cookies

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Butter, Flour, Sugar, Joy (cookbook review)

I’ve reviewed and enjoyed Danielle Kartes’ previous books “Rustic Joyful Food: My Heart’s Table” and “Rustic Joyful Food: Generations” but it’s her appearance on Food52 with Kristen Miglore that I remember best.  They made Coconut Custard Macaroons together, and the synergy was hilarious. So I had a very vague idea of what to expect in her newest book, “Butter, Flour, Sugar, Joy.”  A couple of previous “Joyful” recipes are reprinted in the new book (including the macaroons), and there might be other reprinted recipes as she’s authored 11 books total. (As I’ve mentioned previously about this cookbook series, there’s some faith-based commentary in it. I’m not passing any judgement. You do you.)

The book is simply divided into:

  • Cookies
  • Puddings, Possets, and Panna Cotta
  • Bars and Bakes
  • Pies and Galettes
  • Cakes

Some of the recipes I dearly want to try are:

  • Chew spiced molasses cookies
  • Perfect apricot and chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies
  • Gloria’s chocolate drops with cream cheese glaze
  • Hummingbird oatmeal cookies
  • Swedish cream with port wine and berries
  • Real pistachio pudding
  • Old school tapioca cream pudding with rhubarb compote
  • No-bake blackberry cheesecake slab
  • Skillet s’mores brownie
  • Cranberry bread pudding with cream cheese glaze
  • Rhubarb and frangipane galette
  • Silky smooth cream cheese pumpkin pie
  • Creamy mango lime tarts
  • Tender gingerbread cake
  • Gramma Thora’s walnut and sour cream cake
  • Buttermilk, cherry, and pistachio cake
  • Buttermilk yellow sheet cake with glossy fudge frosting

The first recipe I made was for snickerdoodle bars.  The ingredients are fairly typical of snickerdoodles, but I noticed that there is no baking soda in this recipe.  The twist here is that the dough is cooked in a 9×13 pan.  I made a half batch and used an 8×8 pan, but no other changes (even though I was really tempted to throw a pinch of baking soda into it).  They smelled lovely while baking.  When I pulled them out, I realized that my bars looked nothing like the book photo.  I was really confused for a few days.  I do think I overbaked them, compared to what Kartes intended but I couldn’t figure out why they looked so different.  While mildly disheartened, I kept reminding myself that they were pretty tasty cookies.  I even brought a few to a friend’s house and they were quickly consumed.

At some point, it occurred to me to image search for snickerdoodle bars, and to my surprise (and delight?), my results look like what most people published.

Out of curiosity (and maybe masochism), the second recipe I made was for the “ultimate rye chocolate chip cookie.”  I wanted to make this cookie because there are no leavening agents listed… no baking soda, no baking powder.  But the cookies look gorgeous in the book.  Was it possible?  (Also, the trend for the rye and chocolate combo has been pretty strong for the last 5 years or so, but I had not tried baking it yet.)  These cookies call for: browned butter, dark brown sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, rye flour, and chocolate of your choice (disks, chips, or chunks).  Again, I made a half batch (to save my waistband).  And the results?  They were not what I expected.  Luckily, they weren’t too dense, but they simply did not have the texture the photo conveys.  I know that I chose to use chips instead of disks or chopped chocolate, but the cookies never spread.  They were very “tight” looking.  And my cookies didn’t have nearly enough chocolate.  There are no instructions for banging the cookies a la Sarah Kieffer style.  There are no instructions for pressing them flat (which I tried for the second tray that went into the oven… but it didn’t help much).  

I’ve done some research on this (yes, it mattered that much to me lol!) and I think the issue comes down to two things.  One, baking soda helps develop color and helps the cookie dough to spread when it bakes.  I wonder if Kartes leaves it out because there’s not enough water in the recipe to activate it.  A lot of recipes that use browned butter will ask you to add a small amount of liquid to replace the water that was cooked off in the browning process.  Two (and more importantly here), I think Kartes is scooping her cookies larger than the printed “heaping tablespoon.”  Dough of a relatively small size bakes fairly evenly.  So, the way it looks when it goes into the oven will be similar to the way it looks when it comes out.  If the cookies were baked larger, then the cookies would spread out more as the edges melt more quickly than the center can.

This deeper dive into cookie science honestly reminded me that sometimes you have to go with your gut instinct.  Re-watching Danielle Kristen and Kristen Danielle bake together reminded me that it’s how Kartes operates.  Are the recipes in the newest book simple and sweet?  Yes, but maybe don’t equate that with “good for beginners.”  If you think your cookies need to be larger, or needs more mix-in’s than listed, then go for it.  A new baker may prefer more guidance.  And more importantly, don’t beat yourself up if your results aren’t as pretty as you wanted.  They will still taste good and provide joy.  

