Sweet
With the title of this book, Roots is not just referring to sugar levels but to the sweetness of life well lived. The British celebrity chef was raised in Jamaica and joined his parents in the UK when he was 11 years old. He brings his diasporic heritage to this collection of more than 100 recipes for sweets that includes drinks, smoothies, and ices. Roots explores flavors of the Caribbean and how they mix with the ingredients and recipes of Britain. One twist on baking pastries: in Jamaica, baking is done in large pots of boiling water with a smaller pot inside, “a bit like steaming a pudding.” Among the chapters on cakes and pies is one for barbecuing fruit, including pineapple with lime-caramel sauce and flamed sugar-citrus fruits. The important Caribbean ingredients of rum and honey, pimento and allspice, nutmeg and vanilla are added to common sweets. Among the tasty recipes that may seem exotic to the North American palate: chocolate and lime cake, blood-orange cupcakes, boozy prune and almond tart, pineapple and rum frangipani tart, rum babas, elderflower-jelly trifle, tamarind balls, rum-and-raisin fudge, and butter-maple popcorn. --Vanessa Bush