10 Fall Comfort Cookbooks

October has become one of my favorite months. The mornings are crisp, the leaves are changing, plus October is National Cookbook Month. This means lounging on the couch all day surrounded by cookbooks is totally acceptable. After all, one needs time to absorb all the newly published cookbooks that start emerging in early September and continue throughout the fall and holiday season. This makes October the perfect time to nestle in, embrace your couch potato status, and devour all the pages in preparation for baking and holiday gift-giving season.

10 New Cookbooks + a Flour Power Puzzle

Here’s a look at the books - and a fun baking-related nostalgic puzzle you can also do from the couch - that I’m excited about cooking and sharing from over the next few months, and may have I’ve already gifted myself.

An observation, I’m not sure if there are more books than usual this fall centered around community and bringing people together around sharing food, or if I’m just drawn to the books that embrace celebrating the warmth of baking and feeding our souls with a side of philosophy mixed in.

Good Things by Samin Nosrat

Just a stack of Ricotta Custard Pancakes from Samin Nosrat’s new book Good Things.

I must start with Good Things by Samin Nosrat. Ahh, I love Samin so much. Her first cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat won a James Beard award and was adapted into a wonderful Netflix docu-series. You don’t want to skip the intro of her new book subtitled “recipes and rituals to share with people you love.”  Here she talks about the problem with recipes and gives you permission to not do everything the same way she does or even the same way you once did it. This spoke to me. Cooking is not about getting the exact same result every time, rather it's about being completely present with an experience as it unfolds. Where you are, what ingredients you use, and who you’re sharing it with all shape the result.

The first thing I made was her Ricotta Custard Pancakes. She warns that it’s a three-bowl recipe, but you’ll never go back. Watch this fun video of Samin making these on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Let’s Party By Dan aka Grossy Pelosi

I met Dan Pelosi in Portland two years ago for the launch of his first book Let’s Eat, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on his new book Let’s Party. Per the title, the book is divided into “parties” with fun names like Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life, Fishing for Compliments, and Nonna Your Business. Also, he’s included a Grossy Gude to his Holiday Cookie Party and a cheeky guide to Italian American slang.

I’ve made several dishes from the Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life menu and can’t wait to try the Lasagnetta and dive into the Giving Thanks chapter. Watch for a future post on Radicchio, Gorgonzola & Pepita Salad, Roasted Squash with Crispy Chickpeas & Feta and the most delicious Pumpkin Cider Braised Pork Shoulder.

Linger by Hetty Lui McKinnon

This book had me at its title. Linger. Sounds sublime. Lingering around the table with good food, friends, and laughter. Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cookbook author, food writer, whose cookbooks explore themes of family, identity and loss through vegetarian and plant-based recipes. Her new book is still on my list to buy, but I have her earlier book, Tenderheart that won a 2023 James Beard Award. Hetty believes in the power of salads to connect and create community. She also says salads are more than a pile of leafy greens; anything can be a salad. Her salads are vegetable-laden, meal-worthy loose interpretations of salads. To balance the salads, yes there are some simple sweets in the book as well.

The Heart Shaped Tin by Bee Wilson

Not a cookbook, but Bee Wilson’s The Heart Shaped Tin will speak to cookbook lovers and anyone who has ever been emotionally attached to an ordinary kitchen object. The US version will be released on Nov. 4. I bought the UK version earlier this year because I had to have it. I think this book spoke to me because the loss of my sister (a fellow cookbook lover, cook and baker) and my mother (my first teacher in the kitchen) are still fresh. The book is a collection of personal stories from people with perhaps unexplainable attachments to every day kitchen objects, such as a pasta bowl, a teapot, a saltshaker, or in my case, a cake container. I feel like I’ve been savoring the book waiting for the perfect time to read it. It was this book that made me bring my mom’s retro cake tin into the house and actually use it. The sound of lifting the lid brings back so many childhood memories.

The sound of lifting the dome of my mom’s retro cake container conjures up fond memories of having cake (from a cake mix) after dinner many a night growing up.

