bhnyc's Reviews
218 recipes reviewed. Showing 201 to 218Sort by: Book Title 
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Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2009
Like the other reviewers, I made this using the starter I created following Reinhart's directions. I made this sourdough bread twice.
The first time, I should have added more flour to the dough because in hindsight it was too wet and didn't keep its shape after I took it out of the mold. The second time I made it, I really made sure that the dough was not too sticky, which meant that I had to keep adding a little flour at a time as I mixed it by hand. It took quite a bit more flour to get to the right texture. This time the bread came out of the brotform and really kept its shape.
I made both the purist version and the version with the added yeast. Both tasted great but I preferred the rise on the one with yeast.
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This is a delicious challah recipe. It is easy to make and the dough can be made up to four days before you want to bake it. Beware though, I kept mine in the refrigerator in a four-liter proofing container and it literally blew the lid off because it rose so high. The recipe doesn't call for them but I added 1 cup of raisins to each loaf. A little bit more would have been good too. I also chose to make a round braided loaf from directions I got online and not in the book. It tastes as good as it looks!
Note- bake this less than instructed- I pull it out at around 185 degrees.
Also- if you wonder what to do with all the egg whites, make Ina Garten's Black and White Angel Food Cake!
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This is a great sandwich bread. It is pretty easy to make if you have all the grains on hand: oats, wheat bran, cooked brown rice. To this loaf I added some wheat germ as well. I made extra brown rice, portioned it and froze it in baggies so all I have to do next time is pull some out of the freezer. Having the cooked rice will save about an hour of prep time.
The dough was a little firmer than I had expected. It was a little thicker during the stretch and folds than some other types of bread. I don't know if I added more flour than is necessary but I don't think so. But I guess it doesn't matter because the end result is really good. The sesame and poppy seeds on top were a hit.
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These are REALLY good! The dough was easy to portion and made about 17 2-ounce pretzels. I found that I had to let the dough rest for quite a bit while rolling it out in order to get the 17 inch strands that the book suggests. I rolled out some, let them rest, started others and then went back to the first ones. I am glad I did. The strands that were longer and thinner made pretzels that had better-defined holes in them. Otherwise, they baked up into a mass with no holes. They still tasted good but didn't have the thinner pretzel look which I like.
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This is a super easy dough to make and it smells so good. I divided it up and at one time made twelve butterflake rolls and nine knotted rolls. The rest of the dough is still in the refrigerator while I decide what to do with it.
I liked the technique used to make the butterflake rolls- rolling out the dough, stacking the pieces, cutting them and placing them on their side in the cupcake tin. The rolls look really pretty and taste extra buttery. However, I found them a little dense.
Even though the dough is the same, I actually preferred the taste and texture of the knotted rolls. They came out much lighter and fluffier than the butterflake rolls. I thought these look great too. It was necessary to let the rolled out strands rest for quite a while before they could roll out to ten inches.
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It took me three times to make this before I felt like I got it almost right. It is really easy to over-bake so this time I baked it for the minimum time suggested- and then maybe a few minutes less would have been good. I baked it in a bundt pan and the bottom (when you invert it) got really dark so I had to put aluminum foil on it. If I hadn't noticed this 15 minutes in, the whole thing would have been ruined.
I haven't been able to get the streusel topping right. The first time I made this I used a loaf pan but the dough rose so much that there was little room for the topping. The second time I made this I used a bundt pan. However, that meant that the topping was placed on the dough after the rise and the topping ended up on the bottom of the cake. This time I put the streusel in the bundt pan first, added the dough and baked it. It tasted really good but you couldn't see the topping- it baked into a hard covering on the top of the cake.
This babka tasted really good and I finally got the swirl right. I am not sure why mine hadn't twisted properly the other times. I thought this one looked great and tasted good too! Finally.
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These are very good rolls. They don't have tons of flavor- I guess hoagie rolls don't- but they have a nice consistency and texture. Watch them carefully. As another reviewer mentioned, they are done before the time indicated. I took mine out early and they still were above 190 degrees and are probably darker than they should be.
