Zosia's Reviews
8 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Title 
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Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
By Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito, Tina Rupp
Stewart, Tabori & Chang - 2010
Classic Caramel Sauce : page 191
Sweet, buttery and gooey, this probably is what most people expect caramel sauce to be; it's not my personal favourite as I prefer a more intense flavour (like the caramel I reviewed from The Pie and Pastry Bible).
The ingredients are very basic (why is water not listed among the ingredients when it's required to complete the recipe?) and the directions are quite clear up to a point; they should have included that the mixture must be stirred over low heat after the addition of the cooler ingredients - butter and cream - as the caramel seizes.
I would have given only 2 stars but my family quite liked it - 3 is the compromise.
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Cowboy Cookies : page 91
Chewy oatmeal cookies with golden, crispy edges, jam-packed with all sorts of delicious add-ins.
The buttery, caramel-flavoured cookie base bursts with chocolate chunks and, because it’s a recipe from those “Baked” boys in Brooklyn, malty, salty pretzels instead of the usual chopped nuts. A little espresso prevents the cookie from being too sweet and enhances the chocolate.
Though the dough comes together quickly, it must be refrigerated for at least 4 hours before baking. I find that dough is often too hard to work with straight out of the fridge and requires additional warm-up time. I really don’t have the patience for that when it comes to cookies so I portioned the dough onto cookie sheets first and then refrigerated them. I was able to just pop the sheets into the oven straight from the fridge.
The recipe made 48 (instead of 36) delicious, good sized - but not monster - cookies.
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My husband bought me a deep fryer. I hate deep frying. However, in celebration of the spirit in which the gift was given, I made these doughnuts.
These are lightly spiced cake doughnuts leavened with baking powder and soda. The ingredients and the mixing method are simple, tossing wet with dry, so the dough comes together very quickly and easily.
The cake is tender and quite flavourful; of the chocolate and cinnamon sugar toppings I made, I preferred the cinnamon. I didn’t try the vanilla glaze.
My 1 complaint (apart from having to fry them) is that I wish the doughnuts were taller; they developed a rather thick crust when fried so there was less tender cake inside. Of course, this may just be a reflection of the fact that I don’t know how to deep fry anything : ), but I do think patting the dough into ¾” thickness instead of ½” may give better results.
The family liked them but weren't excited enough about them for me to try making them again.
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Lady Praline Chiffon Cake : page 149
This is a lovely tasting cake, nutty with a hint of orange, with a perfect chiffon texture: moist and spongy, but not rubbery, with a fine, tight crumb.
The praline flavouring comes from the use of brown sugar and pecan liqueur in the recipe. Almond extract is suggested as a substitute for the liqueur, but I used hazelnut oil and a little vanilla. The mixing method is standard for a chiffon cake in that most of the eggs need to be separated; the yolks are mixed with oil, water and the dry ingredients, and whites are whipped and folded in at the end. It’s important not to over mix at any stage to ensure a moist cake. (Pet peeve about the recipes in this book: they don’t include the water in the list of ingredients.)
Delicious and definitely a keeper!
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Malted Waffles : page 46
Light and crispy with a nutty, complex flavour, these waffles passed the ultimate taste test in my house – they tasted great without any embellishment.
The batter was very easy to put together, wet ingredients were folded into dry and mixed gently until combined. It was a fairly thick batter so I used a spatula to help spread it evenly onto the waffle iron.
The recipe made 24 small rectangular waffles. The ones that weren’t eaten immediately were just as good as fresh after a light toasting in the toaster.
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Orange Creamsicle Tart : page 74
Creamsicles have always been one of my favourite frozen treats and this tart captures the flavours perfectly….a buttery cookie crust filled with a tart orange curd made with orange cream soda(!), topped with cool, whipped cream.
Like most tarts, this has a few components but the work can be spread out over a few days. The crust is a standard sugar cookie crust with some added orange rind. The dough is easy to make and work with and I followed the authors’ suggestion to coat the baked crust with melted white chocolate before filling to prevent it from getting soggy – this tip worked beautifully. The curd is made using a standard method, though it does start with a reduction of cream soda and orange juice. I used agar agar instead of gelatin to stabilize it. A swirl of lightly sweetened whipped cream flavoured with the soda is the finishing touch.
Creamy and refreshing…this is one of my favourite tarts!
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Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins : page 25
Well, my dog loved them.......
Family of the non-canine variety didn't. The only reason these "I can't decide if I'm sweet or savoury" muffins got 2 stars is for ease of preparation and good texture (and they smelled pretty good while they were baking). They probably would have been edible with just a tbsp or 2 of sugar.
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Sweet & Salty Brownie : page 93
The famous Baked brownie is taken to new heights with the addition of a layer of salted caramel and a sprinkling of coarse salt and sugar. It has a rich chocolate flavour and is neither too fudgy nor too cake-y, though it does lean towards the moist and fudgy side of the spectrum.
The brownies are amazingly easy saucepan brownies that rely on a lot of quality chocolate, butter and cocoa powder for their flavour. The recipe recommends chocolate with a 60-72% cacao content. I find that the less intense chocolate holds the greater appeal.
But, before one starts the brownie, the salted caramel must be prepared and cooled. The recipe is fairly standard (water sugar, corn syrup, cream) but also includes sour cream, and salt, of course. I had some leftover salted caramel from the Sweet and Salty Cake I made, so was able to put this together quickly when my son requested something sweet for a party.
The book is worth the cost for this recipe alone!
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