| A delicious and very pretty quick bread that's just perfect for the holidays.
This quick bread is made in the typical fashion of adding the liquid ingredients to the dry ones. The liquid includes buttermilk and melted butter - mmm! In addition, chopped cranberries and nuts (I used walnuts but the recipe calls for pecans) are added last.
The bread is slightly sweet and slightly tart. The cranberries makes it quite festive looking. |
| Homerun!
This fried rice can serve as a complete meal. I used the rest of the Easter ham and some small shrimp but left out the shitakes as my middle son does not care for mushrooms.
I prepared the rice in the morning and left it in the fridge to cool. Once all the ingredients were gathered and chopped, the whole meal came together in just minutes. The directions were spot on and the rice came out perfectly without that greasy feeling that fried rice often has.
Neither of my boys care for cooked eggs or peas and they devoured this rice and gave it high praise. |
| A neighbor dropped off a beautiful basket of strawberries that she picked this morning so I decided to make strawberry shortcake.
This recipe has all three necessary parts of this quintessential summer dessert.
1. Strawberries - after being cut up, a portion is mashed while the rest are left sliced. They macerated on the counter while the rest of the dish came together.
2. Whipped Cream - I had some shelf stable cream from Trader Joe's. I put it in the freezer to cool it before whipping it. Sadly, I left it in there too long and it froze. I was able to thaw it AND keep it cool at the same time and it whipped up fine.
3. Biscuits - These biscuits are made with baking powder, half and half, and an egg. Eggs are an unusual addition to biscuits but they came together easily - even in the heat of a summer kitchen - and rose beautifully in the oven. The tops are nice and brown due to being brushed with cream and sprinkled with sugar. These are seriously the best dessert biscuits I have ever had. They are a bit sweet and a little crisp on the top but nice and flaky in the middle.
This recipe required many dishes but came together easily and relatively quickly.
Delicious!!
And, because my ridiculous boys don't like berries they ate the biscuits with whipped cream in the middle and homemade hot chocolate sauce on the top.
|
| I've never cooked Indian food and I believe I've only ever eaten it once. For reasons known only to him, my youngest son decided he wanted me to cook something Indian.
Chicken Tikka Masala seemed like a good place to start as it's fairly simple and made with ingredients my boys already eat with just a few new spices. This recipe was very well laid out and easy to follow.
The end result wasn't very spicy but had a lot of flavor. Everyone liked the meal enough - my youngest said he "appreciated the effort". I'd have preferred it a bit hotter. My husband was the biggest fan. |
| Made during the Blizzard of 2015.
At the last minute we braved the grocery store lines before the blizzard hit to pick up the ingredients for this soup. Basically, onions, chicken broth, beef broth, some French bread and some Swiss cheese.
Despite what Serious Eats says, caramelizing onion in the oven in a Dutch oven worked wonderfully. Although it doesn't really cut down on time, it is certainly easier as you need to pay them almost no attention. Once I moved the onions from the oven to the stove they caramelized much quicker than the recipe suggested.
I omitted the the sherry because I didn't have any and I can't say we missed it. I also left out the thyme because I find the taste overwhelming. I also couldn't find Gruyere cheese at the store so we used Swiss. I didn't want to broil the soup in the bowls so I toasted the bread slices, toasted them again with the cheese on them, and then put them in the bowls and ladled the soup on top.
This was delicious and just what we needed on a snowy day. |
| My pie crust making abilities are temperamental at best. I was happy with one recipe I was using but the last two times it's been more like cardboard.
This recipe is super easy. The addition of vodka for part of the moisture prevents gluten from forming. The dough is weird - like play dough - and very sticky. For best results, roll out between two sheets of well floured waxed paper.
This is the tenderest, flakiest crust I've ever made and it will be my go to recipe from now on. |
| From: cooks.com (reviewed 19th November 2011)Very simple recipe that requires only almonds, water, sugar, egg white and cinnamon. I've been making these for years to give away at Christmas and they are a huge hit.
Beware - they are quite addictive! |
| Disappointing!
It's a very basic recipe but I figured it was worth a shot. In the end, the rice was just too crunchy (brown rice) and had very little flavor. |
| My husband suggested Spinach Salad for dinner and I decided we needed a homemade poppy seed dressing to top it. Normally, I use a mayonnaise based dressing that I got from my mother-in-law, but it's really much too sweet.
A trip to the coop got me some poppy seeds and a quick search with EatYourBooks found this recipe for me. I was surprised that there weren't more recipes for poppy seed dressing in my numerous cookbooks. The other recipes I found used raw egg which I wasn't too keen on.
This dressing comes together nicely in a blender and is sweetened by honey rather than sugar and flavored with onion powder and dry mustard. It's got a bit of a kick and is rather sweet - just like poppy seed dressing should be. |
| Seriously delicious!
I don't know why I've never made fried shrimp at home before. This was super easy and very affordable. I could feed my entire family of 5 for what it would cost to buy one fried shrimp meal at a restaurant.
They were nice and crispy but moist on the inside. Perfect for a summer night dinner. |
| A pretty basic breaded, fried fish recipe. The fish are simply breaded - flour, eggs, bread crumbs - and shallow fried in just 3 Tablespoons of oil.
A great dinner that is easy to have on the table in less than 30 minutes. |
| WARNING: This could become habit forming.
