The Best List of Picture Books with Recipes

Often, great picture books about food come along that just make you salivate. And what happens when you get to the end of the book is you wish you could make that (insert mouth-watering dish here). Enjoy this list of the absolute best picture books with recipes from around the world. You and your littles will be sure to enjoy reading and cooking together.

Gingerbread for Liberty! How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution
by Mara Rockliff
Recipe: Gingerbread Cookies
A little-known story about a German-born patriot in America who helped General George Washington feed the troops of the Revolutionary War and even persuaded enemy soldiers to switch sides.

Recommended Book: George vs. George: The American Revolution as Seen from Both Sides by Rosalyn Schanzer

When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree
by Jamie L.B. Deenihan
Recipe: Lemonade
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what do you do when Grandma gives you a lemon tree? An adorable book about how unexpected (and undesirable) gifts can sometimes give you something way better than you hoped or imagined.

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
by Kevin Noble Maillard
Recipe:Fry Bread
A beautifully told story in verse about a modern Native American family and how fry bread is a part that brings them together.

Cranberry Thanksgiving
by Wendy Devlin
Recipe: Cranberry Bread
Maggie’s grandmother always invites a guest to Thanksgiving and asks Maggie to invite someone to. When Maggie invites Mr. Whiskers, who is suspected of always trying to steal grandmother’s famous cranberry bread recipe, it makes for a lively Thanksgiving!
*Note: Of the whole list, this is actually my favorite picture book of the bunch.

Peeny Butter Fudge
by Toni Morrison & Slade Morrison
Recipe: Peeny Butter Fudge
A day with Nana turns into a fun day of pretend and play and a little peeny butter fudge.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
by Marjorie Priceman
Recipe: Apple Pie
An apple pie is easy to make…unless the market is closed. So where do you get all the ingredients? Why, you travel the world, of course.

The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred
by Samantha R. Vamos
Recipe: Arroz Con Leche (Rice Pudding)
In the rhythm of “The House that Jack Built,” this picture book builds as each animal helps bring ingredients for the arroz con leche for all of them to enjoy. It brilliantly incorporates Spanish words and includes a glossary at the end of the book along with the recipe.

Apple Cake: a Gratitude
by Dawn Casey
Recipe: Apple Cake
Take a walk with a little girl through nature as she collects all the ingredients needed for an apple cake. This is a book that could be construed as thanking nature instead of God but one that is included here because you can easily point to our ultimate gratitude for God for all these things.

Whopper Cake
by Karma Wilson and Will Hillenbrand
Recipe: Whopper Cake
A wonderfully silly adventure of Grandpa making a whopper of a cake for Grandma’s birthday.

Ugly Pie
by Lisa Wheeler
Recipe: Ugly Pie
“Ol’ Bear woke up one morning with a hankerin’ for pie. Not just any pie. Ugly Pie.” Following along with Ol’ Bear as he searches for ugly pie. When he can’t find anyone with an ugly pie, he is offered molasses, and red raisins, among other ingredients, and creates his very own ugly pie to enjoy with friends. Oddly enough, this is the recipe I want to try the most.

Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Maniac Muffins
by Chris Monroe
Recipes: Blueberry Muffins, Banana Boats, Pancakes
Chico Bon Bon comes to the rescue with his tool belt full of kitchen gadgets when his friend Clark makes maniac blueberry muffins that run rampant through the town. Can he save the town and their party?

Soup Day
by Melissa Iwai
Recipe: Snowy Day Vegetable Soup
It’s a snowy day and vegetable soup sounds yummy. Walk through the day with a little girl and her mommy as they take all the steps to make a delicious soup ready just in time for her daddy to get home from work.

Thunder Cake
by Patricia Polacco
Recipe: Thunder Cake
As dark clouds roll in and lightning strikes, Grandma calls out, “This is Thunder Cake baking weather.” She grabs her granddaughter hiding under the bed and sets to get the Thunder Cake in the oven before the storm reaches Grandma’s house.

What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street?
by Felicita Sala
Recipe: Salmarejo, Sesame Soy Broccoli, Guacamole, Black Bean Soup, Sole Meuniere, Spaghetti al Pomodoro, Coconut Dahl, Mini-Quiche, Meatballs (with turkey, zucchini & feta), Chicken & Egg Rice, Baba Ganoush, Green Rice, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies, Banana & Blueberry Bread, Strawberry Crumble
The neighbors who live in the apartments at 10 Garden Street are getting ready for a garden dinner party. Visit each of the tenants as they prepare their favorite dishes.

Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao
by Kat Zhang
Recipe: Amy’s Family Recipe for Bao
Amy Wu loves making bao with her family but hers always come out wrong. Just when she’s about to give up, she has an idea that may just turn things around for her.

A Fine Dessert
by Emily Jenkins
Recipe:Blackberry Fool
Follow four families over four centuries as they each make a fine dessert.

Bear and Chicken
by Jannie Ho
Recipe: Vegetable Soup
This delightfully humorous book about an unlikely friendship will have you and your kiddos giggling.

Kalamata’s Kitchen
by Sarah Thomas
Recipe: Kalamata’s Dal
Kalamata is about to start a new school and she is nervous. Well, her alligator friend Al Dente is nervous. They escape into the magical world under her kitchen table and find all the ingredients they need to be brave.

Mama Panya’s Pancakes
by Mary and Rich Chamberlin
Recipe: Mama Panya’s Pancakes
Adika walks the Kenyan market with his mama excited she is going to make her delicious pancakes. But when he starts inviting everyone to come enjoy the pancakes too, will Mama Panya have enough for everyone?

Applesauce Day
by Lisa J. Amstutz
Recipe: Applesauce
Maria’s family has been using the same pot for Applesauce Day since her grandma was a little girl. Today, she can’t wait to make applesauce with her whole family.

Bread Lab!
by Kim Binczewski and Bethany Econopouly
Recipe: Sourdough Bread
Iris can’t wait for her plant scientist Aunt Mary to come over and turn the kitchen into a bread lab with some yummy sourdough bread.

Granny’s Kitchen
by Sadé Smith
Recipe: Dumplins, Ackee, Saltfish, and Fried Plantains
Shelly-Ann learns to cook delicious Jamaican dishes with her Granny. After awhile, she thinks maybe she just can’t cook. But when Granny isn’t feeling good one day, can Shelly-Ann finally figure out how to feed herself and Granny some yummy food.

Gazpacho for Nacho
by Tracey Kyle
Recipe: Gazpacho
When young Nacho only eats Gazpacho for every meal, Mami decides to teach him how to make it himself.

Cora Cooks Pancit
by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore
Recipe: Pancit
Cora loves to sit in the kitchen while her mama cooks Philipino dishes. But Cora never gets to do grown up jobs until one day when her older siblings are gone. Cora is the only one at home to help. But will she be able to do the jobs others normally do?

There you have it! The best picture books with recipes for you to read (and bake) with your kiddos.

The recipes for Fry Bread, Cranberry Thanksgiving, and Ugly Pie are the top recipes I’m going to try.

Which recipe are you going to try first?

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