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Sourcebooks for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own. The book is available for purchase from your preferred vendor, and will be released on November 6th.

Reference Links:

https://rusticjoyfulfood.com/

https://read.sourcebooks.com/author/A4034/danielle-kartes

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“Love is a Pink Cake” review

Claire Ptak released her latest cookbook, titled “Love is a Pink Cake.”  Ptak, an American who lives in England, started her career at Chez Panisse in California, and eventually opened the successful brick and mortar named Violet Bakery in London.  I personally first heard of her when she release “The Violet Bakery Cookbook” but I suspect much of the world heard about her when her bakery was commissioned to bake the cake for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. 

The book is split into two sections: the first half inspired by her North Californian upbringing, and the second half inspired by current life in London.  Each half is then split into: Mornings, Afternoons. After a Meal, Party Party, Savouries and Holiday Treats.

And then, the book finishes with a chapter on Pastry Dough.

The quintessential sticky toffee pudding makes an appearance, but I’m amused that she’s placed it in the California section.  She admits that it’s a very English dessert but that dates remind her of California.  As true as that might be, I don’t think I’d have the confidence to make the same decision.

Some of the delicious sounding recipes you’ll find here are:

  • Huckleberry basil sugar scones,
  • Vegan chocolate chip cookies,
  • Grey salt, white chocolate matcha blondies,
  • Pear Eve’s pudding,
  • Stacked blackberry jam cake,
  • Roasted plum and brown sugar buttercream cake,
  • California cake (vegan and gluten free),
  • Popovers,
  • Roasted squash cobbler,
  • Ras el hanout snickerdoodles,
  • Chocolate almond macaroon teacakes,
  • Apricot, chamomile and honey scones,
  • Brown sugar Victoria sponge

And while versions of the royal wedding cake mentioned earlier exist online, Ptak’s actual lemon and elderflower wedding cake recipe is published in this book.

The two recipes I tested were from “California.”  The first was for “Big Sur Cookies” which is a half whole wheat dough with white chocolate and granola as mix-ins.  It’s a straightforward cookie recipe.  My only surprise was that my mom liked these cookies too!  (My mom is fairly picky when it comes to sweets.)  The only “change” I made was to make smaller cookies.  Baking time and temperature seemed to be the same. It wasn’t too sweet compared to other treats. The granola made these cookies feel very snack friendly, almost like a granola bar but not quite. I think you could get away with thinking of them as breakfast cookies. To be fair, I made my own granola which was unsweetened. So, it really all depends on the ingredients you start with.

The other recipe I made was for “Black Tea Poppy Seed Muffins.”  While I like lemon poppy seed muffins, I’m not convinced that there’s a point to the poppy seeds unless you want it for texture.  I can’t discern a flavor from the poppy seeds.  Ptak’s recipe instructs that the poppy seeds be soaked in black tea overnight to release floral flavors.  The seeds smelled more enticing after the soak, but it’s still a very subtle difference.  Freshly baked, I think I tasted the seeds better but any seed flavor that I thought I tasted was gone when it came to leftovers.  I wish I followed the side note suggestion for using earl grey tea, instead of the English breakfast blend that I did use, to amp up flavors.  However, I’m not saying there is something wrong with the muffins.  It’s a very good lemon poppy seed muffin overall.  I appreciated that it used the juice and zest of just 1 lemon.  I go a little crazy when a recipe wants the zest of multiple lemons but only the juice of one.  Also, I appreciate that a blend of spelt flour and almond flour is used here.  It’s a bit more interesting than just all-purpose flour, and a little more tender.

Things that I particularly like about this book: 1) there’s both volumetric and metric weighed measurements, and 2) in the beginning of the book, there’s a blurb on “language.”  This is a list of 13 common British baking-related words and their American English equivalent, which makes it easier to navigate recipes if you’re not familiar with British English terms. Also handy, there are 13 gluten-free recipes included if you ever need them. (But we should bake them anyway because they sound delicious.)

I think any home baker will enjoy this book. The only advisement I have is that there are some ingredients that may be difficult to source, depending on where you live. For example, one of the bun recipes involves geranium leaves. Short of growing rose geraniums on my own, I don’t know where I can get them. Realistically, I’ll probably leave them out.

Disclaimer – I kindly received a copy of this book from W.W. Norton for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.  This book is available for purchase now through your favorite retailer.