An excellent cocktail to add to your summertime repertoire.
Following an impromptu dinner invitation in which we told to bring nothing, we decided to bring drinks.
This rum, ginger beer and lime drink is a perfect summer drink. It's fizzy and a bit fruity and goes well with anything you throw on the grill. |
| This was the first recipe I tried from this book. Having never made Mapo Tofu before I found the directions very easy to follow. I may have cooked the pork just a tad too long because it got crunchy but it was still delicious. Both my husband and I enjoyed this but didn't find it spicy as the recipe indicated. After searching other Mapo Tofu recipes I found that most add chili oil. I added chili oil to the leftovers and that made the dish much better. |
| These meatballs and the dipping sauce were to die for delicious. Although there was a lot of chopping the recipe was easy to follow. Everyone loved it and we will definitely make this again. |
| You know those little brownie bites that you see in the stores? These are just like those only without a shelf life of many months.
Tiny little brownie bites, baked in mini muffin tins. They are low fat - calling for only half a stick of butter for 24 brownies. They use simple pantry ingredients and come together in no time at all. I used a Tablespoon cookie scoop to measure them out and they came out great with exactly enough batter for the 24 brownies.
Unlike brownies baked in bar form, these don't require hours to cool before you can eat them. You can bake, cool for just a bit, and pop them in your mouth.
Yum! |
| Written by Mollie Katzen and first published in Parents magazine in November 1995, this has been my go to recipe for banana bread for over 15 years.
This recipe, which is easily doubled, makes a moist delicious loaf of bread. |
| A mix of dried spices which can be used on almost any meat. We like to use it as a dry rub for pork chops.
The recipe makes about 3/4 cup and it keeps nicely in the pantry in an air tight container. I often add some to meatloaf, meatballs or even scrambled eggs. |
| My son convinced me to buy one of those cast iron corn stick pans just so we could try this recipe. He got the pan for Christmas and we made the recipe soon afterward.
We were sorely disappointed. These are nasty corn dogs. Corn muffin batter + hot doges does not equal corn dogs. Perhaps corn dogs should only be fried.
The boys ate a few but we ended up throwing most of them away. At least the pan is good for making cornbread sticks. |
| I really wanted to like this. I love broccoli and tarragon and was looking forward to a nice cool broccoli salad. Unfortunately, it just has very little flavor and the dressing is kind of runny instead of creamy.
Disappointing. |
| From: Epicurious (reviewed 15th November 2014)My husband texted me from work and asked me to bake something for a party. Tonight. It's a good thing I love him.
I had just read a blog post about a bundt cake so I had that on the brain. Not that bundt cake but A bundt cake. As this was a party for some famous people who were in town recording a new cd I figured that the Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake by Melissa Clark would fit the bill. Sadly, I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate in the pantry.
An internet search led me to this cake instead and I had everything I needed. The cake was super simple to whip together with basic pantry ingredients. I had that one moment of panic where you wonder if the bundt will come out of the pan but it released with a satisfying whoosh.
The cake is chocolatey with a spicy note from the whiskey. It's quite moist. I drizzled on a chocolate ganache to which I added a good glug of Jack Daniel's. I'd heartily recommend it. |
| This recipe had everything I was looking for. It uses all purpose flour and makes one large pizza. I was shocked at how many recipes I had to go through to find one that met these simple criteria.
Although there is no suggestion of using a stand mixer, I used my Kitchenaid to knead this dough for about 5 minutes before covering it and leaving it to rise.
Good basic pizza dough. |
| Perfect summer time meal.
Chicken is marinated in a delicious sauce made from cashews, cilantro, garlic, jalapenos (and a few other things). The sauce is put together quickly in the blender and then spread on the chicken.
I let my chicken sit for just about an hour before grilling. I was a little nervous about the spiciness before I put it on the chicken but after grilling it was perfect. The sauce has a nice kick to it but no burn.
All five members of my family gave this 5 stars. |
| Very simple week night meal.
My youngest son requested pasta for dinner after summer running. My oldest doesn't really care for tomato sauce and I didn't want to make Alfredo.
This sauce was terribly simple to make. Just a few ingredients simmered together on the stove while the pasta cooks. Although there are tomatoes in the sauce, the sauce does not taste like tomatoes and my oldest liked it a lot.
There was the right amount of sauce to coat one pound of penne and, although there was both cream and parmesan in it, the sauce did not feel heavy.
|
| Very nice fish tacos.
There were three main parts of this recipe: pico de gallo,spicy sour cream, and fried fish. Each of these came together easily but did require multiple dishes.
Pico de gallo - I made this very quickly in my food processor. This meant that it was perhaps chopped too fine but it tasted good and was much quicker than chopping everything by hand.
Spicy sour cream - A simple mix of mayonnaise and sour cream with chipotle in adobo and a few spices. This was delicious inside the tacos with a nice mix of cool and spicy.
Fish - The fish is soaked in milk and then dredged in flour mixed with spices. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the milk soak was and I don't believe it added anything to the dish. The fish, however, was excellent.
The three components came together nicely in small flour tortillas and the fish tacos were enjoyed by all. |
| Baked in an 8x8 pan instead of 9x9 and it still felt like there was not enough topping to cover the base layer. The base layer was just a bit over cooked which lead to a very crumbly bar. The taste was yummy but they dried out quickly.
