What an incredible collection of holiday baking recipes! I love this cookbook! Every recipe has a short description or history, a mouth watering picture (or several), and detailed instructions for baking. I do love it when a recipe book includes photos for all of the recipes, and the photos in this book are gorgeous and evoke memories of holidays past while also envisioning future holiday gatherings. The recipes are easy to follow with substitutions and variations included where appropriate, making them adaptable to your tastes and available ingredients. The bread recipes also include step-by-step picture instructions making them even easier to follow, and I sincerely appreciate this attention to detail! This holiday baking book is sure to be a favorite in your cookbook collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronical Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a great holiday cookbook! I loved all of the sweet roll recipes. I will definitely be making some of these for Christmas this year and I will want to get a physical copy of this book. Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful recipes!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

Wow! This holiday baking book has it all: holiday photos, instructional pictures taking you step by step through the recipes, photos of the tasty-looking finished products. What is not to like?

Rarely do I want to try practically everything in a cookbook. This book is one that challenges and entices me to try each recipe. I especially love that the author liberally uses my favorite baking spice, cardamon, in many of her recipes.

I am excited to try her Easy Danish Dough and her Cheater’s Croissant Dough. Her instructions seem easy enough to follow with what I hope will be super good results!

Additional pluses to this cookbook are her ‘recipes’ for holiday music to bake to. Also, her bibliography and her lists of resources are extremely useful.

Everyone that does holiday baking of any kind should own this book. I think I will go out and order my copy today so that I can practice before Christmas comes.

Baking for the Holidays is a nice collection of festive recipes developed and curated by Sarah Kieffer. Due out 7th Sept 2021 from Chronicle Books, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a winter themed recipe collection full of tempting breads, sweet bakes, cookies, and candies for entertaining or gift-giving. The author says that although her family celebrates Christmas, the recipes are presented with an eye to end-of-year baking and entertaining and are aimed at "the holiday season". The book is certainly filled with attractive and enticing sweet treats.

The recipes are arranged thematically: morning breads & pastries, holiday desserts, gift giving, beyond Christmas, and extras (jams & curd, marshmallows, decorative caramel shards, and other partial ingredients. Each recipe includes serving yields, special notes, and prep times. Recipe ingredients are listed bullet point style along with optional ingredients. All measurements are given in American standard measures with metric measures in brackets (yay!). The directions are given step by step, with assembly tutorials which are accompanied by clear color photos. The nutritional information is not included. Each of the recipes also includes a serving photo in color. Serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate.

The recipes' ingredients are easily sourced and the resultant dishes are family friendly and appealing. Everything is well done and I heartily recommend the book overall. There are a number of these recipes which will get an appearance in my own family dinners/potlucks in the coming months. Probably worth noting, a lot of these recipes are quite chocolate heavy (there's a recipe for fruit cake with chocolate glaze included here). For folks who love chocolate on everything - this one has the goods. The other thing which struck me was that this is a very *stylish* book. Many of these recipes are just that little bit fancier than the average run. Some of them might be a little bit labor intensive for rushed and stressed holiday cooks (but they're so elegant).

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Love the cover and I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t pick up a book that includes holiday desserts. I had a serious fascination with the pictures!

What did I like? The cinnamon rolls and the cream cheese danishes really caught my eye! Yummy! Seriously though the rest of the book was worthy of a look but totally out of my cooking range. My dessert cooking is very limited since we never eat many sweets.

Would I recommend or buy? I don’t make enough desserts to buy a dessert baking book and this one seems to need a more expert hand. The book has step by step instructions for twisting bread doughs and some really nice looking cakes. I’ve never had much success making a cake so I usually skip them. The cake in here looks like that Bridgerton tea cake. Thanks to the publisher for a look.

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review.

I wasn’t expecting to like this book as much as I did but here we go. The classic cinnamon rolls did catch my attention and I’m looking forward to being in the mood to prepare and bake them. The Nutella star bread also looks amazing, and I do appreciate the pictures that show you how to fold and prepare it correctly. All the recipes have pictures which I love! I wanted to give it four stars because the recipes intimidate me, but the pictures, detailed instructions, and hope to be able to do them and have them look as beautiful earned it a five-star rating.

