Peckish Sister's Profile

From: Central, FL USA

Joined: December 11th, 2010

About me: I have always liked to cook, particularly breads, fruits, vegetables, vegetarian, poultry and lamb dishes. After marriage we cooked together progressively more difficult dishes with him doing the meat, grilling and frying, and I did the "dough" and the same type of things I had before. After children we started cooking more simply. After discovering the cause of my frequent migraines was an evolving long list of chemicals and odd ingredients, I began getting back to cooking from basic ingredients, and found I could be well again. I also try to cooking from what I can get in season at the ever present fruit and vegetable stands.

Favorite cookbook: America's Test Kitchen / Cooks Illustrated Books

Manchester Stew from Skinny Instant Pot & Slow Cooker Cookbook

I switched up the vegetables and canned beans to reflect what I had on hand. It was my very first use of the Insta pot and I was skeptical of the 3 minute cooking time since I had increased the amounts... read more >

recipe reviews (465)
book reviews (18)
useful review votes (420)

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Peckish Sister's Reviews

31 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 31Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Pie and Pastry Bible

By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Scribner - 1998

You really have to have faith to make this recipe. I weighed the flour and sugar. I used bread machine yeast so I skipped the proofing step. But I added the proofing water into the buttermilk (I chose that option over the cream). My dough was so wet that I could not shape it into a ball, but after the four hours of chilling, it rolled out beautifully much to my surprise. But the dough was so soft that as they rose they tilted. Next time I will leave out that extra water. They tasted like potato rolls with that satisfying heartiness even though they were very soft and light. The secret ingredient was grated hard-cooked egg yolks. Very good directions including to not use the self rising flour to roll them out in. This was my first use of self rising flour, and I was able to find the White Lily brand. I was a little confused about putting the water in a bread pan on the middle shelf to preheat, then what? But I just assumed that you leave it in place and cook the biscuits on the bottom shelf. I did that and placed the baking sheet on the oven stone and the bottoms were too browned even though the tops were just golden. The next time I will try my air sheet pan. I had stopped using it for biscuits as I found they did not rise as high on it, but this is a whole new recipe and there was a lot of rise in those biscuits. Very special biscuits, just plan lots of time for rising and chilling and realize that you will end up with only 9 very lovely biscuits.

useful (3)  

This was my first galette. I used honey crisp apples and had quite a few leftover cut pieces leftover, so either did not add enough to the galette, or miscounted my apples. I skipped the optional glaze as I can’t tolerate apricots and thought that red current jelly might be too red. And it was great without it. The crust was thin on the bottom and where I had repaired the crust, apple juices escaped and stuck the crust to the pizza pan. Both of these made it a little difficult to cut and serve pieces. However, it was absolutely delicious and I plan to bake this again.

useful (2)  

It is good (as she says) to roll into the corners as I saw it was hard to get the butter into that part of the dough. With every turn of the dough it got easier to work and my confidence rose. The diagram on page 419 was helpful as well. The very precise directions were very good. I remember making danish as a girl and having a buttery mess. This was a full day’s project for me and I like that the dough makes enough to make two different recipes.

useful (5)  

Perfectly amazing interesting spiced beef filling. I wanted to add the optional green olives and raisins, but had to make do with capers and currents. They were wonderful and I would make it that way again. Don’t leave out the additional ingredients, they add a nice pop of contrasting flavor. Read the crust directions carefully, I did not notice that I needed 1 ½ recipes of the Flaky Cheddar Crust (that I choose to make from all the options). I really liked this crust with the filling. I suggest making a double batch if you make the Cheddar crust so you have extra for baking the leftovers for snacks (as she suggests). This was the first time that I made empanadas that were not soggy at all!

useful (4)  

If you want to make a brownie dessert for a special occasion, this is your recipe. It is simpler than many of the tart recipes, but is still made in a removable bottom tart pan. I made the regular version. For me this came out as a fudgy brownie. The Ganache Puddle was so liquid, it was hard to control. I tried to add more melted chocolate to it, but I should have left well enough alone. The original dried puddles were gorgeous and added a nice taste contrast; it was like having little bursts of frosting without having a big gooey layer on top.

useful (1)  