Next time, I'd bake the base layer a shorter time and increase the condensed milk just a bit. |
| The best thing about cocoa brownies is their simplicity. These brownies start with melted butter and then all the other ingredients can be added to the pot in which the butter was melted.
The brownies are moist and filled with chocolate flavor. They are neither fudgey nor cakey but something in between. They do not have the nice shiny crackled top that many look for in a brownie.
This would make a nice go to brownie recipe when one does not want to mess with melting chocolate. Who doesn't have a can of cocoa sitting around? |
| What's not to love about bananas and chocolate together?
These bars take the best of brownies and mixes it with banana bread. The batter tastes like banana splits.
The brownies are moist and dense - more like banana bread than brownie. The taste is excellent with strong banana and chocolate flavor. The texture is kind of spongy and kind of threw me for a loop the first time I tasted them because I was expecting brownie texture. Once you accept that they're more like banana bread than brownie, they're actually quite good. |
| If I could I would give this 3.5 stars. The recipe is basically a shortbread crust which is baked first and then topped with a coconut and condensed milk topping (with other ingredients of course).
The recipe calls for baking 30 minutes after the topping is added which seemed too long to me. I checked after 20 minutes and the topping was getting quite brown so I pulled it out.
The bars are very moist with a nice coconut flavor. I think they could be improved with the addition of coconut extract instead of vanilla (which I didn't think of until they were done). We would also have liked them to be a bit more "solid" in the middle.
All in all, if you like coconut you'd like these bars. They're simple to make and pretty tasty. The recipe says they improve over time so I'll see how they taste tomorrow. |
| From: Fine Cooking (reviewed 24th June 2011)In my never ending quest for the perfect brownie recipe, I took advantage of the cool weather today to try this recipe.
The recipe uses both unsweetened powder and cocoa powder along with 1 1/2 cups of sugar. It bakes in an 8x8 inch pan.
Sadly, the top was not shiny or crackly in the slightest. The brownies were too thin and they were not nearly sweet enough. I sent them on their way with a bunch of hungry teenage boys and they ate them without complaint.
The recipe calls for baking the brownies for 35 - 45 minutes which I knew would be an error. I baked them for 25 minutes and could have probably baked them for a couple of minutes less.
My brownie quest continues. Alas. |
| From: Fine Cooking (reviewed 24th June 2011)In my never ending quest for the perfect brownie recipe, I took advantage of the cool weather today to try this recipe.
The recipe uses both unsweetened powder and cocoa powder along with 1 1/2 cups of sugar. It bakes in an 8x8 inch pan.
Sadly, the top was not shiny or crackly in the slightest. The brownies were too thin and they were not nearly sweet enough. I sent them on their way with a bunch of hungry teenage boys and they ate them without complaint.
The recipe calls for baking the brownies for 35 - 45 minutes which I knew would be an error. I baked them for 25 minutes and could have probably baked them for a couple of minutes less. Odd that not one review on the website mentions this obvious error.
My brownie quest continues. Alas.
|
| From: Fine Cooking (reviewed 24th June 2011)Like a giant peanut butter cup!
I made this for my husband who loves peanut butter cups. It has a press-in cookie crust, a layer of peanut butter filling, and a chocolate glaze.
This is surprisingly easy to make and is delicious! |
| What a great idea for preserving some of the bounty from the garden!
Sea salt and chopped rosemary leaves are mixed and then baked in a low oven to dry the leaves and prevent the salt from clumping. The rosemary infused salt is then stored in half pint canning jars which are perfect for gift giving or adding to one's spice shelf.
This will be perfect rubbed over roasted or grilled chicken. |
| Making and canning my own mustard!
This mustard is made with both yellow and brown mustard seeds, spices, and white wine. I kept having to put off making it because the mustard seeds needed to be soaked for 12 hours or so.
The mustard smelled delicious while cooking and thickened quickly. I was surprised at how easy it was to make. Although the recipe stated it made 3 half pint jars, I filled 5 of them.
I won't open the jars for at least a week to taste a jar and I'll edit my review then. I'm hoping to give the rest of the jars as Christmas presents. |
| From: food52 (reviewed 7th September 2011)After searching eatyourbooks for a Chocolate Bundt cake, I discovered that not one of my cookbooks contained a recipe that appealed to me.
This recipe at Food52 sounded wonderful - even if the reviews on the site made a big deal about the fact that this same recipe is called an original by many different authors and sources.
The recipe calls for buttermilk (which was a bonus as I had an open container in the fridge) and Dutch process cocoa. The batter is very thin and I was glad that other reviews mentioned this fact. I forgot to set the timer when I put the cake in the oven so I had to babysit it and check it every so often.
I tried to dislodge the cake from the pan while still warm but it didn't budge. I tried again after it was fully cooled and still had no luck. Thankfully, when I cut the cake in the pan itself it came out in lovely, moist pieces that stayed together.
In a word, this cake is delicious. Eric was very happy to have it to celebrate his 12th birthday. Everyone agreed that the cake was wonderful and we'll definitely have it again. I'd try to grease the pan more heavily next time but this cake is well worth it even if it means it stays in the pan. |
| From: Food.com (reviewed 3rd August 2011)My mother made orzo rice pilaf at least weekly while I was growing up. I was pretty shocked when I searched eatyourbooks to find that none of my cookbooks had a recipe for rice pilaf that included orzo as I thought it was pretty standard.
