A completely over-the-top brownie recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. They take a bit more work than regular brownies, but the results are excellent. One big problem, however: the batter burned around the edges of the pan.
Continue reading "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook: Outrageous Brownies" »
A pretty simple, very good-tasting recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook . I have a couple of quibbles: the cooking time was too long, and I don't like what happens to the granola's texture when it's stored.
Continue reading "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook: Homemade Granola" »
Here's a very good shortbread recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I thought the instructions sounded strange, but my initial impression was wrong: the recipe works, and the cookies are delicious. The yield, however, is way off.
Continue reading "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook: Pecan Shortbread" »
A perfect recipe for this time of year, when the peaches are ripe and juicy. Get the sweetest peaches you can find, from the farmer's market if possible.
Continue reading "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook: Peach and Raspberry Crisp" »
My last test from the Wolfgang Puck chapter! I'll be testing 3 or 4 more recipes from the Food Network Kitchens chapter in Food Network Favorites , and then at long last I'll be moving onto a new book.
This tart is quite good, if a bit, well, tart. If you like lemon curd, this dessert will probably appeal to you.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Caramelized Lemon-Lime Tart" »
Paula Deen does have a colorful way with titles. As for the answer to the question, I'll leave it to you to determine for yourself. This is a very rich, decadent cake with pineapple, coconut, and vanilla pudding. It's extremely simple to put together. I had one little quibble with the ingredients, but the final result is a very good dessert.
I've also given a recipe for the more common chocolate version of Better Than Sex Cake, so if the tropical variety doesn't do it for you, the chocolate and toffee one probably will.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Is It Really Better Than Sex? Cake" »
Another dessert from the Giada De Laurentiis chapter in Food Network Favorites . It's a very good tart; it's just not my favorite kind of dessert. The pine nut crust is topped with a lightly sweet custard, and more pine nuts are strewn across the top. You need to really like pine nuts for this one to appeal to you, because their flavor is very, very strong.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Creamy Ricotta Tart with Pine Nuts" »
Another very good recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. My only quibble, and it's really more of a question, is to wonder why she specifies using paper muffin liners? Plus, these aren't biscuits. They're muffins -- very tasty ones.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Nonna's Lemon Ricotta Biscuits" »
And on to the Giada De Laurentiis chapter in Food Network Favorites. I've already reviewed her book Everyday Italian and found it to be pretty good, although it could have used a tad more editing. Is there any reason to check out her recipes in this new book?
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Chocolate Amaretti Cake" »
Cheesecake fans tend to fall into two different camps: those who love a dense, firm cake (the traditional New York-style cheesecake), and those who prefer a lighter, fluffier-textured cake. This recipe falls into the latter category.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: The Ultimate Cheesecake" »
Next up in Food Network Favorites : Tyler Florence, host of Food 911. This chocolate cake is a version of the popular molten chocolate cake. The end result is very good, but I have to say that for the host of show that addresses cooking problems, Florence's instructions are oddly bare-bones.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Chocolate Date Pudding Cake" »
Another very good recipe from the Rachael Ray chapter in Food Network Favorites . The cobbler is pleasantly spicy and easy to put together. I have just a couple of quibbles about ingredients.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Quick Peaches & Golden Raisins Cobbler" »
An Alton Brown recipe from Food Network Favorites . The "Note from the Kitchens" blurb next to this recipe says, "They were just delicious. They even looked like English Muffins!" Well, yeah. That's what they are. Says it right there in the title: English Muffins.
Aside from the editor's bizarre jubilation that these muffins actually look like they're supposed to, this is a very good recipe. The muffins are tasty and they do, indeed, look just like English muffins you'd buy at the store. (Amazing!)
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: English Muffins" »
From the Food Network's own kitchens, this recipe from Food Network Favorites is decadent and delicious. The instructions, however, contain one very large oversight.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pie" »
From Dave Lieberman, the Food Network's newest boy wonder chef, comes this simple version of fruit crumble. It's a good one.
Continue reading "Food Network Favorites: Blueberry-Pecan Crumble" »
Errors and oversights in technique are becoming the bane of my existence with Off the Shelf . The ideas in this book are excellent, and if you're careful to fill in the blanks when it comes to the instructions, no problem. But oftentimes, Donna Hay leaves the fine details out of her recipes, and that is a problem.
Another dessert idea from Off the Shelf . In this one, buttery cookies are layered with sticky caramel to make sandwiches. The flavors are very good, but I had some trouble with the technique.
This is a serviceable cookie dough that takes well to adaptation. I'm not sold on the food processor method, however. Is it so much easier to drag out the food processor and then fuss around with scraping out the heavy, sticky cookie dough? Not to my mind, it isn't.