Update: I went for it and made the cinnamon rolls, they turned out larger than expected and next time I will go for the extra cinnamon sugar filling, The day after baking the cinnamon rolls I brought them to my work and people loved them (!!), they stayed good for the next 3-4 days (covered but out of the refrigerator), I would just pop them in the microwave and boom, they were soft, warm and delicious

This cookbook gets 5 stars for looks. The photos in this are absolutely beautiful. The recipes, while absolutely delicious sounding, are not for the every day common baker in mu opinion. If you want to try out a more complicated and detailed recipe for your family for the holidays then definitely grab this cookbook. I want to make the morning buns ASAP. However, if you want something that doesn’t require more time and skill I’d look elsewhere.

If you have a blossoming baker in your family then this book would be an excellent gift for them.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.

Baking for the Holidays by Sarah Kieffer is a beautiful cookbook with lots of photos showing methods as well as the finished baked goods. Sarah offers reminiscences about her holidays growing up and makes the book feel very homey.

The book is divided into five chapters: Morning Breads and Pastries, Holiday Desserts, Gift Giving, Beyond Christmas, and Extras (which encompasses recipes for things like whipped cream, lemon curd, and crème fraiche). Most of the recipes look inspiring, but I have to tell you that a lot of them seemed time and/or labor intensive. Seriously I love the idea of making cinnamon buns from scratch and having them warm on Christmas morning but with everything else going on during the holidays, making a yeast dough just doesn’t come high on my list. I could see it happening at another time, though…..probably in January, late, late January, when the mad rush is over.

Now, I’m an outlier on this next thing, and I admit it. Give me less chocolate on desserts. Please. Sarah puts chocolate on things that really doesn’t need them. I’m certain that some of you have bad feelings about fruitcake, but I believe that a fruitcake that is done well is a brilliant thing. And certainly doesn’t need chocolate glaze because it already should be rich enough! I feel like bakers…and maybe Americans, just need to take a step back from pouring chocolate on everything. See. I am an outlier.

Along the same lines of incorporating chocolate, Sarah seems to like things a bit sweeter than I would be happy with. Pumpkin pie is the holy grail of Thanksgiving desserts in my family. While I agree with Sarah that a little crunch is needed, her remedy is to brûlée the top thus adding more sugar to a recipe that already incorporates a cup of the stuff (my recipe is still hefty on the sugar with 3/4 cups). As for the crunch, I like chopped walnuts, which are so, so delicious when toasted and certainly healthier than adding more sugar.

While some of the cakes were very appealing like the White Cake with Cranberries and White Chocolate Buttercream and Carrot Cake with Burnt Honey Buttercream, many of these recipes just don’t scream homey to me. Homier kinds of recipes can be found in the gift section, but even still some of these seem a little on the higher end of things and again, of course, incorporate extra chocolate. Boohoo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my pet peeve. However, the one recipe I am dying to make is the Coconut-Cardamom Cupcakes. I love cardamom and can almost imagine how wonderful it would taste with coconut. If I had all of the ingredients, you can be sure I’d be whipping these up right now! Yum.

If you’re looking for downhome kinds of recipes from Christmases past, this probably isn’t your book. However, if you’re an experienced baker who wants to try some different takes on established recipes, this is definitely a go. The book is very well done.

Oh, and if you are looking for the Pumpkin Pie with the Candied Pepita Streusel mentioned in the blurb, stop. Someone ate it along with the recipe.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The holiday’s are such a special time for my family, and a lot of what makes it special is baking! Baking for the Holidays is FULL of recipes I cannot wait to try and bring to celebrations this upcoming holiday season (Especially the Triple Chocolate Peppermint Bark YUM!!!)! The aesthetic of this cookbook is absolutely incredible! I also enjoyed the step-by-step photos provided in some recipes, just so I can make sure I am doing everything right haha. The instructions are easy to follow and explained so you know exactly what needs to be done and when - no guessing games in this cookbook! I can’t wait to work my way through these recipes, this is a must-have for bakers of any level his holiday season!

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback. I absolutely loved Baking for the Holidays. It is a beautiful cooking/baking guide. This book put me in the holiday mood! I believe that it would be a great holiday guide for ideas for baking, especially for people who are looking for a variety of recipes. I would definitely buy this book for myself or friends/family members who enjoy baking.

