Cooksbakesbooks' Reviews
138 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Title 
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The Afternoon Tea Book
By Michael Smith, Michael R. P. Bartlett
John Wiley & Sons - 1989
These take about 1 hour to make, start to finish, and are so fabulous fresh and hot from the pan. You bake them on the stove. (They're similar to what I know as an English muffin.) I like to serve them with cheese and scrambled eggs on them, but they are great with anything you want to put on them. They're even great plain.
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America's Bread Book: 300 Authentic Recipes for America's Favorite Homemade Breads Co
By Mary Gubser
William Morrow & Company - 1985
I love good corn bread, and this is a great one. It is so moist and has a great corn flavor. It is a Northern-U.S.-style corn bread, with quite a bit of sugar in it. It calls for buttermilk, which gives it a great depth of flavor. We toasted slices of it the next morning and it was so good even then. So often, corn breads are dry and you can't taste the corn. This one isn't like that at all.
This bread does contain wheat flour, but no eggs, so it would be good for someone who can't eat eggs.
Egg-free
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Baking with Julia Savor the Joys of Baking with America's Best Bakers
By Dorie Greenspan
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1996
This is the Danish pastry recipe that I always use. It makes excellent long, braided pastries with fruit, cheese or cream fillings. I have also made individual pastries out of this dough with excellent results. It's well laminated, buttery and tender. By pre-eminent baker, Beatrice Ojakangas, the instructions are written well.
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This makes an excellent white bread, made in loaf pans, and good for slicing for sandwiches or toast. The recipe is by Craig Kominiak, and the instructions are written well. Some nice black and white photographs accompany the recipe.
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I did not use a stand mixer, as was required in the Croissant Dough recipe on which this recipe is based, and that may have been the reason that these just didn't work out for me. I tried making them twice and got small, ill-shaped, dense, not flaky, light or tender, pseudo-croissants.
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I did not use a stand mixer, as was required in the recipe, and that may have been the reason that this just didn't work out for me. I tried making it twice, and the croissants I made from it were small, ill-shaped, dense, not flaky, light nor tender.
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These are excellent, plain and simple. I have made them many times. They make a dramatic and delicious holiday confection, and you can fill them with so many wonderful things. There are recipes provided for pastry cream, apricot filling, prune filling, berry jam filling, and almond filling, and there are a variety of shaping suggestions.
Beatrice Ojakangas submitted this recipe.
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This is excellent, plain and simple. I have made this many times. It makes a dramatic and delicious holiday confection, and you can fill it with so many wonderful things. There are recipes provided for pastry cream, apricot filling, prune filling, berry jam filling, and almond filling. There is a beautiful picture of one on pages 174-175.
Beatrice Ojakangas submitted this recipe.
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The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2009: The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews, and Tastings
By America's Test Kitchen, America's Test Kitchen
Cook's Illustrated - 2008
How delicious these are! They are not quite as crisp as a store-bought graham cracker, but they are more delicious. They were incredibly easy to make. I used them to make S'mores, and they were outstanding with these cracker-cookies.
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The technique to make these is a bit fussy. You have to grate half each of two sticks of butter then freeze the shavings for a while. But the end result is worth cleaning up little bits of butter shards off the counter. They are buttery without being too butter-heavy, the blueberries are in the right proportion to the crusty part, and the sugar-flecked topping makes for a nice, slightly crunchy element.
They did not take long to make so, if you can prepare these undistracted, it's do-able on a weekend morning.
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The Cake Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1988
My stepdaughter has requested this for her birthday a few times. She says that it is not only her favorite cake, but her favorite FOOD. Of anything she could eat. Lovely instructions, delicious cake.
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This was the first cake that I tried out of the book, many years ago. The flavor and texture are unbelievably good. It has a denser, chewy texture than some of the other cakes in the book, which is in its favor, even though the other cakes are stellar, also. It's just that this offers a little bit of a texture departure from the others. The flavor is deep without being bitter or too intense. This is great cake to have plain, or perhaps with the merest dusting of powdered sugar on it, and it is excellent paired with a cup of black tea (an Assam, maybe, or a Keemun) with milk (no sugar).
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This is a moist cake with a slight hint of welcome mealiness in the texture, from the almonds. It makes a single large cake, or two 9-inch layers, and will be enhanced by almost any buttercream frosting. This makes excellent cupcakes, too.
