Zosia's Reviews
780 recipes reviewed. Showing 51 to 100Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
Baking for All Occasions
By Flo Braker
Chronicle Books - 2008
A fudgy chocolate brownie baked on top of a crispy, buttery shortbread base….. 2 treats in every bite.
The recipe is easy but involves baking in stages. First, the shortbread ingredients are whizzed together in a food processor, pressed into a cake pan and baked. Then, a chocolate-y saucepan brownie is poured on top and sprinkled with finely chopped nuts before baking. The recipe calls for hazelnuts but I used pecans instead. There’s no need to toast the nuts in advance as they toast during baking. The yield was supposed to be 36 (1 ½” squares) but I cut them smaller and got 49.
These are extremely rich and a little goes a long way but they are delicious.
useful (0)
Easy, oil based coffee cake with a crunchy, nutty streusel topping.
This recipe uses the most unusual method I’ve encountered of making a cake – a portion of the cake mix actually becomes the streusel topping! The leavening, buttermilk and egg are mixed into a flour-sugar-oil blend to create the batter; nuts and cinnamon are added to the balance of the flour mix to make the topping.
I kept to the basic recipe though the author suggests several add-ins including fresh berries, diced apples or grated carrots. The cake was light and moist and mildly spiced. But the star was really the topping which became beautifully browned and crisp during the relatively short baking time.
This is definitely a recipe I will use often…..it uses very basic pantry ingredients and equipment and bakes up quickly. Excellent results for very little effort.
useful (0)
I’ve never understood eggnog as a beverage, but with eggs, cream, sugar and nutmeg as some of its components, I can appreciate its merits as a baking ingredient. This moist cake is how all eggnog should be consumed: by the slice, redolent with nutmeg and studded with rum-soaked currants.
I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly. The cake was a lovely golden yellow colour with a very fine crumb; I particularly liked the effect of the sugar-water-rum glaze which dried to form a sparkling, crispy crust.
This delicious cake is the perfect embodiment of one of the flavours of the holiday season…. It was so popular, I baked a second batch in small loaf pans to give as gifts.
useful (2)
It’s the crunchy streusel topping on this tender, buttery banana cake that earns this recipe 5 stars.
Made with cake flour and butter and using the standard creaming method, this cake is nothing like a dense or coarse-crumbed banana bread; the crumb is fine, moist and delicate. I chose to bake it in a loaf pan and the one I own always takes longer than a recipe states so it took an extra 10 minutes. I couldn’t imagine inverting the cake topping side down and then righting it again, so I lined the pan with parchment first, making certain the piece was large enough to overhang the pan edges creating handles. After cooling in the pan for 30 minutes, the cake was easily lifted from it without any loss of streusel.
It was really delicious but a little too fragile to slice thinly because the cake was so tall. Next time I’ll bake in a square pan….baking time is much shorter and it will be much easier to serve.
useful (0)
Good flavour but a little drier and more crumbly than I like a cake to be. I am curious to know if it fares better baked as cookies or biscotti.
useful (0)
Ripe summer fruit that’s barely held together by an almond-scented cake batter is the idea behind this cake. I used local plums and blueberries; topped with crunchy toasted almonds, this made a lovely dessert.
useful (0)
Crunchy almond streusel and berries top a really tasty focaccia with a light and airy crumb in this breakfast treat that’s as savoury as it is sweet. Baked the day before, it was still moist as promised the next morning but I think if the shaped dough were refrigerated overnight after the second proofing, it could be enjoyed freshly baked in the morning.
useful (0)
Fabulous pie! The flavours of the 3 fruits melded beautifully and the crumble topping was crisp and golden, providing great texture.
In my part of the world, local raspberries and cherries are available long after the rhubarb is finished so I used frozen rhubarb. The amount of sugar and thickeners called for seemed excessive but were necessary in the end. The filling was nicely tart and sweet with fresh fruit flavour and was soft but not runny when completely cooled.
The pie was baked in this Flaky Pie Pastry.
useful (0)
This is indeed a very flaky pie crust. Made with both butter and shortening, it has a high proportion of fat to flour and is too tender and crumbly for my liking. Because of the quantity of fat, I found that the dough needed less water to hold together than the recipe states.
useful (0)
This was a moist and tasty vanilla cake bursting with blueberries. The use of cake flour gave it a very fine and tender crumb, elevating it from a coarse-crumbed coffee cake to a more refined and elegant cake.
I made a half recipe to use up some egg yolks and baked it in a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. I also used the same weight of sugar as flour, a 25% reduction in the sugar. It was still sweet (but more to my liking).
useful (0)
This was a really delicious moist chocolate cake made with cocoa powder only that could easily stand alone. The frangipane added delicious almond flavour and would have added visual interest had my 2 layers not melded together and sunk to the bottom of the cake! (I missed the instructions to refrigerate it before assembling the cake so that may have been the problem).
useful (0)
Baking: From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2006
A crisp, chewy topping, and tender, juicy baked Fall fruits combine to make a delicious, comforting dessert.
The topping starts with the usual pantry ingredients of rolled oats, flour, sugar and spices combined with butter. Though uncommon, coconut is also included, adding a subtle flavour and great, chewy texture. I don't usually pull out the food processor to make the topping but just combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and rub the butter in with my fingers.
The filling is simply diced apples (I used apples and pears for this batch), fresh and dried cranberries, sugar and a little flour to thicken the juices. Simple, but a very good balance of sweet and tart.
The topping is perfect with the fruits, the spices complement without overwhelming them. It tastes fabulous with Fall fruits but also works well with Summer berries and peaches. The crisp can be served with ice cream etc, but it's so good as is, it needs no further embellishment.
useful (1)
Sweet, tender, buttery cookie filled with tart ruby fruit, this is a visual as well as a taste sensation.
The vanilla cookie dough contains the basic ingredients of flour, butter, sugar and egg, with an additional egg yolk for tenderness. After mixing the dough, it's divided in half, shaped into discs and chilled briefly. Each piece is then rolled to fit a 9" springform pan. The bottom crust is layered with the filling (cranberries simmered with sugar, orange juice and rind) followed by the top crust. After a sprinkling of sugar, it's ready to be baked.
I've made this a few times as written but did take a shortcut with this latest version. I skipped the chilling step and merely pressed slightly over half the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan and crumbled the remaining dough on the top of the fruit filling.
The cake is a little more rustic looking as a result but still tasted as delicious as it usually does.
useful (1)
A taste of the tropics in the middle of Winter! This oil-based quick bread is chock full of juicy mango and flavoured with ginger and lime.
The loaf comes together quickly using the standard muffin/quick bread mixing method of combining wet with dry ingredients. Chopped mango is then folded in. This is an exceptionally thick batter but it loosens up considerably when you add in the juicy bits of fruit. I omit the raisins as family is not fond of them. Also, I do find that the batter quantity is too much for a 9" x 5" loaf pan, so I make 1 1/2 batches and make 2 - 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaves.
Delicious freshly baked but equally good the next day as the loaf stays moist and the flavours mellow over time.
useful (1)
This is one of my favourite cake recipes for a fruit-topped coffee cake for a number of reasons: it’s made with brown sugar so has a lovely caramel flavour that complements all fruits; the batter is thick enough to support the fruit on the top; it’s made with oil and butter so the cake is soft and moist even straight from the fridge.
I did make it with the recommended plums this time, but I’ve also made it with nectarines, pears and apples, usually without peeling them. You just need to keep in mind that the fruit should be tender after 35-40minutes of baking and cut the piece sizes accordingly.
Easy and versatile cake.
useful (1)
Best tasting chocolate cookie ever!
Many wonderful things have already been said about these cookies, all of them well deserved. I’ll just add that they are very easy to make….. just roll the dough into logs, (refrigerate), slice and bake.
I’ve always had success with the recipe using the volume measurements in the book but noticed recently that Dorie has provided ingredient weights on her website so I’ve included the link.
useful (1)
Delicious cinnamon-scented muffins with a flavour reminiscent of cappuccino and a soft, cake-like texture.
The batter is put together in typical fashion with wet ingredients mixed gently into dry. A cup of coffee and a tbsp of instant espresso give the muffins their flavour; melted butter keeps them moist. I used half whole wheat flour and added some mini chocolate chips.
These baked in 17min in my oven.
useful (2)
This delicious dessert is Dorie Greenspan’s take on key lime pie with a traditional condensed milk-lime juice filling, topped with fluffy meringue. What sets it apart is a hidden layer of chewy coconut goodness beneath the filling. Coconut is also supposed to be added to the meringue but I forgot when it came time.
The components are easy to make - and Dorie says you can use a store-bought crust so it must be okay - and there is a little waiting time while things bake or chill, but the most taxing part of the entire recipe is squeezing the juice from those wee limes!
You're instructed to freeze the finished pie a maximum of 3 hrs before serving but I’ve made a similar dessert that can be kept frozen for weeks (well wrapped of course) so I made the pie the day before and kept it in the freezer until 1 hour before serving without having any quality issues. It sliced easily with a warmed knife while still partially frozen.
useful (1)
This cake has great flavour and is not overly sweet but it's surprisingly dry and crumbly considering the amount of butter and cream cheese in it.
useful (1)
Like a muffin, they're made by mixing dry with wet ingredients, are lower in fat than cupcakes and not overly sweet. Also like a muffin, they dry out easily.
They're neither my idea of a breakfast food nor something I would make if I were looking for a chocolate treat.
useful (1)
This recipe lends itself well to changes: reducing the sugar by 1/3, using oil instead of butter (and reducing that quantity as well) and replacing ½ the flour with whole wheat flour still results in a deliciously spicy, moist muffin.
useful (2)
The Best Vegetarian Recipes: From Greens to Grains, from Soups to Salads: 200 Bold Flavored Recipes
By Martha R. Shulman
William Morrow Cookbooks - 2001
Very light and fresh tasting 1-pot pasta dish.
Most of the flavour comes from the parsley-garlic-lemon gremolata that’s tossed with the cooked pasta and asparagus at the end. Though raw, the garlic isn’t overwhelming in this application. I did find that the pasta was a little dry so added some of the pasta cooking water to it.
Would be delicious with broccoli as well.
useful (0)
We really enjoyed this stir fry. The tofu in particular had great flavour, having first spent the night in a simple marinade and then absorbed more from the garlic, ginger and (optional) chili pepper during cooking. However, there wasn’t enough of the marinade to form the sauce so I mixed up a second batch and added it to the water-cornstarch slurry.
I appreciated some of the cooking techniques used to make this dish: sweating the mushrooms first in a hot pan with a little salt meant they didn’t absorb much fat, and blanching the asparagus ensured that it remained crisp and bright green.
Delicious as is but would also be great with broccoli instead of asparagus.
useful (0)
Excellent for packed lunches (if you put the arugula on the top and mix it in only when it’s time to eat), this flavourful salad was easy to put together. I liked the use of some of the seasoned cooking water from the peas in the dressing, replacing most of the oil.
useful (0)
Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Bread Recipes
By Renee Comet, Denise Alvarado, Denise Alvarado, Denise Alvarado, Don Alvarado, Karen Miranda Augustine, Chad C. Balthazar, Chad C. Balthazar, Ricardo Pustanio, Mathew Venus, Brandon Davidson, Madrina Angelique, H. Byron Ballard, Papa Curtis, Aaron Leitch,
Better Homes & Gardens Books - 1979
This is one of my youngest daughter’s favourite breads and I don’t mind making it …..it’s light, airy, chewy and cheesy.
The dough is enriched with milk, egg, and sugar, and cheese of course. It’s relatively stiff and very easy to handle and braid. No preferment is required so it can be made in just a few hours.
I love the versatility of it…..it’s fabulous for sandwiches or on its own when it’s fresh, but it’s great toasted or made into savoury French toast the next day, if there's any leftover, that is!
Delicious!
useful (0)
Bon Appetit
(October, 2012)
Anticipation for this dish was high based on its mouth-watering aroma during cooking but it was quite a let down in the end.
The ground pork is simmered for hours in white wine, chopped tomatoes and chicken stock after first being formed into large meatballs, browned and cooked with (lots of) minced fennel and onion. The meatballs are broken down into smaller pieces just before serving. I suppose if it’s important to you to have different textures of meat in your sauce, soft, moist pieces from the meatball interior and crispy, chewy bits that are browned, then this technique makes sense. I would have been quite happy either leaving the meatballs intact or not forming them at all and just browning the ground meat at the start as you would for a slow-cooked Bolognese.
The major disappointment involved the seasoning: even though I used less salt than the recipe called for in the meatball mix, salt-free tomatoes and low-sodium stock (as per the recipe), the ragù was extremely salty. I was glad that it was a little thick towards the end …I added water instead of more stock.
The combination of ingredients worked: the pork had that deep, rich flavour that comes with slow cooking and the sauce was a meaty gravy that tasted only mildly of fennel and tomatoes…if it weren’t for the salt, I would have given it an extra star.
I served it with (whole wheat) penne.
useful (1)
Bonnie Stern's Essentials of Home Cooking
By Bonnie Stern
Random House Canada - 2003
A little more cake-y than some, this is a fantastic version of the French dessert. The blueberries and yogurt prevent it from being too sweet even though there’s a fair bit of white chocolate in it. This would also be delicious with raspberries.
useful (0)
Bouchon Bakery
By Thomas Keller, Sebastien Rouxel
Artisan - 2012
Taste and texture…excellent! Appearance…..not so much. These were so light, moist, and delicious, I forgot I was eating a bran muffin. However, every muffin had a crater in the centre.
I was meticulous in weighing all of the ingredients (including baking soda and powder) - and there are a lot of them - but I did make some substitutions: I used regular instead of toasted bran and germ, orange flower instead of clover honey, and fancy molasses instead of blackstrap. I also made 12 regular muffins instead of 6 jumbo. Craters are often a sign of over-leavening…..were the honey and molasses I used that much lower in acid content than the original ingredients that there was too much soda? Or was it the change in muffin size?
I liked these enough that I’ll make them again but I’ll have to find a substitute for the 28g of poached pear (~1/8 of a whole)….I included it this time as I had leftover from a dessert I made, but it’s not something I would normally have.
The authors recommend you start with something easy before progressing to more challenging recipes in this book…..if I can’t even make a muffin, then I’m in big trouble ;!
useful (2)
“Bouchon”, meaning “cork”……the characteristic shape of these little brownies if you happen to own this specialty pan, which I don’t. I baked these little chocolate cakes in a mini muffin tin instead.
The batter comes together quickly, but as with most of the recipes I’ve come across in this book, this is not a spur-of-the-moment brownie as the batter needs to rest for a few hours before baking. The upside is that it’s an excellent make-ahead recipe as the batter can be stored for a few days before using.
Given how detailed this book is, I’m surprised that internal temperatures aren’t provided as a determination of doneness of baked goods, especially with a small brownie where a minute or 2 too long in the oven is enough to change the texture dramatically. My brownies were smaller than the bouchons are – the recipe yielded 24 – so I kept my eye on them and relied on a clean toothpick to tell me when they were done (12 minutes).
These moist, rich, intensely chocolate-y little cakes are delicious but not to everyone’s taste as the flavour leans towards the bittersweet but I'll definitely be making these again.
useful (1)
Buttery and lightly sweetened, these are one of the flakiest, most tender scones I’ve ever had/made.
Of course, these results don’t come without some time and effort, though most of it is merely waiting time and effort is minimal. The dough is quite standard but is made in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment which has the effect of flattening the butter pieces instead of cutting them up, ultimately creating layers in the baked pastry. After shaping, the dough is refrigerated until firm, then cut and frozen before baking.
I made them the day before they were needed and served them baked fresh in the morning. Half of the dough was used for these cinnamon honey scones.
useful (0)
Cinnamon bun flavour in a flaky, tender scone.
These fantastic pastries start with a batch of this plain scone dough. Small cubes of a cinnamon-honey-butter mixture are added just before the initial shaping of the dough.
As with the plain scones, this recipe needs to be made in advance; not only is there the refrigeration time of the dough and the freezing of the scones before baking, but the cinnamon-honey mixture needs to be frozen before it’s even added to the dough.
They’re definitely worth the wait…..finished with a honey-butter glaze, these made a delicious brunch treat. A half recipe makes 6 scones but they’re very rich so next time I’ll cut them smaller.
useful (0)
Luxurious peanut butter buttercream sandwiched between crispy, chewy peanut butter oatmeal cookies with peanut chunks…these are a peanut lover’s dream cookie!
The cookie dough is easy to make but softens very quickly and needs to be refrigerated until firm before you can hope to roll it out. The cookies are then baked from a frozen state so there’s a fair bit of waiting time with this recipe. Because of the oatmeal and chopped nuts, the cookies don’t cut cleanly but they do spread during baking so the rough edges smooth out a little. I used a 2 ¼” cookie cutter so my cookies were much smaller and the yield higher than the recipe states – 18 sandwiches instead of 6.
The cookies are not very sweet but delicious enough to stand on their own; filling them definitely takes them to another level. They were filled with this basic buttercream flavoured with peanut butter.
useful (0)
Light, airy and silky, this versatile frosting has all of the qualities typical of a well-made Italian meringue buttercream.
One of my daughters, whose only experience is with American buttercream, wanted to try her hand at making this recipe so I left her alone with the book, a scale, a thermapen and a stand mixer. The directions are very thorough and clearly written so she had no trouble making the sugar syrup and the Italian meringue, and when the emulsion in the buttercream broke as the butter was added, she knew exactly how to fix the problem.
This is a base recipe that requires flavouring of some sort before it’s used. We flavoured the entire batch with peanut butter, used a portion for the better nutter cookies and the rest to decorate my son’s peanut butter birthday cake.
I gave the recipe only 4 stars as I think it’s too sweet, calling for over 80% more sugar than this recipe, which is the one I normally use.
useful (0)
This recipe for Bouchon’s “all-purpose” brioche dough produces a beautifully textured, buttery bread.
4 recipes are provided, each with a different yield, each intended for a specific baked item. All of them make very small amounts of dough, which my stand mixer doesn’t like very much; I chose to make the Nanterre (loaves) and the Tropézienne so combined the ingredient amounts.
The method is typical for making brioche with the butter incorporated gradually after the dough has been kneaded for some time. No sponge is required. After a period of fermentation at room temperature, the dough is refrigerated overnight.
As with the other recipes in this book, this one is written with much attention to detail. However, it’s also written for a KitchenAid Artisan mixer, which I don’t own, so I had to make some alterations to the kneading time/speed setting.
useful (1)
This is not so much a recipe as it is instructions for shaping and baking this brioche dough after it has been refrigerated overnight.
The dough is divided into small portions, rolled into balls and placed in greased loaf pans, 6 pieces per pan. As with other brioche doughs, it’s very easy to work with while still chilled from the fridge but it does soften and become slightly sticky as it warms up.
After a long proofing time and a relatively quick baking time, you are rewarded with 2 beautiful golden brown loaves. The bread is light and airy, yet buttery and rich tasting. I’ve decided that I prefer the less buttery Ottolenghi recipe but this is still an excellent loaf.
useful (1)
This dessert will forever be remembered by family and friends not as la Tarte Tropézienne, but as the Ginormous Nutella Sandwich!
The bread portion is made by rolling this brioche dough into a thin circle and proofing, then baking it in a 9” cake ring – or in my case, the ring from a 9” springform pan. I made, shaped then froze the dough days in advance of baking it. The dough rose unevenly during proofing and ultimately baked up that way as well….not sure if it had something to do with the freezing or the way I rolled out the dough.
The filling, a blend of this pastry cream and nutella, tasted primarily of the spread but had the silky consistency of pastry cream and went very well with the brioche.
It was delicious but it was a lot of time and effort for what was, in essence, a nutella sandwich, even if it was the best one anyone had ever had! I think I’ll make the orange diplomat cream filling next time ; )
useful (2)
This is a silky egg yolk-rich pastry cream with a lovely colour and good vanilla flavour.
The method is quite different from the standard in that all of the ingredients are combined at the start and heated together. The recipe calls for custard powder or flour as thickener; I went the flour route and it gave me a bit of difficulty….though my mixture looked well blended and smooth when it went into the pot, the flour did clump a little. Vigorous whisking eliminated most lumps and sieving the custard kept the final few out of the finished product.
The flavour and texture were good but not particularly different from other pastry cream recipes that don’t require a stand mixer and use cornstarch, which dissolves more easily than flour. I made this to fill the tropézienne.
useful (1)
I thought this would be a great recipe for using up small amounts of assorted nuts leftover from holiday baking. I used a combination of macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. I don’t have an 8” x ¾” tart ring, only a 9” tart pan so I scaled the recipe up to fit the larger pan (it’s ~26% larger).
Given the detailed nature of this book, it always surprises me when I come across what seems to me an obvious oversight. For this recipe, it’s the lack of direction on how to toast nuts! I did them one type at a time as I knew the toasting time would differ with each nut variety.
Assembly of the tart was quick once the elements were made: the toasted nuts were arranged in a prebaked pâte brisée tart shell and drizzled with some caramel jam.
I sliced the tart into 12 small pieces (with a chef’s knife with a heated blade that cut through the caramel easily) as I suspected it would be very rich. Everyone else was fine with it but I was done after 2 bites….it was just too much like eating candy. The nuts and the pastry shell prevented the tart from being too sweet and helped to reduce the stickiness of the caramel but most tasters thought it could use some chocolate. They gave it a rating of 4 stars but I won’t be making it again.
useful (0)
This all-butter crust is made in the stand mixer with very basic pantry ingredients. It takes only a few minutes, starting with mixing the butter with some of the flour until well blended. The remaining flour is added and finally, the water. This is not a typical pie dough where visible streaks of fat are desirable….in fact, you’re instructed to mix it further if you find distinct pieces of butter in the dough.
The chilled dough is an absolute dream to work with…..it doesn’t stick at all even with only the lightest dusting of flour. You’re asked to roll it out to just under ¼” thickness, much thicker than I normally would do. As a result, the crust takes over an hour to bake.
The baked crust is buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender, and is suitable for savoury as well as sweet tarts as there’s no sugar in the dough. I used it for the caramel nut tart.
useful (0)
This caramel contains the usual ingredients of sugar, butter and cream but also calls for glucose, a product I’d never worked with before. Because of this ingredient, the method for making the caramel differs from the norm. The first step is to boil the glucose and add the sugar gradually. There were a few moments there when I thought I’d end up with a crystallized mess and have to start over but the sugar eventually dissolved. Once the butter and cream are added, the mixture must be brought to a temperature of 248F while being stirred constantly. The recipe stresses the importance of reaching this temperature and I know now that that’s to encourage the cook to keep at it because this step takes a loooong time. The “jam” is lightened with a little extra cream for use in the caramel nut tart.
The caramel ended up a beautiful dark amber colour but didn't have a deep, rich flavour to match. It tasted good, not as sweet as some, but I’ve made better and I didn’t care for the stick-to-your-teeth quality that I think was caused by the glucose.
useful (0)
Excellent bread, excellent instructions (in the sections preceding the bread recipes).
I didn’t have all of the equipment called for in the recipe – no peels, definitely no hotel pan filled with river rocks and metal chain to create steam – but still managed to make this bread without much difficulty. It called for a soaker and a levain (sourdough starter) and had reasonable fermentation and proofing times and a short baking time. The bâtards were on the small side so next time I’ll make only 1 large.
This was a really fantastic bread…..nutty and wholesome but with a very light texture.
useful (0)
Being a newbie at candy making, though there was ample warning in the recipe, I still wasn’t prepared for the reality of how quickly things happen. The instructions have you prepare a mise en place which includes a hot, oiled bowl (in which to mix the hot caramel and popcorn), oiled spoons for mixing (which were actually quite ineffective….my gloved hands were far more efficient) and hot peanuts.
The caramel started to cool and harden as soon as it was removed from the heat. In the few seconds it took to stir in the soda and salt and add the roasted peanuts, it became too firm to pour over the popcorn. I returned the pot to the burner and the residual heat did soften it somewhat but by that time, the mixing bowl had cooled to room temperature, ~18C. The result of all this was popcorn that wasn’t evenly coated with the candy.
I’m not a fan of caramel corn but it was a huge hit with those that are…they particularly liked that the coating was a salted caramel.
Just a final note….weigh your ingredients! In making the recipes from this book, I’ve been comparing volume against weight measurements, using the weight as the final measurement where possible; I haven’t come across any major discrepancies until this recipe, which calls for a substantial amount of kosher salt. Clearly there are huge variations in crystal size among brands….had I gone with the volume listed in this recipe of the brand I use, I would have added twice the weight of salt required and this treat would have been inedible!
useful (1)
The instructions are excellent and the photographs provide a helpful visual of the process, and if all goes well, you’re rewarded with buttery pastries with crisp outer layers and light, tender interiors.
This recipe starts with a poolish preferment; it takes just a few minutes to put together but must rest for 12-15 hours – perfect timing for making it the night before and continuing with the dough the next morning.
The dough (détrempe) also comes together easily and uses the authors’ low and slow kneading technique ie kneading at the machine’s lowest power setting for a long period of time.
After the dough has fermented and chilled, the lamination process begins. I used a European-style butter with a higher fat content as recommended which seemed to be more malleable and less prone to cracking than my usual lower fat brand. Envelope folds and 3 turns are required before the dough is rolled and chilled for the last time before shaping. With only 20 minute rests in the freezer and just a few minutes needed to roll the dough each time, this can be done in less than 2 hours. However, if you need to stretch it out as I did when I had to step out unexpectedly, leaving it in the fridge for an hour instead of the freezer works well and you can pick up where you left off. My kitchen was very cool so I had ideal conditions for rolling the dough….everything remained cold so there was no sticking or risk of butter melting and the authors’ “fluffing” technique helped relax the gluten making it easier to roll.
Though the instructions expect you to continue with the shaping, proofing and baking on the same day, I didn’t want to be baking at midnight so I refrigerated the dough overnight after the 3rd turn and continued the next morning, making a half batch each of croissants and pains au chocolate.
useful (1)
Crisp, flaky exterior layers that shatter and a light interior characterize these buttery pastries. This “recipe” actually just provides the instructions for shaping and baking the pastry made from this dough.
I had refrigerated the dough overnight after the 3rd turn so completed the rolling and chilling of it the following morning before proceeding with shaping the croissants. Though the dough making process benefitted from my cool kitchen, the proofing of the pastries didn’t…..even though I moved them to a warmer room, they were only ready for baking after 3 hours.
This was my first attempt at making croissants so was quite pleased with the results but attribute this success to the detailed instructions and photographs in the book.
useful (0)
As with the croissants, the resulting pastry has crisp outer layers and a tender interior but this time they envelop a luscious chocolate filling. Also as with the croissants, this “recipe” just provides the instructions for shaping, proofing and baking this dough.
The recipe calls for cacao barry chocolate batons, 2 per pastry. I used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate callets that have slightly higher cacao content instead. I’m not sure if the batons are 3g or 5 g each but I used ~14-16 callets (~7-8g), which is the number that fit comfortably inside the dough; the ratio of chocolate to dough worked out well.
The finishing touch before proofing and again before baking is an egg wash that’s first put through a strainer. I hesitated but ended up doing this step…..what was another 2 minutes when I’d already spent 3 days making these ; )
These were a huge hit.
useful (1)
Cream puffs are one of my sister’s favourite treats so I decided to make a more special version of them for her birthday in lieu of a cake.
Using this pâte à choux recipe, the heads and bodies are piped and baked. The instructions for piping/shaping are clear but I did find drawing the swan’s beak out with a toothpick worked better for me. I used all of the tips mentioned (chilling the dough, misting piped dough with water) and followed the baking instructions and times given for a conventional oven and they worked perfectly – though I had a moment of panic when all of the head/necks deflated when I opened the oven door to turn them over (they did re-inflate) – resulting in crisp pastries with dry, hollow interiors…..perfect for filling.
The filling is a light, silky, ethereal blend of pastry cream and Italian meringue buttercream topped with lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream…..I find the book’s versions of these recipes too complicated and/or sweet so used this vanilla pastry cream and this vanilla buttercream instead.
The recipe says it makes 8 swans but mentions that there will be leftover batter; it’s actually enough to make another 8 swans….so I did. There’s enough of the pastry cream/buttercream mixture to fill all 16 birds if you don’t mound it too high but I did need a double batch of the whipped cream.
My sister loved them, as did the rest of the family. Like most of the recipes in this book, they aren’t difficult to make but they’ve been relegated to very special occasions only as they are very time consuming.
useful (1)
This dough, once baked, has a beautiful golden crisp exterior with a perfect hollow interior that begs to be filled with something sweet and creamy.
The recipe is as easy to make as any other I’ve seen and though it calls for a stand mixer to beat in the eggs, this step could be done by hand (or food processor, which is my preference). The dough is a little stiffer with a slightly higher proportion of flour than most but that makes piping it to make these swans (or éclairs) that much easier.
useful (0)
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
By Peter Reinhart, Ron Manville
Ten Speed Press - 2001
An interesting and uniquely flavoured sourdough rye bread.
This is a 2-day bread that starts with a sponge made of barm, rye flour, water, and molasses that’s been heated with cardamom, anise, fennel and orange (I used orange oil). Bread flour and the balance of ingredients are mixed in after an overnight rest and the dough is kneaded briefly and left to rise. I’m accustomed to sourdough breads taking a long time to rise, which is why I don’t make them often, but even with yeast added in, the first proofing took 3 hours; I allowed the shaped loaf 2 hours to rise but it still wasn’t where it should have been. I took a chance and baked it anyway hoping for a huge oven spring.
I didn't get that but the resulting loaf actually had a very nice crumb, though I’m sure it would have been a little fluffier if I'd allowed it more time to rise. I really liked the complexity that the spices and orange added but I would have preferred the bread to be less sweet.
I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t think I’ll make it again.
useful (1)
This is fantastic bread that bears no relation to the dense, chewy, gummy whole wheat bread I’ve made in the past. The crumb is soft, light and airy with a delicious, nutty flavour.
Of course, you do have to invest a little time to achieve these results, though most is just waiting time. This is a 2-day bread that starts with a soaker of whole grain flour and water, and a poolish of whole wheat bread flour, water and yeast.
On day 2, these are combined with the remaining ingredients and kneaded. I included the optional egg and oil as I thought this bread would need all the help it could get. Next time I make it, I’ll exclude these to see what the difference is. After kneading, the dough is left to proof. I set aside lots of time (recipe says 2 hours) for this but it only took an hour. I shaped it into 10 buns as I was planning to serve them with grilled turkey burgers. The buns only took 45 minutes to rise and 22 minutes to bake.
Definitely a bread I would make on a regular basis.
useful (1)
I put off making this bread as I didn’t have all of the recommended ingredients and I’m usually a little wary of breads that rely on wild yeast alone. I finally decided to try it using my recently resurrected starter, “Vlad”, and ingredients I had on hand and I’m so glad I did.
It’s a 2-day (or more) bread that begins with a firm starter. On day 2, the flour (I used whole wheat bread flour which I didn’t bother to sift) salt and water are mixed together with the starter and the dough is kneaded. I made a half recipe so was able to use my stand mixer for this step. The recipe indicates that fermentation and proofing time is 6-7 hours – “Vlad” responded admirably to the current heat wave so these steps took only half the time.
I was very happy with the results: it’s a delicious, dense, chewy whole wheat bread with a definite sourdough tang and a lovely crispy crust. Definitely a recipe I will make again.
useful (0)