The good:
Perfectly laid out, stunning pictures, and I absolutely love the basic recipes she included. If nothing else, those recipes for basic Danish and sweet doughs, rough puff pastry, and cheaters croissant, plus the "extras" section, might make getting this cook book worth it.

The bad:
These are recipes you can find a thousand times over. I almost didn't bother scrolling though it because the recipes were so 'eh.' There isn't anything I got excited over which was disappointing.

Bottom Line:
If you don't already have a recipe book with these Christmas basics, then sure, grab a copy, but if you're a seasoned Christmas baked goods baker, then stick to what you have.

I adore Sarah Kieffer's cookbooks and blog and this new one for the Holidays is just as genius as the others. Mouth watering photos, over the top (but still totally approachable) recipes to wow your friends and family plus tips and tricks to bump your baking game up to the next level. I especially love that she has a whole chapter dedicated to edible gifts. Don't miss this one!

I am a sucker for cookbooks, especially baking & holiday cookbooks! So Baking for the Holidays caught my attention quickly! I have to admit, this once will probably end up in my personal collection! I love all the photos, especially the ones that show the step in making these items. Also, I really like that this book has recipes that you don't find in every other baking cookbook.

The book starts by offering a list of items the home baker should have, pantry basic, kitchen tools, and other items that make baking easier. The first chapter is morning items (cinnamon rolls, danish, scones, etc.), then you have chapters for holiday desserts, gift items, and beyond Christmas. The book finishes out by supplying ideas for making your baked items fancy.

I really think I will have to purchase a copy of this book for myself. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Wow! This book is lovely. My mouth is watering from all the delicious treats included in this book.

The beginning includes a list of resources as a home baker - pantry staples, kitchen tools, and other resources. The recipes range from breakfast delights through delicious gifts and home made treats. There's also an extra section detailing how to do some "fancy" work to make your holiday treats look like they are from some high end bakery. The pictures are gorgeous and detailed.

I definitely can't wait to get my hands on a copy. This book will make an excellent Christmas present.

Baking for the Holidays layout is very nice on the eyes. I love how it not only gives you a picture of the item you are going to bake but it gives you photos of step by step, which is very helpful for a visual learner like myself. I can't wait to make the Peanut Butter Cups and Salted Caramels this year with my kids to give out to family and friends. This will be so much better than our normal tradition of cookies. You have to have this book!! Thank you NetGalley for the advance read and Sarah Kieffer who is brilliant!

My Review for Baking For the Holidays by Sarah Kieffer-
5 Stars

I've always been an avid cookbook collector and it wouldn't surprise me if this one takes a spot on my bookshelf soon. I loved all of the different recipes, most of which I haven't heard before, a difficult thing to accomplish. Usually for holidays the only baking I do is sugar cookies, but now I have plenty of ideas and I'm sure my nephews will be more than happy to help with that. The instructions are easy to understand, the writing is clear and concise, and the pictures make everything look divine. Definitely a 5 star cookbook. If you want to try something new for your holiday table, then I definitely vote this book.

Baking for the Holidays by Sarah Kieffer is a truly lovely holiday cookbook. The photos are gorgeous and the recipes look yummy. You will also find plenty of baking tips and information about baking ingredients. Some of the recipes you'll find include:

Giant Cinnamon Roll
Cheater's Croissant Dough
Cranberries and Cream Danish
White Cake with Cranberries and White Chocolate Buttercream
Creme Brûlée Pumpkin Pie
Frozen Bon Bons
Triple Chocolate Peppermint Bark
Turtle Bars
Vanilla Bean Sables
Blueberry Streusel Buns
Cruffins
Hot Chocolate Cake
Confetti Cake

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley

Baking for the Holidays is stunning! All of the photos made my mouth water. The recipes are clearly written and the tips at the beginning of the book are extremely helpful. I am excited to bake up a bunch of these once it cools off (our AC is broken). My daughter is impatiently waiting to try the Nutella Star Bread! I did feel this book could use a few more recipes. 4.5 stars

The recipes in here look beautiful, and I enjoyed reading the stories that go along with them. I appreciated the fact that each recipe had a picture, and many have pictures that show step by step how to make the item!

I love everything to do with Christmas especially the cookies & pastries! This cookbook is awesome, the pictures are beautiful, and the recipes appear to be easy with ingredients already found in my pantry. I cannot wait to try these! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.