Zosia's Reviews
17 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 17Sort by: Title 
| Date | Rating
A Passion for Baking: Bake to celebrate, Bake to nourish, Bake for fun
By Marcy Goldman
Oxmoor House - 2007
2511 Rolls : page 53
Apparently the recipe for these buns was downloaded 2511 times in 1 hour from the author’s website, hence the name. I can see the reason for this as they’re ridiculously good – crispy golden exterior, tender crumb, buttery and a little salty….a perfect dinner roll.
The dough is a simple yeast bread enriched with buttermilk, butter and sugar. It’s very easy to work with and the rising times are quite reasonable (less than 1 hour each time). Assembly requires you to divide the dough into small pieces, dip in melted butter and arrange in a muffin tin to make individual buns. Initially, I baked as directed but the buns were very large.
Since I was serving these for Thanksgiving dinner and wanted much smaller portions, I baked and served it much like monkey bread, distributing the butter dipped balls of dough evenly among 3-9” cake pans (for a double batch of dough) – guests were able to help themselves to however many they wanted.
useful (0)
Baker's Bubka with Crumb Topping : page 212
It's not exactly bread, but it's not a cake either....but, it is fabulous! This bubka is made from a yeast-raised egg and butter rich dough, spread with a sweet filling, rolled jelly roll-style and topped with a crunchy, buttery crumble.
The first time I tried it, I made the sweet almond filling included in the recipe and baked it in a tube pan. Though it was delicious, I thought there was too much dough for the pan; I felt I could have made a loaf in addition to the tube. This time, I decided to bake loaves, and keeping my last experience in mind, I divided the dough among 3 pans instead of the recommended 2 - they were the perfect size. I also tried a chocolate filling from another recipe in the book and it was fantastic!
This would make a delicious addition to a breakfast/brunch table.
useful (1)
Birdseed Bread : page 37
Terrific bread, silly name! This soft, chewy, nutty bread made with whole grain wheat and rye flours with sunflower seeds, flax and cracked wheat for added texture is easy to make with no preferment/sponge required and fairly quick proofing times.
The dough is enriched with a little oil, honey, brown sugar (which I left out by mistake) and baker’s caramel (which I omitted). It’s a little sticky but still quite easy to work with.
Sandwich buns are more popular than sliced bread in my family so that’s how I shaped the dough…….great flavour and texture, it’s become a new family favourite.
useful (1)
Black-and-White Cookie Ripple Coffee Cake : page 237
This is the ultimate cookies 'n' cream cake that makes your kitchen smell as though you're baking Oreo cookies....which you actually are!
The cake is a moist vanilla cake made tender by the inclusion of buttermilk. The cake is topped with Oreo "streusel" (chopped cookies) that retain their crunch even after baking. And then there's the filling: a layer of chopped cookies is transformed into a fudgy ripple when the creamy cookie filling melts and melds with the chocolate wafer. The cake is finished with a vanilla icing drizzle.
Apart from the Oreo cookies, the ingredients are very basic and the cake takes no more effort to make than the average coffee cake but the results are spectacular and a real crowd pleaser!
useful (2)
BLT Bread : page 43
This recipe made fantastic sandwich buns. I understand why it's named "BLT" bread....the slightly sweet bread is the perfect foil for smoky, salty fillings, like bacon-lettuce-tomato.
The yeast dough is enriched with milk, eggs, oil/butter and sugar and requires no sponge or preferment. It's easy to work with and has fairly quick rising times.
The buns have huge oven spring and a light, soft texture, yet the crumb is fine and somewhat dense. This makes it perfect for sandwiches as it doesn't absorb moisture easily; it doesn't become soggy, even without toasting.
The recipe makes 2 standard loaves or 12 large buns. It would make excellent hamburger buns.
useful (1)
Chewy Chocolate Sticks : page 207
Made with an enriched yeast dough and a chocolate filling, the flavour of these treats was reminiscent of a chocolate-filled babka, but with the much shorter fermentation and proofing times, took a fraction of the time to make. The dough came together easily but as with many of the recipes in this book, there was too much filling and the “sticks” were much too large.
useful (0)
Cinn-a-Bun Cheesecake : page 269
A cheesecake that tastes like a cinnamon bun - how can you go wrong? This is a cool, creamy vanilla cheesecake with a cinnamon crust, a cinnamon-caramel ripple and a streusel-like topping of crunchy cinnamon cookies and cinnamon sugar.