I chose the option of parmesan cheese (over Asiago) and used a good one for maximum cheese flavor. You want to use a good quality paprika as you use so much that the flavor really comes across. These had a good flavor, but I would have liked more cheese flavor. I thought that the recipe worked as directed, but I found out that my pastry was too thick in the middle. I cut the sheet at the fold to have an easier length to work with, and then cut them in half after baking without removing the ends. I did not count the number of twists I made, just did what came easily. The straws puffed nicely and were a big hit at a dairy party.

useful (1)  

This is a ridiculously rich and relatively straightforward tart to make. The peanut butter aroma while you prepare it could drive you a little crazy. Cut it into small pieces; the directions for cutting it are quite helpful. The smoothness of the mousse filling is a pleasant surprise. It really satisfies any peanut butter and chocolate cravings you might have. It was better on the first day as the mousse deflated some the second day.

useful (4)  

This meringue made up nicely. The piping into the pan went smoothly. I had only two holes that needed a little extra meringue. I had meringue leftover and was unsure as to whether I should have had a thicker crust. I am sure that with practice it would look a lot nicer. It was very crisp after baking for the specified time. When I went to serve the pie (Lemon Angel Chiffon) the next day, it was a bit of a shock. The pie looked the same as it did the day before (fabulous), but it had become very fluid inside and the meringue had turned into a thin sticky mess. I also had trouble with cutting and removing even the upper portions of the meringue crust without their shattering. I would like to try it again however.

useful (1)  

This seems like a lot of sugar, in the topping, but I love the nuts, it gives it a richer flavor than just a flour-based crumble topping. Straining the juice off of the apple sugar mixture and boiling it down concentrated the flavor and eliminated the need to add a thickening agent to the pie filling. Mine turned out too sweet, but then I was short on apples. I had plenty to start, but some just weren’t good enough to use. The next time I would have enough apples for the 1 ½ time more filling option. People did not seem to know how to eat this dessert as it was set out with the other pies, but not cut.

useful (2)  

Delicious, tall, many layered flaky scones. You could easily pay a lot of money for a scone like this at a coffee shop. As part of a soup-based dinner, it made for a satisfying meal. I did not trim and re-roll any of the dough, opting for cutting all the dough in the rectangle into triangles. If you followed her advice, all of the scones would have been prettier and rose higher. The ones I chilled while the first batch was cooking did turn out a little higher. My boys were just interested in finding the biggest ones and eating them and thought they were fantastic. There are two variations which also look great: dried cranberry and lemon poppy seed. This is a big batch of dough, I really should have used my largest bowl, and it makes 12 substantial scones.

useful (2)  

The crust was really delicious with the walnuts in it. I used the food processor method on the crust. I saw two slightly larger pieces of walnut while rolling out the dough, which I thought might be problematic, but they weren’t. It is important to have them chopped fine enough however. The longest part of this was getting the skins off of the walnuts. It might have gone easier, if I had roasted them just a little longer. It was interesting to boil the cream, add the dried cranberries and walnuts and see how that would look after two hours (a small pool of thick cream at the bottom). It may have looked better if I had had the pan level in the refrigerator. I was surprised that there was no water added to the egg yolk before brushing on, but it added a lovely deep yellow color and with the sugar and chopped walnut topping, it looked great. This was a straight forward recipe to make and it was a really show stopper. The filling has a very interesting creamy yet chewy consistency which adds to the appeal. The pictures show all the steps of the process. I intend to make it again, especially to take to pot luck events.

useful (2)  

The taste of the garlic in the crisp cream puff shell totally satisfied. We so loved the escargot in tiny brioche buns at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival and were sorry that the recipe was not included in their cookbook. I was delighted to find this recipe, but it did take me a while to accumulate the white truffle oil and cans of 12 large Helix snails. There is no chilling step in this recipe if you do not make the garlic herb butter too far ahead. If you love escargot, you should add this recipe to your repertoire.

useful (1)  

This turned out to be a crisp flavorful, delicious crust. I only had unbleached white flour, so I added one third whole wheat flour so it would not turn out tough. I made it for the empanadas and it worked very well for that. This dough requires a lot of chilling, so plan for plenty of time, it is worth the wait. My only disappointment was that I did not notice that 1 ½ of a recipe was called for, and so I was short. I rolled each piece of dough to the 6” circle on my new pastry mat and then evened up the edges when forming the empanadas, instead of rolling out an individual piece and cutting out a circle with a template. (Thanks to Queezel Sister for noticing that grams were more sensitive than ounces, I have been weighing everything in grams and it is working well.) I wanted to try the author’s suggestion to bake the scraps for snacks; you will want more when you taste it.