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This cake is exquisitely versatile. It will take any flavoring of frosting or filling, and is even excellent all on its own. It is easy to make, because of the very conscientious instructions and, if you are a baker, you will always have the ingredients on hand (eggs, milk, vanilla extract, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and unsalted butter). It makes wonderful cupcakes, or any shape of cake that you desire.
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This is one of three cakes that I make over and over from this book, and that's saying a lot, because I make very many of the cakes from this book. When this cake is freshly made, is has the most swoon-making tang to it, and it is not overly sweet. The texture is the epitome of perfection, with a light, but still tight, crumb.
It is probably best plain, though you could embellish pretty much however you like, though I would tend to want to enhance the tanginess and not mute it with chocolate or something. A lemon or orange filling could be outstanding, or a berry topping. As Ms. Beranbaum suggests, crème fraîche and fresh, ripe peaches are excellent with it.
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The flavor of this chocolate cake is very deep, but not bitter or off in any way. It is called a torte, but contains a high proportion of flour. It makes a single layer, and tastes great all on its own, or will take frosting or ganache very well. I sometimes use just a cream cheese-butter-powdered sugar frosting on this, and it can stand up to a dense, unrefined frosting like that, as well as the silkiest ganache or buttercream.
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The sour cream in this recipe takes it just a fraction of a notch higher than the Perfect All-American Chocolate Torte, in my opinion. The tang of the sour cream pitches it upward, and it tenderizes it just slightly, making the crumb seem a bit tighter, but still extremely light, compared to the PAAC Torte. This and the Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake from The Cake Bible are my favorite chocolate cakes.
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This is a wonderfully delicious and tender chocolate cake. It is deeply chocolatey and tender, and is as good as the Chocolate Domingo cake, also from The Cake Bible. I have made it many times, as my cocoa-splattered pages attest.
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This is one my three favorite cakes in this book, and I find myself making it when I want to impress people. I cover it with a dark chocolate ganache, and it stands up to that assertive flavor well. I put a vanilla-flavored or lemon-flavored cream cheese-butter-powdered sugar frosting on it, and it holds up to that dense concoction well. I put chocolate whipped cream on top of it, and it has almost too much personality for that, but people always rave.
Now I always use the full amount of sour cream, 1/2 cup, but I have tried it with less, and it's still outstanding even then.
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Light, tangy, moist, moist, moist, tall, gorgeous. This is amazing. Whenever I make it, I eat more than I know I should. People I serve it to are always impressed.
I do not add the optional flour, and I do not use a crust of any kind, and it retains its composure very well. I have made it with a graham cracker crust and it was fantastic, but it's better without it.
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If you want a sweet, streusel-covered, non-yeast coffee cake, this is a really excellent one. It's cinnamony, moist, tender and rich. There are lots of nuts in the streusel topping, which gives it a crave-making flavor. So, if you are after a yeast-based coffee cake, you may find this one too rich and lacking in a toothsome quality. There is no chewiness or breadiness to this cake, and it is very sweet.
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Chocolate Lover's Cookies and Brownies
By Beatrice Ojakangas
Crescent - 1990
For a while, I made these many, many times in a row. They were my favorite cookie for a long time, and still rate very high. The sunflower seed coating on these makes them truly fantastic. The 1/2 whole wheat flour also gives them a great texture and flavor. These are much better than regular chocolate chip cookies, in my opinion.
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These are not really ravioli, but the title just refers to the square shape of the cookie and that they are filled. The exterior is crisp and lightly chocolatey, and the inside bursts with raspberry jam when you bite into one. They are time consuming and a bit troublesome to make, but yield a very special cookie. If you want to impress someone, these cookies are a place to start. Be sure to use butter in the dough, and they will have excellent flavor and texture.
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Once you shuck enough pistachios to yield 1/2 cup, the rest is very easy and quick. This recipe makes a very tender shortbread-type cookie (kind of like the Danish cookies you can get in a big blue cookie tin) with chocolate coating one end and heavenly pistachios covering the chocolate. Shelling the pistachios is a bit of work, but the result is worth it.
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Tassies are just wonderful little cookies, no matter what's in the middle, and these are no exception. The filling is like a little bit of brownie. Add that to a delectable pastry crust outside, and this is one delicious cookie.
