Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax and his fudgy chocolate layer cake
Cookbooks, at their simplest, are collections of pages filled with ingredients and instructions. But if we return to them often enough, they transform from prescriptive steps and grocery lists into something special.
Sure, it's easy to google a recipe and pick the one touting its "quick, easy steps" — especially this year, when cooking can feel like drudgery. But there's something deeply grounding about cracking a cookbook's spine and working from print: deciphering a recipe without the chorus of online comments, or returning to a process that's tried and true.