• porterbl1 on June 22, 2013

  Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins: the yield is incorrect. Following the provided proportions gives you 24 muffins instead of twelve.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Good morning sunshine bars

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    They’re no more difficult to make than Rice Krispie Treats but you do have to work quickly as the hot sugar-peanut butter mixture that’s combined with the cereal and peanuts firms up quickly, especially in a relatively cool kitchen. These were actually very tasty with good peanut flavour and crispy, chewy texture and, according to son, travel well in care packages.

  • goodfruit on March 31, 2025

    Not difficult to make but have to be all prepped and ready and don't let small children help. The mixture is like Hot Lava and must be poured and smoothed out quickly, don't let any small hands get in the way. These are really, really difficult to cut once cooled because we discovered that you want small bites after cutting bigger ones. They are very rich and dense and a small bite is plenty!

• Crunchy peanut butter banana bread

  • Zosia on March 12, 2014

    For all of the peanut butter and bananas that went into this cake, the flavour was surprisingly chocolate-y from the added chips. It was still enjoyed by all and it stayed moist for a few days so it's worth repeating but without the added chocolate.

  • twoyolks on January 01, 2017

    I got quite a lot of peanut butter and banana flavor in the bread. It was very moist from all the banana. The chocolate chip flavor was there but it didn't overpower.

• Oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip scones

  • Zosia on May 22, 2019

    I replaced the peanut butter with speculoos cookie spread and reduced the sugar to 50g/.25 cup (the cookie spread has a little more sugar in it than peanut butter) though I don't think that was necessary in the end as they were not overly sweet. They tasted of caramel and chocolate and were quite delicious.

• Lime angel food cake with lime glaze

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    This is one of the best tasting angel food cakes I’ve ever had, all because of the addition of a lime juice syrup. The cake is subtly flavoured with lime zest but it’s that tart-sweet syrup that’s applied warm to the cooled cake that captures the essence of the fruit. The pistachios added a wonderful crunch, and the finishing drizzle, additional sweet lime flavour. I made the full recipe of the lime syrup and glaze but ended up using only half of each.

• Lemon pistachio cornmeal muffins

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    These were a very pleasant surprise – I was hoping for a sweet, lemony muffin and that’s exactly what I got. They were tender, a little crumbly because of the cornmeal, a little tangy from lemon juice and sour cream, and were topped with crunchy, toasted pistachios. The recipe made 14 regular muffins.

• Classic caramel sauce

  • Zosia on March 29, 2014

    Creamy, with a very nice consistency but flavour depends on the temperature to which you take your sugar mixture; 300F as cited in the recipe is far too low - 350F-355F (instant read thermometer) produces a tasty product.

  • trudys_person on December 07, 2014

    Nice pourable consistency, this sauce doesn't need to be warmed up to be poured. I added 3/4 tsp. salt, for a lightly salty caramel flavour. I also increased the recipe so it used up the pint/500 ml of cream I bought, and it worked perfectly: 2 cups sugar 4 fl oz light corn syrup 5.25 oz butter 2 cups heavy cream

• Classic crème brûlée with caramelized brown sugar

  • twoyolks on February 19, 2020

    I'm not sure exactly what the root cause was but I cooked this in a Breville SmartOven and the top of each crème brûlée was curdled.

• Easy candy bar tart

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Fantastic tart with a chocolate crumb crust, salty-sweet caramel-nut filling topped with a layer of glossy chocolate. In the instructions for making the crust, you’re told to preheat the oven but not instructed to bake anything. As per the the authors who responded to my email inquiry, you have the option of blind-baking the crust until set or simply refrigerating it. I chose to bake it.

• Triple rum black pepper cake

  • meggan on March 02, 2014

    Made this for party and labelled it "not for kids". I felt a little drunk after just licking the batter spoon. It is delicious and the rum syrup makes it incredibly moist so don't skimp. I would add a little more black pepper next time as it is barely recognizable in the cake.

• Simple chocolate whiskey tart with whiskey whipped cream

  • meggan on November 19, 2012

    I just made this for friendsgiving and it was gone before all the other pies! The crust has just enough salt to counteract the super sweet chocolaty filling.