This recipe from food.com is much like my mother would make pilaf. I followed the recipe exactly except for subbing butter for margarine and cutting the amount in half. A full stick of butter would have made very greasy rice. The recipe does not call for any spices so is pretty bland and benefits from the addition of some salt and pepper.
The recipe was only marginally more work than using the Near East pilaf in a box and had no mystery ingredients in it. We all liked it very much and I'm sure to be making this often. |
| From: Food.com (reviewed 25th December 2011)Although I would prefer a cream cheese icing on my cinnamon rolls, my boys prefer the gooey icing you get in the tubs with Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls.
This icing recipe stated it would taste just like that stuff in the but and it delivered. Just a basic icing of confectioner's sugar, half-and-half and vanilla. |
| From: The Food Network (reviewed 18th January 2014)A very simple way to cook sausages in the oven. I used some wonderful local sausages and they were cooked perfectly using this oven method. |
| From: The Food Network (reviewed 19th December 2014)Meh. Not worth the effort. |
| I started making this stuffing a couple of years ago when we invited a family for Thanksgiving whose daughter has Celiac's disease.
I use Udi's white sandwich bread. Although the texture is not exactly the same as the stuffing I make with regular bread, it is quite good and we all enjoy it. |
| I've never been entirely satisfied with the shepherd's pie I usually make. It seems to lack flavor and no matter how much salt and pepper I add it needs more.
This recipe had some small adjustments from my regular recipe. It used canned corn in place of frozen - one can was creamed corn. It also used a gravy packet in the meat.
I didn't mention that I had done anything different until my husband asked. He wasn't sure if he liked the changes while my middle son and I were very impressed by the much more flavorful pie. I loved the gravy and the canned corn was so much better than frozen.
Definitely my go to recipe from now on. |
| A slushie for adults. We made 1/2 recipe and it filled two large margarita glasses so I can't imagine that a full recipe is 2 servings. This was delicious! Used mango liqueur because I had some. |
| My goal is to stop buying bottled salad dressings. They're definitely easy enough to make at home.
This dressing is different than the others I've made at home so far as it uses olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and lots of dried herbs. It looks like the Zesty Italian that you buy in the store.
She suggests letting the dressing sit for 15 minutes to let the dried herbs rehydrate which, now that I think about it, makes so much sense.
Delicious! A great salad dressing to add to my repertoire. |
| I'm one of those people who are scared of pie crust. I'm not really sure why and it makes me feel ridiculous.
Anyway, Alana posted a tutorial along with this recipe on her blog and I gave it a go. Just as she promised the crust came together nicely in the kitchenaid.
I split it in two discs and refrigerated overnight. This morning I rolled them out and the dough was nice and pliable with no cracking or sticking at all. It baked up nice and flaky though we haven't tasted it yet. I have the best looking apple pie I've ever made and I have to wait over 24 hours to eat it. So sad. |
| Very easy to make with pantry ingredients. Smells delicious while baking. Beautiful coffee color.
I'll update the review later after everyone has had a chance to taste at tonight's Christmas Eve party.
Also in Fine Cooking #41. |
| My husband is generally the waffle maker in our family and he's always used Bisquick for his waffles. This morning, however, there was no Bisquick and I suggested we just make our own.
I quickly skimmed a couple of books but this recipe required no special ingredients (not even buttermilk) and so it was chosen. The batter came together in no time and didn't need to rest before being used.
The recipe produced eight large waffles. The waffles were a little dense but had a nice crisp exterior. The taste was delicious and all three boys loved them. |
| This is one of the variations listed with Bittman's Basic Muffins recipe. The recipe includes a streusel - half of which is mixed into the batter and the other half of which is sprinkled on top of the muffins before they're baked.
The muffins are pretty good - good enough that I ate two. The streusel, however, sank right through the muffins rather than sitting nicely on top. The muffins looked like they had little rivers running through them.
The muffins tasted quite good but they were certainly not the most attractive. |
| Baking powder leavened pancakes. These cook up nice and fluffy - more like the Bisquick pancakes my boys grew up on.
These are quite easy to pull together with basic pantry ingredients. They're not the perfect recipe (I haven't found it yet) but they're really quite good. |
| I made this dough with my KitchenAide and despite Bittman's warnings, it has no problem handling the dough. The dough came together quite nicely. I let it knead for about 5 minutes and left it to rise in the room with the wood stove.
It rolled out quite nicely with very little pull back.
I'd use this again. |
| From: Icebox Pies (reviewed 2nd July 2011)What a brilliant idea! A crust for an ice cream cake made out of pulverized ice cream cones. The sugar cones came out of the food processor looking just like graham cracker crumbs and when mixed with butter made a very nice crust.
Yum! |
| From: Icebox Pies (reviewed 1st July 2011)My middle son has been wanting to make a pie from this book and chose this as our first recipe.
The pie uses a graham cracker and coconut crust (this recipe is also found in the book) which must be baked first and cooled. The filling is a combination of unsweetened coconut milk, half-and-half, and bittersweet chocolate. The thickener is corn starch.