Baking & the Meaning of Life By Helen Goh

I’m looking forward to diving into this book when I’m feeling emotional or maybe on a bittersweet rainy day. Baking & the Meaning of Life: How to find joy in 100 recipes by Helen Goh is available Oct. 21. The book includes recipes for 100 desserts and savory bakes with reflections on life mixed in. She shares how baking can bring us together and add meaning and joy to both significant and everyday moments. What better place than baking to look to for the meaning of life?

Sally’s Baking 101 by Sally McKenney

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but … who can resist Peanut Butter Baked Alaska Pie?

I’ve followed Sally McKenney for years, but Sally’s Baking 101 is the first book of hers I’ve purchased. I feel like she is a trustworthy friend in the kitchen. Her recipes are well explained, well tested, and virtually foolproof. No surprise, I’ve already marked a dozen recipes to make this fall and winter. The first to make was a toss-up between Maple Brown Sugar Cookies and Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. Tough decision but I leaned into pumpkin. The perfect October cookie. The glaze reminds me of the old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies in the grocery store.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. Breakfast anyone?

To tempt you further, other warm and comforting items on my list include: Salted Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars, Caramel Sheet Cake, Apple Cider Spice Bread, Butternut Squash & Sage Chicken Pot Pie, and Bacon & Cheddar Biscuits with Spicy Honey Butter.

Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz

Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz is an updated collection of his greatest hits or all-time favorite recipes, plus a dozen new ones. You’ll find cakes, pies, tarts, crisps, cobblers, cookies, candies, ice creams, pastries, custards, soufflés, puddings and more. David says “baking is about sharing.” I’d have to agree. I also subscribe to his Substack newsletter, which is like a little journey to Paris.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for dessert.

Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan

Next week I’ll be in Seattle attending the release of James Beard award winner Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes. I can’t wait. And yes, I’m told there will be cake. I don’t know that much about what recipes are included in her book (available Oct. 21), but I love reading her newsletters and own several of her other cookbooks.  I’m intrigued to learn more about her recipe in the book for “Morning, Noon and Night Thanksgiving Cake" supposedly with sweet-potato casserole vibes.

In any case, I’m of the mind that anytime is cake time. And my cake dome is currently empty.

Cookies by Vaughn Vreeland

Just in time to start planning your holiday cookie exchanges or for the cookie lover in your life, Cookies by NY Times Cooking’s Vaughn Vreeland comes out on Oct. 28. Each December NYTC unveils a collection of holiday cookies as part of its annual Cookie Week.  There are people, and I know one personally, who anticipate the release of the recipes and stay up all night to bake all the cookies. Sounds fun to me! But in reality, I make one or two or three cookies from the list each year. Expect the book to include recipes from Vaughn, Yossy Arefi, Melissa Clark, Dorie Greenspan, Eric Kim, Genevieve Ko, Yewande Komolafe, Samantha Seneviratne, , and Susan Spungen.

Six Seasons of Pasta by Josh McFadden

My other form of comfort food? Pasta of course. Six Seasons of Pasta, by Joshua McFadden (also a James Beard winner) is available now. I haven’t had a preview but did come across this recipe for Pasta with Butternut Squash, Sausage, Sage and Spicy Chiles. If this recipe is any indication of what else to expect, I need this book to keep me cozy this winter.

Ending on a Sweet Note: Flour Power

Now for the surprise! I could not resist this Flour Power puzzle, a Piecework Puzzles collaboration with Better Homes & Gardens. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of cake and frosting must surely be worth about a million. In any case, the puzzle speaks for itself.

This could be my all-time favorite jigsaw puzzle. Flour Power is a collaboration between Piecework Puzzles and Better Homes & Gardens.

P.S. Buy a cookbook!

Don’t forget that all these books are available through my shop on Bookshop. I do get a small commission. By preordering or purchasing a book on Bookshop or at your local indie bookstore, you are helping support a small business. Thank you.