Cozy Comfort Food
A new cookbook to warm your heart, soul and farmhouse table with delicious new recipes.
Every farmhouse style home needs a touch of homemade goodness on the farm table, and Tieghan Gerard of the popular food blog Half Baked Harvest has a new recipe book brimming with cozy comfort food that ushers in warmth, heart and soul. Half Baked Harvest: Quick & Cozy is Tieghan’s fourth cookbook, but in many ways, it’s her best one yet. It’s a collection of cozy homemade dishes that despite their intricate appearance don’t require much fuss or time to make—no wonder it’s already made it to the bestseller’s list.
Family Flavor
Tieghan grew up cooking for her big Midwest family and knows all about relying on recipes full of homestead staples and simple, farm fresh ingredients that don’t take too much time to put together. “The recipes in Quick & Cozy are the most approachable feel-good style recipes,” she explains. “These are the recipes you’ll want to share with your families. They’ll bring back memories of past holidays and time spent with loved ones—easy, attainable comfort food!”
Inside the cookbook are some of her new creations meant for enjoying with loved ones. Case in point: There’s the surprisingly big (and easy to split) chicken parmesan sandwich recipe, a whole section of shareable pizzas and pastas, along with several scrumptious family-size soups, all fitting the bill for perfect sweater weather foods. “The Italian Chop salad is a book favorite,” she says, adding: “I make this all the time. It’s the most delicious salad and so colorful. I’ll often serve it with the baked meatballs on the cover of …Quick & Cozy. Honestly, I adore all the salads in the book.” There’s even a great brisket recipe you can slow cook and several desserts from tiramisu to chai-spice swirl quick bread.
Still, along with these new noshes are some of her family’s favorites passed down from generations. For example, she shares her grandma’s chili recipe in the book, Nonnie’s Chili. “It’s so easy to make and can sit on the stove all day,” she says. “Plus, it’s even better the following day. I love to serve it with her 5-ingredient beer bread.” The Brothers’ Game Day Snack Mix, while new, was inspired by her brothers and their love of fantasy football. With these recipes especially, Tieghan wants readers to feel confident in the kitchen because the recipes are so surprisingly simple and don’t require much forethought or prep. “My goal is to inspire excitement for cooking and encourage people to share these dishes with family and friends.”
Simple and Easy
From hearty soups to soul-warming baked breads and apple vanilla chai hot toddies, these recipes are a delight to eat, and they create a cozy ambiance perfect for the heart of the home. But they don’t require much time, and many of the recipes can be made in one-pan or one-pot. Cooks who like their cast iron skillets or classic Dutch ovens above all other kitchen accoutrements can still find plenty of recipes in the book. The maple bacon pancakes (complete with bourbon maple syrup) cook up great in a 12-inch cast iron skillet.
The simplicity of the book also lies in its ease of use. Recipes are labeled gluten-free, vegetarian, and one-pan or pot needed at the corner of each recipe page. “This book was inspired by the way we are all cooking today,” Tieghan explains. “After so much time spent in the kitchen during Covid, I think we all became a bit burnt out.” Hence, every recipe was designed to be less stressful, even easy and fun. “With life back to being busy, full of events, work, kids’ activities, and more, we need quick recipes,” she adds. “No one wants to spend hours in the kitchen—me included. I created this book based on the way I truly cook every day. Quick recipes that are always cozy, no matter the time of year.”
Baked Blackberry Lavender Doughnut
One of Tieghan’s favorite flavor combinations is blackberry and lavender. “I have a three-layer cake on the website that has been crowd-pleaser for years and years now,” she writes in the book. “These doughnuts have those same sweet flavors and beautiful colors, but they’re so much faster to make.”
PREP TIME: 15 minutes • COOK TIME: 15 minutes TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes • MAKES: 6 doughnuts
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter, melted, plus more for greasing
3/4 cup milk of your choice, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup blackberry preserves or jam (she likes Bonne Maman)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups white whole-wheat or all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine pink Himalayan salt
1/3 cup chopped blackberries
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus more as needed
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 6-cup doughnut tin.
In a small saucepan, combine the milk and lavender. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil, then simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes, until fragrant and infused. Strain out and discard the lavender.
In a large bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the steeped lavender milk, the melted butter, eggs, maple syrup, preserves and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and salt; stir until just combined. Gently fold in the berries. Divide the batter evenly among the doughnut cups, filling each half to two-thirds capacity.
Bake until the doughnuts are just set, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to release and invert the pan.
Meanwhile, make the glaze. Transfer the remaining 1/4 cup steeped lavender milk to a medium bowl. Whisk in the powdered sugar, adding more sugar or milk as needed to achieve a consistency that’s pourable but not runny.
Dip the doughnuts into the glaze or drizzle it over the tops. Serve immediately or store at room temperature in an airtight container for
up to 5 days.
You can follow along with Half Baked Harvest on Instagram @halfbakedharvest and halfbakedharvest.com.
Half Baked Harvest: Quick & Cozy by Tiefhan Gerard, published by Clarkson Potter, @2024, crownpublishing.com.