My batch made ten 113 gram rolls. I made half as directed. The other half I used egg wash on and then added reconstituted dehydrated onions and a little sea salt. I intend to use those for sandwiches made with leftover brisket.
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This is delicious! Everyone loved it. My six-year-old niece said it was, "The best bread in the whole world." The house smells so good while it is cooking. I used chives and a combination of cheddar, asiago and a little parmesan. I made one batard and one Kranz style in a loaf pan.
Easy to make, everyone should try it!
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I was excited to make this given all of the reviews. I made it ahead and froze it in four portions (instead of five) based on the comments here. It was easy to make and when we wanted pizza, all we had to do was defrost some dough.
The dough was easy to stretch with rests in between. I couldn't quite master the back-handed stretch so I just used my thumbs and moved around the edges.
I thought the sauce was really good but the recipe calls for a little too much fresh garlic. I used four cloves and even that seemed like a little too much since it is pretty much raw.
I was impatient and sliced the pizza quickly. It should have rested for a while. Because I divided the dough into larger portions this was definitely not an individual pizza.
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Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2007
There are so many whole grains in here that you feel good eating it! It's relatively easy to make and makes a nice sandwich.
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I am so glad that I read people's comments about the rise time of this on TheFreshLoaf.com. I did, indeed, find that it took soooo much longer to rise than the recipe indicated. Plan accordingly!
I could not effectively knead in all of the raisins by hand so I switched to the Kitchen Aid- I recommend doing so from the start.
All in all, it tasted good (very good?). It's better toasted than plain. Everyone else who ate it, including a 15-month-old and a 3-year-old, loved it more than me. Apparently, it makes a really good peanut butter sandwich!
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The Silver Palate Cookbook
By Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins, Michael McLaughlin
Workman Publishing Company - 1982
This is one of my favorite recipes ever! It is so easy to make and just smells like summer. Even though I love garlic, I don't use as much as the recipe calls for since it is raw. The brie melts and makes a wonderful creamy sauce but I leave some pieces of cheese to add on later so it doesn't all melt at once. The pasta is delicious as is or with the addition of boiled or roasted shrimp.
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It probably takes longer to clean the food processor after making this than it does to actually make the dressing. It is done in minutes. Since I halved the recipe (it made a lot anyway), I left out the egg. I think it was fine and actually prefer to not have a raw egg in dressing. Watch the consistency- it can get thick fast.
This dressing is perfect on a spinach salad.
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For this recipe alone, it is worth letting all the bananas in your house get mushy. This is a really, really good banana bread recipe and I love that it uses whole wheat flour. It smells so good, too!
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This is the recipe that my Silver Palate Cookbook falls open to! It is tried and true and never fails to disappoint. It's one of my all-time favorite recipes to cook for a crowd, party or any day.
I love that it marinates overnight and can be served hot or at room temperature. While the recipe calls for lots of chicken, it can easily be halved. However, when I halve it, I always make all of the marinade and sauce. Sometimes I use half prunes and half dried apricots.
This is really good over buttered egg noodles with parsley, salt and pepper and with a side of string beans.
Fabulous!
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This is easy and delicious and makes large loaves. I doubled the recipe and made one loaf with walnuts and one nut-free.
The bread is better the next day, so try to resist it when it comes out of the oven!
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Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition
By Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins
Workman Publishing Company - 2007
This is one of my favorite recipes ever! It is so easy to make and just smells like summer. Even though I love garlic, I don't use as much as the recipe calls for since it is raw. The brie melts and makes a wonderful creamy sauce but I leave some pieces of cheese to add on later so it doesn't all melt at once. The pasta is delicious as is or with the addition of boiled or roasted shrimp.
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The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant
By Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2002
This was nice on oysters. I liked that it is made with champagne vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. Maybe my oysters weren't so briny, but I felt like the sauce could have used a little salt.
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