2011 is drawing to a close, and it's time to look back and take stock of this past year's crop of cookbooks. Cookbooks comprise one area of traditional publishing that's still going strong, and this felt like a particularly rich and colorful year for new cookbooks. Here are a couple of my favorites, and we would love to hear from you: Which new cookbooks really stood out to you this year? Tell us, and we'll round up all your answers next week.
Here are two of my personal favorites from 2011:
• Cookbook Review & Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi - For his colorful, innovative ways with vegetables, and the simple yet vibrant photography.
• Recipe & Review of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer - Jeni is a hometown favorite, and her shops are one of the nicest things about living in Columbus. I adored this book — it had a great mix of thorough, scientific explanation and testing to give great results, combined with delicious recipes and gorgeous photography.
OK, your turn! What was your favorite new cookbook published this past year?
Related: Which Cookbook to Buy? 7 Questions to Help You Choose
(Images courtesy of Chronicle Books and Artisan Books)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson (author of 101cookbooks.com) is hands down my favorite cookbook ever.
Twenty, by Michael Ruhlman. Oh, and ditto on Plenty. I could stare at that cover for DAYS.
Melissa Clark's Cook this Now.
Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson was my favorite this year.
Pie Contest in a Box by Gina Hyams
Home Made by Yvette van Boven. Every single thing I've made from it has been delish!
So many great books this year, so hard to choose. The one I've cooked from the most and love everything I've made is Melissa Clark's Cook This Now. The books that wows me with its inventiveness is Ottolenghi's Plenty. The one I haven't got and really want (though I've cooked some recipes from it I found online) is Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. I could name at least a dozen more great books this year - including of course Sara Kate's Good Food to Share and Faith's Not Your Mother's Casseroles.
Supernatural Everyday!!
Homesick Texan!!
It was a wonderful field this year (including the two you mention), but for sheer usage-since-purchase, I have to go with Super Natural.
Definitely Home Made by Yvette Van Boven and Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado for creative candy cooking....such fun over the holidays!
Home Made!! Love the adorable illustrations, and the recipes are really easy to boot!
Now I must say the best "cookbook" we had this year...was a calendar. Yup, a calendar. We have had some fantastic meals this year because of the calendar, Chile Peppers . Not one recipe was a dud. So good in fact we went to great lengths to purchase the 2012 calendar. I see another tasty year in our future.
the jeni's book is freaking awesome. i find her sugar ratio to be too sweet, but otherwise, an incredible ice cream book. love her. i can make 3 pints of $10 jenis now from $5 worth of milk and cream!
I've wanted "Plenty" for a while now and this post just sparked me to order it! Let's call it an early holiday gift to myself.
Jessie Oleson's CakeSpy Present Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life... DUH :D
Plenty! It's my favorite cookbook overall right now. Just make sure to leave out the two tablespoons of sugar that seem to be in every recipe.
I loved Super Natural Every Day as well, but hands down, Ruhlman's Twenty!
Bi-Rite Eat Good Food. I have made ten of the recipes and they're all amazing so far. The extra info is fantastic, too - makes for great reading cozied up in bed.
I broke down and finally bought Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now" when it was half price at B&N. I don't love everything in the book (some dishes were a little to Middle-Eastern inspired for my Midwestern palate - cinnamon does not belong on meat), but it was pretty darn inspiring. I marked probably about half the recipes as ones that looked good and weren't too complicated (some were almost too easy!) and that I would actually eat on a regular basis.
My favorite cookbooks though will always be vintage ones. Just got Kindle for PC (page turns instead of scrolling! Page savers for where you left off!) and have downloaded about 30 antique and vintage cookbooks from Amazon and Project Gutenberg for free. Can't wait to check them out!
I'm huge on cookbooks ever since I started food blogging last December. There's one book I keep referring to again and agin because the recipes are awesome, and have never failed me: The Australian Women’s Weekly Macroons & Biscuits. It's a treasure find, no kidding!
This will probably get me some grief, but I just about wore out my copy of Christy Jordan's Southern Plate. Not all-natural cooking, but really good food for those of us who love Southern cuisine. A friend of my daughter's bunked with me earlier this year while working at a nearby construction site, and he liked Christy's recipes so much he'd search the book & then ask me to make specific ones.
jeni's!!!! by FAR!!! though nothing beats walking into a jeni's in columbus and trying 10 flavors before choosing my usual Queen City Cayenne and Cherry lambic Sorbet :D
I have Jeni's and love it, but really, Momofoku's Milk Bar cookbook has changed my life. I am slowly cooking my way through it and am loving the delicious, if time consuming, results!
Oh, Jeni's book is just incredible. Best ice cream I ever made. I wish someone would come up with some vegan ice cream recipes that could stand up to hers.
After reading this, I realized that I did not buy one new cookbook this year. I know what I'll be asking Santa for....
Momofuku milk bar. Ruhlman's Twenty. Volt :)
William Curley's Couture Chocolate.
So beautiful and so, so, so inspiring!
Tartine Bread. Stunning!
Well, they're new to me, but not new this year.... Both of Trisha Yearwoods cookbooks are really good. Good, southern cooking without the "Paula Deen" affect. Also, I just receieved YOUR cookbook Faith-Not Your Mother's Casseroles cookbook. I already have oodles of sticky notes hangint out of the top from marked recipes I want to try.
As a homesick Texan, "Homesick Texan" was by far my favorite cookbook this year. But I'm also loving Plenty and Supernatural Every Day.
The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook. Great, usable recipes, lovely photos & a fun format that encourages you to make notes and make the cookbook your own family heirloom.