• Pumpkin almond cake with almond butter frosting

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    This is one of the best pumpkin cakes I’ve ever had – it’s moist without being dense and oily and is wonderfully spicy. I especially liked the kick from the ginger. The frosting is an American buttercream that has some of the butter replaced with almond butter. It had a wonderful spreadable, consistency but, even though I used the lesser amount of powdered sugar listed in the recipe, it was too sweet for me and had that unpleasant (to me) gritty mouthfeel that comes with powdered sugar. However, the almond flavour was a very nice complement to the spiciness of the cake.

• Chocolate-chunk pumpkin bread pudding

  • twoyolks on November 09, 2021

    This was tasty but it was a lot of work. I'm not sure the outcome was worth the effort.

• Pumpkin cinnamon rolls

  • twoyolks on November 27, 2015

    The cinnamon rolls had good pumpkin and spice flavor. The main problem was that they didn't bake all the way through.

  • trudys_person on November 06, 2021

    These were delicious! I adapted the recipe based on what I had on hand. I used AP flour, and added more (1-2 oz.) to make a soft, but not sticky dough. I used "pumpkin water,” drained from my homemade pumpkin puree, instead of the milk. I also added more cinnamon to the filling—the 1/2 tsp. specified in the recipe seemed scant. I used 1 tsp., and could have used a lot more. **It was hard to tell when these were done. The recipe says 25-30 minutes, “until the tops of the rolls are browned” —the photo shows them barely browned at all. I baked them for about 37 minutes and that was perfect. They were nicely browned, golden in the middle the pan, and more deep brown near edges. I used the specified 10” round pan (with 2 of 10 rolls baked in another pan because they didn’t fit), and my oven temp is fairly true. Afterwards, I found Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of this recipe—she uses 2 tsp. of cinnamon in the filling. She also browns the butter, which I will try next time.

• Pumpkin cheesecake bars

  • twoyolks on November 24, 2017

    These tasted fine but were quite difficult to make. The crust shrunk and cracked. It was difficult to spread the icing on the bars. It was hard to get the bars out of the container. The work didn't not match the payoff.

• Pumpkin harvest dunking cookies

  • Zosia on September 17, 2014

    Really delicious soft, moist cookies with a lovely, spicy flavour. I can't personally attest to their dunkability but I've been assured that they hold up in both cold and hot beverages! Rather than refrigerating the dough, I refrigerated the portioned cookies. They didn't spread much during baking; flattening them slightly before baking improved their shape (less like a mini cake, more like a cookie)

  • twoyolks on October 17, 2016

    These were cookies that tasted exactly like fall. I used dried cherries instead of cranberries as well as the optional chocolate chips. Both worked very well. The cookie is well balanced in its flavors and is not too sweet. These keep really well. They were still good well over a week later.

• Malted madeleines

  • Astrid5555 on March 03, 2013

    This was my first attempt at Madeleines. I probably filled the pan too much, since they puffed up enormously. Despite this, they were pretty dry after 10 minutes in the oven, even though the recipe tells you to bake them for 10-12 minutes. Did not taste the malted milk powder at all. Will probably try my luck at another Madeleine recipe next time.

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    These little sponge cakes had a pleasant nutty, milk chocolate flavour. The recipe says that it yields 24 madeleines. Unfortunately, there’s no indication what size they are or what size pan you should use. My pan produces 16 rather large ones so that’s what I made. It turns out that I did overfill the pan and I should have made at least another 4. The bake time given worked with my larger sized madeleines.

• Spicy brownies

  • Neodymia on August 12, 2014

    Possibly the best brownie recipe I've tried.

• Brown butter snickerdoodles

  • trudys_person on December 24, 2015

    Very good, slightly more sophisticated take on Snickerdoodles. The one extra step of making brown butter is worth it. Used a #40 Zeroll scoop and it was the perfect size (made 26 cookies).