A tip: roll the pastry into a 1-inch (2.5-cm) ball, then place it in the tassie tin. Then press down with a small lightly-floured pestle to shape it. This technique makes it very easy to fill your tins with the pastry dough.
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This recipes makes a very tender shortbread-like cookie with a wonderful almond flavor. The chocolate coating on one side makes these look very festive and taste fantastic.
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Cookie Cookery
By John J. Zenker and Hazel G. Zenker
M. Evans and Co. - 1969
This is a recipe for a rolled oatmeal cookie. It makes a delicately-spiced cookie that snaps gently when you bite into it. You can make drop cookies from this batter, but I have only tried it by rolling it out and cutting it into 2 1/2" circles. I used Penzey's Ceylon cinnamon and Sunmaid golden raisins. Also, I used unsalted butter instead of the shortening that it calls for.
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Cookies
By Editors of Reader's Digest
Readers Digest - 2004
This is basically a tender banana cake with the excellent addition of cinnamon sugar as a topping. I didn't use their recipe for cinnamon sugar but just mixed 1 1/2 tablespoons of white sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon and put the whole amount on top. Also, I used a 9x9-inch pan (81 square inches) because I no longer have a 7x11-inch one (77 square inches), as it calls for, and it worked fine.
This recipe has no eggs in it, which could be of interest to people with an egg allergy, but it does have nuts and wheat flour in it.
This does not make a fancy cookie, but it would be good as one of a selection because it offers a unique flavor (banana with cinnamon) and texture (very cakey and soft) compared to many other cookies.
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This makes an attractive pinwheel cookie. The flavors are a bit muted, both the chocolate and the orange, so I can't rate it as excellent, but it's very good.
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The ingredients are: an egg, peanut butter and white sugar. When I first made these cookies, I was not very impressed by the flavor. But after they had sat for several hours, the flavor and texture improved so that they became very tasty and excellent.
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This makes a crunchy and chewy fairly sweet molasses spice cookie. They're easy and inexpensive to make. They're a homey kind of cookie and a nice change from the stand-bys like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
Ingredients: flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt, butter (only 1/2 stick), corn flakes, sugar and molasses.
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The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean: 215 Healthy, Vibrant, and Inspired Recipes
By Paula Wolfert
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1994
This is a good recipe for baba ghanoush. It is good even if all you can do is roast an eggplant in the oven; just be sure to roast it until it is collapsing, so that it is cooked really well throughout.
I didn't have to add the water to mine to make it the right consistency, but you can add up to 1/4 cup without diluting the flavors.
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This dish is a lot of work to put together, but worth it for a special occasion. The flavors are strong and distinctive. You must like tarragon to like this dish. You can make a platter of the kibbeh sitting on a bed of the salad and it is very enticing looking. These are good leftover. It makes quite a bit, but could easily be halved. These would be nice on a table of a wide variety of mezze.
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This is an absolute staple in my house. I make it at least once a week and vary the seasonings to mesh with whatever else I am making. The basic recipe yields a plain, but still delicious, pilaf. I use stock in the recipe if I have some made, but it is really excellent even with just plain water.
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This recipe is time-consuming to make, but worth the effort for a special occasion. It is a very fancy vegetarian main course, and really tasty. It would be a wonderful addition to a table of mezze. If you use fresh pumpkin, fresh spinach and chickpeas that you cooked from dried, this will be so flavorsome and fine textured. Try it with the Lebanese Tomato, Onion, and Spiced Cheese Salad, as Ms. Wolfert suggests (p. 137).
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If you take the time to shell pistachios for this, you will be rewarded supremely. This is an excellent recipe for baklava. The walnut version is also divine. Putting the optional orange flower water in the sugar syrup gives this the correct flavor and, to me, makes it transcendent.
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CUPCAKES
By Ceri Hadda
Simon & Schuster - 1995
The recipe says that it will make 24 cupcakes, but I once made 36 small-ish cupcakes from one batch of this batter.
There are 6 easy steps in the recipe, which calls for:
1/2 c hot water
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c unsalted butter
1 1/2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 c milk
350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.
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The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
By Marion Cunningham, Jeri Laber, Fannie Merritt Farmer, James Beard
Knopf - 1979
This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I almost always use. It makes a crisp, flat cookie with excellent buttery flavor and a good proportion of chips to dough. You can optionally add nuts or oatmeal, as well, and both of these variations are even better than when you only use chips.