Reference Links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/royal-wedding-cake/

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393541113

http://www.violetcakes.com/

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River Cottage Good Comfort, cookbook review

I am a fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage brand.  I’ve never been to the kitchen and store, nor attend any of their cooking classes.  My introduction came by way of Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks blog, and she wrote about making homemade bouillon using a River Cottage recipe.  I was hooked.  I took out what few River Cottage cookbooks my library had at the time, and looked up every Youtube video I could find.  Years later, I’m still a fan but you would never know.  Besides the homemade bouillon, the only other recipe I’ve actually made is Jensen’s Temptation (a fish casserole).

Luckily for me, I recently got a review copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s newest cookbook, ‘River Cottage Good Comfort: Best-Loved Favourites Made Better For You.’

The chapters are broken down into:

  • Breakfast and brunch,
  • Soups,
  • Pasta and rice,
  • Stews, hotpots and curries,
  • Pies and tarts,
  • Pan and griddle,
  • Bakes and roasts,
  • Leftovers,
  • Puddings,
  • Teatime treats

The recipes include:

  • Wholemeal pancakes with lemon and honey,
  • Fruity bacon roll,
  • Fruity, nutty, seedy flapjacks,
  • ‘Cream of’ roasted mushroom soup (dairy-free),
  • Spicy squash and lentil soup,
  • Chicken and chorizo rice,
  • Half-wholemeal shortcrust pastry,
  • Half-wholemeal rough puff pastry,
  • Onion tart with greens,
  • Mushroom cobbler,
  • Onion mash,
  • Macaroni cheese, peas, and greens,
  • Kale and mushroom lasagne,
  • Carrot and chive cornbread,
  • Porridge soda bread,
  • A lighter custard,
  • Lemon and raisin sponge pudding,
  • Chocolate cake,
  • Victoria sandwich with apricot filling,
  • Wholer crumpets

Because I got my copy during Thanksgiving week, I had leftover mashed potatoes on hand, and made “squeak and bubble” (his take on bubble and squeak).  This recipe, since it’s utilizing leftovers, is more of a guideline with variations.  You use your fat of choice, mashed potatoes, onion, garlic, and then whatever veg/herbs/spices you want.  I went with the book suggestions to add curry powder, cooked brussels sprouts, and frozen peas.    I browned this into a large pancake, and served.  I’ve never made bubble and squeak before because I rarely have mashed potatoes on hand.  It was easy to put together, and a lovely way to re-purpose a traditional side dish, as eating leftover mashed potatoes can get very monotonous quickly (no matter how much you love it).  Especially when using a bit of curry powder, it transforms the ingredients completely!

And because I love cookies, I made the oaty dunking cookies.  These are made from whole wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, oats, and a pinch of salt.  Since I’m in the US, I scaled the recipe down a little so I could use one stick of butter and be done with it.  (This book is in metric measurements which makes it easy to scaled as needed.)  To jazz up the cookies, I made the chai masala variation.  These cookies were very quick to put together since it uses melted butter.  I even assembled the dough in the saucepan I used for the butter.  They are not presentation cookies but they are so wonderful as an everyday cookie.  It was just the right amount of sweetness for me and the texture is delightfully crisp.  I would have never guessed they were 100% wholegrain if I hadn’t made them.  I did like the chai masala variation but I think I’d switch up the ratios of cardamom/cinnamon/ginger.  I felt it was too ginger forward (but that’s just personal preference).  I look forward to making another batch of these cookies!

I’m not sure many North American homecooks are familiar with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  He’s not a flashy celebrity chef here, which is a shame because I really enjoy his work.  If you’re looking for a nice collection of home cooked foods with a fairly tradition British theme, this book is perfect for you. The only home cook I wouldn’t recommend this for is someone who cannot use metric measurements. One can hope that an American version will be released with volumetric measurements, but it’s honestly not difficult to get an affordable kitchen scale.

Disclaimer – I kindly received a copy of this book from Bloomsbury Publishing for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.  

Reference Links:

www.101cookbooks.com/homemade-bouillon-recipe/

https://youtu.be/ZMkdYKfO9gg (River Cottage video with the Jensen’s Temptation recipe)

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Smitten Kitchen Keepers, cookbook review

In this day and age, is there a home cook who hasn’t heard of Smitten Kitchen and/or Deb Perelman?   The site is one of the longest running cooking blogs that I can think of, launched in 2006.  Perelman has two cookbooks that have done very well, and she also contributes to other well known food media companies like Food52 and Bon Appetit.  And this month, she’s released her third cookbook, ‘Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files.’