The pie thickened very quickly and set up nicely. I did not add coconut extract because I could only find imitation and was worried it would taste like suntan lotion. This meant the filling did not really have any coconut taste. The toasted coconut added on top made for a nice textural contrast but didn't do much for the coconut flavor.
I would make this pie again but next time I'd be sure to have some coconut extract. We look forward to making many more pies from this book. |
| From: Icebox Pies (reviewed 1st July 2011)This is a basic graham cracker crust with the addition of sweetened flaked coconut. The crust had a nice ratio of ingredients and was moist enough to cover a 9 inch pie plate easily. I did not have coconut extract so the crust did not have a pronounced coconut flavor. It worked well for both the coconut lovers and non-lovers in our family because the coconut was not noticeable (and I didn't mention it). |
| From: Icebox Pies (reviewed 31st July 2011)The recipe says this is chocolate pudding poured in a pie shell and topped with whipped cream. The flavor of the chocolate pudding is excellent but it sets up quite firm.
The boys complained of the texture and said it felt like Jello. I agree that it was too firm but the taste made up for it.
6 Tablespoons of cornstarch may just be too much and it would be worth trying again with half as much cornstarch. |
| My oldest son is a big fan of kettle corn but it never occurred to me to make it at home (perhaps because I'm not a fan of pop corn).
This afternoon, however, with the cold wind blowing and all the boys home playing video games, I thought I'd make them a homemade snack.
The recipe was clear and easy to follow. The snack came together in minutes. The popcorn was very good - a nice balance of sweet and salty - but, despite my best efforts, there was some burned sugar and a few burned kernels on the bottom of the pot. The mess was easy to clean after a quick soak in hot water.
The boys all pronounced the kettle corn very good and, even I had to admit it was pretty good |
| Now THIS is coffee cake!!
This cake is enormous - truly fit for a crowd. It's baked in a 9x13 pan and rises all the way to the top. Coffee cake for a crowd.
The cake has three parts - the cake batter, a cocoa filling, and a topping. The cake is made by first putting down half the batter. Then the filling is sprinkled on top of that. The second half of the batter is then added (I always find it tricky trying to spread batter over a topping but I managed). Finally, a crumb topping is spread over the very top.
In my oven, this took about 55 minutes to bake. I left it for 20 minutes to cool before trying a piece and was able to remove a piece with no problems.
Oh my! Moist but light cake with a delicious center and lots and lots of crumb topping. Perfect for serving with coffee or tea.
Simply wonderful. |
| You can eat this by the handful!
I've been looking for a good chocolate granola for a while now. This may just be it.
A nice mix of oats, almonds, coconut, and cocoa are bound with butter, sugar and honey. The resulting granola is light and crisp with no hint of greasiness. It's chocolatey and just a bit salty.
I think it would be wonderful added to some Greek yogurt and if you used it as a cereal it would turn your milk all nice and chocolatey. |
| Snickerdoodles are hard to mess with. Joy gives these a special touch with some added vanilla beans.
These are not our favorite snickerdoodles. We prefer ours with a distinctive crunch. These are crunchy on the perimeter but the center remains soft and chewy. I'm not sure if this center would have hardened if they had been left in the oven longer and I also know that some prefer their snickerdoodles this way.
The cookies are very good - they're just not our personal favorite. |
| Another Rice Krispie variation.
This one uses browned butter and peanut butter. It calls for a bag of mini marshmallows but I used 7 oz. of marshmallow creme as it's what I had on hand.
At first the butter, peanut butter and marshmallow didn't really want to come together smoothly and it looked curdled. After quite a bit of stirring, I was able to get it smooth. There was plenty of this mixture to add to the 6 cups of rice krispies which made them a bit more moist than the classic recipe.
I sprinkled the top with a small amount of mini chocolate chips because everything peanut butter tastes better with some chocolate. |
| This bundt cake comes together quickly with common pantry ingredients. The batter is quite loose and I had my worries about it coming out of the pan intact. My worries were unfounded, however, as it released nicely.
The recipe had a baking time of 45-60 minutes. I checked after 45 minutes and my cake was done. In fact, it probably could have been taken out just a few minutes earlier. It is a bit crumbly and dry which I think could have been avoided with a shorter baking time.
The glaze called for does not match the picture in the book which is clearly a frosting. I prefer glaze anyway. I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave because that is so much easier than using a double boiler. Again, the glaze was very loose and it made me nervous. After a few minutes, however, it thickened up enough to pour over the cake.
This is quite a good cake with nice chocolate flavor. I'd be sure to shorten the baking time when making again. |
| Cake really doesn't get much easier than this. As soon as the batter goes in the oven, the icing is started. Once the cake is pulled from the oven the hot icing is poured on top where it very quickly firms up.
The frosting becomes melded with the cake and there's a nice mix of cake and frosting in every bite. It's moist and chocolatey with crunch provided by the walnuts. |
| From: King Arthur Flour (reviewed 29th December 2010)Wonderful! These buns are our all time favorite bread to go with any meal. They are soft, buttery and delicious. They keep well and reheat great.
I make them in two round pans, a 9x13 pan, or even muffin cups as clover leaf rolls. |
| From: King Arthur Flour (reviewed 19th October 2011)Wonderful!
