Notes about Recipes in this book

• Jumbo Arnold Palmer cookies

  • JuBer on October 02, 2022

    I made the strawberry & white chocolate version. They were a bit time consuming (with all the rolling) but they looked great and tasted delicious. First batch I rolled in sugar as directed, but this was overkill and took away from the delicate flavours that were more noticeable in the next batches without the extra sugar. Even so, the flavours aren't that strong but the cookies are striking and delicious. My dough balls were about 25/25 g totalling 50g each (rather than the 35/35 suggested in the recipe). This made about 30 cookies still .. and they were huge.

• Sparkling dark chocolate and raspberry-cream cheese chewy cookies

  • bwhip on March 08, 2017

    These were really good! A little labor intensive, but worth the effort. Great raspberry flavor, and the cream cheese really kept them soft and chewy. Chocolate flavor could have been a little stronger and darker for my taste, but they were still very good. I couldn't find raspberry extract, and didn't want to spend big bucks for the chocolate extract, so went with vanilla as the recipe suggested. I'll make them again.

• Strawberry-pepper and orange checkerboard cookies

  • caillahess on October 23, 2025

    Some of my fave cookies of all time, I make these at Christmas every year.

• Hazelnut-cocoa Linzer cookies with blackberry-mint jam

  • darcie_b on January 17, 2017

    The non-chocolate part of this cookie is great (full disclosure: I don't like hazelnuts so I substituted pistachios), but the chocolate part isn't quite sweet enough. I used high-quality store-bought blackberry jam which seemed to get lost behind the bitter chocolate and nut flavors. I'll try this again, but next time I will add some sugar to the chocolate dough. Otherwise the recipe worked well; timing and instructions were good.

• Orange cheesecake swirl brownies

  • hillsboroks on October 17, 2023

    These brownies are wonderful! The chocolate part is everything you want in a good brownie, moist and fudgy. Then adding the orange cheesecake swirl takes it to a whole other level. The chocolate and orange flavors meld perfectly and the end product is very attractive with all the swirls. My pan of brownies was done at 50 minutes but I started checking them 10 minutes earlier. I followed the recipe exactly but I really like orange and chocolate so next time I will try adding 1/8 teaspoon of orange oil to the cheesecake to zip up the orange flavor a bit.

• Banana crunch beer brownies

  • ChefLeen on February 09, 2025

    First, careful of his bake times! It seems to be an ongoing issue with the brownie recipes. The crunch- tasted more like stale cereal. And the texture sensitive people in our house hated that it was mixed in. The brownie part- just ok The ganache was so sweet it ruined the dish. Unfortunately we had to compost this.

• Roasted white chocolate brownies with strawberry-balsamic swirl

  • SheilaS on June 06, 2018

    These took far longer to bake than indicated in the recipe, an observation also made by multiple commenters on the NYT web version of this recipe. Even after baking for over an hour, the finished product was still pretty gooey and left an oil slick behind on any plate or napkin. They were a big hit at the gathering I took them to but the gooey-ness isn't my personal preference. The flavors were excellent. The roasted white chocolate has a unique flavor and balsamic vinegar helped intensify the strawberry.

• Double-chocolate chunk blondie bars with bourbon ganache

  • a2cook on April 11, 2020

    Loved this! Easy to make, with unique flavor from the browned butter and almond flour. I didn’t think this would work because the batter seemed a little stiff and dry, but it turned out fantastic! The bourbon ganache sprinkled with Maldon sea salt really takes this recipe to the next level. Excellent!!

• Classic vanilla and chocolate marbled bundt cake

  • leilx on February 02, 2020

    Good but not amazing. Fairly simple to make.

• 8-layer traditional Smith Island cake

  • leilx on November 19, 2022

    Very good cake and not hard. Good orange flavor. Needs more frosting but I really like this frosting. Book group loved it.

• Strawberry and lemon chiffon cake with honey-lemon glaze

  • darcie_b on February 17, 2019

    Light and delicate - the flavors are subtle but delicious.

• Blueberry-lemon muffins with cinnamon-cardamom swirl

  • Kinhawaii on October 22, 2018

    Very nice muffins but if you aren't a cardamom fan, I would greatly reduce the amount or eliminate it.

  • meggan on January 20, 2019

    I think I would use melted butter next time instead of the oil. They are fine but nothing special.

  • TrishaCP on February 09, 2019

    I am a cardamom fan, and I enjoyed these muffins. (I used the specified amount but my cardamom wasn’t terribly fresh.) I didn’t do a good job with evening out the spiced batter with the rest of it- there wasn’t enough to easily make a checkerboard and the instructions should have said to start with the plain batter (since there is more of it). So not sure that I would bother with that step in the future. (I’m guessing it was simply added to tie in with the theme of the book!) I also subbed in 1/2 cup of oat flour for the white.

• Chocolate-cinnamon babka with crumb topping

  • rmorse on January 01, 2018

    My family loved this bread. I didn't add the streusel topping as I thought that it would be sweet enough without it. I think that this will become a New Year's morning tradition. The bread was tender and the chocolate was messy and gooy (which my family loved).

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