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Crispy, crackly crust, chewy interior, this snickerdoodle is definitely a cinnamon-lover’s dream cookie with the added nuttiness of brown butter. I made mine smaller than the recipe directs, about the size of a walnut, so my yield was 5 dozen cookies. 10 minutes of baking produced the crispy/chewy texture I prefer; an additional 2 minutes produced a crisp cookie.

• Holiday spice cake with eggnog buttercream

  • trudys_person on December 24, 2015

    This is very nice light spice cake - light in colour, flavour and crumb. I don't know why the recipe calls for mixing the molasses and spices separately and folding them in at the end. When I make it again, I'm going to mix the cinnamon and allspice with the dry ingredients and the molasses and ginger with the wet ingredients. Keep a few more dishes clean! The buttercream is delicious, but a little tricky to get the texture right. Some good tips here: http://stellinasweets.com/2012/12/23/baked-sunday-mornings-holiday-spice-cake-with-eggnog-buttercream/

• Cinnamon spritz sandwich cookies

  • twoyolks on December 27, 2014

    These had a lot of cinnamon flavor without it being overpowering. Instead of piping out the cookies, I made them in a cookie press. They did end up a bit smaller than prescribed. The filling does harden after s few days so the shelf life is not very long.

• Poppy seed pound cake with brown butter glaze

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    The vanilla cake was dense, moist and very rich with a whisper of orange flavour and a little tanginess from the cheese. The poppy seed filling was moist and not too sweet……. the cake itself was delicious. I didn’t care for the glaze which was very buttery. Other family members who do like butter didn’t mind it but it definitely wasn’t a hit.

• Chocolate cheesecake muffins

  • porterbl1 on June 22, 2013

    Using the proportions given, this recipe makes 24 muffins not 12.

• Chocolate mayonnaise cupcakes

  • meggan on March 22, 2020

    I was skeptical but these are moist af. No lie. We didn't bother with frosting.

• Candy bar cookies

  • Zosia on September 21, 2014

    These looked like truffles when done and made a great presentation but weren't worth the effort. The dough was crumbly and very difficult to work with even after adding water to it. I portioned it into 14-15g pieces and rolled each piece out to make sure I had enough to cover the candy bar pieces. The bounty and reese's cups worked well; the caramel from the rolo leaked out of about 1/3 the cookies during baking.

• Chewy chocolate mint cookies with chocolate chunks

  • twoyolks on December 27, 2014

    These sounded better than they actually tasted. There wasn't enough chocolate flavor and too much mint flavor.

  • vhague on April 22, 2015

    I agree with TwoYolks. The mint flavor was overwhelming. The texture was nice, however, so I may try the again with just a half TB of peppermint extract instead.

• Brooksters

  • trudys_person on August 22, 2021

    These were delicious! Following the directions for baking them in a standard muffin tin yielded 16 Brooksters + at least 2 dozen cookies. They were a big hit at a BBQ party - perfect eat from your hand dessert!

• Bananas cake

  • Zosia on November 23, 2017

    A fabulous celebration cake that's an extravaganza of banana, peanut butter and chocolate. It consists of 4 components that are easy to make, just make sure to cool the chocolate elements as suggested before proceeding to the next step. I find that whipping the chocolate frosting after the ganache is combined with butter gives it better body. This is my second time making the cake and based on my first experience, I made 1.5x the peanut butter filling (so slices would more closely resemble the book's cover photo) and only half the chocolate glaze.

• Banana whoopie pies

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Silky milk chocolate buttercream sandwiched between mini banana cakes. I made these sandwich cookie size, using a #70 (a scant tbsp) scoop for the batter. Baking time was 10 min. and the yield was 84 cookies, 42 pies. I used the same scoop to portion out the filling. They were a huge hit!

• Chocolate banana tart

  • twoyolks on March 28, 2020

    This was good but for combining chocolate, bananas, and caramel, this should be better than it ended up. I did have to serve it the next day so that may have degraded the quality.

• Banana caramel pudding with meringue topping

  • twoyolks on April 08, 2019

    This was tasty but in the end I think the caramel is too strong a flavor with the banana pudding.

• Honey banana poppy seed bread

  • mmg0305 on October 24, 2014

    Really quick and easy, with a lovely flavour from the honey.

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