Lemon Lemon Loaf, pg 41

I have a fondness for quick breads. They mix together quickly, I don’t have to deal with a bunch of pans and it’s easy to transport but can feed a lot of people. Perfect. Except this recipe isn’t quick. Sifting flour, melting and cooling butter, zesting and juicing lemons and using a food processor to mix the wet ingredients, and then folding it all together. Really?! I was game though and I thought that my food processor would be big enough to meet the recipes requirements because it’s a freaking bosch but I quickly learned of my mistake when I started adding the butter and it started leaking out of the lid. Grumpiness.

The Verdict: The bread itself doesn’t have a strong lemon flavor. The syrup you coat it in is pretty much straight up lemon so the top is tart but the rest of the cake is ho-hum. To be fair, it is moist and has a nice crumb.

Tips for Next Time: I spent way too much time on making the recipe for mixed feelings about a quick bread! Forget it, I’m moving on.

Baked Bars, pg 122

I think every bakery has some version of these bars for two simple reasons; they’re easy and have a little of everything so everyone will love them.

The Verdict: HOLY BUTTER! Way too much butter in the crust. In fact it wasn’t a crust, it was so wet that it melded into the rest of the bar. And once they start to warm up they’re a giant mess. The butter run off in the baking dish was repulsive (even though I used parchment!) and I happened to flip a bar over and noticed the pockets of butter in the crust.

That being said, people lost their crap over these. Someone actually declared that it was the best thing I’ve ever baked and I wanted to punch him in the neck because it was so insulting. Out of everything I’ve made he loved the butter drenched sugar bars? It’s maddening. It’s a good recipe for beginners, aside from waiting for the crust to cook, cool and then to bake it again, it’s probably as easy as baking gets.

I also diverted slightly from this recipe and used graham crackers and chocolate crumbs in the crust because I knew that it could only improve the crust and I had chocolate crumbs that I wanted to get rid of.

Tips for Next Time: Sigh. I know that there is going to be a next time. No point in denying it. Next time I’m going to melt ½ cup of butter to start with and then gradually add more butter until the crust is the right consistency. I expect that I’ll be able to reduce the butter by a ¼ cup.

S'more Nut Bars, pg 118

I knew this recipe was going to be a hit. Graham crackers and chocolate? How could that go wrong? I had left over smore supplies from the last time we went camping so the husband was elated to see that I finally used to graham crackers and mini Hershey bars.

The Verdict: As predicted, they are amazing. They’re less messy when chilled but they are irresistible when at room temperature.  Since they’re so rich a cut them into tiny squares and made one plate for my work and another for my husbands. Lucky for my coworkers, my husband forgot his so they had double the treats. I strolled past the breakroom at 11 and the plates were licked clean. Instant winner.

Tips for Next Time: I didn’t see the point on chopping up larger marshmallows when they turned out to be the same exact size as mini marshmallows. Next time I’ll mix up all the chocolate, dump in the marshmallows and then pour over the crust. Then I’m going to sprinkle the peanuts on top (maybe sink some in with a spoon) because when you mix them with the chocolate mixed the saltiness is gone and I think a little bite of salt would really set this recipe over the edge.

Oatmeal Cherry Nut Cookies, pg 146

My husband loves cookies so I thought these would be a nice treat for him. 

The Verdict: I had to buy the coriander for this recipe and it turns out that I don't care for it at all. Even with the other spices in the cookies, all I could taste was coriander. My husband thinks I'm crazy and the guys at his work happily ate the entire bag but I tried my best to like them and couldn't make it through the 2nd cookie. 

Tips for Next Time: Oatmeal cookies are a dime a dozen, plenty of which are freakin delicious. Not worth monkeying around with this one to make it work.

Lemon Lime Bars, pg 119

As luck would have it, another one of my Bountiful Baskets had limes and the week prior had lemons so I had all the makings for these lemon lime bars.

The Verdict: I guess I was expecting more lemon than lime so it was quite a surprise when eating these. I have some beef with this recipe because you add the lemon and lime zest to the filling and then you strain the mixture which not surprisingly, strains out all the zest (along with any cooked egg bits). I guess the zest infuses the filling when you're cooking it on the stovetop but I still think it's a waste. 

Tips for Next Time: I don't think there will be a next time. I didn't care for the lime aspect of these, made them too acidic. And the folks of work agreed because while they'll eat just about anything, these were so strong people were cutting bars in half and even then, there were still some leftover the next day.

Black Forest Chocolate Cookie, pg 142-143

The Verdict: I had loved every cookie in the book so far so I was surprised that these didn't rock my world. They were ok, but not as chewy as I had hoped and didn't keep for very long. Within a few days in a ziplock they were near inedible. 

Tips for Next Time: Eh, pass. 

Sweet and Salty Cake, pg 67

I was disappointed with the White Out cake so I decided to do a cake that I was sure would turn out pretty spectacular, chocolate and caramel can never be wrong. I was meeting up with a friend who was visiting around valentines so I made him a box of cupcakes.

The Verdict: I guess I have a different taste in cake because I found this cake too dry and not chocolate enough. Baked, you've failed me again! Other than that, this recipe was super heavy on the caramel. Caramel sauce and carmel buttercream on top of a chocolate cake that didn't have much chocolate wasn't the ideal balance. 

Tips for Next Time: I made these into cupcakes and ended up with tons of caramel leftover. Maybe if you're layering a cake it works out but for cupcakes I had at least a full cup of caramel sauce leftover. I saved it and have gradually been using it in my coffee. Mmmmhmm. If I was to make something like this in the future I'd use my go-to chocolate cake recipe, use the caramel sauce from the book and a chocolate ganache frosting. By the way, if you're layering cupcakes, the caramel sauce is really slippery so any frosting put on top of it will slide off. I learned this the hard way.