Review:  I may have to stop reviewing cookbooks from Taunton Press–every single one I have chosen to review thus far I have wanted to own.  My personal copy ordered from Amazon is on it’s way to me as I type this.

What is it about this one?  At first glance, it seems a little gimmicky.  About 10 or 12 years ago, there were several cookbooks published that either limited the number of ingredients or number of steps for a recipe.  Sometimes they were successful and sometimes less so.

Johnson Dodge has an understanding of ingredients, of chemistry, of baking and cooking, and of today’s cook that works like magic here.  When you only have four ingredients, they all count, and they all must work together to make the finished product.  She gives a great introductory section where she talks about ingredients, techniques, equipment and more.  Almost every recipe has suggestions to change it up, or comments on technical things or ways to gussy it up with sauces or glazes or the like.  Usually when I review a cookbook, I make two or three dishes to see how they turn out.  These recipes were so easy and so good, I found myself making one every time I turned around.

I started with Jammin’ Sugar Cookie Thumbprints (p. 22) and Toasted Pistachio Crisps (p. 19).  I am lazy, so I almost never get out my mixer.  On the thumbprints, I filled them with raspberry preserves.  They were rich, buttery, crispy and the raspberry was a perfect contrast.  There were several suggestions for switch-ins and anyone with a little imagination could come up with more.  I was not able to slice the dough for the crisps, it kept crumbling.  (Possibly my fault for either mixing by hand or not chopping my nuts finely enough).  It didn’t matter, I rolled the dough into balls and pressed each flat with the palm of my hand.  My husband loved them, suggesting I add them to my regular baking.  From there I tried Crunchy Peanut Butter Buttons (p. 32).  You will be amazed that such simple ingredients make such a divine cookie.  Next time I think I’ll try the suggestion and add mini M&Ms.  These cookies were surprisingly even more peanuttier the second day.  The Oatmeal-Cinnamon Crisps (p. 28) made a believer out of me.  I looked at the “dough” and then my homely piles of oats on the cookie sheets and thought there is no way this is going to work.  And then it did, almost like magic, when the brown sugar caramelized to make little crunchy mounds of goodness.

There were two recipes that were less successful however.  The Lemon Meltaways (p. 29) had nice texture but didn’t taste very lemony.  This again may have been my fault, as I didn’t measure my lemon zest, just zested the one lemon I had and figured it was enough.  The Chocolate-Toffee Crumble Cups (p. 37) were delicious when first baked, but after they had cooled, the toffee in the dough seemed to get very hard and chewy and made them not as good.  In this case, I think I would make them again and only put the toffee on the top, or try one of the suggestions for other things to switch-in their place.

Almost every recipe I tried had a higher yield than indicated.  (If you are into cooking or just like to be exact, I recommend buying cookie scoops of varying sizes, they work so well.)   I wanted to try other recipes in the book, so I can’t wait for my copy to get here.  And Abigail Johnson Dodge, if you see this, I would love a Cookies 4 Today book next.  (You can tell I can’t get enough of these cookie recipes!)

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

Review:  I was blown away by Tack and Richardson’s first book, Hello, Cupcake.  The designs and photos were stunning and often had a sense of humor as well.  But many of the designs I really admired (like the dogs on the cover) seemed like a lot of work, and I, who has a set of icing bags and tips and has taken cake decorating classes, was also skeptical about using canned frosting and zipper bags to do most of the work.

When I heard there was a new book, I was still excited.  And the new book blows the old one out of the water, if that is possible.  The cupcakes and photos are still stunning, but now there are both difficult and complex designs along with “EZ” ones.  I especially think the first part of the book is invaluable, with very clear pictures of cupcake materials, tools, and techniques.  Showing what and how they use all kinds of candies, sprinkles and more makes it easier to understand the directions that follow, but also serves as an inspiration for readers to create their own designs.  The labeling of the photos gives the reader a reference of sorts to match to the instructions.