The chapters (and sub-chapters) are:

  • Breakfast anytime,
  • Salad,
  • Soups and stews,
  • Vegetables (small vegetables/medium vegetables/big vegetables),
  • Meat and one perfect plate of shrimp,
  • Sweets (cookies/bars/tarts, crisps, and a well-deserved crème brulee/cakes),
  • Sips and snacks

Everything in the book sounds approachable and tasty, but here are some of the recipes that appeal to me:

  • Peanut butter, oat, and jam bars,
  • Chocolate chip buckwheat pancakes,
  • Bialy babka,
  • Challah cheesecake buns,
  • Double shallot egg salad,
  • Winter squash soup with red onion crisp,
  • Skillet white beans “Caesar”,
  • Deepest dish broccoli cheddar quiche,
  • Cabbage and kielbasa with rye croutons,
  • Steak and corn tacos,
  • Slow-roasted chicken with schmaltzy croutons,
  • Luxe s’more bars,
  • Mango curd tart,
  • Carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter,
  • Strawberry summer stack cake,
  • Chocolate olive oil spread

Since I had half a loaf of sourdough to eat up, my first foray into this book was for the charred Brussels sprout toast with ricotta.  You start by toasting your bread slices with some olive oil, and then rubbing it with a garlic clove (so you’re basically starting with crostini).  Then, you brown shredded Brussels sprouts on the stovetop, seasoning with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.  Spread the ricotta on the toast, top with the cooked greens, more seasoning if needed, and garnish with nuts.  Admittedly, I forgot the nuts but I was still pretty happy with the overall results.

And because I love homemade sweets, next I made the oatmeal date shortbread.  It’s a chill, slice, and bake cookie.  Ingredients are flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla extract, butter, oats, dates, and orange zest.  I decided to go with the variation in the notes section, which is to swap some of the dates with white chocolate.  There is no additional liquid or egg, so this a fairly traditional shortbread base.  When it’s done, you get something buttery and crumbly like a shortbread cookie should be, with a bit more texture from the oats and add-in’s.  I worried a little that the dates and white chocolate would be sickeningly sweet but thankfully that was not the case. I shared this with friends, and everyone enjoyed it.

If you’re a Deb Perelman fan, this book will not disappoint. If you’re looking for a cookbook that is generally unfussy but features a little bit of everything, this book is for you. Since the colder season is upon me, I think the next recipe I make might be the winter squash soup with red onion crisp. What do you think?

Disclaimer – I kindly received a digital copy from Knopf for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own. The book is available for purchase now through your favorite retailer.

Reference Links:

https://smittenkitchen.com/

https://knopfdoubleday.com/

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Mother Grains, cookbook review

There’s something about baking with whole grains that I find appealing.  It’s not just for health benefits.  There’s a sort of fun when I work with something that isn’t all purpose flour or bread flour.  I’m not totally sure what the flavor or texture will be.  And if I sub “this” for “that”, does the recipe still work?

By title alone, it’s no surprise that “Mother Grains” by Roxana Jullapat intrigued me.

The chapter breakdown is:

  • Barley
  • Buckwheat
  • Corn
  • Oats
  • Rice
  • Rye
  • Sorghum
  • Wheat

The recipes that sound most interesting to me are:

  • Malt-glazed brownies
  • Persimmon sticky pudding
  • Shiitake, leek, and toasted barley soup
  • Chocolate buck cake
  • Chocolate raspberry tart
  • Hatch chile and cotija corn bread
  • Oatmeal date cookies
  • Granola scones
  • Oat graham crackers
  • Chocolate dynamite cookies
  • Rye focaccia
  • Sonora wheat pie dough
  • Whole grain pizza dough

After taking stock of what I had available in my pantry, I decided to bake up the einkorn shortbreads. 

It’s a butter cookie made with confectioner’s sugar, dark brown sugar, unsalted butter, einkorn flour, all purpose flour, and salt (yes, I’m a weirdo who happens to have einkorn sitting around).  I was slightly surprised that there was no resting in the fridge (as that’s what I’m accustomed to with my go-to shortbread recipe).  You’re instructed to just roll it out and cut into shape.  I rolled out the first half of the dough too thin, but then I got curious and experimented with the second half.  I shaped it into a log, rested it in the freezer for a bit, and then tried cutting it.  Either way, the cookies tasted lovely and I’m not sure if one necessarily looked better than the other.  But it’s the taste that really matters, and these were wonderfully full of caramel like flavor.  I shared some with my mom, and she practically swooned.  

