Darina Allen: Cookbooks to gift and recipes for smashed potatoes and Christmas fudge

Darina Allen shares gift inspiration and festive recipes in the nick of time for Christmas

Picture: Daniel Callen

Last week, my column was packed with suggestions for edible presents. This week. I’m going to suggest some recently published cookbooks — some for beginners, others for culinary creatives, cake makers, nature lovers, and still others to delight the food historians, and one outstanding bread book for the baking nerds in your life. Richard Hart’s Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking book arrived on my desk recently.

This much-anticipated book written by legendary, and I don’t use that term lightly, bread baker Richard Hart considered by many to be one of the world’s great bakers. He founded Tartine in San Francisco with Chad Robertson, then went on to work with René Redzepi at Noma, before establishing the hugely successful Hart Bageri in Copenhagen, and more recently he has launched Green Rhino bakery in Mexico City.