Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie, pg 97

I’ve had a phobia of making pies so I’ve just avoided them but all the pies from this cookbook had turned out really well so I was excited to try the pecan pie. Last time I made the pie crusts I made a double batch so I already had a crust ready. The recipe is super easy, aside from having to wait a few hours for the pie crust to freeze. It’s just a mix, fill and bake. We had just come back from vacation and everyone was very impressed when I showed up the next day with a homemade pie.

The Verdict: I’m not even going to lie, I ate probably 1/3 of the pie. Usually pecan pies are so sweet and heavy but this one wasn’t terribly sweet and the chocolate was a really nice mix. It was like a delicious cookie. Since it was a Friday and my office was near empty, I took a slice or two home and delivered it to my sister where she too declared it too delicious to share.

Tips for Next Time: None. Really. Perfect as is except that I omitted the bourbon. 

Sour Lemon Scones, pg 27

When I worked at the bakery we made the pastries for some local coffee shops. I was never fond of scones but this bakery did them right. They were amazing. Because they were so good, I was making large batches of scones 2 days a week for the coffee shops. I was a little too honest to steal the recipe from the bakery when I left which I totally regret now. I was hoping that this recipe could compare.

The Verdict: Wahhhhwaaaa. Ok, that’s a little dramatic. This recipe makes your classic scone which is the equivalent of shortbread. A giant triangle of shortbread. It wasn’t as dry as most but not as moist. The flavor was also very subtle. In the recipe it calls for ginger, doesn’t say if it’s powdered or microplaned or if it’s just a giant chunk. I went for the microplane approach. The lemon in the recipe is just lemon zest so between the lemon and the ginger it had just a hint of lemonish flavor. I didn’t like the way that it was so subtle so I made a glaze with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Tips for Next Time: I’m going to keep looking for the perfect scone recipe which might be my equivalent of a unicorn.

Red Hot Velvet Cake, pg 53

I loathe red velvet cakes. I think that red velvet cakes are just for people who want an excuse to eat frosting because I don’t think that the cake tastes like anything. But it’s in the cookbook so it has to be made! I was flipping through the book one day looking for a recipe that wouldn’t require me to go to the store and this was the first one that I came across. Actually, I didn’t have dark unsweetened powdered chocolate but for some reason I bought TONS of unsweetened chocolate chips so I melted those down and used them.

The Verdict: I’m not going to lie, the frosting is delicious, but it’s also not light and fluffy. I don’t see how it could be, it’s literally milk, sugar and butter. I didn’t really care of the flour in the frosting, I could still taste it but it was tasty enough that I could overlook it. By adding the cinnamon it made it taste like cinnamon toast crunch, and there is nothing wrong with that. I sent the cake with my husband to his work so I didn’t get a slice but from the scraps, I think it was probably pretty tasty. Bonus points, the frosting doesn’t have eggs or cream cheese so I would feel a little bit more confident with leaving it out for a longer period of time.  Minus point, there is nothing “red hot” about this cake except for maybe the color and I was kinda expecting a spicy element.

Tips for Next Time: I would maybe cut down the food coloring a little bit next time but that’s just because 2 tablespoons of coloring grosses me out. If someone made me make a red velvet in the future (which I’m betting is pretty inevitable), I would probably make this one again.

