lovesgenoise's Reviews
64 recipes reviewed. Showing 51 to 64Sort by: Book Title 
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Rose's Celebrations
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow & Co - 1992
This makes a quick and easy weeknight dish, and is a great way to make pork chops. My chops were at the thin end of the range specified, and I found they cooked more quickly than the recipe specified. That may also be because I have an electric stove, so "low" may be hotter than with a gas range. I took them off the heat as they approached 160F on an instant-read thermometer.
In the French style, the garlic is left whole for cooking and then removed before serving, and it stays in the background, the dish is not too garlicky.
I may have been lax about stirring the lima beans enough, because they seemed to be a little unevenly cooked (some were undercooked). I think next time I may give them a quick boil/drain before sauteeing them. But that's me, not the recipe.
The only thing I would change about the recipe is to pull back on the thyme, it is a little too much for me.
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Rose's Christmas Cookies
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1998
These cookies are a nut-lover's dream- intense flavor from three different nuts and a surprising, almost shocking disappearing texture that makes them a real standout. One of my all-time favorite cookies.
I shape them by forming a log and slicing it, as if making slice and bake cookies. Then I cut each disc in half (into two semi-circles), and put the straight, cut side down on the pan.
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These are incredibly good, sort of like a cannoli shell made out of toffee. The brandy is an undertone, they don't taste boozy. Everyone I served them to absolutely loved them, from kids to adults with sophisticated palates.
Here are my notes from making these:
-If the oven runs hot, these cookies won’t spread enough to wrap around the dowel.
-I wrapped my dowel in wax paper, taped only at the center so the cookies can slide off the ends without snagging on tape.
-I found it was best to let the cookies cool for 3 minutes on the dowel before sliding them off, they hold their shape better.
-These get soft/sticky if left out (though not as dramatically as meringue), but they stayed crispy in tupperware-type containers.
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These are wonderful- more intensely lemon than most and not overly sweet.
When you're making them, it's easy to think that there isn't enough of the lemon topping, as the proportion of lemon to shortbread is different than many recipes (the lemon layer is thinner than the shortbread layer). This is because the curd is more intensely flavored than the thicker toppings. When eaten, they are perfect.
Be careful to bake the shortbread long enough, once when I made these the base wasn't as crispy as it should have been because I didn't bake long enough. The top should begin to color, but not darkly.
When making the curd, the author has an update on her blog: stir in the softened butter before adding the lemon juice, and you'll get less stuff left behind in the strainer. Works like a charm.
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These are an outrageously good, upscale version of the seven layer bars of my childhood. Possibly the easiest recipe in the book, they depend upon high quality chocolate. A real crowd pleaser.
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These brownies are rich and chocolate-y, as well as very easy and fuss-free to make. There are only a handful of ingredients, all of which are already on hand in our kitchen. The last time we made these my ten year-old daughter proudly made them all herself, with only very light, hands-off supervision from the grown-ups. The photo shows her brownies.
The texture is tender and dense/fudgy, perfect for us but maybe not quite right if you're looking for a firm or chewy texture. They are a not-too-sweet brownie, with enough cocoa to balance the sugar in the recipe. However, if you opt to leave out the nuts, they will be a lot sweeter, which may be good or bad depending on how you like your brownies.
For a moist, fudgy texture, it's important not to overbake.
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These capture perfectly the flavor of the best lemon-poppyseed muffins or cake. And the texture is wonderful- the inside is slightly moist and soft, but crispy from the poppyseeds, while the outside is a bit crunchy.
When I made these, they came out slightly flatter than the hemispheres shown in the book, but I was still happy with them. The roundest cookies in my batch were the smaller ones, and the ones that had more finely ground almonds pressed into the outside.
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Rose's Heavenly Cakes
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Wiley - 2009
I made this recipe as marble cupcakes. It is flavorful and the chocolate cake is perfectly balanced with the yellow. Not a difficult or time-consuming cake, just make a classic yellow sour cream batter, add melted chocolate to a portion, then swirl.
The recipe makes 24 flat-topped cupcakes. For rounded tops, consider reducing the baking powder slightly.
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One of the best cakes I have ever made, and I never thought I would say that about a cake that doesn't contain butter. It's light and fresh and has a dreamy, spongy texture. I've made a tangerine version and a lemon version. The author gives leavening and flavor adjustments for the lemon version on her blog.
This cake is a little tricky and requires everything to be just right. Use a silver (i.e., not a non-stick) springform, cake strips, a flower nail, unbleached AP flour and measure or weigh everything carefully. Underbaking and overbaking will also create problems.