You can give the recipe a go too! I’ve linked it at the bottom.

My favorite part of this book, hands down, is the equivalence chart at the end.  It gives you a list of ingredients with the volume and its weight equivalents in BOTH ounces and grams.  So I know now that 1 cup of oat flour is 4.9 oz or 137 g, while 1 cup of rolled oats is 3.8 oz or 106 g.  Having said that, I think it’s interesting that Jullapat went with 1 cup of all purpose flour as equal to 140 g. FYI for those who haven’t come across it, the weight of 1 cup of all purpose flour is a bit of an internet debate. America’s Test Kitchen lists it as 142 g, while King Arthur Flour lists 1 cup as 120 g. I tend to follow King Arthur’s suggestion as I am often using their product. Jullapat has both volume and grams on her recipes so as long as you’re following the book, you should be fine. But it is something for me to keep in mind if I use her equivalence chart on a recipe she did not write.

I’m looking forward to baking more from the book.  I personally would love it if there were more bread recipes but I recognize that not all bakers want to make bread.  Overall, “Mother Grains” has a good variety of recipes that I think will appeal to all bakers.  So if you’re a baker who is looking to experiment more with other grains, I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy this cookbook.

Disclaimer – I kindly received a digital copy of this book from W.W.Norton and Company for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.  

Since there’s still a pandemic at the time of writing this, I’m trying to stay home as much as possible.  So pardon me if I choose to skip/substitute an ingredient, or am unable to test multiple recipes.

Reference links:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/einkorn-shortbreads

https://www.instagram.com/roxanajullapat/?hl=en

https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003564

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Ovenly (2nd ed), cookbook review

I haven’t had the pleasure yet of eating at NYC’s Ovenly bakeries.  My introduction to Ovenly was watching Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin, the founders, on Food52 making their accidentally vegan chocolate chip cookies (which I have made several times, and I like quite a bit).  I knew they had a cookbook but I never got around to reading a copy of it.

Well, that changes now!  Harper Collins was kind enough to send me a review copy of the 2nd edition, which is releasing today.  The second edition is updated and includes a few new recipes.  

The chapters are:

  • Essential tools and ingredients
  • Scones and biscuits
  • Quick breads and coffee cakes
  • Muffins
  • Cookies and shortbreads
  • Pies and tarts
  • Brownies and bars
  • Cakes and cupcakes
  • Baking for the holidays
  • Fillings, frostings, and sauces
  • Bar snacks
  • Bakeshop favorites

I believe that the new recipes are in the last chapter, so that’s

  • Lemon raspberry loaf
  • Apple oat muffins
  • Chewy ginger molasses cookies
  • Minty crinkle cookies
  • Hot chocolate cookies
  • Nutty toffee bars
  • Lemon lavender cake
  • Erin McDowell’s black bottom pecan pie

Since this book already exists in the wild, I thought I’d look up some of the poorer reviews online to see if they had any validity.  Here’s what I found:

“This wasn’t the cookbook that I had seen before. It was more of a “how to” lifestyle book for family life. With some recipes thrown in.”

Nope, this is definitely not a lifestyle book.  Unless your lifestyle heavily involves butter and sugar.  This is a cookbook through and through.

“I can’t imagine why a modern baking cookbook wouldn’t make weight rather than volume the standard measurements…I want a fair chance at success. This means weights. So I won’t buy a baking cookbook that doesn’t include weights for measurements and neither should you. I know I sound cranky, but there it is.”

Yes, you do sound cranky.  I like metric measurements too, but most of my cookbooks are from American writers and therefore do not have metric measurements.  It’s really not that big of a deal.  Maybe it’s because of the way I bake?  I tend to use grams for flour and sugar, but I’ll use volume measurements for nearly everything else.  (Hybrid method is where it’s at.)  Regardless, I’m not about to score a cookbook with one out of five stars because they went with American measurements.  What I will say is that the conversion chart at the beginning of the book is completely unhelpful if you want to convert the recipes.  Some ingredients in the book are listed in ounces so you can use the conversion chart to grams.  But the main ingredients in the book are in cups, and there’s no chart to tell you how to convert it.  

“Imagine my surprise when I gave Ovenly’s biscuit recipe a serious look. The recipe starts with 5 (FIVE!) cups of flour plus 21 tablespoons of butter (that is about 3/4 of a pound of butter!) to make a mere 8 biscuits! Just EIGHT!”

