Here in the ArtScroll offices, we are so excited about our newest cookbook release, Dairy Made Easy! For weeks now, we’ve been drooling over the mouthwatering images in the book, and discussing which recipes we’re craving for supper. Now that the book has finally been released, we are excited to share it with all of our readers!

We took a few minutes to sit down with the authors to discuss their newest book.

Scroll past the interview for your chance to win a copy! Winner has been announced!

Interview with Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek:

Q: What is your favorite recipe in Dairy Made Easy?

Leah: My favorite definitely needs to be the Sweet Chili Fries and the pizza. Oh, I also love the Arancini and the Grilled Avocado Sandwich. Did you say one favorite?

Victoria: I have to pick a dessert. The Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream gets served the most often at my table because it works well as either dairy or parve. But my personal favorite? The Tres Leches Cake. I can usually resist cake. Not that one.

Q: Can you tell us any funny or interesting stories that happened while you were working on Dairy Made Easy?

Victoria: My brother and sister-in-law told me that they used to go to a restaurant in Brooklyn NY, just to order the ziti, which they said was the best ziti ever. I was so curious. What could be so special about ziti? Since the restaurant closed down awhile ago, I had to network to find out who had owned it. Then, network some more to get his phone number, along with the former chef’s phone number. I called Chef John constantly. He’d usually ignore my call and send it to voicemail. When he finally picked up and I asked if he could share his ziti recipe, he said, “What? Something so simple? How about a nice fish?” No!! I wanted that ziti. When he finally shared it (after I called him a few dozen more times), and I made it, I wasn’t in love. And my brother and I figured out that it must have been his secret sauce that made it so good.

Q: Can you tell us more about the process of testing/developing the recipes? 

Leah: We tend to forget those exhausting days of our lives! Otherwise we wouldn’t write more books. Kidding aside, we live in fear that the recipes aren’t foolproof enough, so we re-test and retest until we can make each recipe in our sleep and until our families don’t want to eat it even one more time (that’s what neighbors are for).

Q: What made you decide to write a book of dairy recipes?

Leah: When we asked random friends and woman what they cook for dairy dinners, they all said the same thing: baked ziti. We realized we all (us included) wanted more options.

There are so many times during the year that we are stumped for new dairy recipe ideas … daily breakfast and lunch, luncheons and brunches, dairy dinners, Shavuos, the Nine Days, shalosh seudos, and Motza’ei Shabbos.

Q: Were there any recipes that were left out of the book? Why?

Leah: Painfully, we had to cut out lots of desserts. After all, it’s a diary book and not a dessert book. When we realized that to balance out the book we couldn’t include more than a dozen sweet things, we almost convinced ourselves that cheese buns are a breakfast item so that we would be able to include more desserts in the book (alas, the cheese buns are back in the dairy book’s dessert section).

Victoria: I still miss those vanilla molten cakes. I’m a vanilla fan and Leah is a chocolate fan, so I couldn’t win that battle. I would only let Leah cut them if she promised me we’d include them in another book.

Q: Last question: what’s next?

Leah: Our next book is almost ready and we’re in love with it: Secret Restaurant Recipes. We gathered a collection of recipes from kosher restaurants all over the world. Name your favorite restaurant and we’ve got a secret restaurant recipe from them.

Victoria: It’s so fascinating to learn what techniques and ingredients chefs use to prepare their most popular dishes. The recipes are very different than what we’d ever think of…and so awesome!

Leah: As for our next after that, we’re open to ideas. Suggest our next cookbook topic and it may just be the one we write!

Click here to order your copy of Dairy Made Easy.

Click here for the entire Made Easy Cookbook Series.

Congrats to Shaindy on winning Dairy Made Easy!

To enter the giveaway:

Comment on this post telling us: what is your favorite dairy dish? OR Tell us what topic you’d like the next made easy cookbook to be on!

**Giveaway ends on Thursday, May 8th at 11:59 pm eastern time. Prize can be shipped within the USA. Winner will be notified via email. Valid email address must be provided to claim prize. Limit one entry per person.