Cristina Krumsick of No Bake Makery Comes to Adelphi

In collaboration with Togather, an event marketing start up in Brooklyn, Barnes & Noble College recently sponsored an interactive workshop for Adelphi students: “No Bake Late Night Munchies: a workshop on how to amp up your snack game.”

The event, organized by Adelphi University’s Bookstore, brought blogger and cookbook author Cristina Krumsick to Garden City's campus.

The event was part of a nationwide campaign launched by Barnes & Noble College this fall to bring authors and subject-matter experts to college campuses, with the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity.

Adelphi University was one of just 26 colleges to win the opportunity due to its students’ high demonstration of interest. Through a Facebook survey, Adelphi students voted to bring the author of the book No Bake Makery and the blog of the same name to campus.

According to Will Giler, Adelphi University Bookstore manager, “Adelphi students are extraordinary. We currently rank #7 in our territory of Barnes & Noble College Bookstores. Our territory ranges from as far north as Maine to as far south and west to Louisiana.”

Krumsick began the evening with her personal story of beginning a cooking blog and publishing a cookbook. After graduating with a degree in journalism, Krumsick moved to a tiny apartment in Brooklyn where she began experimenting with bite-sized, no-bake treats.

As a full time publicist, working with food celebrities such as Rachael Ray, Krumsick was inspired to write her own book. She had already compiled recipes for her blog, which include ingredients like fruity pebbles, marshmallows, and pretzels. Krumsick said she is never without peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate and sandwich cookies.

With the help of her husband, who took photographs for the book and helped with the taste testing, Krumsick began fleshing out her recipes and adding a story for each. What resulted is a book with over 80 recipes for bite-sized, no-bake treats, most of which require little more than a food processor and refrigerator.

For her demonstration, Krumsick and three student volunteers made maple pecan bites, a recipe from her book. The ingredients included just vanilla sandwich cookies, pecans, cream cheese and maple syrup. The steps were straightforward and simple: mash up cookies and pecans, mix together with syrup, cinnamon, cream cheese until it forms a dough and form into bite-sized balls and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

In response to those who think that using store bought cookies is cheating, Krumsick replied, “but the whole point is cheating!”

In addition to her full-time job, blog, and doing speaking events, Krumsick occasionally caters special events. No Bake Makery isn’t a job, it’s fun. With no definite plans to expand her business, Krumsick says, “Everything has been organic.” She does, however, plan on uploading video tutorials to her blog and YouTube.

Krumsick gave students five rules for becoming a master no baker: Have fun with it; Don’t be too hard on yourself; Get a food processor; Wet ingredients + dry ingredients = no bake treat; and Try to make things pretty. Krumsick’s treats are all bite-sized because, “They may not be good for you, but if it’s little, it’s no big deal.”

Krumsick’s book can be purchased at barnesandnoble.com.