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American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook: Delicious Recipes Inspired by Your Favorite Characters
Make history come alive with recipes for sweets & savories from the eras of favorite American Girl characters.
With a repertoire of 50+ recipes inspired by the unique stories of 17 favorite American Girl characters, this beautiful cookbook invites young chefs to develop basic kitchen skills while preparing sweet and savory sharable treats. From Josefina’s Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies to Rebecca’s Potato Latkes, Melody’s Strawberry Icebox Pie to Luciana’s Cosmos Doughnuts—this collection of kid-friendly recipes covers a wide range of flavors to satisfy kid chefs of all skill levels. This perfect gift for American Girl fans features colorful pictures of the dishes and characters interspersed throughout the pages and will keep kids engaged and curious.
50+ Learn to make baked goods, from cookies to muffins to celebratory cakes, plus savory snacks like hummus with veggie dippers
TREATS FROM EVERY From Rebecca’s early 20th century New York Cheesecake to Blaire’s Homemade Fruit Leather
LEARN COOKING TIPS AND Master measuring, rolling, frosting, and decorating!
INSPIRING Full-color photos help ensure success
OFFICIAL AMERICAN GIRL The trusted partner for families who want to raise strong, confident girls and help girls discover their sense of self
With a repertoire of 50+ recipes inspired by the unique stories of 17 favorite American Girl characters, this beautiful cookbook invites young chefs to develop basic kitchen skills while preparing sweet and savory sharable treats. From Josefina’s Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies to Rebecca’s Potato Latkes, Melody’s Strawberry Icebox Pie to Luciana’s Cosmos Doughnuts—this collection of kid-friendly recipes covers a wide range of flavors to satisfy kid chefs of all skill levels. This perfect gift for American Girl fans features colorful pictures of the dishes and characters interspersed throughout the pages and will keep kids engaged and curious.
50+ Learn to make baked goods, from cookies to muffins to celebratory cakes, plus savory snacks like hummus with veggie dippers
TREATS FROM EVERY From Rebecca’s early 20th century New York Cheesecake to Blaire’s Homemade Fruit Leather
LEARN COOKING TIPS AND Master measuring, rolling, frosting, and decorating!
INSPIRING Full-color photos help ensure success
OFFICIAL AMERICAN GIRL The trusted partner for families who want to raise strong, confident girls and help girls discover their sense of self
144 pages, Hardcover
Published November 16, 2021
14 people want to read
About the author
Weldon Owen
301 books52 followersWeldon Owen is an imprint of Insight Editions, a publisher of illustrated books on food & drink, photography, music, and popular culture. Elegant and informative, Weldon Owen titles showcase the best of art, photography, and design in exquisite presentations of the bookmaker's craft. They are located in San Rafael, CA.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 15, 2022
This recipe book features recipes INSPIRED by the American Girl characters. All the iconic historical characters are here except for Samantha, who is inexplicably missing. Also included are past Girl of the Year characters Luciana, Blaire, Joss and Kira.
This book begins with a few brief cooking tips but is otherwise a recipe book for kids who know how to cook or parents cooking with their kids. The front of the book also features a picture of each character with her name, year, home and list of recipes. Each character has a page detailing facts about the character and the time period. I especially liked seeing the lists of popular foods and foods developed during that time.
The book is divided by type of recipe rather than character and some characters have more recipes than others (Kaya, Felicity, Kirsten, Nanea, Molly, Maryellen, Julie, Courtney and Kira have 3,while everyone else has 4) and some recipes are more appropriate for the context of the story, like challah for Rebecca. Others are imagined and inspired by the types of foods people ate in that time or place like corn muffins for Josefina. Other recipes are random, like pink frosted cupcakes for Kirsten. Bizarre. I was surprised and pleased to see gingerbread featured so often, especially for Felicity. Baking powder wasn't invented until Addy's time so recipes using baking soda are closer to the original recipe as Felicity's cook would have known.
In Sweet Snacks, under the what the heck category is frozen yogurt berry bites for Kaya.
