“In this corner of ours, we celebrate our favorites, but we have fun with them, too. Because if you can't have fun with what you love, then what's the point?”
― Shauna Robinson, The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
For this literary cooking challenge, it’s fitting that my final meal for the year is inspired by a novel all about a bookshop and banned books.
I read The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson a few months ago, but this entertaining story about community and how books can bring people together stayed with me, as did the mention of some famous apple cheddar biscuits.
The book
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks has a slow start, but I ended up loving it. If you love books set in small towns, filled with quirky characters, you’ll like this book. Maggie Banks doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life; she’s been unemployed for months and living with her parents when her college best friend asks for her help running a bookstore. Maggie isn’t a reader; she doesn’t even know all the classics, which is a problem since the bookstore only sells books published decades ago. The owner of the bookstore and several other businesses in town insists everyone use their business to promote Edward Bell, the town’s most famous author resident, so the bookstore is banned from selling any modern books. No one in the town seems very happy, until Maggie comes along and shakes things up. Maggie’s speciality is people and bringing them together; it was refreshing to see that kind of extroverted character in such a bookish novel. I also enjoyed Maggie’s romance with straight-laced Malcolm and her friendship with Vernon, the grumpy old man who lives above the bookstore. Overall, it was a very entertaining read and I’d love to read more by this author.
The food
The economy in Maggie’s small town depends on Edward Bell’s legacy; the coffee shop in town even sells food from his novels. I won’t subject you to Edward Bell’s famous prune salad (yuck), but his apple cheddar biscuits sounded wonderful and were perfect for this week’s theme, which was a crossover with the 52 Weeks of Baking subreddit.
A scone is a close cousin of a biscuit, so I used this recipe for Apple Cheddar Scones from Smitten Kitchen.
The recipe begins with roasting the apples to remove some of the moisture. Once the apples are cooled, mix them with butter, shredded white cheddar, heavy cream, an egg, flour, sugar and baking powder. It’s a fairly wet dough, so make sure your work surface is well-floured before you tip it out and form into scones/biscuits. Egg wash, then bake; I used a higher temp than the recipe called for, but a lower cooking time, because I wanted to be sure they fluffed up.
The verdict? These biscuits/scones have great apple flavor, but I would have liked more cheese. They are the best the day you make them and okay toasted on the second/third day. You can also freeze the unbaked dough, so you can have scones whenever you want.
I will read that book! Thanks! Happy New Year!
Mary King