Wow, where to begin? This one's a disaster from start to finish. The concept is intriguing: take pecan pie components and turn them into bar cookies, using graham crackers as an ersatz crust. But the execution fails utterly. What I ended up with was a pan of sticky pecan pie filling, pecan halves that were too big to cut through neatly, and a crust layer that was so thin, it melted into nothingness. Not a successful recipe.
Sara Moulton says of this cake, "What an exciting idea to be able to whip up a cake from scratch on a weeknight in only ten minutes." I guess so...I'm not really a "cake for cake's sake" person. I don't get the point of whipping up a plain cake for dessert. That's not terribly exciting to me.
If, however, you really like cake and want a quick recipe, this one's fairly good. The texture is rather coarse and the flavor is blandly vanilla, but if you follow Moulton's recommendations for toppings (berries and/or chocolate) this is a serviceable dessert.
I can never resist a fruit crisp or crumble recipe. This one, however, suffers from a case of "How many grapes?" The proportions are way off — so much so that I find it hard to believe that anyone actually prepared this recipe before it found its way into the finished book.
A cookie recipe from Chez Panisse Desserts . Italian for "bones of the dead," ossi dei morti cookies are traditionally served on All Soul's Day, at the beginning of November. The cookies taste very good, but they don't look especially attractive, although they do indeed look somewhat bonelike. These are very crisp cookies, not quite as hard as biscotti, but definitely designed to be dipped into coffee or wine before being eaten.
A somewhat dense, coarse-textured, intensely almond-flavored cake. It's tasty just as it is, and would also pair well with fresh berries.
A very tasty offering from the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking magazine. It tastes a bit like eggnog, but mostly like nutmeg and almonds. Either way, it's yummy and looks pretty as a hostess gift or buffet table dessert.
Continue reading "Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking magazine: Eggnog Quick Bread" »
Another quick bread from the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking magazine. This one is drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with chopped cashews; it looks lovely and tastes delicious.
Continue reading "Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking magazine: Chocolate-Cashew Bread" »
A variation of the Pear Brown Betty. I prefer the crunchy cookie topping over the softer, pudding-style Betty.
From Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way , a clever idea for using up slightly stale baked goods: mix them with canned pears and turn them into dessert!
If you like bread puddings, you'll probably like this, even though it doesn't have a dairy component. You can make it with nearly any type of bread, cake, croissants, Danish, muffins, or scones. All you need to have on hand is a big can of pears.
It sounds fancy, but it's actually a rather simple dessert or breakfast: individual custard cups are filled with a combination of apples and granola, then topped with a round of buttered-and-sugared bread. After they're cooked, the cups are unmolded, giving you a pretty molded dessert reminiscent of apple charlotte.
That's the theory, anyway. I had a bit of trouble in the execution.
Continue reading "Fast Food My Way: Caramelized Apple-Granola Timbales" »
This is an intensely rich flourless chocolate cake. It's easy to put together, and tastes like the chewiest, densest brownies ever. I made a couple of adjustments to the technique, but the cake itself is a winner, one that I'll definitely come back to again.
Continue reading "Fast Food My Way: Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie Cake" »
A variation of the Chocolate-Raspberry Gratins, using shortbread cookies for the crumble topping. I actually preferred this one to the chocolate version.
Continue reading "Fast Food My Way: Shortbread-Raspberry Gratins" »
Jacques Pépin has some fantastic ideas for quick, delicious desserts in Fast Food My Way. He doesn't shy away from using store-bought ingredients; in this case, cookies, which form the crumble topping for a speedy fruit dessert that tastes fantastic.
Continue reading "Fast Food My Way: Chocolate-Raspberry Gratins" »
A tasty apple dessert with a pretty presentation. If you like apple dumplings or turnovers, you'll like this one.
Continue reading "Live, Love, Eat!: Baked Apple Pouches with Cinnamon and Raisins" »
More pumpkin! These pancakes have a delicate pumpkin flavor and a soufflé-like texture.
Continue reading "From My Kitchen: Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup" »
Even though I love pumpkin in nearly every incarnation, I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. I'd rather have pretty much any other pumpkin dessert. This cheesecake has graced my Thanksgiving table for the last couple of years. It's delicious, and so much more satisfying than plain ol' pie.
When you don't want your pumpkin in loaf form, try it as muffins.
I'm not much of a baker during the summertime. For some reason, peach cobbler and blueberry pie don't really appeal to me. But when the weather changes and there's a chill in the air, I start to get the urge to make pumpkin quick bread, pumpkin crème brûlée, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pancakes...and the occasional cranberry tart.
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