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This makes a delicious, buttery, flat, crisp cookie. This does not make the kind of peanut butter cookie that you put fork marks on. It spreads in the oven. The flavor and crisp texture are outstanding.
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Website: The Food Network
I had never cooked a pork butt before. I love the Cajun seasoning I had on hand, by Penzey's, and this recipe's only flavoring comes from Cajun seasoning, so I thought I'd give it a try. After six hours in a slow oven, a beautiful pot of well-seasoned shreds of pork amounted from the super-easy recipe. I put some chimichurri on it and had it on a hamburger bun and it was like summer time!
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Website: The Food Network
Please make this bread. It is so good that you will think about it all year and will make another one, and another. The bread part is so tender and not too sweet. The cream cheese filling is creamy and nicely quite sweet. The glaze with beautiful colored sugars on top is so gorgeous. This is one of the best things I have ever made.
I make one change to the recipe: I only put in half the filling and it is still a generous amount.
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The Herbfarm Cookbook
By Jerry Traunfeld
Scribner - 2000
This is an elegant dish that is very quick and easy to put together. You can vary the ingredients a bit depending on what you have on hand. Either vermouth or white wine works well in the sauce. I often use fresh sage instead of the tarragon it calls for. I have used minced onion in place of the shallot. The cream in the sauce gives the dish enough body to overcome the leanness of the chicken breasts. When serving it, garnish it with some of the same herb you used in the dish (either chopped or whole) to brighten the color.
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Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006
By Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker
Scribner - 2006
I have made this recipe a couple of times and it is not spiced correctly nor is the seasoning intense enough. I do not have another recipe to suggest using instead of this one, but I can say that canned baked beans are actually better than these. The dish is edible--it's good enough to give it 3 stars. But we have not finished eating a batch of these. They just aren't good enough to go back to more than a meal's worth.
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This is a serviceable peanut butter cookie recipe. It is very good, but not ethereal.
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This is a go-to snickerdoodle recipe. If it's snickerdoodles you want, you'll get a good one if you make them from this recipe. It works really well with Penzey's Ceylon cinnamon. The cinnamon, the egginess and the soft, chewy texture make this cookie so fabulous, so it's really special if you use very good cinnamon.
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This makes delicious chocolate pudding, but it makes a very small amount. There's something about pudding that invites you to eat a ton of it in a sitting, and this recipe will only satisfy two pudding lovers, at most (it says: 4 servings).
As always, excellent ingredients will yield a superior finished product. Use whole milk, fantastic chocolate and high quality vanilla, and you will be delighted with this.
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Sometimes I get a craving for brown bread with cream cheese that I just can't shake. If the only kind you've ever had is from a can, or if you've never had it all, it may not beckon you. But once you've had a good one, you may agree, and want it at odd times.
It is a steamed bread, so you "bake" it on the stove top wrapped up inside a pot of simmering water for a long time, which makes it excellent to make on a cold, dry winter day.
When it emerges from its lengthy steam bath, you are presented with a dense, pleasantly mealy, subtly sweet cakelike bread that goes well with butter, cream cheese, ham, preserves, or any of a number of other toppings. It is traditionally served with baked beans, as another option.
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This is tremendously easy to mix up and, if you don't over-handle the dough, will make very nice scones, even when they're plain, plain, plain.
Add 3/4 of a cup of very fresh whole wheat flour instead of the same amount of all-purpose, and you will have scones that hold up well to any desired topping, and have just enough texture to make them fantastic.
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This is a great all-purpose frosting to use on cakes, cupcakes or cookies. It has an excellent flavor in the vanilla version, but you can vary the flavor however you like, with lemon, chocolate, liqueur, cinnamon, etc. It makes a dense, slightly gritty frosting, so this is not what you want if you're looking for a silky texture or lightness.
I made this once as a dip for a platter of in-season summer fruits for a party and it was devoured very quickly.
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This makes a quick dinner entree if you have all of the ingredients on hand (and it is much better with tahini than with peanut butter). Be sure to use the hot chili oil, or add some hot sauce, to give it some depth of flavor. Serving it with cucumber, as is suggested, is a nice way to have it. The cool crunchiness counters the paste-based topping in a welcome way.
It's a light kind of dish, but still satisfying, and can be served with many variations of side dishes.
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