useful (3)  

I made this for the apple galette. I wished I had read Andrew’s review first, the next time I will try mixing the dough in plastic wrap. But I did find I could shape and refrigerate the dough in the bag and that worked well. The dough seemed very soft, and I probably would have had better luck if I had a large enough work area, but my wooden cutting board was narrower than my finished product was supposed to be. The dough was coming along fine until the last bit of rolling when it tore simultaneously in 3 places. However I was able to patch it back together, but did not have the patience to try and cut out the circle, so I just used all the roughly circular dough. I am not sure if the cider vinegar was all mixed in as the dough had dark patches in it that were not attractive when the dough was raw, but I did not notice in the final product. The crust was flaky and delicious.

useful (2)  

The description of this tart is irresistible, and came out perfectly. This pushed me past my comfort level with cooking caramel and adding cream and then walnuts for the filling. The directions were spot-on and it worked out well. As before, it took me way too long to remove the walnut skins. The filling was a perfect match for the sweet cookie crust. This rich tart was the perfect ending for an elegant Christmas dinner.

useful (3)  

I agree with LovesGenoise that this is a many step process. I also agree with Queezle Sister that I had almost nothing left when I strained my curd, but for the person that gets that little lump, I would probably strain it again. I can't eat raspberries and strawberries are ripe it the fields, but still being shipped out of state, so I skipped the sauce. LovesGenoise may be on the right track with using a different crust; I love the idea of a fat-free crust however! When I tried to serve mine the filling and crust had turned into a liquid- gooey combination. I don’t know if it is the Florida factor (humidity 80 – 100%)? However my teenage sons devoured it and liked it, and I would like to attempt this again.

useful (1)  

After you get all the ingredients to the right temperature, the pans prepared and the oven ready, it really does come to together and cook quite quickly. However the first time I attempted it, I left out the sugar that I had ground in the food processor to make it extra fine. (I served it for breakfast with jam rather like a German pancake.) The second attempt went well. It tasted OK by itself, but I had baked it to use in the Mango Passion tart and the recipe makes two cakes, so I have the other layer frozen for use in another tart.

useful (2)  

A show stopper. Don’t make this for Thanksgiving, it takes too much concentration. Making the sweet cookie crust, with the coconut variation, I got a headache switching the pages back and forth. This tart literally took a week to make with hunting down all the ingredients, and making all of the components. Some parts had to be made more than once. I was in a quandary as to what to do first – make the crust with all the chilling steps, make the fruit curd cream (never mind make the fruit curd then make the fruit curd cream), or bake the cake? All this becomes past memory as you savor all the parts together and individually. The family did seem to appreciate it enough. The cake layer did its job well to soak up excess moisture, but I did not like having that much cake, the next time I will cut more off of the top. I was surprised that I could not pick up the flavor of the rum sprinkled on top of the cake layer; it added flavor without standing out. I will definitely want to taste this again, but I will pick a calmer time to enjoy all the intricacies of making all the different components.

useful (2)  

I sifted the powdered sugar onto the scale, and was happy to have no lumps for a change. I like this recipe, I had never used heavy cream in my glaze before and I like that is was not too runny. My store no longer carries maple flavoring and so I had to use my old bottle which seemed very thick. Great flavor, but it came out a very dark brown color.

useful (2)  

This is the easiest chocolate ganache recipe I ever made. It was more fun to make than to wash the food processor afterwards however. I used dark chocolate (no soy lecithin) instead of a mixture of milk and bittersweet chocolates. I heated the cream in the microwave. It worked up nicely, spread easily and tasted great!

useful (1)  

Since I had soupy passion fruit curd to start with and did not want to thicken it by cooking it further as the reason for adding the fresh juice at the end is to brighten the flavor, I doubled the gelatin. So of course the cream became very hard before I could fold it into the curd. (If I had this problem again I would add the extra gelatin to the curd, not the cream). But I was able to mix it in and it did set nicely, but was not completely smooth. The flavor was so intense and wonderful that no one but me noticed.

useful (2)  

I had frozen passion fruit puree which was mostly juice. It seemed to cook up just fine and was nice and thick until I added the fresh juice at the end and it became soupy, even after chilling. The next time I will use my instant-read thermometer to get it to the right temperature. It was incredibly flavorful. I love passion fruit and this is a great use for them. I can see why this is one of her favorites.