For the whipped cream recipe listed with the cake, be sure to use sweet orange marmalade, as the classic, somewhat bitter variety makes terrible whipped cream (voice of experience). For the tangerine version, I used homemade tangerine preserves, which worked very well. For the lemon version, I flavored the whipped cream with lemon oil and vanilla.
The photos are the lemon version, which had blueberries in the center filling and was topped with raspberries.
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One of my all-time favorite cakes. This cake is somewhat dense with added texture from ground almonds. Balancing the richness of butter, almonds and sour cream is plenty of lemon zest and juice.
The cake is not difficult but it's a little more time-consuming than a classic American-style butter cake, because of the need to toast and grind almonds, and because of the zesting and juicing of lemons. But very worth it, I've made it over and over. Don't be tempted to make substitutions with this cake, the balance of flavors and textures is absolutely perfect as written. It's noticeably better on the day after it is made, and keeps well for several days.
The photo shows this cake as a torte topped with glazed fresh blueberries (from the Cake Bible) and trimmed with white chocolate-lemon buttercream. The buttercream is from the Wedding Cake chapter of Rose's Heavenly Cakes.
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We love this cake and make it over and over. It is easier than a classic chiffon, about as easy as an American butter cake. It is equally popular with kids and adults. Our favorite ice cream pairing with this is H. Daz Strawberry, but chocolate comes in a close second.
With no butter or cream, the flavor of this cake depends on a good-quality, full-flavored cocoa.
We bake this as individual ice cream sandwiches in a pan with 1-cup cavities. The right amount of batter per cavity is 60-62 grams, any more and the sandwich will be too tall to eat. For cakes of this size, 75% of the recipe on p.137 will make 12. They bake for 20 minutes, and we lower the oven temp 25F because our pan has a dark lining.
Like most sponge-type cakes, the top crust on this cake is sticky (top crust when in the cake pan). If you're making little sandwiches to eat with your hands, you can trim the crust if you don't want the sticky texture.
For filling these, it is easiest to slice (torte) them while still room temp, then put them in the freezer before filling with ice cream.
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Delicious, super moist, and beautiful! This cake uses basic ingredients and goes together quickly. The fruit takes the place of frosting, decorations and syrup.
For the presentation in the photo, I used 22 oz nectarines and 6 oz blueberries, same total fruit weight as the recipe but more stone fruit and fewer blueberries.
It's important to note that this cake bakes up with a firm and crunchy top crust that can make it more difficult to test for doneness- the firmer crust seems to resist a gentle poke and it also scrapes the toothpick clean, even if the center isn't done. An instant-read thermometer should register at least 190F in the center when done.
Best flavor when made a day before serving. If there's any undissolved caramel left in the pan after unmolding, it can be put back in place on top of the cake and it will dissolve after a day or so.
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I’ve made this buttercream twice now, and I can’t say enough about how delicious it is. It has a dreamy, soft and creamy texture and it's not too buttery. I have started stockpiling Green and Black’s white chocolate whenever it goes on sale, hoping to make more of this soon.
The texture of this buttercream is a little on the soft side (about like cream cheese buttercream), and it can be a little translucent in very thin layers. But it is so delicious that it is worth a little extra effort to keep it cool while piping, and since it isn't too buttery, extremely thin layers aren't needed.
Don't Scorch the Chocolate
This buttercream requires switching gears at the double-boiler: first, you try not to get it too hot (so you don't scorch the chocolate), then after adding the eggs you turn up the heat and push to get it hot enough (to bring the custard to 140F).
Freezing
It freezes perfectly, just be sure to bring it to room temperature and re-beat it with a whisk (by hand is fine) to restore its texture.
Serving Size
This recipe only makes 7 cups of buttercream- the 14 cups that is mentioned at the beginning of the recipe comes from making two batches. It scales down easily- I make half the recipe as written (3.5 cups), and the only change is that the custard cools faster.
The photo shows an 8" layer of the Golden Dream cake topped with the lemon version of this buttercream.
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
I like these cookies a lot- made them three times so far. I've found that they're best if three things are followed:
First, the chopped chocolate/chips should be 53-60% dark chocolate, as the cookie base isn't very sweet and anything with a higher cacao percentage makes them too bitter and unbalanced.
Second, they really are better with the fleur de sel, as the crunchiness remains in the finished cookie and somehow the quanitity is perfect. When I made them with fine sea salt the amount wasn't quite right, tastewise, and they lacked that special crunch.
Third, beg, borrow or steal a scale, because they also have a better texture if you weigh ingredients. The volume measure for the brown sugar is not an accurate translation from the weights that this recipe was originally developed with, but rather a next-best-thing approximation.
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