This review makes me laugh a little. Let me be honest up front and admit that I’m not great at making layered biscuits.  Having said that, I’m dying to try Fox In the Snow’s (aka Lauren Culley’s) recipe for biscuits.  I saw a video for it during quarantine, and it’s a behemoth.  And guess what?  It’s got 5 ½ cups of flour and 3 sticks of butter for 7-8 biscuits.  Professional baking is not like home baking.  Skimming through it, there is nothing wrong with the Ovenly biscuit recipe except that your body may hate you for consuming it.

I was originally planning to bake a recipe that someone said had failed, but I could not find a review that mentioned a specific recipe that didn’t work out.  So, for my test recipe, I’ve decided to make the Apple Oat Muffins because it’s from the Bakeshop Favorites chapter.  (But also, I really love muffins.)

The batter comes together pretty easily.  The recipe is vegan, and made with vegetable oil, almond milk, sugar, applesauce, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, lemon zest (optional), chunks of apples, and ideally puffed quinoa and turbinado sugar for the top.  I had to skip the topping because I didn’t have puffed quinoa.  There is a note that you can sub the puffed quinoa with more oats, but I didn’t have turbinado sugar either so I didn’t really see the point.  In the long run, it didn’t matter because I’m an idiot.

I made these first thing Saturday morning… and I initially forgot the apple chunks.  I know, I know!  How does one forget the apple in an apple muffin?!  I am not perfect.  Then, I made the executive decision to pull the muffins out of the oven, and push some apples in.  (Good thing I skipped that topping, yeah?)  A questionable life choice to be sure, but darn it!  I wanted apples in my muffin!  Despite my clumsiness, these muffins are really good.  10 out of 10, will make again.

Other recipes that I look forward to baking?

  • Strawberry basil loaf
  • Feta, basil, scallion muffins
  • Harvest muffins
  • Cinnamon and ancho chile brownies
  • Salty super dark chocolate brownies
  • Boozy fig blondies
  • Flourless chocolate cake
  • Hot chocolate cookies

If you like baking, I highly recommend this book.  If there was a recipe in the original edition that did not work out for you, let me know.  I can try to test it out from the new edition.  (Hopefully, not first thing in the morning so that I’m less likely to forget major ingredients.  Sigh.  I’m not going to let myself live this down for at least another month.)

Disclaimer – I kindly received a copy of this book from Harper Collins for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.  

With COVID-19 still in effect, I’m trying to stay home as much as possible.  So pardon me if I choose to skip an ingredient or substitute it.

Reference Links:

https://www.foxinthesnow.com/more-fox-in-the-snow/

https://www.oven.ly/

https://www.instagram.com/ovenly/

https://www.harpercollins.com/

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Vegan Meal Prep, a cookbook review

Meal prep is a topic near and dear to my heart.  I’m often prepping 4 days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Sundays.  I try to go for meatless for breakfast and lunch, mostly because I know that I should amp up my vegetable intake in general.  You would think about after three years of meal prep (more or less) that I’d have it down to a science, but I really don’t.

Breakfasts tend to be the same recipe, week after week, until I can’t stand it anymore.  Lunches can go either way. They are variations of the same basic recipe or simple-but-new-to-me recipes.  Dinner is the one meal that I give myself more time and freedom for experimenting. I’m often flipping through recipes all week long, trying to decide what I am willing and wanting to make that weekend.  And sometimes, I end up in a mild panic and just use a tried-and-true recipe when I’m too indecisive and running out of time.

I’ve always wanted a cookbook that did all the thinking for me, which led me to pick up a review copy of Vegan Meal Prep by Robin Asbell.  Asbell’s latest cookbook is basically detailed step-by-step meal prep instructions, from start to finish.

The book is split into three major sections.  “Setting Yourself Up for Success: Five Weeks of Vegan Meals” is the first section.  The highlight in this section, in my opinion, is Vegan Nutrition Basics. Asbell is pretty detailed: listing sources of protein, omega-3, calcium, iron, and zinc.  It’s a pretty good one stop reference if you’re fully vegan.

The second section is “Meal Prep 101: Planning, Shopping, and Prepping.”  This is where you’ll find the overview of the five week meal plan, shopping lists, and the prepping instructions for each week.

The third section is “Let’s Get Cooking! 125 Vegan Recipes”, which is broken down into these chapters.