Almond energy bites for Maryellen are another example of the what the heckery of this book. While homemade fruit leather is included for Blaire, I've also seen Kaya-inspired fruit leather. Spiced applesauce muffins from - guess who? Nope, not Molly, not Nanea but Kaya. Um what?
Under the close but not quite right is sweet and salty peanuts for Felicity. Yes peanuts are a staple crop in Virginia but they weren't developed yet in Felicity's day. Try making spiced nuts or making boiled peanuts for Addy. Ice cream bon-bons are justified for Addy simply because it's ice cream. There's is an interesting fact that Philadelphia style ice cream was developed in Addy's day and that fact was NOT included in her original cookbook so hooray for learning something new! It also says Addy tried southern tea cakes for the first time at a church supper in Philadelphia. I guess so? Maybe?
Even with the what the heckery, I saw several recipes I just want to try!
Savory Shareables is the second category. Cheese and chive crackers for Courtney? I don't remember any kid eating those in the 80s. Chips and dip, yes, cheese and chive crackers? Maybe in California?Savory ranch popcorn does sound like something my sister may have liked back in the 80s. Melody's recipe is inspired by her garden but sounds fancy- Garden Caprese Tomatoes with Pesto. PROBABLY not 1960s and PROBABLY not something most kids will beg to make for dinner. In this section we learn boxed mac and cheese was introduced during the Depression but the homemade recipe sounds tastier for adults. HUMMUS with Victory Garden Veggie Dippers for MOLLY? MOLLY? The girl who won't eat her mashed turnips? Hummus was unknown during WWII and veggies were eaten boiled or mixed in with meats or gelatin or canned.
In the close category is Josefina's recipe for chilli corn muffins with an interesting note about southwestern foods. Cookbooks were full of muffin like recipes but fluffy muffins were not possible without baking power.
On the plus side, cheese fondue is spot on for Julie. Fondue is groovy man! Also groovy is deviled eggs. I associate deviled eggs with Samantha, not Julie. Why isn't Samantha here? Cast iron corn bread is something Addy would have eaten and according to the note, crumbled in buttermilk for breakfast. Cornbread works for Felicity and of course Josefina as well. Rebecca wins the accuracy award for potato latkes and challah. Kirsten also wins with Swedish meatballs. Pigs in a blanket are included for Maryellen but even Courtney would enjoy them and maybe the modern gals still eat them. Nanea's chicken pineapple kebabs with mango sauce sound plausible maybe for a party. The note shares information on the history of pineapples in Hawaii.
Cookies and bars are definately in the INSPIRED category. The early characters wouldn't have the types of sweet cookies we enjoy today. Joss's sand dollar snickerdoodles would work for Felicity. Snickerdoodles go back to early Dutch or German settlers. Rebecca's recipe is chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies, inspired by the fact that the orginal Oreos were invented in New York in the early 1900s. Since Blaire is lactose intolerant, her chocolate mocha brownie recipe is vegan. Kaya's recipe is for nut, seed and fruit granola bars but the note doesn't tell us what types of fruits and nuts Kaya would have gathered.
Cakes and Pies includes the aforementioned pink cupcake recipe. I guess the strawberries on top mean it's inspired by Kirsten? Her focus page is in this section and lists much better foods to make for her so I'm confused as to why none of those were included in this book. Dulce de Leche crepe cake for Josefina is another bizarre choice. Another odd choice is Chocolate-Caramel Bundt "Election" Cake. Chocolate cake wasn't invented until the early 1900s and election cake wasn't eaten by the women who cooked it, only the men at the polls. Plus, if the first presidential election wasn't held until 1788 why are they including this for Felicity? Addy maybe.
Molly's red, white and blue sheetcake is a staple in my family for the 4th of July. The historical note is a bit off. Sugar was sometimes hard to get because it was grown in places where there was heavy fighting or ships were needed for the war but if you could get it, each family member was entitled to 1 lb. of white sugar per ration period PLUS extra for canning. Savvy cooks turned to alternative sweetners like molasses, honey and maple syrup like their ancestors did. They also used corn syrup.