The designs themselves run the gamut from cute to creepy, with bright yellow rubber ducks, bouquets of flowers, fake Chinese food, ants, cockroaches (too realistic!), haunted houses and silly monsters.  Some of them, like Ring Bling or Flower Power lend themselves to make it yourself activities for children’s birthday parties.  Others, like Formula One (a racing car made of cupcakes) , Robo-Cup (robot), Sand Castles, and Haunted House would make great edible party centerpieces.  There are more adult friendly cupcakes, like bouquets of mums and roses, golf, and one that shows you how to copy a pattern that would be great for showers, weddings, or birthdays.  For a large or more elaborate party, it would be fun to make several different designs that have similar themes to serve together, like Haunted House, Black Cats and Jack ‘O Lanterns, or Sand Castle, Making Waves, and Whale of a Good Time.

When I decided to try some of the techniques myself, I decided to try a variation of Flower Power.  First I baked perfect cake mix cupcakes using french vanilla cake mix.  They were very moist.  Then I used the dipping cupcakes method to cover the top of each in bright green vanilla frosting.  This technique really works, it makes a perfect smooth almost shiny topped cupcake.  The only thing problem is if you heat the frosting too much, it becomes runny and doesn’t stick.  Then I attached cookies to pretzel sticks to serve as the flower base.  I found this less than satisfactory, as the chocolate never seemed to get hard, even after time in the fridge.  I used regular frosting in zipper bags to pipe frosting on the cookies in different flower shapes and used various candies and sprinkles to decorate them.  I did have a hard time with this, as the frosting warmed up quickly from my hands and was hard to control.  I think possibly my kitchen was too warm, but I think in the future I might try again but stir some powdered sugar into the frosting.  I found that the spearmint leaves were easy to cut into thinner leaves and made very attractive leaves for my flowers.  My biggest disappointment was realizing that these cupcakes were not very easy to transport, although I realize now that the cupcakes and flowers could be made separately and assembled on site.

You can see a few designs from the new book on Amazon:  An Apple for Teacher Cupcakes and Playing for Koi.  Some of their designs are also available from Duncan Hines.

Review Excerpts: “Kids and adults alike will find joy in the many artful creations, including a “pizza” supported by cupcakes and topped with fruit “pepperoni”; a banana split with cupcakes in the form of ice cream scoops, and Chinese takeout complete with Tootsie Roll broccoli florets. This is an innovative title that doesn’t hold back.”–Publisher’s Weekly

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

Bibliography

Review: This was one of my favorite books from last year.  I don’t just love cookbooks because I love cooking, I love cookbooks with gorgeous photographs and interesting head notes and tips and techniques.  I really enjoy this kind of book, as they go into multiple variations of beloved recipes such as chocolate chip cookies and brownies as well as providing new and interesting dishes to try.  I know there are people out there who don’t like chocolate, but this book is for all of the rest of us.

I first read this online in galley form, and thought it was wonderful, but when I was able to check out a copy from the library, I liked it even more, with it’s large over-sized format and photographs that make you want to make every recipe (all 125) in the book.  From an introduction that describes the process of making chocolate and encourages a chocolate taste test through a gamut of chocolate delights and confections and tips and tricks for cooking with all forms of chocolate,  I find myself struggling not to add this to my ever growing personal collection of recipe books.

I was drawn to some of the more unique recipes such as port ganache- glazed brownies with dried cherries and fried chocolate hazelnut wontons with orange dipping sauce, but the true test of a book like this I believe are in its renditions of old favorites and classics.  For about as long as I can remember, my recipe of choice for chocolate chip cookies has been that on the back of that familiar yellow bag that has been around now for over 70 years.  But sometimes my husband complains that these are too crunchy.  So I was eager to try the recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies found on page 12.  According to the recipe, cold butter and eggs combined with a higher proportion of brown sugar will give a chewier cookie.  After baking these, I think I might have found a new chocolate chip cookie recipe to replace the old standby.  Chewy and irresistible and a recipe that even cut in half yields a ton.  The true test was my husband.

“What’s in these?” he asked?

Uh-oh, I thought, he doesn’t like them.

“They are like potato chips.  I can’t stop eating them.”

The secret?  I think it is the vanilla, three times as much as in the old familiar recipe.

I also tried the Chocolate Chip Muffins on page 244.  Recent attempts to move away from boxed muffin mix to scratch muffins had not been successful.  Again I was skeptical, as the directions called for overloading the muffin tins to get a bakery style top.  My past experience with that were muffins that overflowed the pan and baked together into a huge mess.  Again, I was wrong.  I was rewarded with huge beautiful muffins that were, of course, better than a box mix.  My only complaint was that there were too many for the two of us, so next time I’ll probably cut the recipe in half.

