Black Girl Baking By Jerrelle Guy
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I’ll admit, the cover of this book is what drew me towards it. The image of a jubilant black woman surrounded by scrumptious looking cakes (how long do cakes last?), muffins, and cookies. I was doubtful if the actual book would entice me the same way as the cover, but Black Girl Baking: Wholesome recipes inspired by a soulful upbringing, definitely makes you want to get that apron on, tie your hair up and get baking.
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About The Writer
Written by Jerrelle Guy, an internet sensation with a master’s degree in gastronomy, Black Girl Baking is a memoir of sorts, where you will find lots of stories, connected to food and the reason why certain dishes have stayed with the writer growing up. The first culinary memory the writer recollects is about a young 6-year-old self and her sister concocting a parfait for their mother on Mother's Day. Filled to the brim with candies, Oreos (how long do oreos last?) and every sweet they could find lying around, the parfait was the beginning of Jerrelle’s love for cooking and baking.
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For 8 years, Jerrelle Guy pursued this passion on her popular food blog, Chocolate for Basil. In 2019 she came out with a smashing cookbook that got nominated for the James Beard book award. Black girl baking is rooted in childhood remembrances of food. It is sectioned based on about five senses that says a lot about the writer's style of baking. A deeply sensory baker, Guy trusts her own inclination to get the field, sound, touch and texture of her batters and doughs. It is more about letting go of precision and allowing your intuition to take over. To this day, the baker finds it unnatural to cook using measuring tools.
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Guy is now settled in Dallas, but having grown up in Lantana FL, she describes with vibrant poetic imagery, drives to little Havana for guava and cream pastelitos and Saturday trips to the market to pick green mangoes soaked in lime juice and cayenne pepper.
The Book
While she takes inspiration from strong female figures in her life, namely her mother her aunt and her grandmother, her own approach to cooking is more modern. Many of the dishes in Black Girl Baking are vegan, gluten free or both. Branded as overweight as a teen, Jerrelle shifted to an all vegan diet for a good number of years. As a vegan, she had to learn cooking from scratch, vegan meals from what limited resources at hand. This also honed her recipe development skills. The quinoa (how long does quinoa last?) banana bread muffins and plaited dukkah bread are fine recipes that aren't built off eggs but are just as delicious.
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The Recipes
In the book you will find among other recipes , a bread based off the writer’s mothers ambrosia salad, banana donuts (how long do donuts last?), honey buns similar to the ones she would buy at the corner store, and her grandmothers orange peel pound cake. Made with sour cream and a lot more butter and sugar, the pound cake reminds Guy of spending summers with her cousins at her grandmas.
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While most of the recipes are on the healthier side, there are also some classics like the five-spice coconut rice (how long does rice last?) pudding and the sheet pan chocolate chip pancakes that include refined sugars dairy and white flour.
When it's not dessert, Black Girl Baking offers recipes like smoked okra dip, Chestnut skillet cornbread and smoked barbecue roasted veggies, all inspired by food memories from childhood.
The phrase “soul food” appears multiple times in the book. For the writer, I would imagine this means food that can be shared and that brings people together. The Apple cider monkey bread is a jumbled loaf recipe that people can sit around, separate and enjoy. Jerrelle talks about being a part of a huge family, large family gatherings with lots of laughter and music and a hearty platter of vegetables which I believe is “soul food” described perfectly.
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The Significance Of The Title
The title of the book clearly suggests the importance of race to Jerrelle. Her experiences of being a black woman in America are scattered throughout different sections of the book. Baking seems to be the therapeutic tool that helps recenter her thoughts and empower her in the kitchen. The hashtag #blackgirlmagic is what inspired her to come up with the title. Another interesting fact that I read about Jerrelle is that she finds the act off kneading the dough very relaxing. Punching it down feels powerful in a therapeutic way. You will find instances where she alludes to baking as therapy throughout the book.
Black Girl Baking is about exploring and finding yourself. It is about inspiring black woman to reclaim their kitchens, bodies, diets, and personal power.
Presently, in Dallas with her partner Eric Harrison, the duo has launched their food photography business, EJC Studio. She hopes readers will be tempted to get creative in the kitchen through Black Girl Baking. Baking should be more about showing the beauty of the process, after all that is how you get the maximum growth out of any experience.
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