Jessica Seinfeld on Having Dessert Every Day and the One Thing Jerry Makes in the Kitchen

The mom-of-three and Good+ Foundation founder’s fifth cookbook, ‘Not Too Sweet,’ is out now.

Growing up, Jessica Seinfeld was not allowed dessert frequently. When Seinfeld asked her parents for sweets, she was often encouraged to pick up a piece of fruit. “Dessert was always revered and really considered such a treat at our house,” she explains.

Seinfeld’s parents did, however, encourage her to make things herself. As such, her penchant for confections and a DIY attitude, meant she “mastered” the art of making devil’s food cake from a Duncan Hines mix when she was just 8 years old. It was during Seinfeld’s childhood that she also became an expert on Dutch baby pancakes, which she made in the morning with her dad.

Desserts became entwined with Seinfeld’s fondest memories—weddings, birthdays, family gatherings. However, as she got older, she lost her desire for the ultra-sweetness that is typical of many desserts today. She also became a mom to three kids, Sascha, 24, Julian, 21, and Shepherd, 18, whom she shares with husband and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and figured pumping them full of sugar before bed was, maybe, not the best idea.

Still, she didn't want to sacrifice having dessert. “So I decided to come up with a way to make dessert possible every night if you want it, but just take down the sugar,” Seinfeld says.

Enter, Not Too Sweet: 100 Dessert Recipes for Those Who Want More, Seinfeld’s fifth and possibly last cookbook, in which she included recipes for Dutch baby pancakes and chocolate cake to honor the core childhood memories she holds so dear.

“We're hearing a lot about the perils of eating too much sugar, and it's really hard to find a lot of benefits to eating sugar,” the author says. "But, at the same time, it's a hard time in the world and people really rely on those sweet moments to get them through the day. I wanted to provide a way to still enjoy what we love—dessert—but do it a little bit more responsibly.”

Seinfeld made the collection as dietary restriction-friendly as possible, featuring recipes that are gluten free, grain free, dairy free, vegan, less sugar, no sugar, nut free, etc. She included recipes that require no cooking or simple cooking and eliminated certain steps in classic recipes to make them less complicated, so that people of all skill levels have something they can feel confident trying. She emphasizes that she and her partner in crime, recipe developer Sara Quessenberry, tested each dish 10 to 20 times to ensure an “amazing result.”

While none of her kids inherited Seinfeld’s baking bug (her husband lacks it too), they all share her sweet tooth and are what she calls “essential” to a successful cookbook.

“I didn't think growing up that my kids were absorbing how much I love to cook. They helped me in the kitchen when they were younger just as an activity. It wasn't something they initiated themselves. None of them really love to bake. Jerry doesn't cook, bake, or clean, frankly,” Seinfeld jokes. “But he is an important part of my process, as are my kids. Nothing goes in the book if they don't all absolutely love it.”

Of course, they each have their favorites. Sascha loves anything with strawberries in it, namely the strawberry crepe cake and strawberry shortcake; Julian is a big fan of the peanut butter crunch cookies; and Shepherd is quite enthusiastic about the apple tarts—as is Jerry.

“Jerry is crazy about every recipe in this book,” Seinfeld beams. “I'm bringing home dessert every single night, and he's like, ‘Oh my God, this book is incredible.’ He loves the roasted grape turnovers. Those are really special.”

The book allowed Seinfeld to connect with her inner child, as she reminisced on her cooking roots—helping her mom get dinner on the table or making meals for her roommates in college. “Cooking really made me feel independent. And learning to bake on my own also made me feel accomplished at a young age. That I could have confidence in the kitchen meant I would have confidence elsewhere in the world,” she says. “It really saved me and sustained me, both physically and financially. To this day, I always prefer a home-cooked meal and home-baked goods.”

Not only did Not Too Sweet enable Seinfeld to take a trip down memory lane, it allowed her to forge new core memories, specifically with her daughter Sascha, whose personal essay concludes the book. The matriarch explains how Sascha, being a picky eater as a child, inspired her first cookbook in 2007, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. It felt full circle to include Sascha’s words in her “grand finale” book.

“[The essay] makes me smile so deep,” the Good+ Foundation founder says. “It's so funny that she's come so far from being the worst eater to this really adventurous eater. I feel like I did a good job as a mom in nurturing that. I thought, what [better] way to celebrate her evolution as an eater and me as her mom, than to include her in the book?”

While a slice of homemade pie or a couple cookies are bound to make Seinfeld smile, the real indulgences of her life are the more sentimentally sweet moments. She reflects on Daughters, a recent documentary about four girls who prepare for a daddy-daughter dance with their incarcerated fathers (on which she served as executive producer), as “one of the best things I will ever have done in my life.” She says her daily treat is spending a “precious” 30 minutes in the morning with Jerry, chatting over “a delicious cup of coffee” (the one thing he makes now that they’re empty nesters, via their preferred medium, a moka pot).

She gushes over how she’ll be redoing her Thanksgiving menu for the first time in 10 years and can’t wait to see her family’s reaction to the new dishes. In addition to the sweet potato casserole with corn flakes, pecans, and brown sugar that her kids love, she’ll make carrot cake with pineapple whipped cream for her mom, the full-sugar basque cheesecake for Julian (because “some recipes you just can't mess with”), and the spice cake with whipped apricot frosting because it simply fits the vibe.

“There's a really special feeling of love and warmth and accomplishment that you get when you bake something for someone you like, someone you love,” Seinfeld says. “For first time bakers, I think Not Too Sweet is a great place to start.”