As always with Weldon Owen, their photos are gorgeous and make everything look delicious. I found this cookbook OK to browse but not something I need to own for my historical book collection. Try the original character cookbooks and cooking studios and actual period cookbooks instead for more accuracy.
This book begins with a few brief cooking tips but is otherwise a recipe book for kids who know how to cook or parents cooking with their kids. The front of the book also features a picture of each character with her name, year, home and list of recipes. Each character has a page detailing facts about the character and the time period. I especially liked seeing the lists of popular foods and foods developed during that time.
The book is divided by type of recipe rather than character and some characters have more recipes than others (Kaya, Felicity, Kirsten, Nanea, Molly, Maryellen, Julie, Courtney and Kira have 3,while everyone else has 4) and some recipes are more appropriate for the context of the story, like challah for Rebecca. Others are imagined and inspired by the types of foods people ate in that time or place like corn muffins for Josefina. Other recipes are random, like pink frosted cupcakes for Kirsten. Bizarre. I was surprised and pleased to see gingerbread featured so often, especially for Felicity. Baking powder wasn't invented until Addy's time so recipes using baking soda are closer to the original recipe as Felicity's cook would have known.
In Sweet Snacks, under the what the heck category is frozen yogurt berry bites for Kaya.
Almond energy bites for Maryellen are another example of the what the heckery of this book. While homemade fruit leather is included for Blaire, I've also seen Kaya-inspired fruit leather. Spiced applesauce muffins from - guess who? Nope, not Molly, not Nanea but Kaya. Um what?
Under the close but not quite right is sweet and salty peanuts for Felicity. Yes peanuts are a staple crop in Virginia but they weren't developed yet in Felicity's day. Try making spiced nuts or making boiled peanuts for Addy. Ice cream bon-bons are justified for Addy simply because it's ice cream. There's is an interesting fact that Philadelphia style ice cream was developed in Addy's day and that fact was NOT included in her original cookbook so hooray for learning something new! It also says Addy tried southern tea cakes for the first time at a church supper in Philadelphia. I guess so? Maybe?
Even with the what the heckery, I saw several recipes I just want to try!
Savory Shareables is the second category. Cheese and chive crackers for Courtney? I don't remember any kid eating those in the 80s. Chips and dip, yes, cheese and chive crackers? Maybe in California?Savory ranch popcorn does sound like something my sister may have liked back in the 80s. Melody's recipe is inspired by her garden but sounds fancy- Garden Caprese Tomatoes with Pesto. PROBABLY not 1960s and PROBABLY not something most kids will beg to make for dinner. In this section we learn boxed mac and cheese was introduced during the Depression but the homemade recipe sounds tastier for adults. HUMMUS with Victory Garden Veggie Dippers for MOLLY? MOLLY? The girl who won't eat her mashed turnips? Hummus was unknown during WWII and veggies were eaten boiled or mixed in with meats or gelatin or canned.
In the close category is Josefina's recipe for chilli corn muffins with an interesting note about southwestern foods. Cookbooks were full of muffin like recipes but fluffy muffins were not possible without baking power.
On the plus side, cheese fondue is spot on for Julie. Fondue is groovy man! Also groovy is deviled eggs. I associate deviled eggs with Samantha, not Julie. Why isn't Samantha here? Cast iron corn bread is something Addy would have eaten and according to the note, crumbled in buttermilk for breakfast. Cornbread works for Felicity and of course Josefina as well. Rebecca wins the accuracy award for potato latkes and challah. Kirsten also wins with Swedish meatballs. Pigs in a blanket are included for Maryellen but even Courtney would enjoy them and maybe the modern gals still eat them. Nanea's chicken pineapple kebabs with mango sauce sound plausible maybe for a party. The note shares information on the history of pineapples in Hawaii.