This dough is super easy to make and work with. I kneaded it in the KitchenAid for 7 minutes. It rose well and was then divided into eight pieces for the hamburger buns. The buns themselves don't rise very much.
Hands on time for these buns is very little. They make a nice sturdy bun for messy things like pulled pork or hamburgers with lots of fixings.
Delicious! |
| My youngest son has been clamoring for scones for months now and when this recipe popped up on my Facebook page I figured it was a good one to start with.
We actually went with double chocolate scones - cocoa and chocolate chips - and skipped the chocolate glaze. The dough was kind of difficult to get to come together and was fairly moist.
This recipe makes two 6 inch circles of dough which are divided into 6 wedges each. The scones had a very nice chocolate flavor and were very light. Definitely not an everyday breakfast item but they were quite good. |
| Good but not great. Definitely won't end my search for the perfect brownie.
Not fudgy enough. The chocolate chips stayed too firm. No shiny top. Good chocolate taste and not nearly as flat as many brownies. |
| From: King Arthur Flour (reviewed 7th November 2012)King Arthur Flour has released a self-rising flour and insists that it makes superior biscuits. After finding it in my local grocery store, I decided it was worth the $3 to find out.
The only required ingredients are flour, butter and milk or cream so the dough came together very quickly. The biscuits were delicious but I'm just not sure it's worth it to me to have an extra bag of flour in the house. It's easy enough to add baking powder and salt to my recipes myself.
I'll happily use the flour to make more biscuits and I'll try the pancake recipe on the flour bag but I bet I don't buy it again. |
| From: King Arthur Flour (reviewed 4th December 2012)This is an interesting quick bread. It's actually a combination of a quick bread and a yeasted bread as it contains both yeast and baking powder. There is no kneading necessary. The dough is mixed like a regular quick bread but is then left to rest for an hour.
The dough doesn't really rise during this rest - mostly it just spreads a bit. The dough is not loose like a quick bread. It is then placed into a loaf pan and baked.
The bread is less sweet than most quick breads but more sweet than most yeast breads - the loaf contains half a cup of sugar. The bread has the texture of a yeast bread. It is good as is but is even better toasted. My boys will eat this toasted for breakfast.
I used only half the cinnamon chips and that was just the right amount. Using a full cup would have been too much. |
| From: King Arthur Flour (reviewed 12th January 2013)What's not to like?
Chocolate + Pizzelles = Delicious!!
This is a pretty basic pizzelle recipe to which cocoa powder has been added. They have a nice chocolate flavor and were no more difficult to make than regular pizzelles.
I sprayed my non stick pizzelle maker with Pam as I had read reviews that mentioned sticking but I had no problems. You do need to be careful with timing as it is more difficult to see if these are done because of the chocolate color. |
| Trying to use up the bad of self rising flour I bought on a lark. These pancakes are certainly just as easy to make as Bisquick but they're nothing special. We like our pancakes a bit thicker and sturdier - these are on the thin side and rather floppy. |
| We did not let these rise over night. Instead we went with the quick one hour rise. The waffle batter was very thick going on to the waffle iron and it took quite a long time for the waffles to turn brown.
We found the waffles to be quite difficult to cut - definitely requires a knife - and we didn't really care for them.
I wouldn't bother making these again. |
| Super chocolatey muffin!
More dessert than breakfast fare but we'll eat them for breakfast anyway.
Great recipe that calls for only common household ingredients. I used mini Ghiradelli chocolate chips (a household staple here).
Makes 12 giant muffins. |
| This is a basic muffin mix which gives a recipe for a standard muffin to which any ingredients might be added. It uses only standard pantry ingredients and comes together in minutes.
I used the basic recipe and added 1 cup of cinnamon chips. I then baked them in muffin top pans - 1/4 cup of batter for each top baked for 15 minutes made 11 muffins.
These were made for my youngest son who prefers the muffin top. They are quite good though next time I'd add some cinnamon to the dry ingredients. |
| The 17 year old gave them two thumbs up.
Another muffin from the P.D.Q. pages. Comes together very quickly - tastes like gingerbread.
I baked these in my muffin top pans but forgot to decrease the temperature to 350. Next time I won't forget. |
| When time is short or you're looking to make a hot dessert on a weeknight, Apple Crisp is a great go to choice.
Everything comes together in the time it takes to preheat the oven. I used a couple of extra apples (more like 6 or 7 cups of apples) with the same amount of topping.
The aroma that filled our home on a cold evening after the boys returned from sports practices was hard to beat.
Delicious! |
| This is the exact same recipe as the Ruth Wakefield Cookie Bars in the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion except it adds two teaspoons of vanilla. I didn't even realize I was making the same recipe I've made dozens of times before.
The biggest difference was that these were baked in a 9x13 pan while the cookie bars are baked in a jelly roll pan. I found these much easier to remove from the pan in addition to finding them a bit more moist.
As usual, I find these make perfect bake sale fare as they are sturdy and package and travel well. |
| Excellent baked pancake!
Each pancake is baked in a cake pan and rises nicely up the sides. These pancakes come out thin with crispy sides and a softer bottom. They are less eggy than other baked pancakes I've tried.
While the pancakes baked, I sauteed apples and bananas to serve on top. YUM!
Be sure to double this recipe if you're feeding more than two or have hearty appetites.
