Nothing smells more like potential than a new cookbook. 

I recently won a copy of “Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen” by Dana Cowin, editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine. In it, Cowin confesses that she is “not a great cook,” but since coming to Food & Wine, she has learned to keep trying. For the book, she asked some of her “chef friends” — David Chang, Jacques Pepin and Mario Batali among them — to help perfect her favorite recipes. 

The book is filled with great pictures of Cowin and her famous friends cooking and laughing together as they prepare Mexican Shrimp, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Caper Raisin Sauce and Halibut with Red Coconut Curry. 

I have marked several recipes to try, but I decided to begin with Cowin’s Baked Muesli with Peach Jam. Muesli is a cereal, not at all sweet, usually made from raw rolled oats and other grains, dried fruits, nuts and seeds. You can make it yourself, but I usually just buy some at the grocery store then enjoy it simply, floating in a bowl of cold milk. It’s chewy and crunchy and very filling, a breakfast that makes you feel righteous in that you’ve gotten your day off to a nutritionally great start. 

This recipe turns the muesli into a dense cake. I balked initially at Cowin’s recommendation to serve the squares warm with yogurt. But when I was in the store buying the ingredients, I noticed that pomegranates had returned to the produce department. I love pomegranates. Those little ruby seeds are so pretty, so sweet and tart and fun to eat. I thought they would make a great addition to the yogurt and baked muesli. It turns out my instincts were right. The little jewels added just the right freshness to this breakfast. 

This recipe makes a lot, but I froze half the squares and look forward to heating them up for breakfasts to come. 

Enjoy!

Baked Muesli with Peach Jam 

Serves 8 

4 cups of your favorite muesli (I like Alpine) 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

½ teaspoon kosher salt 

½ cup peach jam 

2 cups whole milk 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used salted) 

1 large egg 

Plain whole-milk Greek yogurt, for serving (I used nonfat and garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds) 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line an 8-inch square pan with two long pieces of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on all four sides. This will make it easy to remove the muesli once it’s baked. 

Stir together the muesli, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Spread half of the mixture in an even layer in the prepared baking dish. Dot the peach jam randomly on top — it’s nice to get some bites with jam and others without. Cover the jam layer with the remaining muesli mixture. 

Whisk together the milk, butter and egg in the same bowl. Drizzle evenly over the muesli mixture. 

Bake until the top is golden brown and the mixture is quite set, about 45 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then cut the muesli into 16 squares and serve warm with cold yogurt. 

The baked muesli can be covered with plastic and refrigerated for up to three days. To serve, cut into squares and warm in a 300-degree oven for about 10 minutes. I heated mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and that worked well, too.

Recipe from "Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen" by Dana Cowin. Jill Blanchette is the multi-platform production manager at The Day. Share comments and recipes with her at j.blanchette@theday.com.