Now I am eager to try more–perhaps brownies will be next?  Chewy, fudgy or cakey?  Mint or peanut butter or cream cheese?  Perhaps I’ll need to buy this book after all.

Review Excerpts: “From the simple to the elegant, the editors of Fine Cooking have all your chocolate cravings covered….the 125-plus recipes cover cookies, brownies, cakes, pies and tarts, puddings and mousses, and other delectable treats. Recipes are clear and filled with enough basic tips to make novice cooks feel like pros.”–Library Journal

“[A]n absolute must for chocolate lovers. This new cookbook, filled with tantalizing color photographs, makes you want to dive into a bowl of chocolate and never come up for air. It’s a breathtaking, mouthwatering look into the world of chocolate.”–Chattanooga Times Free-Press

Reviewed from public library copy. 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.

The Book: Douglas, Ron. (2009). America’s Most Wanted Recipes.  New York: Atria. ISBN: 978-1-4391-4706-1

The Great American Taste Test:  When I head that Atria Books and epicurious.com were challenging bloggers to try the recipes in Ron Douglas’ cookbook, America’s Most Wanted Recipes and compare them to the actual restaurant dishes, I was eager to participate.  I have tried a few times in the past to make cloned recipes at home.  In high school, my sister brought home a xeroxed copy of a recipe for Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits.  We tried them and deemed them almost like the real thing (A similar recipe is included in the book.)  Many years later, I tried to recreate Macaroni Grill’s Penne Rustica, with some success, using a recipe found online.  The dish was good, but took forever to make.  My husband and I don’t eat out much, because we are aware of how the cost adds up and because I love cooking at home, but there are still restaurant dishes we enjoy.

For the taste test, I decided that I wanted to try several recipes to see how they compared to the original.  I also wondered about the cost of making these recipes at home, how healthy they are, and the ease of following and cooking the dishes, as these are some of the points mentioned in the front of the book.

Panera Bread Company’s Broccoli-Cheese Soup (p. 168):  This was fairly simple to make, although it did involve a bit of cooking time.  A few simple ingredients combine to make a soup that looks and tastes awfully close to that at Panera and it looks like an exact copy, from the color to little bits of carrot floating around.  I’m a little lazy, so instead of using fresh broccoli, I used a box of frozen.  I couldn’t tell that it made any difference.   I did think it had too much nutmeg, so when I make it again, I plan to cut the amount in half.  There is nothing too healthy about 2 cups of half and half, 5 tablespoons of butter, and 2 cups of cheddar cheese.  I think that I might try using fat free evaporated milk or a combination of half and half and milk to cut back on the fat.  (Sorry, no lowfat cheese here, it wouldn’t melt properly.)   It probably doesn’t help a lot, but you can also cut a tablespoon of butter by melting the butter for the soup base and sauteing the onions in that before adding the flour, which also saves a step or two.  I estimate I made this for $6.46.  The recipe specifies four servings, but I got more like six, which comes to $1.08 a bowl. 

Outback Steakhouse Honey-Wheat Bushman’s Bread (p.161):  This recipe says to use a bread machine, which I do not have.  However, I REALLY wanted to try this recipe, so I made it by hand.  I thought it was pretty simple to do, the only thing I struggled with was shaping the loaves.  I do think that next time I will dissolve the coffee into the water before adding the yeast, as I could see that  it didn’t all mix in the dough.  I ate this right out of the oven with lots of butter.  The color was not as dark (but it never will be without adding food coloring, as the recipe lists.)  The flavor was excellent, but it didn’t seem as sweet as the bread in the restaurant.  However, I think this might be due to the butter rather than the bread.  I would almost bet that the butter at the Outback has been sweetened in some way.  And for my personal taste, I like it a little less sweet.  As far as good for you, this has a combination of wheat and white flours, which ups the fiber.  I don’t think the flvor would be changed much by using more wheat and less white flour.  I was actually thinking to make it as a full size loaf for toast and sandwiches.  I estimate that it cost me $3.18 to make this bread at home, which if you divide by 8 for each little loaf comes to about $0.39 each.  It is the equivalent of 2 16 ounce loaves.