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| Tastes like a Girl Scout Thin Mint though it looks nothing like it. Perfect combination of chocolate and mint. Everyone asks for the recipe after they taste them. |
| Similar to a Gingersnap but with more molasses flavor. Perfect little crispy rounds that go well with a glass of milk or cup of tea.
Can be made just as easily without chilling the dough with no ill effects. |
| The classic peanut butter cookie. It's quite good but every time I make it the dough seems just a tad too dry. I might add just one tablespoon of shortening. |
| It's a peanut butter brownie!
Very moist peanut butter bars with chocolate chips in the batter. The top is nice and crackly like a fudgy brownie. Strong but not overwhelming peanut butter flavor.
Very easy to make with only common pantry ingredients. |
| King Arthur lists many variations of brownies in this cookbook including fudgy, cakey, and on-the-fence. I went with the fudgy brownies because I wanted brownies like the ones that come from a mix with the crackly top.
I followed the directions exactly - including the admonition to heat the butter twice (once to melt the butter and again after the sugar is added). I used Bensdorp Dutch Process cocoa which KA sells through their catalog and in their VT store.
The batter was so thick it was difficult to spread but using my wet hands I was able to get it spread nicely. The top is not nice and shiny and crackly like the recipe stated it would be. The brownies are not quite sweet enough either - though with 2 full cups of sugar they should be.
They're fine. We'll eat them. I just wouldn't make them again when there are other brownie recipes to try. |
| Just like the classic toll house cookie but in bar form.
These are perfect for when you just don't have the time to bake sheets of cookies. You can whip these together, pop them in the oven, and go about your busy day while they cool.
Just don't over bake them or they'll be very dry. |
| Essentially a fudgy brownie with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips on top.
The bars are very moist and chocolatey. Although the marshmallows give a nice Rocky Road flavor, they make cutting the bars pretty difficult. I'd recommend baking these in a foil lined pan so that the entire thing can be removed for cutting.
**The cooking time in the cookbook is wrong - the bars should be baked for 22 minutes before adding the toppings. |
| This recipe makes the perfect Snickerdoodle. They're light, crispy and have great cinnamon flavor.
I know that traditional Snickerdoodle recipes call for cream of tartar but this one uses baking powder and makes a very crisp cookie.
My middle son's all time favorite cookie. |
| A very rich brownie like cookie with toffee bits.
These cookies are quite rich and very delicious. Without fail, adults love them. Kids, on the other hand, seem to find them a bit too "adult" tasting. |
| Yummy peanut butter chocolate squares/bars. These start with a peanut buttery crust made crisp by the addition of bakers's ammonia (which is optional). This crust needs to cool and then a fudgy layer is added and baked. Finally, after this layer cools a peanut butter and chocolate "frosting" is added.
You'll want to cut these small as they're quite rich. |
| I first made these cookies after eating a chili pepper chocolate bar. I was searching for a cookie with the same taste and found it here.
These are thin chocolate wafers with a kick supplied by black and cayenne pepper as well as cinnamon. At first bite, you don't really get the heat but by the second bite everyone wonders what the secret ingredient is.
If you like a little spice in your life you'll be sure to love these cookies. |
| Perfect little round peanut butter cookies without the normal criss cross normally associated with them.
I was worried about these cookies as I scooped them onto the cookie sheets. Using a Tablespoon cookie scoop, I portioned out this very moist batter. I was worried the cookies would just spread out to a melted peanut butter mess.
Instead the cookies firm up nicely into nice round cookies. The cookies are soft and a bit chewy - not crunchy like regular peanut butter cookies - due to the addition of corn syrup.
A very nice cookie!
Check out the link to the cookie recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. |
| Perfect combination of chocolate and coffee flavor!
I made these cookies for my coffee loving middle son. The cookies get the coffee flavor from espresso and the chocolate flavor from cocoa and chocolate chips. The cookie is moist and chewy with great mocha flavor. |
| And the perfect brownie search continues ...
I thought these brownies held real promise - a mix between a fudgy and cakey brownie. I baked them in a 9x9 pan instead of the 13x9 pan called for because I know I like my brownies thick.
This recipe calls for dutch process cocoa and I guess I can now officially say, after many tries, I don't care for dutch process cocoa. The chocolate is too "dark" tasting for my boys and the brownies are just not sweet enough tasting for me. They're also missing that nice shiny crust on top.
They taste fine - in fact, I'm sure others would love them. They're chocolatey and moist. Fudgy and cakey. They're just not what I'm looking for. |
| There is little more quintessentially Christmas than Gingerbread cookies.
This particular recipe starts with melted butter to which the sugar and molasses are added. This mixture, along with an egg and the dry ingredients are then mixed together. I found this made the dough come together quite nicely.
The dough sat in the fridge for a couple of hours before we rolled it out. We rolled the cookies to 1/4 inch as specified in the recipe and this made thicker than usual cookies that are chewy rather than crunchy.
The spice level is on the mild side - those who prefer gingerbread with more bite should add more cloves or allspice. The large cookies were baked in 10 minutes while the smaller ones took only 7.
I believe we've found our new gingerbread recipe. |
| These are two stage bars. First an oatmeal, sugar, corn syrup base is baked. Then melted chocolate is poured over this cooled base and nuts are sprinkled on top.
