Notes about Recipes in this book

• Classic chocolate chip cookies

  • averythingcooks on June 13, 2020

    The addition of cornstarch came through on her promise of crispy edges with softer centers. Add in lots of chocolate & toasted pecans and you get a really good cookie :)

• Vanilla bean spritz shortbread

  • averythingcooks on December 13, 2024

    I made this dough to use with my cookie press & it certainly caused some trouble. Lining the sheets with parchment was a bad idea...everytime I lifted the press, the whole sheet of parchment came up at the same time creating quite the mess. I scraped that tray back into the press and repeated on a bare, ungreased sheet. This went much more smoothly. I chilled the filled trays as instructed but the cookies still spread (quite a bit actually) & finally, the cookies were clearly done at least 7 (if not more) minutes early. They taste good but I'm going to try her recipe in Set For the Holidays which includes an egg & a higher oven temp/shorter baking time. Also in line to try is the recipe in Joy of Cooking.

• Fudge brownies

  • averythingcooks on July 09, 2020

    I happened to have Anna'a baking show on yesterday morning and she was making these. The "12 square brownie pan" caught my eye as I have one and have never actually used it. I grabbed my book and promptly made them. I have fleur de sel (ordered online) and this was the perfect place to use it to make the salty butter roasted pecans. The longest part of the process was dividing the batter evenly in the 12 squares to use it all up, continuing to remind myself that they wouldn't rise much. They are just delicious.

• Tarte au chocolat

  • luluf on June 12, 2020

    This was really easy to make and worked out great even though I had set the oven about 15 degrees too low and had to cook it for twice as long to set it. It was very rich, but very popular

• Strawberry cream tarts

  • jay.moe on December 21, 2021

    Made the tarts in 4 inch tart pans instead of a mini muffin pan, which took 5 tbsp. of graham cracker mixture per pan. Used blueberries and raspberries instead of strawberries. The filled tarts are best eaten the day they are made since the crust was soggy the following day.

• Indian naan

  • averythingcooks on December 30, 2020

    A good reliable flat bread recipe. I cut it in 1/2 and cut my lump of dough into 4 smallish pieces.....a perfect amount for the 2 of us and the “saucy” pork curry bowls on tonight’s menu.

• Classic Parker House rolls

  • averythingcooks on September 01, 2024

    So while mixing/kneading the dough in the mixer with the dough hook, I will admit to adding extra flour (it was so super sticky) & then after leaving it in that bowl to rise for 90 minutes, I had a super fluffy (but yes...still soft) dough. The roll, cut, twist & "stuff into" the muffin pan instructions made way more sense when I was actually doing it & the result is a pan of lovely, soft rolls. I used melted salted butter to brush the pan & then to generously brush the rolls when they came out of the oven. These are seriously good.

• Rosemary onion focaccia

  • averythingcooks on October 04, 2020

    This resulted in a beautiful focaccia! I followed it exactly while cutting it in 1/2 for 1 pan. Everything went as described and I now have a lovely slab of focaccia full of flavour with salt, olive oil, red onion and rosemary with the perfect chew you expect from a restaurant quality bread. Oh yes ..... definite repeat!

• Whole wheat pita

  • averythingcooks on April 23, 2022

    I cut this 1/2 for 3 pitas & everything was working until the bake - I got 1 beautifully puffed pita, 1 where only 1/2 the bread puffed & 1 pretty flat one. User error is to blame here (ie 1 pan added to preheating oven late (not hot enough - she did give a warning) and I would only bake one pan at a time as the 1/2 puffed one seemed to stem from the upper pan partially "shading" the lower one. I would also cut the baking time by at least a minute. We did have enough for our dinner but lessons certainly learned.