TGIFriday’s Sizzling Chicken and Cheese:  Of all the recipes, this one was the best.  It tasted exactly like the restaurant version, maybe even better.  (Hard to explain what I mean, but freshest vegetables and really good quality chicken plus adding as much seasoning as you want really make this stand out.)  I found it very simple to make, from marinading the chicken to slicing the vegetables to cooking it all in the skillet.  The only question I had was where would I get chihuahua cheese?  At the local grocery store, they only had queso fresca and queso blanca.  I choose queso blanca because it was soft, not crumbly, and it worked well.  Everything sauteed beautifully, and made a beautiful (and delicious) finished product.  This dish is pretty good for you.  One thing you could do is use a very good nonstick skillet and cut back how much oil you use.  I think you need some, or otherwise you won’t beautiful browning on the vegetables and chicken.  I estimated that it cost about $6.41 to make this at home.

The Bottom Line:  These recipes are very close to the originals, and in some cases, I think as good if not better.  I like the idea making them at home where you can control exactly what goes into them as far as salt and fat.  Maybe this book will inspire me to try and clone some of my own restaurant favorites.

Child, Julia with Alex Prud’ Homme. (2006). My Life in France.  New York: Knopf. ISBN: 978-1400043460

I picked up an advanced copy of Julie and Julia at the ALA Conference in Chicago in the summer of 2005.  However, while I passed it along to several people to read, including my mother, somehow it didn’t catch my interest at the time.  When My Life in France was published, it caught my attention because of the highly positive reviews, but mostly because my library had bought an audio CD copy, and it fit with my new plan to listen to books in the car m way to and fro.

I loved My Life in France.  The descriptions of Paris living, of the process of learning how to cook and then laboring over the culinary masterpiece that became Master the Art of French Cooking was inspiring and enthralling.  Throw in a wonderful marriage that never lost its passion and romance, and a glimpse into the beginnings of cooking on television, and the book becomes more than just a memoir.  I actually blogged the book at that time.  Here’s what I wrote then:

“Of course, there would be no Mario or any of the other All-Star chefs on the Food Network if someone hadn’t figured out how to show cooking on television.  While listening to Julia Child’s My Life in France, I learned that she had the first truly successful and popular cooking show on television but I learned so much more.  About how she worked for United States Intelligence during WWII.  About how she was never a cook until she and her husband Paul were posted to France and she was exposed to such wonderful food and markets and restaurants and cooks.  About her experiences at the Cordon Bleu and writing the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  But mostly about her love for France, its people, culture, and food.”

My personal policy is that I usually read the book BEFORE I go to see the movie (or television show or whatever.)  However, there are always exceptions to every rule, right?  When it came to the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, I WANTED to read them, I tried to get into them, but I just couldn’t somehow.  But then I saw a few episodes of the (much too short lived) series on the SciFi channel.  I went to the library the very next day and requested the book and this time I couldn’t read it fast enough.  When I heard there was going to be a movie of Julie and Julia, I thought I should finally read the book.  But I didn’t.  I tried, I did, but–no.  Then I heard it was ALSO going to be based on My Life in France, which I loved and still remembered.  And when I heard that Meryl Street was playing Julia, that was it, I had to go.  (I love movies but I don’t watch very many, I usually only get to the movie theater once or twice a year.)

I saw the movie on the opening weekend, and I loved it.  It was refreshing and funny and different.  And the parts about Julia Child were so well done, and the parts with Julie made me want to, have to finally read the book.  I actually picked up the audio book from the library, and was happy that the author herself was doing the reading.  Very funny, very snarky, with lots of I’m almost 30 what am I doing with my life angst.  I also loved how she portrayed her husband, perhaps because it reminded me of mine:  supportive and encouraging to the point where you want to say leave me alone so I can wallow in self pity but instead he gets you to pick yourself up and DO SOMETHING.

The two stories have such nice parallels, and that is part of what made the movie so good.  The only thing that makes me a little sad is that part of what My Life in France possible and so good was the copious letters that Julia and Paul and their friends and family wrote back and forth and somehow managed to save.  Would something like that even be possible today?  Do people save their e-mails, their instant message and other conversations?

Reviewed from public library copies