Bibliography

Review:  The premise behind this collection of recipes is to highlight recipes for all kinds of baked treats made without refined sugar.  Many of the recipes are also gluten free, dairy free or vegan.  The first part of the book contains an invaluable explanation of what all the different alternative sweetners used in the book are:  what they taste like, their consistency, and how to substitute with them in recipes.  Some are familiar like honey or maple syrup, but brown rice syrup was new to me, and I didn’t realize where sorghum came from.  In addition, two standard recipes to demonstrate the sweeteners and techniques are explained; one for chocolate chip cookies and one for white cake.

A proponent of local, slow food, Martin organizes the recipes by season, highlighting the best fruit, produce and flavors for each.  Some contributors recipes were altered slightly to fit the book’s purpose.  There is a list of all contributors with more information about them in the back of the book.  This is also a beautifully designed book with well-laid out recipes on thick creamy pages and beautiful colored drawings of fruit and vegetables.  There are also tons of side bars and notes to help even the most beginner cook.

I decided to try making Mexican Chocolate Cake with Vegan Mexican Ganache (p. 162-163).  First I had to search for some of the ingredients.  My regular grocery had firm tofu.  I had to travel to a specialty store to locate brown rice syrup.  I could not find grain-sweetened chocolate chips, so I used vegan chocolate chips.  Since I was apprehensive about how they would go over, I halved the recipe and made them as cupcakes.  The recipe was easy to follow and fast to mix up.  I did add the optional spices to the ganache.  The cupcakes looked good, and the flavor was good too.  The spices made it interesting.  I thought the texture, while moist, seemed a little gummy.  One person I shared them with was surprised to discover the ganache was made with tofu.

I would like to try some of the other recipes, and even just having the brown rice syrup in my pantry motivated me to look online for more recipes.  Am I going to give up sugar?  No, but I am now informed about other options and choices out there.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  Still torn between dentist Norman and detective Mike, Hannah Swensen manages to stumble over another body in between baking and serving cookies at The Cookie Jar.  The visiting minister winds up dead, and the only witness is a mynah bird squawking ”The Wages of Sin Are Death.”  Hannah, her sisters, and mother all get in the sleuthing act but when Hannah realizes who the murderer is, she almost doesn’t live to tell the others.

Critical Analysis:  I admitted in my last review to being a mystery junkie.  And now I am going to tell you that I don’t really read this series for the mysteries.    I read to see what is happening in Lake Eden and with Hannah and her family.  And I read for the fabulous and delicious recipes.  This entry was a little stronger plot-wise then the last couple that came before it, for which I am glad because I wasn’t sure how much more less than stellar mystery I could take to get my character development and recipe fix.

I think I like Hannah because she is such a normal person–she struggles a little with her weight (taste testing all those cookies!) and her hair (it can be on the frizzy side.)  She has a loving family and friends, and a small town that supports her.  I also think I enjoy the sort of romantic fantasy of what it must be like to have two very different guys be in love with you at the same time.  (I think that the Stephanie Plum series by Evanovich is similar in this way.)  I am sure there are some people who want her to make up her mind already.  (I did enjoy the third person added to the mix in Cherry Cheesecake Murder–Joanne Fluke, if you are reading this, please bring him back!)  And in this volume, I loved the whole mystery with Norman.  I felt it added to the continuing story, that everything was not going to continue as it had.

And the recipes–oh the recipes–all I can say is, even if you don’t read this series, you should look for Fluke’s Lake Eden Cookbook coming this fall–it seems like it would be perfect for holiday gifts.

Review Excerpts:  ”Bestseller Fluke’s fabulous 14th foodie mystery….Mouthwatering recipes include butterscotch bonanza bars and pineapple casserole.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“More baking, less sleuthing in this very gentle mystery. The mouthwatering recipes are winners.”–Library Journal

Reviewed from public library audiobook.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Review: I have many memories of cakes.  Birthday cakes, special cakes only made at Christmas, cakes I made to enter at the state fair.  Many of these were baked in a bundt or tube pan, and often served plain or only with a light glaze.  Lauren Chattman’s new cookbook brought back all those baking memories and inspired me to make more.  Her book includes 100 simple but delicious cakes meant to be mixed and baked in a few hours or less, and stored at room temperature under a cake keeper, if you’ve got one.  Assuming there is any cake left to keep.