useful (0)  

This came together easily, and it was the easiest mousse I have ever made. The taste was peanut buttery, but also very light and airy. It had a very good texture, but I could have mixed it longer, I did not see that the ingredients were not homogeneous until serving it. It did shrink on the second day, so it would be preferable to serve it when first made.

useful (2)  

I found the Almond/Pecan Remonce filling a little confusing as it did not have a separate recipe like the almond. I thought it would start with the almond recipe and then have pecans added to it. But it is in The Alligator recipe. It is very straight forward recipe that worked up quickly in the food processor and goes great with the whole pecans in that recipe.

useful (2)  

These were fun to whip up in the food processor. They have truffle oil, garlic and herbs. One recipe is just enough for one recipe of escargot, and they are the perfect size and have the perfect crunch to compliment the escargot and garlic herb butter. But I sure would like to try them on their own. The crispy exterior and eggy interior seem rather irresistible.

useful (0)  

This Pennsylvania Dutch recipe is a very interesting pie for a budget – coffee, molasses, flour and spices are the main ingredients. It is also a pie that you should have all the ingredients on hand to whip up in a hurry if you stock unsulfered molasses. The coffee was supposed to be warm not hot, but I used cold coffee and that might be why the filling foamed up so much spilling over the sides. Place a baking pan or sheet of foil under your pie plate. I used my bigger 9” pie plate and make the crust edges extra high and it was not enough to prevent overflow. I would much prefer a fruit or nut pie, but it was enjoyed by those who like this sort of pie. I like the explanation that it was usually served with coffee for breakfast and that sure make sense.

useful (3)  

This is a variation of the sweet cookie tart crust. I could only find shredded unsweetened coconut, not flaked, but it seemed to work OK any way. This was my first attempt to make a tart in a removable bottom tart pan. I now know the importance of manipulating it on a cookie sheet, so you do not accidentally pop out the bottom and wreck the whole thing. I chose to freeze it overnight before prebaking and it worked fine, only falling a little in a spot where I had rolled it a little thin. She said it wasn't necessary to grease the tart tin, but whether it was my new pan or the kind of coconut, I really fought to get the bottom pastry up. The end result was flaky, crisp and delicious with clear coconut flavor.

useful (1)  

I used this for the Engadine tart that is described as being like a large shortbread cookie stuffed with caramel and walnuts. I weighed the dough to exactly make a 1/3 to 2/3s split for the upper and lower crusts and that took the guess work out. I have become used to forming these butter-soft doughs that need to be rolled out between sheets of plastic. It worked great especially since I found my 9” spring form pan (I had been making due with the 9 ½”). My only problem was a few cracks in the top crust, but I was delighted that the caramel did not bubble up through and they were not very noticeable. My pan was dark and I used a middle time, the next time I should cut it back a little, I like my “shortbread” not well browned.

useful (0)  

This very wet dough is just barely manageable. It does not need a long chilling time before baking. The directions are very helpful in ignoring how much it puffs up while cooking. The peanut butter aroma during preparation foretells the delicious taste. After I had finished jamming all the dough into the tart pan, I read how I should have had some left over. The finished product is a little crumbly and I had a lot of small air holes, so it did not make a perfect impression against the tart pan.

useful (1)  

A huge pecan and maple icing covered Danish, what’s not to like? You know that I had to make this for my Gator’s (Univ. of Florida grad’s ) birthday. As you can see from the pictures, it went well except perhaps for the final product, but I was thrilled. The next time I think my dough will have a more even distribution of the butter and work better. The directions were great. I used smaller pecans on the outer rows and a larger pecan variety for the inner rows (to make it look more like a real gator). It is cut into 1 inch pieces. You will want to eat more than a 1” piece, but they are so rich, that much is very satisfying. The pictures show the raw dough, the baked Danish and the maple-glazed Danish.

useful (5)  

I too had difficulties with these. I did weigh White Lily flour and opted for buttermilk. My dough was like pancake batter. I tried to shape it and it was a complete mess. I forged ahead anyway and the final result tasted pretty good, if you avoided the big clumps of flour. I attributed my problems to the usual Florida high humidity, but I would recommend cutting the liquid. I don’t need to try this recipe again. The pictures are of before and after baking, and then after they are turned out of the pan.

useful (1)