My issues all came after the bars were finished. Even in a non- stick pan that was well greased, these bars did not want to come out of the pan. Cutting through the hardened chocolate and the very chewy oatmeal base was very difficult.
These bars should definitely have been baked on an aluminum foil sleeve parchment paper. I just about ruined my favorite jelly roll pan trying to get these out.
The bars themselves are very rich - not crunchy at all. The base is moist and chewy and very, very sweet. I'd probably like them more if I hadn't had to wrestle with them. |
| I was looking for a cookie recipe that would only use ingredients that I had on hand. Although we generally prefer chocolate in our cookies, I thought a nice sugar cookie would fit the bill tonight.
These cookies are indeed chewy like the title suggests. They are puffy and moist rather than thin and chewy. I'd have liked more chewy and less moist.
The cookies are good. Fine. Definitely not essential. |
| A homemade version of the Girl Scout cookie Do-Si-Dos.
This is a peanut butter-oatmeal drop cookie made with peanut butter, flour and oats which is then sandwiched with a filling made of peanut butter, honey and confectioner's sugar.
This is WAY better than the boxed Girl Scout version and, sadly, way more addictive. |
| In need of something for a concession stand, I decided to make an all time favorite - Whoopie Pies.
I made whoopie pies from a different recipe a few weeks ago but thought I'd try a different one. This batter was actually much looser than the last but was still scoopable and able to hold its shape on the sheet.
I made these much smaller than called for as I didn't thin 5 inch whoopie pies were necessary for anyone. Instead, I used my Tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out the batter and had enough for 40 cookies (for 20 whoopie pies). I adjusted the baking time to 8 minutes. I then used the same scoop to put in the filling.
I had just enough filling and batter for 20 whoopie pies. Using the cookie scoop for both cookie and filling made this recipe very manageable. All in all, it's a very easy recipe made with common pantry ingredients.
Loved by all! |
| Maple-walnut always seems like a Dad flavor to me. When you go for ice cream, the kids order chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or some mixed flavor while Dads order maple-walnut or pistachio or something old-fashioned.
During a visit to the King Arthur store, I picked up some maple extract and was anxious to use it. The cookies themselves use both maple extract and maple syrup in addition to toasted walnuts.
The recipe says to flatten the cookies with a glass but the dough was much too crumbly and dry for that. Instead, I had to keep the cookies as balls. The dough didn't flatten or spread at all in the oven.
Basically, I ended up with cookie balls. Fortunately, the cookies have good maple and walnut flavor. |
| Maple-walnut always seems like a Dad flavor to me. When you go for ice cream, the kids order chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or some mixed flavor while Dads order maple-walnut or pistachio or something old-fashioned.
During a visit to the King Arthur store, I picked up some maple extract and was anxious to use it. The cookies themselves use both maple extract and maple syrup in addition to toasted walnuts.
The recipe says to flatten the cookies with a glass but the dough was much too crumbly and dry for that. Instead, I had to keep the cookies as balls. The dough didn't flatten or spread at all in the oven.
Basically, I ended up with cookie balls. Fortunately, the cookies have good maple and walnut flavor. |
| King Arthur Flour never disappoints. I got a new pizzelle maker for Christmas and knew that this would be my go-to resource for recipes.
The dough itself is super simple to make using only a bowl and a spoon. I used vanilla extract because my children aren't fond of anise. To form the pizzelles I used my Tablespoon cookie scoop.
This pizzelle maker is super fast - 30 seconds per batch - so I had to work fast. In less than 15 minutes I had 30 beautiful pizzelles. They are thin, crispy and delicious.
I'll have to work on my technique to get the dough in just the right place on the plates but I don't really care if the cookies are perfectly shaped for my family. |
| Following the baking instructions goes a long way in making these come out well. I misread the temperature for the oven - these bake at a low temperature of 325 - so I burned the first batch.
These are a lovely oatmeal cookie on the thick side - they don't thin out much during baking. They are crunchy but not brittle.
Delicious with chocolate chips added! |
| We have a friend who, despite all odds, is celebrating his birthday today. Jim LOVES whoopie pies more than anything so it seemed fitting I shoudl bake some for his birthday.
These Pumpkin whoopie pies seemed like the perfect thing for a mid October baking session. They are flavored with molasses, cloves, ginger and cinnamon and are a beautiful orange color once baked. They are a bit more moist than chocolate whoopie pies and I would recommend baking on parchment paper.
I chose to make the more typical shortening and fluff filling as opposed the the cream cheese filling as I didn't want to have to refrigerate them. I substituted maple extract for vanilla to complete the fall flavors. |
| This cookbook often gives numerous variations on a single cookie recipe. In this case, there are soft molasses cookies, crisp molasses cookies, and on-the-fence molasses cookies. The texture of these cookies is described as "bendy" - neither crisp nor soft.
While the taste of these cookies is everything you'd expect from a molasses cookie, I can't say they are "bendy". They are crunchy. They don't shatter when you bite them but they do crunch and make crumbs.
They are spicy and delicious and the perfect cookie for a chilly fall evening. |
| Classic chocolate fudge cookie covered in powdered sugar. These taste like a brownie in cookie form with the sugar on giving an extra hint of sweetness.
The dough can be a bit of a pain to come together but once it does it's a very simple cookie. |
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