The recipes are divided according what size and shape pan in which they are to be baked.  There are snack cakes, coffee cakes, crumb cakes, bunt cakes, chiffon cakes, angel food cakes, fruit upside down cakes, cakes with unusual flavor combinations, and some with familiar but delicious tastes.  The directions are very clear, including preparing the pan, tests for doneness and suggestions for serving.  In many cases, Chattman has modernized the preparation for the batters.  For example, with all butter based cakes, such as pound cakes, there is no fussing about how to add the liquid and the flour, you basically add one and then the other.  This makes for what will seem like a different batter than most bakers expect, but it bakes up just fine.

The design of the book itself is very appealing.  Coming in at just under 8 X 8 inches, and under 200 pages, it is not the intimidating tome that many recent cake and baking cookbooks have been.  Gorgeous full color photos of many of the recipes and lots of white space are a joy.  Too bad there isn’t a picture of every cake.  Listing the ingredients on the side of the page instead of the top and highlighting them in a different color makes them very easy to read and follow.

I have made several recipes from this book, and loved all of them.  I have made the World’s Quickest Yeasted Coffee Cake (p. 39) two or three times, it is more than just quick, it is delicious.  And while it is adapted from a Fleischman’s yeast recipe, Chattman’s is better.  One note, this cake does not store well, so bake when you know you have people to share it with.  Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake (p. 121) is very similar to a recipe that my sister and I make that starts with a cake mix and pudding.  This one, however, is from scratch, and you can tell the difference–it bakes higher and has a better crumb.  A note on this one, if I make it again, I will lower my oven temperature 25 degrees, as I think it was ever so slightly overcooked.  The fault being my oven, not the recipe.  Just this afternoon, I made the Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake (p. 101).  Having read Chattman’s note about changing out pans and pan sizes, I decided to double the recipe and bake it in a bundt pan.  I couldn’t find my cloves, so I substituted the same amount of ginger.  Also, I knew my husband wouldn’t like the chocolate chips and I forgot to buy walnuts at the store, so I left both out of the recipe.  The bundt pan was very full, if you have a smaller pan, you would need to take some batter out.  I baked mine at 325 degrees for 60 minutes and it came our perfect.  A crisp outside and moist inside and a beautiful golden orange color throughout.  My husband thought it was fabulous, plain and unadorned, and I did too.

Therein lies the beauty of this little book.  Each recipe is like the foundation on which you can build your own versions of whatever strikes your fancy.  Once you know the basic idea for a fruit upside down cake or a crumb cake, you can change the fruit to what you have on hand or what’s in season.  You can add and subtract mix ins, change flavorings, and more.  This might be just the book to get me away from boxed dessert mixes.  This would make a great gift, especially if you added a cake keeper and the different baking pans used in each chapter.

Review Excerpts:  “The former pastry chef Lauren Chattman’s new book sets out to prove that baking a cake can be an everyday activity. In the spirit of industrious folks like Julie Powell, who spent a year cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (the experience spawned a book and a movie), Chattman baked a different cake every day for almost a year; the resulting 100 unfrosted and unfilled cakes range from old favorites like the crunchy-topped blueberry buckle to an Italian-style red grape, polenta, and olive oil cake.”–Saveur

““Author Lauren Chattman’s recipe for Cinnamon Pudding Cake and Almond Brown Butter Cake conjure winter days and warm milk. Pear Cake with Sea Salt Caramel Sauce appears dinner-party worthy without being fussy. Meanwhile, cakes like Fig and Cornmeal with Pine Nuts or Chocolate Chipotle — a rich buttermilk loaf with a subtle, smoky kick — strike just the right balance between comfort and sophistication. Make no mistake: these are not quick cakes. They are simply simple cakes, no frosting, no flower cut-outs, no intimidation.”–The Associated Press

