Notes about Recipes in this book

• Baked ziti

  • anya_sf on March 12, 2018

    I used whole milk cottage cheese and heavy cream, but part-skim mozzarella. I used rigatoni, which said to cook 12-13 minutes for al dente, so I boiled them 10 minutes, but next time would do 9 min. I browned some Italian sausage in the pot with the tomato sauce. I also mixed some roasted eggplant cubes into the pasta before baking. I think you could mix in anything you like. Next time I'll add sauteed mushrooms and maybe spinach. The pasta was delicious - loved the creamy tomato sauce with the pasta. Next time I'll try lowfat cottage cheese and whole milk, but increase the mozzarella, as everyone was fighting over the melted cheesy topping.

• The best easy chocolate cake

  • ashallen on October 13, 2019

    I am not a big mayonnaise fan, so I see chocolate mayonnaise cakes as a relatively painless way to make extra mayonnaise disappear! I used Hershey's regular cocoa powder (i.e., natural cocoa powder) instead of the Dutch-process cocoa powder called for in the recipe. The result was OK but not my preferred style of chocolate cake. Chocolate flavor was moderate. Texture was quite soft and on the crumbly side - I'll try taking it from the oven sooner than specified in the recipe next time. Given its soft texture, it would've been best with a frosting that stays soft vs. the one I used which sets up firm. I'll have to try this again with dutch-process cocoa powder and see if I like it better.

  • ashallen on July 03, 2021

    Made this again using a Dutch-process cocoa powder as specified in the recipe (King Arthur Bensdorp). For the coffee, I used 2 tbsp instant espresso dissolved in boiling water. Baked in a 9-inch round cake pan that was 2 inches deep - cake rose nearly to top of pan. Removed from oven once center reached 185F. Came out excellent in both texture and flavor - much, much better than when I made it the first time and used natural cocoa powder. Moist, dark, close-crumbed, and definitely bittersweet so it worked really well with the sweet vanilla frosting I made for it. Great cake!