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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.