Reviewed from publisher provided copy. Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Review:  While I am a fairly accomplished cook, and a very good baker, one thing I never conquered in the kitchen was the making of yeast bread.  When I was very small, my mother baked bread every week, often several kinds.  When I got older, she didn’t bake as much, but my dad would bake bread on the weekends, or sometimes angel biscuits for special meals.  I did try a couple of times.  I remember a children’s cook book we had where you made bread dough and broke off different sized balls of dough and made the shapes of fat teddy bears.  Another time I was taking a home economics class in intermediate school and tackled a savory pull apart or monkey bread.  Both times the results were the same–hard lumps of dough that refused to rise.

After that, I just decided that making yeast bread wasn’t for me, that I was wasting ingredients and time.  But I always secretly wanted to make beautiful loaves of bread, and rolls, and sweet breads.  But hey, I could make the best biscuits and they always turned out no matter what.  Then my best friend from high school (just about the only person I have kept up with over the years) told me about a revolutionary method and book:  Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  She assured me it was pretty much fool proof, and pointed me to the master recipe in the New York Times and also to this online forum where Francois answered many reader questions.  I didn’t have a baking stone or a large container to hold and store the dough, but I did have a cast iron skillet and a large bowl, and that was enough to get me started.

I mixed up half a recipe of the master dough the first time.  I was still in the mindset that if it didn’t work, I didn’t want to waste the ingredients.  I put the cast iron skillet upside down on the oven rack and an empty metal broiler pan underneath preheated the oven.  I tore off my dough and shaped it into a ball, placing it on a piece of parchment paper to rest.  (This was probably the hardest part for me, the shaping or “gluten cloak”ing of the dough, but my friend pointed out a video here, and with practice, it became much easier.)  After resting, I picked up the dough still on the parchment paper, placed it on the hot skillet and added the water to the broiler pan.  I closed the oven dough and hoped for the best.  Turning on the oven light, I was amazed to see the dough springing up.  Success at last!  And it tasted phenomenal.

After several tries and not failing once, I decided I needed to get a baking stone and a large container with a lid.  After looking around, and talking with my friend, (no, I didn’t want a circular stone, as that made it harder to bake long loves like baguettes) I got this one, and I love it.  The container was a little harder, as I knew I wanted a certain size and shape to go in the refrigerator.  I finally found this one, and the squared off sides were perfect, as it made it easier to stick on the shelf.  I also bought the book, and read it from cover to cover.  Why buy the book when I had the master recipe already?  The book has all kinds of tips and hints for making the best loaf from this recipe, as well as tons of variations and kinds of bread and recipes using bread dough.  Because this method relies heavily on chemistry to work, the authors have already figured all of that out for you.  And if you want to try it out for yourself, then having the book helps you understand the processes as well.  (It has a lot to do with the flour you buy and the amount of liquid you use.)

So why did this work for me?  I would say for several reasons.  First of all, because the dough rises very slowly on the counter, it doesn’t need to have hot water to work, and you can even use cold water, the rise just takes longer.  So I can’t kill the yeast by accident.  Secondly,  no kneading.  Finally the rise is only part of the equation, the second part comes after the dough has rested and when it is placed on the stone in the hot oven–oven spring.  That means no worries about whether the dough is doubled or tripled in size, no punching down, and so on.  I have been reading the authors’ blog, and was excited to see that  they have a new book coming out in October:  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. (I have gained so much confidence in my ability, that I have now made several recipes with yeast the conventional way and been successful every time.)

