Snacking Bakes: Simple Recipes for Cookies, Bars, Brownies, Cakes, and More

by Yossy Arefi

60 accessible, anytime recipes for delectable cookies, cakes, brownies, and bars that need only one bowl and easy-to-find ingredients, from the award-winning author of Snacking Cakes

“Snacking Bakes is packed with Yossy’s trademark crave-worthy sweet-and-salty, ooey-gooey excellence—all without the fussiness and dish pile-up in the sink.”—Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times bestselling author of A Love Story

A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, Epicurious, Library Journal

Instantly satisfy your cravings with a collection of sweet and savory bakes that are delicious and easy to make. Trusted baker Yossy Arefi promises simple recipes that require minimal effort with big rewards. Almost every treat can be made in under one hour, in one bowl, and with no fancy ingredients or equipment—leaving you with less time in the kitchen and more time for snacking! Its approachable, crowd-pleasing style makes it the perfect introduction to baking too, even for kids. 

Yossy covers all the baked-good bases with recipes that feature a wide range of enticing flavors (even savory!) and are each accompanied by gorgeous photography shot by Yossy herself. 

• Magical Peanut Butter Cookies, Monster Cookies, New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blueberry Cornmeal Cookies, Fudgy Sesame Oat Cookies, Snack Attacks, Banana Brownie Cookies
• Bars, Brownies, and Triple Chocolate Olive Oil Blondies, Blueberry Swirl Blondies, Coconut Cookie Bark, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars, Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Ginger Cherry Oaties
• Cakes and Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake, Spiced Applesauce Crumb Cake, Brown Sugar Peach Cake, Peanut Butter  Jam Cake, Everything Bagel Biscuit Bread

An expansive companion to Snacking Cakes, Snacking Bakes will satisfy family and friends, bakers and non-bakers alike, with its creative, appealing, and simple delights.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference

186 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2023

Reviews

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made a couple of recipes from this so far and they were delicious. I actually made the banana brownie cookies twice, I’ve never had banana in a cookie but this is going to be our new go to way to use up those old bananas. Instructions are easy to follow, the recipes are interesting while still being simple, and I love the inspiration to mix and match. Borrowed this one from the library but now I feel like I need to buy it so I can bake through it at my leisure

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arefi never misses. Best peanut butter and oatmeal raisin/chocolate chip cookies ever

[tatum · Rating 5 out of 5]

every single recipe is perfect. i adore how the table of contents is set up, cravings matrix?! love it.

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highlighted some tasty sounding recipes, but haven't yet tried any.

[jessica wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only managed to bake one recipe from this one before I had to return it, but it was delicious! I'm hoping to check it out again to try a few more to see if I want to own this one. I'm thinking Snacking Cakes may be more of a go-to for the a-go-go household.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice pictures, easy recipes, but I didn't make any before returning the book to the Library.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t wait to start baking

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library and now I think I need to purchase a copy. I didn't get a chance to try any of the recipes but there were a whole lot that looked really nummy.

[Jodi G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The secret is brown butter... the best home made brownies I've ever made.

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting flavor combos. I might try making the S&P Olive Oil Shortbread. I'm still in large-batch baking mode.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The flavors in this book aren’t as much my style as in snacking bakes, but the recipes are still amazing. I love how it caters to lazy cravings!

[Donna Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book containing recipes perfect for snacking! The recipes were plenty and everything looks so good to try!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Yossy Arefi wrote her cookbook Snacking Cakes, she taught a lot of wannabe bakers that it doesn’t take much to whip up a quick cake. It doesn’t take a lot of time. It doesn’t take a lot of ingredients. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment. Baking can be quick, simple, and delicious. You can bake a cake while the kids are napping, on a weeknight, for a quick Saturday breakfast, or as a late night snack. Now she’s back with more tasty bakes in Snacking Bakes.

She starts out with cookies, a classic baked treat and the thing a lot of us learned to make first (I know I did). There are some classics, New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Do-It-All Salted Butter Shortbread, Monster Cookies. But with just a couple of extra ingredients, you can also bake up Soft Grapefruit Cookies, Almond Thumbprints, Malted Chocolate Cookies, or Thin and Crispy Maple Espresso Cookies. There are even some more savory cookies, like the Salt and Pepper Olive Oil Shortbread.