Cookies and bars are definately in the INSPIRED category. The early characters wouldn't have the types of sweet cookies we enjoy today. Joss's sand dollar snickerdoodles would work for Felicity. Snickerdoodles go back to early Dutch or German settlers. Rebecca's recipe is chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies, inspired by the fact that the orginal Oreos were invented in New York in the early 1900s. Since Blaire is lactose intolerant, her chocolate mocha brownie recipe is vegan. Kaya's recipe is for nut, seed and fruit granola bars but the note doesn't tell us what types of fruits and nuts Kaya would have gathered.
Cakes and Pies includes the aforementioned pink cupcake recipe. I guess the strawberries on top mean it's inspired by Kirsten? Her focus page is in this section and lists much better foods to make for her so I'm confused as to why none of those were included in this book. Dulce de Leche crepe cake for Josefina is another bizarre choice. Another odd choice is Chocolate-Caramel Bundt "Election" Cake. Chocolate cake wasn't invented until the early 1900s and election cake wasn't eaten by the women who cooked it, only the men at the polls. Plus, if the first presidential election wasn't held until 1788 why are they including this for Felicity? Addy maybe.
Molly's red, white and blue sheetcake is a staple in my family for the 4th of July. The historical note is a bit off. Sugar was sometimes hard to get because it was grown in places where there was heavy fighting or ships were needed for the war but if you could get it, each family member was entitled to 1 lb. of white sugar per ration period PLUS extra for canning. Savvy cooks turned to alternative sweetners like molasses, honey and maple syrup like their ancestors did. They also used corn syrup.
As always with Weldon Owen, their photos are gorgeous and make everything look delicious. I found this cookbook OK to browse but not something I need to own for my historical book collection. Try the original character cookbooks and cooking studios and actual period cookbooks instead for more accuracy.
January 6, 2022
This cookbook features recipes, photos, and character profiles related to seventeen different American Girl characters. The book includes some of the most recent Girl of the Year characters, along with classic and more recent historical characters. I enjoyed the range of different cultures and backgrounds represented, and was pleased that this book includes Kirsten despite how long she has been retired from the regular American Girl collection.
If someone enjoys this, I would highly recommend that they pursue used copies of the out-of-print American Girl cookbooks from the past, which focused on individual characters and had a lot more historical information in them, beyond the sidebars here. This cookbook is a great way to get an overview of different foods from different time periods and cultures, but if someone wants a deep dive, older American Girl cookbooks are fairly easy to find used at low prices.
There are a few things that I hope the publisher corrects in future editions. There are some occasional typos, such as missing articles in a sentence and dropped punctuation marks, and someone very poorly phrased a description about Felicity and her mother, saying that even though they did a lot in the kitchen, they also "needed servants and slaves" to contribute to dinner. Um, no. I'm sure that this was just a mistake, but the publisher needs to rephrase this in future editions, saying that the families like Felicity's also depended on, or used, servants and slaves. This was an unfortunate, distracting error in a good book.
If someone enjoys this, I would highly recommend that they pursue used copies of the out-of-print American Girl cookbooks from the past, which focused on individual characters and had a lot more historical information in them, beyond the sidebars here. This cookbook is a great way to get an overview of different foods from different time periods and cultures, but if someone wants a deep dive, older American Girl cookbooks are fairly easy to find used at low prices.
There are a few things that I hope the publisher corrects in future editions. There are some occasional typos, such as missing articles in a sentence and dropped punctuation marks, and someone very poorly phrased a description about Felicity and her mother, saying that even though they did a lot in the kitchen, they also "needed servants and slaves" to contribute to dinner. Um, no. I'm sure that this was just a mistake, but the publisher needs to rephrase this in future editions, saying that the families like Felicity's also depended on, or used, servants and slaves. This was an unfortunate, distracting error in a good book.
December 5, 2023
Some super cute recipes in here. But where's Samantha...?
December 20, 2023
I like American girl dolls and I also like baking so this book was really fun to read. I liked because it wasn’t just sweet treats. I suggest this book for kids ages 8 and up.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews