aj12754's Reviews
5 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 5Sort by: Title 
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The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own
By Karen DeMasco, Mindy Fox
Clarkson Potter - 2009
Apple Cider Muffins : page 29
These are very tasty -- and moist -- muffins. DeMasco says they are better the second day and I concur. They have a kind of spongy texture that makes them a bit like a sticky toffee pudding.
For me the recipe made much more than the 12 regular-sized muffins -- I had enough batter left over for an 8 in. round cake.
If you want to try this recipe but don't have the book, the recipe was posted at the Serious Eats website (link below) when the book was published a few years ago.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/10/apple-cider-muffins-karen-demasco-recipe.html
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Basic Pie Dough : page 106
Light, flaky and easy. Uses both butter and Crisco and makes enough for a 9-10 in. single crust pie.
I am no baker (although this cold windy icy weather is bringing out the hidden baker within it seems) and I found this crust to be a cinch to pull together.
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Grandma Rankin's Cashew Brittle : page 100
I had to throw the first batch of this candy in the trash. The instructions said to cook over high heat -- without stirring -- sugar, corn syrup, butter and water -- until the mixture was a "dark amber". So I did --and the surface was a pale yellow and smelling burnt when I took it off the heat to add the other ingredients. At which point I saw that below the surface the mixture was a VERY dark amber. Too late -- definitely burnt.
Another batch this morning was undercooked by about a minute (my fault this time -- probably gunshy about overcooking again) -- and the resulting candy is definitely edible, and slightly too soft to really be thought of as brittle, and VERY VERY sweet. Of course the last is true of most brittles.
I wish the recipe would simply have given a temp to watch for on a candy thermometer in addition to the visual cue ("dark amber").
I am going to keep trying to nail this one and when I do, I am going to try the pink peppercorn variation mentioned on the same page. Something about the sound of that one appeals to me.
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Key Lime Meringue Pie : page 111
I actually made a lime meringue pie since I had lime curd on hand. I used the basic pie dough recipe on p. 106 of this book and found it light, flaky and easy to do.
The recipe makes a ton of meringue -- or at least it made more than I wanted on my pie.
I love citrus-y desserts so this was right up my alley. If you are better than I am at making beautiful swirls in the meringue, this would make an impressive -- and completely do-ahead -- dessert for guests.
Note: My lime curd was made from a very reliable Fine Cooking recipe that uses a slightly different technique. The curd recipe in this book is made using a traditional approach (all the components in the pan and cook it). The FC recipe creams the butter and sugar as a preliminary step to cooking it with the other ingredients. I have found that doing so makes for a pretty fool-proof curd.
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Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta : page 182
Could not be simpler -- a lovely pudding-like texture made with Nutella, heavy cream, gelatin, whole milk and vanilla. It has a subtle rather than in-your-face hazelnut flavor. I loved this and generally the appeal of Nutella escapes me. A 4 oz. portion is rich enough to satisfy a sweet tooth and small enough to not feel overly indulgent. Am debating whether a small orange-flavored cookie of some kind (with or without nuts?) would be a nice accent ... or overkill.
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