Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk by Lara Ferroni

Sept. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- On the heels of her successful book, Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home (over 30,000 sold), Lara Ferroni recreates beloved sweet and salty snacks, minus the chemicals and artificial ingredients.

Imagine Twinkies, Doritos, Ding-Dongs, Goldfish, Thin Mints, and Cheez-Its without the artificial colors and preservatives—full of wonderful flavors, textures, and nutrients from whole grains and natural sugars—easily made in your own kitchen. Lara Ferroni shows you how with Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk (Sasquatch Books; October 2012; $19.95), a collection of fifty nostalgic childhood treats that satisfy your cravings, but without all the junk. It’s time, as Lara says, to “Take back our snacks!”

The “Real Sweet” recipes include snack cakes, cookies, frozen treats, and confections, while the “Real Salty” recipes include crackers, chips, dips, and a handful of other tough-to-categorize snacks like Corn Nuts and Hot Pockets. Lara’s own beautiful photographs accompany the recipes to tantalize the taste buds for what’s to come.

Real Snacks includes gluten-free and vegan alternatives for each recipe, supplemented by a wealth of easy-to-understand information on alternative flours, sugars, and fats in the “Real Ingredients” section.

In addition to the recipes and real ingredient information, Lara shares her best baking techniques, advice on tools, and a valuable “Real Snacks Pantry” appendix with twenty-two simple recipes for frequently used ingredients, such as evaporated milk and chocolate syrup, prepared naturally.

The book offers a recipe for just about every season and holiday: Caramel Corn in the fall; Chocolate Mint Wafers for when Girl Scout Cookies are out of season; Chocolate Toffee Bars as a homemade holiday gift; or Chile con Queso for Super Bowl to name a few.

About the Author
Lara Ferroni is a food writer and photographer who lives in Portland, Oregon. She is also the author (and photographer) of Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home. A former tech geek turned food geek, she spends her days exploring the food culture of the Pacific Northwest. She regularly contributes to Epicurious.com, Gourmet.com, Portland Monthly, Edible Communities (Seattle, San Francisco), and Seattle Magazine.