An Interview with Faith Durand

We recently chatted with Faith Durand. Durand, the executive editor of the Kitchn, is not only a blogger extraordinaire (over 11,000 posted), but the author of a recent cookbook, Bakeless Sweets: Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluff, Icebox Cake, and More No-Bake Desserts. She discussed the motivation and purpose behind the cookbook, as well as the difference between writing a blog and a cookbook.

(And she's also offering three copies to EYB members - just post a comment below by June 7 describing your favorite no-bake dessert. Make sure you are signed-in so we can contact you.) 

"When I tell people I just wrote a cookbook with 150 recipes for pudding and other no-bake desserts (B), their eyes go wide. "What did you DO with all that pudding?" they exclaim. Then come the consoling noises about the prolonged sugar coma I must have endured. Yes, my refrigerator was consistently studded with bowls of pudding this past year (not to mention Deepest Chocolate Mousse, and Salted Caramel Risotto, and Yogurt Pudding Squares with Raspberry, and Lemon Icebox Cake…), but far from this being a hardship, I felt like the luckiest cookbook developer in the world. Pudding is one of the great desserts, and it deserved its own book. 

Pudding, to me, is one of the most deeply luxurious desserts, made to be slowly licked off a spoon, swirls of butterscotch or coconut cream pudding in a pretty bowl. I grew up with homemade custards and chocolate pudding, and as I fell in love with cooking, I found some of my favorite authors shared a nostalgic love for this homey, often British-inspired dessert. Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking  frequently celebrate the simplest pleasures, like the slow-cooked lemon rice pudding made of just four ingredients, or the deeply awesome coffee fluff  - a blend of coffee jelly and whipped cream. She introduced me to Jane Grigson, whose honeycombed lemon jelly beats Jell-O to a pulp with its fresh lemon sweetness. Trifles, custards, jellies, no-bake cookies and the homey American icebox cake - these are all the desserts that are special and delicious (a strawberry icebox cake recipe at The Kitchn has been viewed over a million times; people love these!). 

It's very rare to find a space in the cookbook world that is not comfortably covered a dozen times over by other authors. But the cookbook that celebrated the art of pudding and other no-bake desserts was nowhere to be found. I couldn't believe my luck; these are the desserts I love the most, and that bring the most pleasure when I make them, so the opportunity to write this book, Bakeless Sweets, felt like the biggest treat in the world. It's different from nearly every dessert book out there right now, and while I adore my well-read shelf of baking books, I wanted this pudding book to stand beside it. 

Writing a book, however, is very different from writing for the web - which is what I do every day. In my day job, as executive editor of The Kitchn, I write and edit for home cooks (over the past 6 years I've written over 11,000 blog posts). The feedback loop is immediate: I can have an idea, write it up, and hear from a reader five minutes later that it really could use some improvement!

Cookbooks have a different cycle, obviously. The website is a work in progress; it's easy to change and update as time goes by, and we're always working to make our recipes, tips, and cooking lessons even better. With a book, however, eventually you get to a point where it's all set firmly and irrevocably in ink on paper. But I love the way that readers talk back to us about our recipes at The Kitchn, and bring their own stories into the mix. I wanted that for this book, even in a small way, so I asked some food writer friends to share their own stories about puddings and some tips for their favorite no-bake desserts. Dorie Greenspan told me what she loves most about creme brûlée; Monica Bhide describes what makes a really good kheer; Nancie McDermott instructed me in the classic Southern banana puddin'. I felt I drew a little of the blog world into the book, with many voices adding their experience. 

And of course every cookbook, in some way, offers many voices, each recipe rising up out of many kitchens. The butterscotch pudding in Bakeless Sweets, while tested and tweaked in my own kitchen, is very close to the butterscotch pudding, thick and creamy, that has been delighting people for hundreds of years. I'm just the latest voice in the chain of cooks, and I hope that more carry on with their bowls of pudding, their tiramisu, their summery panna cotta, because of Bakeless Sweets and the voices inside."

As mentioned above, we have three copies of Bakeless Sweets to give away - just post a comment below by June 7 describing your favorite bakeless dessert.  Make sure you are signed-in so we can contact you if you win.

This contest is now closed.  Using a random number generator, our lucky winners are ellabee, dbielick and rivergait.