The author suggests using store-bought cookies and caramel/butterscotch sauce. I couldn't find raisin-free cookies so used graham crackers with 2 tsp cinnamon added for the crust and baked cinnamon shortbread cookies for the filling and topping. I also made the caramel sauce......I've included links to the cookie and caramel reviews.
Apart from these few extra components, the cheesecake has standard ingredients and assembly instructions and the usual long baking and chilling times. But next time, it gets baked in a hot water bath to prevent a repeat of the crack in the middle!
The cake tasted fabulous and has already been requested as a birthday cake. The recipe says it serves 10-14 - I would say 20!
useful (1)
French Chocolate Silk Pie : page 197
As one would expect from the name, the texture was smooth and velvety yet quite light, and the flavour was as good as the chocolate used.
This non-traditional version of a silk pie used far less butter than most, included sweetened condensed milk as one of its ingredients, and was baked. The baking instructions were unclear so I removed the pie when the centre was no longer jiggly. Though the texture was lovely, I may have over-baked the pie a little as the surface was dry and crackly – desirable in a brownie, not so much in a creamy chocolate pie.
Definitely something I will make again as it took just minutes to put together - it helped that I had this unbaked pie crust in the freezer - and was a huge hit. But knowing now what it looks like once it’s baked, I’ll be better prepared to hide the surface next time : )!
useful (0)
French Cruller Doughnuts : page 192
I was thrilled when I realized this book included a baked version of my favourite doughnut shop indulgence.
It starts with a basic choux/cream puff pastry recipe to which vanilla and sugar have been added and some of the water has been replaced with milk.
Water, milk and butter are brought to a boil; vanilla and flour are added and cooked for a few minutes; eggs are then beaten into the mixture. Pipe, bake and give a quick dip in a vanilla glaze and the doughnuts are done!
Unlike cream puffs and eclairs, a moist interior is desirable for these so there is no need to pierce the puffs and return to the oven to dry. In fact, if you have a failed batch of choux...didn't rise, fell after baking (I'm speaking from first hand experience here).....just dip in a glaze and call them crullers:)
I normally make mine smaller than the recipe instructions so a half recipe yields 20 - 2 1/2" baked doughnuts.
useful (1)
Garlic-Slathered Stretch Bread : page 83
The bread base is light, airy and chewy, and the topping, cheesy and garlicky.
The dough is a simple mix of bread flour, water, yeast, salt and sugar. It’s relatively wet and has long proofing times but no preferment is required.
The topping is applied to the shaped (by stetching, hence the name) flatbread before the final rise. It consists of an interesting spread made of mayonnaise (I used reduced fat), minced garlic, salt, olive oil and parmesan cheese topped with shredded mozzarella. I found the topping recipe as written to be too much: too salty, too oily, too cheesy….
When I made it this time, I reduced the amount of mayonnaise to ½ cup, omitted the salt and the oil from the spread and reduced the quantity of both cheeses by half. The 3 star rating is for the recipe as written but with just a few tweaks this bread lived up to its potential to be the ultimate garlic-cheese bread worthy of a 5-star rating.
useful (0)
Greek Restaurant Whole Wheat Bread : page 41
Easy-to-make (mainly) whole wheat bread with a thin, crispy crust and an airy but chewy crumb.
A small amount of white bread flour (~20%) was called for but the rest was up to the baker; I used organic Red Fife whole wheat flour (15% protein) for the balance. The dough had relatively short fermentation/proofing times but what it lacked in flavour development as a result was made up for by the addition of olive oil and honey and the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour.
With the high proportion of whole wheat flour, I expected a denser loaf but it was still excellent in sandwiches as it didn’t get soggy, even with fairly wet toppings.
useful (0)
Hot Buttered Popcorn Bread : page 38
Freshly popped popcorn, freshly baked bread….the aromas emanating from my kitchen during this bread making session were out of this world!
The recipe is fairly standard; it’s an enriched dough made with bread flour, oil and sugar but with the added ingredient of popcorn “flour”, made from pulverized, popped corn. I made the popcorn the “old-fashioned” way – on the stovetop in a pot with oil. Family questioned my sanity for doing this at 6am (though this same family enjoyed popcorn for breakfast, insisting it fit my criteria of being whole grain, low sugar, low fat and low sodium!!) but the bread was ready in time for lunch.
