When the sky blooms from lavender to pink, and the sun chases away the last vestiges of cold, that’s when Sarah Kieffer finds her inspiration.

“There is a calm and stillness, both outside and in, that can be found in the early hours,” she said. “Baking in the morning, when the day has just begun, is something I love.”

With her fourth cookbook, Kieffer has penned a full ode to her literary love of early morning baking. “100 Morning Treats” (Chronicle Books, $27.50) is peppered with quotes from great writers like Mary Oliver and Lewis Carroll as it delivers recipes for tried-and-true classics with fresh verve and perspective.

Instead of giving us another carrot cake recipe, she turns convention on its side and winds it up into a massive cinnamon roll, drizzled with cream cheese icing. Savory breakfasts are popped onto a sheet pan for weekend ease. Banana bread gets the scone treatment, and there’s even a breakfast cookie that’s made with whole wheat, rye, dried nuts, chocolate and sesame seeds.

This is a cookbook for lovers of early mornings, quiet spaces and sticky fingers.

“I try to start my day with a passage from a good book or a poem. I find a line that will stay with me, and the meaning takes shape as my day unfolds,” she said, when we discussed her new book.

Kieffer is, if it’s not already evident, an English major. It was during her college years that she discovered her fondness for quiet early hours while working at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse in Winona, Minnesota. It’s also where she began tinkering with recipes and cemented her love of coffee and sweets first thing in the morning.

“I spent so many mornings sipping on an iced coffee and stealing a bite of something sweet … and that is still how I live my life,” she said.

She first blended her love of books and baking when she started her award-winning The Vanilla Bean Blog. What began as a chronicle of her life with young kids quickly zeroed in on her irresistible sweet treats. Her first cookbook, “The Vanilla Bean Baking Book,” was published in 2016 and brought her a new level of fame. The following year, the New York Times published Kieffer’s “pan-banging” technique for making chocolate chip cookies. The distinctive crinkly, butter-rich cookies had gone viral on Instagram, and the Times catapulted the recipe into a baking sensation. It also inspired her next book, “100 Cookies,” released in 2020.

Part of the appeal of Kieffer’s recipes is that they’re not just creative, easy to follow and produce reliable results, but they’re unmistakably fun: like banging a cookie sheet and watching puffed-up cookies sink and crinkle in on themselves. It’s an edible thrill equivalent to Shrinky Dinks.

“There is a seriousness to baking which is important — directions and measurements need to be followed precisely,” she said. “When I found baking in my early 20s, I didn’t care about any of that — it was just fun. I made a lot of mistakes during that time, of course, but baking was always rooted in joy, not stress and precision.”

Kieffer also takes a pragmatic and accessible approach to what can be difficult pastry techniques, from laminating dough for croissants to kneading sweet dough until it’s just the right level of elasticity.

“I spend a lot of time reading all kinds of cookbooks, and I look for what makes sense in explanations, but also what may be confusing to me,” said Kieffer. “When I started, I often felt intimidated or insecure when I tried something new, and it was hard for me to ask questions, so I try to write for someone who may also be feeling that way. Baking is intimidating for many people, and I want to try to include every detail I can to instill confidence.”

Following her cookie book, Kieffer released “Baking for the Holidays” in 2021 with more than 50 festive recipes, but “100 Morning Treats” feels like a return to her roots.

“This particular book had been on my mind for years — baking in coffeehouses in the late ’90s early 2000s shaped how I bake today, and I had many recipes that I loved or wanted to rework,” she said.

The result is a book that is easy to greedily devour with the exact same satisfaction as surreptitiously nibbling away at leftover cake in the fridge.