Lemons (Short Stack Editions, 13) Paperback – 1 Jan. 2015

I have read a lot of reviews of Short Stack Editions that are along the lines of: 1 star “Not worth the money, not very many recipes, slim pamphlet style staple bound book”. But I would say to those people, why did you buy it? The description clearly states that the books are staple bound and contain 20-25 recipes. This is an accurate description! I have so many of these books now and I have to say I love all of them. They all contain varied and inventive recipes using the particular ingredient on hand, the cover art is wonderful and they are great fun to read. Most importantly, all the recipes I have tried have really delivered. In an age of enormous numbers of free recipes available on the internet posted by bloggers that are often disappointing, a volume of well written and clearly well tested recipes is so welcome. I was really excited about this particular edition because I love Alison Roman and I wasn’t at all disappointed. Firstly, the book looks amazing with its wonderful cover art and bright yellow pages. The recipes are trademark Alison, simple in a “why didn’t I think of that?” kind of way, easy to follow and a lot of fun. So far I have only made two: the lemon aioli and an incredible coconut and lemon tea cake which was so easy to make but so wonderful to eat. I doubted the method would work and was proved absolutely wrong. I layered the leftover sponge with limoncello syrup, blueberries, custard and cream and topped with toasted coconut flakes to make the best ever trifle all of which has justified the price tag already (I paid close to full price). Can’t wait to make more recipes from this book and all my other Short Stacks. I’ve got my eye on Rosé All Day, Lemon Vanilla Bean Marmalade, Lemon Verbena Shortbread Cookies and Lemon Shaker Pie amongst many others. Don’t be put off by the negative reviews written by people who haven’t actually read the description and have then been disappointed by what they received!