Wild Sweetness: Recipes Inspired by Nature

by Thalia Ho

From the creator of the award-winning food blog, Butter and Brioche , comes a unique and beautifully designed full-color cookbook that brings wild flavors to desserts as told through the seasons. 

In Wild Sweetness, Thalia Ho captures the essence of the wild, and re-imagines it on the plate. She guides us through a tale of six distinct seasons and the flavors inspired by of bright, herbaceous new life in spring, to the aromatic florals that follow, of bursting summer berries, over-ripe fruit, warmth and spice in fall, then ending with winter and its smolder. In more than 95 recipes, Thalia opens our eyes and taste buds to a celebration of what the wild has to offer—a world of sweet escapism, using flavor to heighten our experience of food. Enthralling, unique, and inspired recipes you’ll want to cook over and over again. 

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Foodie, Food and Wine

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 23, 2021

Reviews

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic cookbook bringing nature in to the kitchen, featuring edible flowers, natural flavors, and recipes inspired by nature. Love that it's divided by season and features a variety of delicious and unique recipes accompanied with gorgeous photos!

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof. This book was given to me by friends, and so I was both excited and hopeful. Wild Sweetness is, however, wildly disappointing. There are a ton of chocolate recipes in this and many of them are just, like, chocolate and cream or chocolate and rye bread or chocolate with egg yolks and cocoa powder – barely recipes at all. I love chocolate, but since this is supposed to be "recipes inspired by nature", I was expecting more herbs, more flowers, more fruits: I can think of many things less processed and more natural than chocolate.

Worse still, Ho's prose borders on nonsensical, and the photography, though beautiful, doesn't help the person cooking the dessert. This is the main takeaway from the book, I think: it's not really made for home cooks or to help the people making these recipes. Though desserts usually demand precision, Ho is content to describe things using general, faux-artistic language rather than specific language. She might say, for example, that you should beat egg whites until you can run a spoon through them and get an "almost ribbonlike texture". Huh? And she almost never explains why she's choosing a particular ingredient or how we get to the texture she's describing or the consistency for which she's calling. This is a baffling book, honestly. It's meant, I think, to be admired as an art object rather than a cookbook – browsed through rather than used in the kitchen.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stupidly decided to mark every recipe of Ho's that I want to make, which resulted in me dog-earing essentially every page of this book. When I first saw the book's gorgeous, artistic photos, lush prose, and focus on wild (read: hard to source) ingredients, I immediately became suspicious that these dessert recipes wouldn't be approachable. But I couldn't have been more wrong! I cannot wait to get started on trying these, which are exactly my type of desserts: savory-leaning, unfussy, featuring all kinds of fruits and nuts and toasty grains.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely, with enticing recipes. I’ve already baked one, and look forward to more. Would have been 4 stars, but for two things: 1) A little more detail in finishing would be helpful. 2) The font and type size of the ingredient list is so small I had to pull out my phone and use the camera to enlarge the fractions. Yes, I have eyes of a certain age, but I am functional otherwise without reading glasses.

Other than that, which is a design flaw, it is a beautiful book filled with accessible recipes.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook was a whole mood. Dark, foggy, wintry nature photography, dimly lit beckoning desserts, and intense recipes—all herbal and floral and burnt sugar and buckwheat. Super fun.

[Rachel ♥⁷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful recipes, photos, and easy to follow directions.

[Libraryassistant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing recipes— though a few truly puzzling ones— interspersed with moody-lovely photos and hard to describe exposition about the seasons…to my ear, she ranges from poetic to truly purple to even a little incomprehensible.
For example this thought about the end of summer: “The heart, bruised like fallen fruit; once sweet, but with each passing moment, a little more spoiled and rotten.” Huh?
But, yes, lots of deliciously compelling recipes. Walnut Rosewater Chocolate Chip cookies, Black Currant Opera cake, Bay Leaf Blondies are just a few of the ideas that capture the imagination.

[Peregrine]

Kind of a pretentious cookbook but I want to buy a copy just for the hypothetical fancy dress tea parties I will be having every week when I'm 65

[Georgie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have lots of cookbooks but this had interesting recipes and one can never have too many cookbooks.

I don't pay too much attention to the pictures usually, but in this case I really dislike them. All the pictures have a sepia (?) filter applied, which makes everything look bland and unappealing. If there is one use case for having colorful pictures of food, it should be in a cookbook! I understand this was done to keep up with the moody/romantic tone of the book, but it seems rather bizarre.

I tried two recipes (bay leaf brownie and the granola) and both turned out great, however I had to adjust the cooking time of the brownie quite considerably. I appreciate oven times vary, but having to cook the brownie for 15 mins more than advised seems excessive.

Whilst I like the book, I don't recommend it to complete novices as some adjustments to the recipes may required.

[Madison Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost gave this 4 stars simply because baking is not my strong suit and it intimidates me (I made a cake from boxed mix today and even that was a struggle), until I realized that that’s my own problem, and this book is great! I love the concept of eating food that’s “in season”, and I also really liked the intro section where the author created something of a safe space for the reader to enter their kitchen prepared and encouraged. I only really enjoy baking in the winter, if I’m honest, so the winter recipes here were my favorite (I mean, s’mores pie? Come on!). I really enjoy how the author encourages fresh ingredients but not “diet” ingredients, focusing more on the joy of cooking and eating, which is very refreshing. The photography in this book is also excellent!

[Sunni B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single thing I have made so far has been great. From more classic recipes to completely new and creative.
All A+++

Love how simple the recipes are, and the twist of nature given to nearly each recipe. I also appreciate how most recipes come with photos and there is even an area in the back for more basic recipes that I’ve never thought to make (example: almond paste, crème fraiche..)

I’ve never had a favorite cookbook before but I can officially say this one has made it so.

Ps. her little intros (just a few sentences) before each recipe really gives you a sense of both the author and what to expect from the recipe. Kind of beautiful words about the feelings that can be given from food
You’ll know what I mean when you read it too :)

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting desserts arranged kind of “cutesy” around seasons that don’t really make sense (smoke?) But no matter, at least 1/3 of the recipes venture into the “wild” category and offer something different from the usual dessert. There is a juniper and white chocolate ice cream, bay leaf brownies and many recipes with roses and buckwheat. A few recipes seem questionable (scorched cheesecake?). But for the most part there’s a nice balance between recipes for which users will have the ingredients and unique outliers.

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, research well presented in a form of seductively sweet and brilliant flavour. Bravo Thalia. I had been following her blog Butter and Brioche and was to eager to get her book, first via Kindle and started to miss all the flip, notes that I feel I must do. So I bought the hard copy. I love her brioche, bostock, all chocolate recipe, Ras al hanout ice cream and everything. Recipes are divided according to season, easy to plan our baking plan ahead. And every season started with poems and extract from a book. Lovely..

[Caroline Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half art book, half cookbook, the kindle version doesn't give this book justice - I found the physical version was better for the images of nature that inspired the recipes. Each recipe is a unique collection of flavors - some of which are so potent I've come across references to them in other cookbooks, which is how I initially discovered this one. Worth reading for the unique flavor profiles.

[Laurice · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so much more than just a cookbook. It's a beautifully written piece of literature that I hung on to every poetic page and imagery this book presented. Stunning and delicate stories pulled me into a wildly romantic world Thalia breathed into. I'm greatly inspired by this book I'll keep coming back to.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful mix of art and cooking. The recipes are organized by season and are easy to follow. Each recipe feels elegant and creative, with unique flavor combinations that aren't overly complicated or fussy. With its stunning photography and thoughtful design, this book is perfect for anyone who loves baking and appreciates the beauty of nature.

[My Tam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my fave cookbook of the year: its connection to nature, literature, wild ingredients, and thoroughly original flavor combos. A wonderful find with recipes I’ll be cooking from and sharing for many years to come.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply stunning. The photography is as good as any coffee table book, and the recipes are like poetry. My new favorite cookbook.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful cookbook that features ambitious and obtainable dessert recipes.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moody & ethereal writing with recipes to match. My favorite chapters were "Woodland" and "Smoke."

[Relyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't bake, and certainly not at this level. But, I loved this cookbook. It was completely gorgeous.

[Marie E Cronin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not heavy on instruction, aesthetically pleasing. First made the peppercorn and rhubarb tart. Contains recipes for items (eg, scones) I like to make and am familiar with, may purchase.

[BingeReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the blondie recipe here.

[Sara Hiemstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many beautiful recipes. Those were inspiring. Many were too creative and left me wondering who would serve them. It’s nice to see some real creativity in the dessert world tho.

[Stephanie Duff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This tried waaaayyy too hard to be poetic, and most of the recipes in here have ingredients that are not easily found like tayberries and black currants.

[Anna Shanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked 3 recipes total to try that felt inspiring. A lot of the recipes felt not accessible or as nature-centered as the book claims. Photographs weren't helpful or that appealing.

[Vivien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stunning and poetic cookbook. Written like it was narrated by Michelle Phan. There are so many recipes I want to try.

[Juli Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerhouse cookbook! These recipes are impeccably developed, the photographs are luscious, and Ho's prose is outstanding. I ate up every page of this!

[Erin Pacitti]

This book is simply stunning. The photography is as good as any coffee table book, and the recipes are like poetry. My new favorite cookbook.

[Maarin Ismail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally got my hands on this book after searching for it everywhere!

First off, this has got to be the most aesthetic cookbook I’ve ever read (even if you don’t enjoy baking, it would make a great coffee table decor!).

It’s evident that Thalia is passionate about her work. The whole book has an ethereal mood to it, and the writing is straight up poetic. I also love that the chapters were divided into seasons with flavour profiles I’ve never heard of. I wish all the recipes had photographs though, it’d be a lot easier to visualise the end product, especially when working with wild ingredients. Needless to say, I’m excited to try these recipes out!