Chetna’s Easy Baking: With a Twist of Spice

After writing multiple popular cookbooks featuring Indian home-cooking, Great British Bake Off contestant Makan (Chetna’s 30-Minute Indian: Quick and Easy Everyday Meals) returns to baking with her latest, which highlights sweet and savory recipes that often have creative flavor twists. Several of the desserts feature fruits and vegetables, while others offer unique takes on classics, such as masala-chai tres leches cake and sticky toffee pudding with cardamom. The savory options are especially tempting and include Indian-influenced recipes for bread, rolls, and pies like chana dal–stuffed yogurt bread and mattar paneer pie. A full chapter on vegan bakes also features both the sweet and the savory. There are small treats such as anise doughnuts and black-tahini-and-cream-cheese cookies, followed by recipes for sauces, jams, and chutneys. The recipes are enhanced throughout with beautiful photos. While the instructions are straightforward, the book is clearly aimed at a British audience, and bakers in the U.S. might find that some of the ingredients are difficult to obtain.