JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
If a book filled with cookie recipes sounds like a pretty awesome idea right now, well, you're in good company. Sales of baking cookbooks are up - way up - more than 80% over the past 12 months. NPR's Neda Ulaby has more.
NEDA ULABLY, BYLINE: One of the past year's bestselling cookbooks is dedicated just to desserts.
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SARAH FENNEL: Hi. My name is Sarah, and I love dessert.
ULABLY: Sarah Fennel's book is called "Sweet Tooth." It was not reviewed by any big newspapers when it came out last year. It did not need to be. Fennel is an online influencer, and "Sweet Tooth" has become this year's biggest baking cookbook, thanks to Fennel's smiley social media presence.
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FENNEL: This right here is my favorite holiday snack. It is a salty, sweet, white chocolate, cranberry, orange popcorn.
ULABLY: Other books contributed to the baking cookbook boom. For example, "Sally's Baking 101" by Sally McKenney. None of this was anticipated by Brenna Connor. She analyzes the U.S. book market for the research company Circana.
BRENNA CONNOR: The double-digit growth surprised me, so 80% growth certainly exceeded my expectations.
ULABLY: Especially since cookbooks, as a larger category, have actually gone down in sales.
CONNOR: Definitely bucking the trend, compared to the overall cookbook decline.
ULABLY: The last time baking cookbooks saw a spike in sales was - you guessed it - during the pandemic in 2020.
CONNOR: The growth then was led largely by bread cookbooks.
ULABLY: It's a little different now, Connor says. Instead of going to a bakery to buy a $4 cookie, she believes more people want to save money by making those cookies at home. Circana also tracks grocery store sales, and there's been an uptick, she says, in the baking aisles. And Connor has noticed another uptick in sales of specific kinds of baking cookbooks.
CONNOR: Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and even vegan are standing out among top growth titles.
ULABLY: Like one called "The Elements of Baking," by Katarina Cermelj. She's a self-described food science nerd with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Oxford. She teaches people to adapt any recipe to be free of gluten, eggs or dairy.
Neda Ulaby, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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