Next up are bars, brownies, and bark. Again, there are some classics like the Chewy Cocoa Brownies, Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Peanut Butter Blondies, or Pink Cookie Bars. But she also gets creative with flavors and has Banana Nut Blondies, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars, Coffee-Glazed Molasses Bars, or Date and Pistachio Coffee Bars.

And then it’s all about the cakes, with flavors like the Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake, Cornmeal Carrot Cake, Nutty Parsnip Cake, Mixed-Berry Tahini Cake, or Brown Sugar Peach Cake. She also includes recipes for her Cheesy Jalapeno Corn Bread and Everything Bagel Bread with Scallions, if you’re looking for a more savory bake to make and share.

As someone who bakes in a small kitchen, Arefi is mindful of using as few dishes as possible. The cookie recipes can be baked on two sheet trays at one time, or you can bake half and freeze half, to pull out and bake as you want. She offers up flavor substitutions throughout the book, and encourages bakers to change things up with glazes or spices or extra vanilla.

While many of her recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegan, she also presents suggestions to make more of the recipes friendly to vegan chefs using a flour substitute (and she mentions the ones she’s had the most luck with). But that last chapter offers up an idea of pure genius, as you can take just about any of these bakes and turn them into ice cream sundaes with her recipes for Salty Caramel Sauce, Hot Fudge, or Saucy Strawberries and the ice cream of your choice.

I love cakes, so when I saw Snacking Cakes come out, I was thrilled. I love the idea of quick, delicious unfussy cakes I could whip up with a limited pantry or limited time. And I’m just as happy with Snacking Bakes, with its wider variety of bakes. I also love that they are smaller batches, so they’re not tempting me from the kitchen counter for too long, but they are big enough to share. Those Triple-Chocolate Olive Oil Brownies would be the perfect end for a quiet dinner with friends, and the Berry Bran Cake would be lovely for a quiet Sunday morning with a hot beverage and a good book. This would be a perfect gift for beginner bakers or fans of baking competition shows who want to get in the kitchen but don’t know where to start. Here’s where you can start—with a handful of ingredients, one bowl, one pan, this cookbook, and a hunger for snacks.

Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of Snacking Bakes (with many thanks); the opinions are my own.

[Marysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have decided to count cookbooks for my reading goal if I flip through the whole thing and try to make at least a couple of recipes out of them. It contributes toward my overall goal of learning/trying new things.

I checked this book out of the library, but actually bought a copy after trying a couple recipes that were winners and deciding this is a book I would refer to often. People on Reddit tend to prefer the first book Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings: A Baking Book , but I find bars/cookies easier to reach for as a snack/mini dessert. There are some cakes in this book as well though.

I love the focus in this book on straightforward recipes that don't need a lot of specialized equipment, and the encouragement to try out different flavor variations and experiment. Arefi says not to use glass baking dishes, but that is what we have, so I have used them and for the most part the bakes have turned out fine. I also just grease it first, don't do the parchment liner/sling as I have not had an issue removing them from the pan as is.

So far, we have made:

Strawberry Cornmeal Cookies (variation of the Blueberry Cornmeal Cookies) - I actually think these would be good without any fruit glaze at all.

Salt and Pepper Olive Oil Shortbread (Herbed variation) - My partner made this one. These were an interesting and tasty sweet-and-savory combination and had a nice texture.

Frosted Lemon-Lime Sugar Cookie Bars - Probably my favorite out of the book so far although it is close. These were awesome. I think they would be good even without the frosting as well. I am going to try a variation with pomelo zest instead of lemon/lime as I also like those and recently bought a big one.

Blueberry Swirl Blondies - (homemade plum jam/walnut variation) These were the only ones that weren't a sheer "win" as we had some trouble with the baking time in our oven. I'm not experienced with making blondies, and was having some trouble getting the texture I was expecting. It didn't seem completely done for a long time and then, I think, ended up being overdone and a little too tough/chewy. Still tasted good though. I have another blondie-like bar I made recently from a different cookbook that did not use butter, and that finished texture was more to my liking.

Ginger Cherry Oaties - (Super Ginger variation - added crystallized ginger and swapped dried cranberries instead of cherries as that is what we had available). Loved these, as is usual for molasses spice anything.

Raspberry Mazurkas - (made twice, one plum, one raspberry/quince). Love these, as the book points out they were very popular in 1990s Seattle. I used to pass them up in mixed plates if there were brownies or chocolate chip available but have come to really enjoy/appreciate them now.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars - this was my birthday dessert. I used a home roasted pie pumpkin as it was around Halloween, and we got more out of it than the cans for the price as I haven't seen the cans on sale this year. This was one of my favorites as well.

Chocolate Prune Cake is next on the list!

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all I am not a baker. I have never particularly liked or enjoyed baking, but I am very particular when it comes to sweets and never find anything that suits my palate so I figured making my own will be the solution. I have no experience with baking but I was willing to give it a try once I spotted this book at the library, the pictures of the cakes showed the exact texture I was looking for so I gave it a go.
After going through the various recipes multiple times, I identified some that seemed ideal and went with my taste, went shopping for ingredients and dished out my first cake as per instructions and it was amazing! I customized it a bit since I wanted to add crunch I added nuts and cranberries to the mix, and added streusel from another recipe in the book. It still came out perfect! In one I even changed some of the flour for coconut flower, and I still did not mess up! This book inspired me to bake more and more!

I have never made steusel in my life, and these came out so good! I was surprised.
I found the recipes very inspiring, and varied, the instructions are very clear and easy to follow.
There are options to make multiple variation of the cake, there are also options with almond flour for those that prefer not to use regular flour.

There are recipes for cookies, brownies, and cakes, even salty treats!

So far I have tried 2 recipes and greatly enjoyed the results even though I used bits and pieces of multiple recipes. I made a pineapple cake with cream cheese icing from another and it is delicious!

I can't wait to try more. I always thought baking from scratch was difficult, and when I tried I was always disappointed, thanks to this I now am able to eat cakes I love!

I would definitely recommend it, even to inexperienced bakers like me!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it little repetitive and contradictory at times. The author lists espresso powder and malted milk powder (in detail) twice in her pantry chapter, just a few pages apart.

The author makes a big deal about how you never have to refrigerate the dough when making cookies after going on about how tiny her kitchen is but then a few pages later suggests you freeze or refrigerate raw blobs of the dough on a baking sheet and then freeze it because the cookies all have a very short shelf life. Do I need a lot of refrigerator space for these recipes or no?

The recipes look fine, an early recipe is is an back of the bag cookie tweaked which sets the standard for the rest of the recipes—largely classics we’ve seen tons of times that call for melted butter instead of at room temperature and cold eggs.

The book seemed like it was made to capitalize on her surprise hit Snacking Cakes which makes sense but it felt lacking in effort to me. Brownies and bars already are commonly made in 8x8 pans, it is easy to halve a cookie recipe if the yield is too large. Hundreds of cookie varieties are already quick and easy to take. What set the other book apart was that it was cakes which nearly always (in current times) to require large or multiple pans, time and effort. It was a throw back to the lunch box cakes and every day cakes of decades past that perhaps people aren’t as familiar with today. These recipes are for desserts people already are familiar with and already could be made quickly.

Maybe I was expecting too much? The book isn’t bad, it just isn’t very new or fresh feeling.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beauty of this book is that every single recipe takes less than an hour and is contained to one bowl and one baking pan. Nothing could be simpler. There are plenty of classic favorites and a host of new, original ones such as a maple espresso cookie and a grapefruit cookie. Every recipe has a photo and provides one to three different flavor variations so each recipe is actually several recipes in one. There are cookies, bars, and cakes without frostings. Many recipes offer instructions for how to make the recipe gluten free or vegan and there are also some dedicated recipes for each of these. In addition to providing many helpful baking tips and shortcuts, the author also invites readers to combine cookie and bar recipes to make brookies and offers sauce recipes that can be served over cakes or ice cream. This is one of the most flexible baking books I have ever seen. I especially recommend the peanut butter brownies which I adapted, at the author's suggestion, into peanut butter cup blondies. Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction to this book drew me in as I am not generally a baker--"needs only one bowl and easy-to-find ingredients." I do like sweets from time to time and finding some recipes that's not complicated will usually motivate me to bake some cookies. The Almond Thumbprints recipe is eye appealing and not difficult to make. I like how this author shares some flavor variations in many of the recipes. I love savory baked goods; so, the recipe for the Salt and Pepper Olive Oil Shortbread looks so good. There's only 7 ingredients and easy to find. If I'm asked to bring a baked treat to a gathering, I'm confident that I'll find something delicious to bake from this cookbook. This will be my go-to book for snacking treats. Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Snacking Bakes" is a delightful, accessible cookbook that lives up to its promise of simplicity without sacrificing flavor. Yossy Arefi's approach to one-bowl, minimal-effort baking makes this perfect for both beginners and experienced bakers looking to satisfy sweet cravings without the fuss. The clear instructions and beautiful photography are inspiring, and nearly all recipes feel attainable with pantry-friendly ingredients. While I personally found the cookie section less appealing (as I'm not a big cookie fan), the variety of bars, brownies, and cakes more than made up for it. My only wish would be for additional tips on freezing options and healthier substitutions. A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ cookbook that will definitely be getting regular use in my kitchen!

