I’ve wanted to write this post for over a year. There were so many times I wanted to tell you what I was doing and how I was up to my eyeballs in 17 jars of peanut butter almost every day.
But I decided that rather than drag out the suspense for a year, and long before my book was even going to be in stores or that you could buy it, that I’d just surprise you when the timing was better.
Well, surprise! My first cookbook, Peanut Butter Comfort: Recipes for Breakfasts, Brownies, Cakes, Cookies, Candies, and Frozen Treats Featuring America’s Favorite Spread
The book features more than 100 recipes and they all use peanut butter. Yes, there’s peanut butter in every single recipe. I cannot even tell you how much peanut butter I went through in 2012. I was literally buying it by the gallon while recipe testing.
In some recipes, peanut butter is bold and in your face like in old-fashioned peanut butter cookies.
And in other recipes, it’s subtle, hardly noticeable, and binds ingredients or lends moisture to biscuit dough.
It’s primarily a dessert cookbook, with a focus on comfort food desserts that stick to your ribs like Marshmallow Fluffternutter Butterscotch Bars.
Or a Caramelized Peanut Butter and Banana Upside-Down Cake that will make your soul sing.
There is one chapter devoted to savory and salty-and-sweet combinations like Cheesy Peanut Butter Crackers, a homemade riff on Peanut Butter-Filled-and-Flavored Cheez-Its.
There’s Fresh Spring Rolls with Thai Peanut Sauce. You can’t have a peanut butter book without peanut sauce.
There are a handful of recipes that have appeared on my blog because I have over 50+ recipes on my site that use peanut butter. 35 Peanut Butter Recipes are here, and all of the Peanut Butter Recipes are here. A few recipes I love too much to not include and so in they went.
The irony is that since writing the book and turning in my manuscript last July, I’ve come up with more peanut butter recipes that I wish I could have included but with books, there’s no Edited To Add function like with blogging, and now they’re posted here.
I did all the photography. 100 recipes, 100 photos. Actually, more than 100 photos because at the beginning of chapters and interspersed throughout the book there are accompanying images. You never notice how many photos are in the margins, corners, and sides of pages in a book until you’re the one responsible for making them happen.
I believe there are only two recipes and some frosting recipes that don’t have accompanying photos. It was important to me to really show you what the food looks like when it’s done. It’s a peeve of mine in cookbooks when every fifth or seventh recipe gets a photo and the rest don’t, and I made sure to avoid that.
They say that writing a book is like being pregnant and birthing a baby. Well, I’ve done both and there are striking parallels. In the beginning, I was so full of anticipation, excitement, and so eager. Ready to get on with it, and for the fun to begin. Midway through, the novelty wears off and that initial energy rush has dwindled and it’s hard work to stay on track and keep the other aspects of life humming along, too. Toward the end, you’re dead tired, fatigued, and wonder how you will go on. And in the last week or two before the due date, life is a blur, awake all hours of the day and night, just trying to finish and stay strong.
And then, after all the edits, revisions, changes, going up and back time and time again, you hold your baby in your arms, or in my case see a PDF of my baby on my computer screen, and it’s suddenly all worth it. And I want to do it again because it was the most rewarding and fulling experience.
And I am. But that’s a whole other post.
Here is the front and back cover with jacket flaps. I didn’t design the cover but had input. The photography is mine, but my publisher has a design team who created it.
Although there are similarities to writing a food blog, it’s definitely different. The recipe development, cooking the food, trialing it, photographing it, writing about it, learning about the publishing process, and experiencing it all has been the hardest work, but the best work. And I’m grateful to the Skyhorse team for their support.
And I’m eternally grateful for my husband’s support. I could not have done it without him. Both from helping me parent our daughter to eating his weight in peanut butter in 2012. I could not have blogged 365 days last year and clocked in 370 posts, written a book, taken care of our house and child without him being Daddy Dearest. That said, it’s amazing how little sleep I got last year and I’m about to do it again.
You’d think I would have gotten sick of peanut butter in this whole process but I haven’t. My recipe yesterday included it and I adore it just as much as ever.
I hope you love peanut butter and Peanut Butter Comfort as much as I do.
Thank you for your support!
I have often thought you would probably come out with a cookbook at some point…and I’m thrilled you have finally come out about your cookbook!!!!! I really love the PB theme and can see that I have only scratched the surface for its culinary uses. 100 recipes using PB is impressive. I am also a picture person when it comes to food. I often look at the photos and then decide whether to check out the recipe. So…as for photos, that banana upside down cake jumped right out at me and my husband and stepdaughter love cheez-its. I am anxious to see them all! Hugs and congrats on completing an incredible project. I am looking forward to adding this to my collection!
Thanks for your (daily dose) of support, Paula! Knowing that people like you are out there reading daily, and that you actually MAKE my recipes, is what I think of when I write my blog and when I was writing the book. I truly appreciate your loyalty and support! And that cake was sooo good. And so were the Cheeze Its. It’s funny now b/c some of that food I made/ate almost a YEAR ago and it’s surreal looking back at it now!
