as a contrast to the saltiness of feta and olives, he presents a Savory Cheesecake similar to those served in ancient Greece. And with recipes that range from Traditional Glazed Honey Cake and Wildflower Honey Ice Cream with Almond Brickle Sauce to showstoppers like Lime Pavlova with Fresh Fruit and Leatherwood Honey, Niall highlights honey's many flavor complexities that go beyond simple sweetness.

In addition, Niall offers plenty of how-to advice such as how to store honey and what to do if it crystallizes, as well as a helpful resource guide for expanding your own varietal collection. Whether you're just starting to explore varietal honey or are a confirmed honey enthusiast, Covered in Honey is sure to expand your repertoire and delight your senses.

Reviews

"The curious cook will delight in the history and mythology of honey, the personal stories of beekeepers themselves, and especially the imaginative and tempting recipes from baked goods and salads to entrées and desserts. This unique and comprehensive book is already a one-of-its-kind classic."

Jeannette Ferrary, author of 
M. F. K. Fisher and Me

"You don't have to be a bee to appreciate Mani Niall's in-depth approach to the culinary pleasures of honey. This book promises to take the reader beyond the sweet nectar's obvious charms into a new realm of possibilities."

Rick Rodgers, author of Kaffeehaus and the Thanksgiving 101 and Christmas 101 series 

"The time is right for honey to take its place along with other products, such as fruits, coffees, wines, chocolates, and cheeses, that we want to learn more about. Its origins, its place in a healthy lifestyle, and most important, its subtle flavors and nuances are vital knowledge for those of us who bake and cook with honey."

David Lebovitz, author of 
Room for Dessert and editor of 
The Baker's Dozen Cookbook

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Sweet & Natural Baking

Reviews

"Mani Niall has become famous for the beautiful yet indulgent desserts sold at his Los Angeles bakery. In Sweet & Natural Baking, Niall explains how to make naturally sweetened treats using only whole grain flours. (Some are also low fat, but that's not a particular objective in this book.) Carefully detailed instructions should guide you to perfect results for baked desserts, including cookies, muffins, scones, pies and cakes. There are useful descriptions of ingredients to help anyone unfamiliar with using whole grains and sweeteners such as concentrated fruit juice and maple syrup in baking. Mouth-watering photos show why Danny DeVito, Roseanne, and rock groups have made Mani "baker to the stars."

“ Sweet news!  Now, just like customers who frequent Mani’s Bakery, we too can savor Sweet and Natural Baking.  Mani Niall is a talented baker, who shows us easy-to-make cakes, muffins, pies, tarts and other scrumptious treats that are wholesome, naturally sweetened, and always enticing to the eye.”

- Flo Braker, author
of The Simple Art
of Baking and
Sweet Miniatures