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love and use Snacking Cakes constantly so I’m thrilled to add this sequel to my collection! Yossy has such a talent for putting together creative flavor combos in simple-to-assemble recipes. I’m so excited to have even more cake ideas in addition to cookies and bars!

Putting a “disher” cookie scoop on my Christmas list—can’t believe I hadn’t seen this style before.

What I’ve made (I’ll try to remember to update):

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies—3.5/5. Very one-note cocoa flavor, not chewy enough and the peanut butter chips were just okay. I did forget the flaky salt and I may have baked a minute too long. My family gave them fave reviews though! (We’re big choc-PB fans.)

[Brenda Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own. This is a. wonderful baking book for every level of baker. There are cookies, bars and cakes: something for everyone. Most ingredients can be found in the every day pantry or purchased at the local grocer. Yossy includes pantry staples, equipment and even how to store all of those scrumptious treats.
The Monster Cookies and Brown Butter Marble Cake are out-of-this-world delicious. I am looking forward to making many more snacking treats.

[Donna Siebold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot remember when I have liked a cookbook more. I am notorious for forgetting to soften my butter-this despite the fact that I have no qualms about leaving butter out for weeks at a time! At any rate, the majority of these recipes require you to melt the butter before mixing. The recipes come together quickly and you can have fresh baked goodies for serving in about one hour. I think I have made three different kinds of cookies (one was no bake) and three or four cakes so far. Haven’t found a one that wasn’t fabulous. Try this one it has a lot to offer.

[Beth Kakuma-Depew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering variety of delicious snacking bakes, the first chapter is COOKIES. Each recipe has a full color photograph, which I enjoy, and the Vegan and Gluten free options are marked by a small "V" or "GF" symbol at the upper right of the recipe. The introduction covers the basics, but also has a page on substitutions, which is helpful if you are Vegan or Gluten-Free, but want to try one of the conventional recipes.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as exciting as Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings: A Baking Book, but still worth a gander.

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is sectioned into cookies, bars, brownies and cakes. An overview in the front of the book shows which ones are gluten-free or vegan or both and gives an idea what utensils or pantry staples might be needed. I can't wait to try them soon. All recipes come with information how to make and store those goodies as well as a picture that makes your mouth water!

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVE this book. The editing, layout, photography, recipe writing are just incredible. This is the definition of a well-made cookbook. I sincerely wish all cookbooks could be like this. Also, the recipes are great! I got it from my library and will most likely buy it for myself! I never write reviews but I think this book deserves the praise.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library, but now I'm gonna buy it. Soo many recipes to try! Classic favorites, twists on classics, & then some I've never made before. Each recipe has a photo! This is one of my top peeves for cookbooks! I feel every recipe should have a photo for reference, so this cookbook is a hit for me on that alone.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

- [x] Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies
- [x] Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- [x] Monster Cookies
- [x] Malted Sugar Cookies
- [x] Thin and Crispy Maple Espresso Cookies
- [x] Chocolate Chip Crispy Rangers
- [x] Almond Thumbprints
- [x] Malted Chocolate Cookies
- [x] Pink Cookie Bars
- [x] Brown Butter Marble Cake

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exactly what the title indicates. I like that each recipe has a photo. The intros are good, and the variations and hot tips are excellent. This is a great cookbook for easy baking. Don’t look at this when you’re hungry!

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great recipes mentioned are:


Soft Grapefruit Cookies
Frosted Lemon-Lime Sugar Cookie Bars
Glazed Cookie Butter Bars
Pink Cookie Bars
Chocolate Cherry Pistachio Bars
Strawberry Lime Almond Cake

Can't wait to try.


Highly recommended