The crumb was soft and fluffy with little crunchy bits and though it didn’t taste strongly of popcorn, there was a hint of it. I omitted the optional butter extract so my loaf didn’t taste that buttery. I allowed the shaped dough to over proof slightly and the bread had huge (!!!) oven spring so the loaf fell slightly during cooling. An egg wash before baking and a basting with melted butter once it was out of the oven helped make this bread as “irresistible” as the author claimed.
useful (1)
Italian Hard Rolls : page 52
Same-day homemade Italian bread - what could be better?
I discovered this recipe when I planned to bake buns but forgot to make a preferment the night before. They are a little less chewy and don't seem to develop as crisp a crust as a true Italian loaf, but they are delicious.
A sponge of water, yeast and flour that rests for 2 hours starts the process. The remaining ingredients, including honey and olive oil, are added, the dough is kneaded and then left to rise. The dough, which is very easy to work with, is then shaped, proofed again, and baked.
Easy and great tasting.
useful (1)
Pain Pesto : page 45
This is a lovely, soft bread with a light, airy crumb and a swirl of pesto.
The dough comes together easily and quickly (no sponges or preferments required) and has a relatively short kneading time. After the first rising, the dough is shaped much as one would cinnamon rolls, spreading the rolled-out dough with a savoury pesto, then rolling it up jelly-roll style. After the second rise, the roll is baked. Buns suited my purpose better than a loaf, so I sliced the filled roll as I would for cinnamon buns before the second proof. The tops are finished with grated parmesan and baked.
The recipe calls for store-bought pesto, but this bread is only as good as the pesto that is used. I would recommend spreading it thinly and using less than the amount recommended as it can be quite potent.
useful (0)
Pepperoni Pizza Rolls : page 81
This is a great grab-and-go snack that is equally delicious hot or cold. The dough is flavourful and easy to work with and the filling can be customized to allow for your pizza topping preferences.
I appreciate the author's tip to chill the filled and rolled dough to make slicing easier. The buns spread and get only slightly puffy during the second proof but don't be alarmed....most of the rise takes place in the oven.
The first time I tried this recipe, I had a few problems with the filling: there was too much sauce (quite a bit oozed out when the dough was rolled) and the pepperoni didn't get the crisp edges I prefer because it's encased in the dough. I now make these with sauce and cheese only and they're still a huge hit!
June 11 - made using 2c (~1/2 quantity) whole wheat bread flour & 1tbsp wheat gluten. Crumb was still soft, light and chewy.
useful (0)
Strawberries and Cream Cookies : page 128
I bought the dried strawberries for this recipe a few months ago, but I wasn't inspired to make them until I read the previous reviews. They are as delicious as ruth3ch and jenncc have said: creamy white chocolate and a burst of sweet strawberry in a classic melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookie.
I decided to follow the recipe's instructions and roll the dough to a 1/2" thickness (thicker than I normally would); I did deviate slightly in the method, using a tip I learned from Dorie Greenspan, and put all of the dough in a freezer bag, rolled it while it was in the bag, then chilled it as instructed. I baked the cookies at 300F and they were done in 35 minutes. I rolled the scraps to a 1/4" thickness only: these cookies were baked in 18 minutes and equally delicious!
I used mini white chocolate chips for the first time and was disappointed that they browned in the oven - next time I will use the chopped white chocolate called for in the recipe.
useful (0)
I love cinnamon bread and buns so when I came across this recipe, which would use up my partial can of pumpkin puree, I couldn't resist and the bread didn't disappoint.
Only bread flour is used so the crumb is slightly stretchy and chewy, but made oh-so-tender and beautifully golden by the added pumpkin. The filling is a typical cinnamon-sugar/butter mix but with the added crunch of chopped pecans.
The method is standard: mix and knead the dough, allow 1 short rise for the dough and a second one for the shaped loaves. The dough is soft but not sticky and very easy to work with: I do need to practise my loaf rolling/shaping technique to prevent the gaps where the cinnamon-sugar layers are. I guess I'll just have to keep making this bread until I get it right!
useful (1)