  • Vegan Staples
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Salads, Dressing, and Sides
  • Desserts and Snacks

Here are the recipes that I’m most interested in trying:

  • Whole Grain Baking Mix
  • Lemon Pecan Muffins with Apricot Cashew Spread
  • Smoky Tempeh Taco Meat
  • Sweet Potato Chickpea Cakes
  • Barley with Vanilla Apples and Spiced Sweet Potato
  • Blueberry Breakfast Squares
  • Farro and Kimchi Bowls with Kale and Sesame Dressing
  • Farro Salad with Apricots, Carrots, and Spinach
  • Tempeh, Brown Rice, and Roasted Veggie Wraps
  • Tempeh Pasta Salad with Tomato and Avocado
  • Black Bean and Sweet Potato Curry
  • Black Bean and Squash Chili with Dumplings
  • Matcha-Glazed Pistachio Blondies
  • Peanut Butter Raisin Cookies

The things I liked most upon first impressions were the tips, variations, and “to pack for lunch” blurbs that frequently show up on corners of the recipe pages.  I also like how the ingredient lists are generally not intimidating nor filled with hard to find items.

The only critiques I have are two.  I wish nutritional information were listed.  I’ve seen other meal prep books that do. But for the purpose of mixing and matching for people who might be trying to watch their sugar intake, etc., it would be handy to have.  The other issue I have is the order of the recipe section. The whole book is planned around the five week meal plan/schedule but the recipes are in order by course. At least within each course type chapter, recipes are back in order by schedule and marked with which week/day the recipe belongs to.  If you’re planning to mix and match, then recipes ordered by course type makes sense. But I think if you’re planning to use the book as written, then having the recipes ordered by course type makes less sense.

In neither a “pro” nor a “con” comment, all of the recipes are meant to make about 4 servings.  So while I had originally planned on following a full week of recipes for this review, it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t feasible for me.  I am not trying to feed a family of four (But you might be!),

I ended up testing two recipes: Baked Marinated Tempeh, and Breakfast Protein Cookies with Dates and Pistachios.

Both were easy to make.  I’ve made breakfast cookies before but it never occurred to me to use dates and pistachios.  I tend to use a lot of raisins. (In fact, I didn’t have time to get dates for this recipe so I used golden raisins which I think are milder in raisin flavor than the more familiar thompson seedless raisins.  Please don’t hate me for substituting.)  The cookies have good protein content, due to the sneaky addition of tofu, and don’t taste too sweet.  Having said that, the cookies actually use more sweetener than my typical baked oatmeal, and I don’t think you can reduce it as the maple syrup acts as part of the wet ingredients.  (Well, maybe you could increase the tofu?  Maple syrup and tofu are the only wet ingredients in this recipe.  Vanilla doesn’t count.  And like I said, it doesn’t taste too sweet so would reducing the sweetener be a futile exercise?)  The portion size is 3 cookies, and it seems to mostly sate my morning hunger.  (But I have a really high appetite in the mornings.  Sometimes I want more food.  Your mileage may vary.)

I liked the baked marinated tempeh too.  It never occurred to me to use apple juice as part of the marinade before.  I decided to mix up the baked tempeh with leftover marinade (which I cooked with cornstarch thinking i could use it as a sauce) and some cauliflower rice.  The natural tempeh flavor was not too strong in this recipe, so I think I’ll use it again in the near future. (However, the cooked marinade plus cauliflower tasted like… fish?  It’s a subtle enough flavor that I will push through it, but yeah, I’m never doing that combination again. lol!)

Overall, I recommend this book for anyone who wants to do more meal prepping, want a reasonable food budget, and have more than one mouth to feed.  Oh, and if you’re just trying to up your veggie intake (like me). I do have the minor reservations as listed above, but that might not bother you as much as it does me.

 

Reference Link:

https://www.robertrose.ca/book/vegan-meal-prep-5-week-plan-125-ready-go-recipes

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Robert Rose for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

 

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Granola clusters, a Kitchen Conclusion post

First of all, I’m going to try to make this a series of posts.  I’m going to try to get off my duff and post more regularly.  I aim to cook more from my cookbook and recipe collection, and I’ll post those items that I feel warrant attention (for better or for worse!).  Here’s the first of (hopefully many) posts that I’m going to call Kitchen Conclusions.

PSA – if this series title doesn’t work for you, feel free to suggest a better one.

I have to admit that I’m a fan of Bon Appetit’s YouTube channel.  I adore Claire, Carla, and Brad who are probably the staff faces that pop up most often.

When I saw Carla make cookies by mixing granola and meringue (which is actually a Claire recipe), I knew immediately that I wanted to try it out.

It also didn’t hurt that it snowed last weekend, and that I had all of the ingredients.  (To be fair, I did make a last minute run to Trader Joe’s before it snowed, because I wasn’t convinced that I had all of the ingredients.)