Congrats!!! I’m so happy for you!! Enjoy the success. You deserve it!! Looks beautiful. You’re so talented!!
Congratulations!
Claire
I love you and you’re going to love the book. Plenty of stories and little memories about childhood, Grandma, the family, growing up…it’s going to truly hit home for you :)
xoxo
Wow! Congratualtions x100! I love hearing stories like this, about bloggers who have a cookbook coming out. It’s so inspiring and makes me realize that it could happen to me too! The photography looks beautiful and a book about only Peanut Butter sounds like one of the best things ever. I hope this book leads to much more for you!
Thanks, Ruta! And where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Congratulations! I am SO excited to get my hads on this book!
Wow congrats Averie! So happy for you! You deserve a cookbook because you take THE most beautiful pictures of food that I have ever seen. And, of course, it’s all delicious.
That is such extremely high praise, Taylor, and thank you!!!
Congratulations Averie!! So excited for you and for the cookbook!! Every one of your recipes I have tried has been awesome, so I know your cookbook is going to ROCK! I already can’t wait to try those little peanut butter filled cheese crackers… :)
Thanks my friend for your support and for actually making my recipes :)
Congratulations to the hardworking woman who deserves the most praise in the entire world for doing everything that you do. Sometimes I’m in awe of our email conversations at 7am my time. MY TIME. You are infused with energy, determination, and a passion I have never, ever seen before in the blogging world. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am for you and to finally read about your cookbook. I would have never guessed it was peanut butter based…. just kidding. But honestly, I had no idea what the focus was and I am SO glad to see a peanut butter book out there now Averie!!!!!! Please forgive me in advance for obsessing over this cookbook maybe as much as you have in the past year. SO happy for my good friend Averie!! :)
PS: are you serious with that caramelized peanut butter and banana upside-down cake???????? drooling. want, need, totally making as soon as I get it in my hands!!!!
When I posted the cake pic, I thought of you. It sort of has your name written all over it! When I made that cake, your blog was like 3-6 mos old maybe…I probably made it in like April or May of last year and didn’t know your tastes as well but yeah it is so you!
And thank you for your total support and for being the most amazing friend I could for…I mean, who else shares my love of almost the exact same foods/recipes/desserts and totally gets it, on all levels. Thank you, Sally! :)
And it’s 720am your time…I should get some sleep..
xoxo
oh hiiii it’s me again. I forgot to tell you how much I freaking LOVE the cover!!!! Is that some sort of granola snack mix I see in the top middle? Amazing. I need this cookbook like… yesterday. :) PS: old fashioned peanut butter cookies photo is stunning. xoxox
Thanks for the reappearance :) That is Monster peanut butter cookie dough dip, with the M & Ms in it. One of those recipes that I made about…14 months ago and it was one of my afterthought-ish recipes but the photos worked out perfectly for this purpose. And girl, the photography. First of all, some of them are 12-14 mos old and you know how much you grow in a month or two as a photographer so some of them I look back and am like, well, I did the best I could at the time with the skills I was capable of putting forth then, but have grown since. The sad part of that old-fash PB cookie pic is that in the actual recipe, only a tiny, tiny little bit of that ‘scene’ is show, i.e they zoomed in right on top of the cookies so you miss that whole ‘broad brushstrokes scene’…which is the hardest part of the photography process. You don’t know what they are going to take and what will be cropped. And it’s the ones I didnt want cropped that were, and vice versa. Just behind the scenes tidbits for you!
Congratulations, Averie! Peanut Butter Comfort is sure to be a Mother’s Day gift bestseller =)
Love that your book will be chock full of photos to accompany your scrumptious recipes.
I cannot believe that you kept something so huge under wraps for so long, Averie, but you’re right – it’s so amazingly exciting now that it’s out. I can’t wait to see the book and know the recipes will be fantastic since they are all yours! Warmest congratulations!
Congrats! Such exciting news. I can only imagine how hard you’ve been working! Time to curl up with a cuppa and a blanket for a well deserved break…
Congratulations Averie, how very exciting! The book looks beautiful.
Congrats!!!! Sounds amazing. Pb is the best
YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!
Congrats and a million congrats and I can’t believe it is out so soon!! Consider it mine!! I can’t even begin to tell you how I am for you! You are awesome and so deserving of this success!
Wwoooooowwww! Congatulations. As a fellow lover of the peanut butter I look forward to seeing this!
Congratulations on you cookbook! I’m so excited to see it when it comes out, what could be better than a cookbook filled with peanut butter recipes? Seriously impressed that you managed to keep it a secret for so long and thrilled that you don’t have to any more. :)
Thanks, Emilia! I figured why jump the gun and get people all excited months and months in advance. But now…it’s almost here!
omg!!! congratulations. I had absolutely no idea you were working on a cookbook. And the fact that it’s a PB cookbook full of comfort food makes it even better. The pictures all look amazing!! I can’t wait to hold this book in my hands. Do you know when it will be available in Europe? I’m so happy for you :)
I would just order from Amazon like you would on other books or Amazon items and it will make it’s way to you. Not sure about European distribution but Amazon is always a sure thing :) Thanks for your support!