Notes about Recipes in this book

• Berries and cream tartlets

  • julesamomof2 on June 17, 2018

    I brought this to a dinner party and people absolutely loved it. I skipped the step of straining the vanilla cream and it looked a little curdled when I spread it on the crust but I just covered it up with the berries and it was fine! I also discovered at the last minute that I did not have enough individual 4 " tartlet pans so I just made one 10" tart and it was perfect.

• Apple butter

  • Frogcake on August 31, 2016

    This is a lovely, spicy apple butter that I make every autumn and every year the batch is devoured by my family. I also use it to make Dorie's double Apple bundt cake (Baking from my house to Yours).

• Apricot hand pies

  • jnetlw on July 05, 2013

    This was wonderfully spiced.

• Persimmon tartlets with caramel cream

  • hillsboroks on November 12, 2021

    Martha really let me down on this recipe. The filling never set up, even after chilling in the refrigerator overnight. I had cooked and stirred the sweetened condensed milk for 35 minutes and then measured exactly the amount the recipe said you should have left. The small amount extra I discarded. It did turn a golden color and was thicker but never thickened much more than that. Added to the cream cheese and creme fraiche it was still not super thick. I think it needed a bit of acid like some lemon juice, ala Key Lime Pie to set up. The persimmon flavor was lost in the sweet goo. The only redeeming factor was the graham cracker crust. The spice combination in the crust was delicious. I won't make this recipe again unless it is just the crust part.

• Pumpkin and ricotta crostata

  • micheleK on July 30, 2011

    The pastry would not stay together when I tried to move it to the pie dish. Ended up pressing pieces into the dish. Pastry shrunk on baking. Don't have access to canned pumpkin, so I steamed some pumpkin and placed it in a sieve to drain. Added 1 tsp pumpkin spice to ramp up the flavor. Texture of filling was very soft, but may firm on refrigeration. Good flavor and baked up nicely in 40 mins.

• Spinach-feta turnovers

  • MsMonsoon on January 14, 2026

    Pretty easy, tasty, and nice presentation. I was using an old, store-bought puff pastry and only had about half the amount. So I made four turnovers plus a couple small parcels using the scraps. I also used fresh spinach cooked down and chopped instead of the boxes of frozen in the recipe, and threw in a little bit of fresh dill. An online blog that cooked this recipe said it makes much more filling, so you could make more than 8 if you buy (or make) more puff pastry.

• Brie and apple custard tart

  • Agaillard on April 14, 2018

    The recipe on the link mentioned as disappeared and cannot be found through the website. I found it on another website : http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/brie-and-apple-custard-tart.html I have not tried the recipe yet, though, but I will and get back to you!!

  • Agaillard on April 21, 2018

    I tried this recipe with the following changes : I do not own a mixer with plastic blades, and my brie was very runny, so I mixed everything by hand - also I do not have half and half and I used part creme fraiche and part milk. I also pre baked the pastry. Nevertheless, it was too runny and my pastry got a little soft, which I think might be because of my half and half replacement. The taste was nice and subtle.

• Swiss chard and goat cheese galette

  • Astrid5555 on January 19, 2021

    I cheated and used a store-bought shortcrust pastry, which made this a quick weeknight dinner dish. While husband and I liked the filling very much (the goat cheese gives it a quite grown-up taste, nice flavor combination with the crunchy pinenuts and the sweet raisins) the kids were not big fans.

• Mushroom and shallot filling for quiche

  • bching on May 26, 2017

    Good quiche formula and good mushroom shallot filling. I used shiitakes from a shiitake log I have going just as I did a few months ago when I made Dorie Greenspan's mushroom shallot quiche. Martha's is better although neither rises above the weeknight dinner level.

• Oregonian

  Martha hits a home run with an inspired collection that manages to bring real excitement to a well-trod topic. And since everyone has predicted 2011 as the year of the pie, her timing is impeccable.

  Full review