Vanilla Caramel Apples, pg 166 *fail*

We decided on a quick family gathering and even with my kitchen still in shambles, I decided to make something. Since all of my pans are packed up, it couldn't be a baked good. I had a slew of small apples so caramel apples fit the bill perfectly. Finding the sticks was the first challenge. I looked around in all the grocery stores and couldn't find anything so I finally went to Gygi. I washed all the apples and stuck the sticks in and put them in the freezer. Heating the cream and vanilla bean went well and then it was all downhill from there. 
1- When bringing the cream, sugar, butter and corn syrup to a boil; my pot overflowed. Not the first time this has happened, not a big deal. 
2- When the caramel was to temperature I took it off the heat and stirred only to find that I was mixing burnt bits from the bottom throughout the caramel. CRAP! I grabbed my strainer and did the best I could. I knew it was a gamble and luckily my strainer cleaned up well. 
3- The dipping went well and I was able to get all of them done except one before the caramel set. 
4- I had prepared all sorts of delicious toppings, crushed oreos, pecans and chocolate but the caramel had set way too fast so none of them stuck. Oh well. 
5- Wanting to make sure that the caramel wasn't a complete loss (because of the burning incident), I popped a small ball of it in my mouth and chewed down on my back molars. Correction, on the crowns that act as my back molars. When attempting to open my jaw I felt the pulling on my crowns and immediately knew that I was in trouble. I chipped away what I could with my finger and sucked away what I could without pulling my crown apart. Eventually I was able to separate my teeth with keeping all of them intact. Whew. Have I mentioned that we don't have dental insurance until October? Bullet dodged! 
6- Not wanting anyone else to get their teeth stuck together or potentially shatter some fillings and/or whatnot, I whacked a few on the counter to see how hard they really were which did not have good results. 

The Verdict: Threw them all away. A complete and total waste. 

Tips for Next Time: The caramel obviously cooked for too long which is why it was so hard/brittle and why it burned. I used a candy thermometer and took it off the heat at 245 degrees so I'm not sure what went wrong there. Problem is, I love caramel apples and they're so expensive so while I'd love to say "never again" it will probably be a "eh, maybe this time it will work?". But full disclosure, I have a giant brick of caramel in my pantry so I'll probably use that next time.

The Baked Brownie, pg 117

Years ago I went on a brownie quest and it was very Goldilocks. This one is too cakey. This one is too fudgy and finally I found one that was juuuuuust right. I was curious to see how the Baked brownie would stack up.

The Verdict: Not too bad but it was leaning towards the fudgy brownie category which I would actually prefer over the cakey option. Aside from that it was a lot of bowls, whisk this, fold into that, melt this. I’m a dump and done kind of baker so the extra dishes was a little annoying.

Tips for Next Time: I think I’ll stick with my original brownie recipe, unless I get bored and decide to create a hybrid but you know, there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bar, pg 130

I’m not a huge fan of shortbread, I just figure that there are better tasting things out there for the same calorie buster so I usually pass on shortbread. At the bakery I worked at we made a shortbread bar with preserves in the middle and while it wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t my favorite.

The Verdict: I don’t know why I doubt them, Baked shared another really food recipe. Yes, it’s tons of butter and it’s heavy but the fresh fruit and lemon zest really saves the recipe. I think these would be amazing with blackberries but I always prefer blackberry over any other type of berry.

Tips for Next Time: They don’t keep for terribly long because the fruit can make them soggy after a few days, just something to consider.

Classic Apple Pie, pg 93

I have a confession; I suck at pies. My mother is the pie master. Everyone gushes over her pies and pie crust, as they should, they’re delicious. I try my hand at pies during thanksgiving and I had yet to turn out anything that I was proud of. They were edible but nothing to write home about. So I made my peace with the fact that I can’t be good at everything and avoided pies altogether. That is until I had to tackle the pie chapter in my cookbook. I decided to bite the bullet and start out with the apple pie. I made the pie crusts over the weekend, bought some apples and promised to make pie the next day. Well, the next day turned into a week or so later, all the while the raw pie dough was mocking me whenever I opened the fridge door. Enough was enough so I committed to making the pie only to see that the bottom crust has to be frozen first. Gah. 

After finally throwing the pie together, throwing it in the oven and walking away, about a half hour later my husband yelled out that it was the most beautiful pie ever. It was far from the most beautiful pie I’ve ever seen but it was definitely the most beautiful pie to come out of my oven. 

The Verdict: I kinda hate that it took this cookbook to help me along in turning out a totally decent pie. It was delicious. The sauce that the apples cook in never thickened up (even after adding another ¼ tsp of corn starch) so I only put about ½ the sauce into the actual pie and I forgot to sugar dust the top of the pie. All in all, all good judgment calls on my end. The sauce was still runny after cutting the pie but it was the perfect syrup to mop up with the buttery pie crust. The pie crust turned out magically, I give all the credit to freezing the bottom crust first. It wasn’t soggy at all! 

Tips for Next Time: Keep it easy on the sauce, add a little bit more apples and change nothing else.