The process?  Pretty straight forward.  It’s a very sticky mess when you mix the granola and meringue.  Don’t stress out over meringue.  I made a sad looking meringue, and the clusters still baked just fine.  But I highly recommend using parchment paper, because it’s so sticky.

I was good and let the clusters cool overnight, but only because Carla mentioned that the clusters were very flexible when still warm.  If you absolutely don’t have parchment paper to use and you used a greased baking sheet, the clusters will need a thin, stiff spatula to help with removal.  Or maybe just try remove the clusters when they haven’t cooled completely?  One of the baking sheets I was using had leftover coconut oil greased onto it (from making the granola portion), and I regretted using it for baking half of the cookies by the morning.  They were pretty stuck on.

Having said that, I will never ever regret making these granola clusters.  They were delicious!  I ate two and had to convince myself not to eat a third – that’d be extra snow shoveling for the sake of calorie burning than I was willing to do.  Yes, I actually ran the recipe through a calorie calculator just to help convince me not to eat a third cookie.

And then?  On Monday when I was at work, I bought a cookie with me, and basically spent half the morning staring at it.  I was trying so hard to save it for lunch, and it never made it that long.  I also gave some cookies to a co-worker just so that I didn’t end up being the only person to eat all of them.  Said co-worker and her husband also enjoyed the cookies.

In sum?

Recipe level:  Easy

Would I make it again?  Hell yes.  In fact, I might make them again this weekend for a party.  Also, it’s easy to keep these cookies gluten free if you need to.

The recipe:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/granola-cluster-cookies

 

The YT video:

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Milk Bar Life (cookbook review)

I can’t lie.  I jumped at the chance for a review copy of Milk Bar Life by Christina Tosi.  I thought Momofuku Milk Bar was a fun cookbook, albeit one that I was unlikely to ever bake from.  (Good thing it was a library book.)  Many of the recipes had more steps than I was willing to follow.

 

Milk Bar Life is a very different book, even though it’s still a bit quirky.  Actually, it’s very quirky.  There are many recipes that I’m unlikely to use, not because they are complicated, but because they’re not my thing.  At the same time, there are a handful of recipes that I really want to try out sooner rather than later.

The first section is dedicated to Hand-Me Down recipes.  Overall, they are very doable.  I’m eyeing the oatmeal cookies and the bread recipe.  Many of the recipes are very retro which just doesn’t appeal to me personally.  Examples?  The cocktail meatballs, the seven-layer salad, and the cheesy onions.

Of course, since this is a Christina Tosi cookbook, there is a chapter on cookies.  There are a couple of sugar cookie recipes, banana cookies, molasses-rye cookies… nothing with a long ingredient list like her compost cookie recipe.

The third chapter is supermarket inspirations.  It is, if you will pardon the expression, semi-homemade recipes.  Again, not really my thing.

The fourth chapter is filled with recipes that the Milk Bar staff has eaten during their breaks.  It brings me back to recipes I want to try like the tex-mex curried chili with avocado raita, or the jerk chicken recipe.

The fifth chapter brings us recipes that are quick to prepare but not all that healthy for the most part.  I really have to question the inclusion of tang toast.  It scares me a little?  haha.

The sixth chapter are “weekend recipes.”  They are recipes that take a bit more time and dedication.

The seventh chapter are cookout recipes.  It starts with lemon bars, includes a couple of delicious looking burger recipes, and finishes with a few cocktail recipes.

The eighth chapter is called “craft night/sleepover.”  I guess it’s more snacks and party food.  The jellies and jams sound really interesting to me.  I think blueberry miso jelly might be the first recipe I give a test drive from this book.

The final chapter is called “going out.”  They are recipes adapted from other restaurants.  I don’t think I’ll ever give the mac and cheese pancakes a go, but the arepas de pabellon sound good to me.

I’m hoping to make a couple of recipes in the near future but I should probably learn to stop making cooking/baking announcements.  I never get anything done in the time frame that I think I will.  But, let’s hope that I do.  And when I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Disclaimer – I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post.

 

Reference Links:

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/124929/christina-tosi/

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/233918/milk-bar-life-by-christina-tosi-author-of-momofuku-milk-bar/

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flourless peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips

This post is dedicated to Martyna of http://wholesomecook.wordpress.com/. The pictures in this post were not taken with my really clunky and heavy digital camera. I recently acquired a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX9 as a result of some confusion and lots of generosity. From here on out, I have no good excuses for leaving my camera at home when I go to food events like the Harvard SEAS lectures.  My WX9 is a travel-friendly small size.

Next time David Chang is in town, I’ll get you a picture of David Chang. (^_^)b

ANYWAY!

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