Readalikes:  Kneadlessly Simple:  Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads by Nancy Baggett

Review Excerpts:  “The authors’ style is straightforward and unintimidating, and their book is sure to make many new bread-baking converts.”–Library Journal

“While experienced bakers and true gourmands will skip this one, those looking for an innovative approach to making bread just might find it in these recipes.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Of course, this also includes the wonderful world of miniature desserts–tiny cookies, cakes, cheesecakes, sweet bites that you pop in your mouth and then realize you’ve eaten more then you should have.  It seems the rest of the world agrees, especially when it comes to cupcakes.  I remember peeling off the little paper cup, licking any frosting that clung to the edges and njoying my own little cake.  It was even better if it had sprinkles.  Now cupcakes are the thing to have, for parties and weddings and showers and get togethers.  They come in all kinds of flavor combinations, but I still think the oldies but goodies are best:  chocolate and vanilla!

The first cupcake book I really got interested in was Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn.  I already owned the original Cake Mix Doctor book as well as Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor. I was sure I didn’t need this one.  But then when I checked it out from the library, I realized I was wrong.  So many new varieties of cupcakes and muffins, all starting with the convenience of a mix.  Many new frostings and decorating and even party ideas.  I broke down and bought a copy, and have been using it ever since.  A few of the cupcake recipes can be found here.  I even have made several of the recipes in this book as full sized cakes, and also have had great luck with altering and modifying the recipes for various mixes, flavors, and more.  Sometime after this, I also got a great set of scoops from my sister which I highly recommend if you are going to make cupcakes or muffins often, as it makes filling tins easy.  The scoops are also great for cookie baking.

Last summer it seemed like Karen Tack and her book Hello, Cupcake! were everywhere.  The cupcakes were incredible, and it was hard to believe how easy they were to decorate and make.  (There are some tips here.)  I haven’t given up my pastry bag in favor of ziplocs for piping, but I have started to look at all kinds of things at the grocery store and other places wondering if they might be used to create a cupcake masterpiece!  A few recipes are around on the web:  Corn on the Cob cupcakes, three recipes from a Today Show segment, garden party cupcakes, flower, chick and bunny designs from McCormicks and an often changing new design on their site.

Recently a friend and fellow baker and cake decorator told me about the Whimsical Bakehouse.   I was able to get my hands on Little Cakes from the Whimiscal Bakehouse through the library.  (Yay for the library, since we’ve moved to Florida, I have little room for increasing my book collection, so I rely on theirs to help me find what I need.)  I thought this book was delightful, especially in that it included techniques, recipes, and projects for all skill levels.  I really thought the sand buckets and flower pots made out of chocolate were excellent, as were the flower cupcakes.  Not as much in this book about chocolate transfer technique, which can be found in the first book and on their site.  (So happy to see someone not afraid to share some of their recipes and techniques  online, as this will only lead to more book sales in the end.)

Finally the most recent cupcake book I have perused is Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes.  This book has a great variety of recipes and includes a ton of ideas for decorating as well.  I love that there is a HUGE picture of every recipe and project, and that so many of the recipes lend themselves to altering and modifying for different flavors or kinds.   The decorating ideas are simple but lovely, and many of them are quite charming and add to the homeiness and coziness of the cupcakes.  I absolutely can’t wait to try making flowers out of dried pineapple.  I did try the marbled cupcakes, and was disappointed that they came out very dry and the cocoa flavored batter seemed very heavy.  The flavor was good though, and I do have to wonder if not using whole milk and not carefully measuring out the batter to flavor with chocolate could have effected the recipe.  A few of the recipes are too fiddly for my tastes.  (Says the baker who often used the short cuts of the Cake Mix Doctor.)  I do not see the reason for many recipes to use only egg whites, and I will probably never buy a bag of cake flour.  And yet, so many of these recipes appeal to me, a trio of cupcakes with the flavor of favorite cookies sounds like fun:  chocolate chunk, oatmeal, and peanut butter.  (The peanut butter ones have frosting with the criss-cross fork imprint!)  So do the little cookies and cream cheesecakes and tiramisu cupcakes and many, many more.  Ten of the recipes (including the tiramisu cupcakes) from the book are here.  Some of these are in the book (including the dried pineapple flower) and here are some of the decorating ideas.