• msmuggins666 on March 18, 2022

  I LOVE this book. Initially I had some skepticism - some of the recipes seemed overly fussy, and they were made with unusual ingredients (though not too hard to find, even if you have to order them). But every recipe I’ve tried so far from this book has been spectacular. My only true quibble is that weights were given in ounces, which is a HUGE pain. I think most bakers that do bake using weight versus volume likely do so in grams. I am Canadian though, and we do use the metric system here so maybe that’s why I’ve got an issue with it. Anyway, it would have been nice to have both ounces and grams but at least there are weight measures in the first place! I’d still give this 5 stars - a must buy book for anyone who bakes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chopped chocolate chip cookies

  • Jane on September 06, 2017

    These were good but I'm not sure they replace 'The best homemade chocolate chip cookies in the entire world' by Debbie Koenig in my affections. The positives were that they did not need overnight refrigeration to develop the flavors (though I prefer the flavor of Debbie's cookies); the Diamond Crystal kosher salt sprinkled on top was good; I liked the big hits of chocolate from being chopped rather than using chips; and finally I liked that there was dark, milk and white chocolate. Just a minute difference in baking time can make a huge difference in the end result. I'd do a couple of tests first. I like my cookies fudgey rather than crisp so for that have them just turning golden around the edges and still softish in center.

  • jzanger on August 28, 2017

    These are perfect, and the payoff for the small amount of time spent is impressive. No need to refrigerate overnight for deep flavor, but paying attention to the details written into the recipe results in an AWESOME chocolate chip cookie. If you have slightly less than the 14 oz of chocolate called for you won't have to worry about your cookies being chocolate-y enough. Do be sure to follow her instruction in regard to the brand of kosher salt she uses, which results in the perfect amount of salt. Also, the temp of the butter and the cold egg really do keep the dough manageably cool. Adding a chunk or two to the top of the dough ball before baking makes them pretty enough for a bakery.

  • IvyManning on January 04, 2021

    The cooking time is off on these, they were very dry when baked to the time required. I also found the sweetness of the white chocolate way too overpowering. Like the salt sprinkle, though.

  • Jenny on September 19, 2017

    We absolutely loved these cookies - the salt was perfect on top. Highly recommend taking them out between 11 and 12 minutes or else they are far too hard - two days later we have a few left and they still are holding up - had I let them go to 15 minutes - here in the mountains they would be too hard to eat. Love them.

  • coryelizabeth on June 23, 2018

    Like others, I found that the published cooking time was too long. When I baked the cookies for the full amount of time, they turned out dry and crumbly; when I pulled them out a few minutes early, they were divine.

  • averythingcooks on March 30, 2022

    I used 2 cups of chocolate in the cookies (chopped white, milk & dark chocolate topped up with a few semisweet chips) and then chopped the last of my semisweet baking chocolate for the tops. I made roughly 1 oz cookies (as opposed to the 3/4 or 1 1/2 oz she calls for) and the baking time of 12 minutes seemed right - they certainly appeared underdone coming out. This used a lot of chocolate & makes a lot of cookies so it's a good thing we like them....but I'm not actually sure how soon I'll repeat this one.

  • anya_sf on February 02, 2019

    These cookies are quick to make; the dough does not need to be made ahead. I was cleaning out my pantry, so I used a combination of chopped chocolate bars (72% dark, semisweet, milk) and chips (60% dark, white), reserving a dark chip for the top of each cookie. I made the large cookies; yield and baking time were spot on. Although I did not flatten the cookies, they spread beautifully, developing crinkly tops. The texture was soft and chewy. I found the white chocolate to be too sweet for the quite-sweet dough, but otherwise enjoyed these, especially the sprinkle of salt. I would definitely make these again, but with just dark chocolate.

  • StoicLoofah on October 07, 2018

    Delicious. In my oven, I didn't get the crinkly top that she did, but the texture at 15 minutes was still good.

  • Frances17 on October 12, 2017

    Under no circumstances use chips, but do use Maldon salt to sprinkle on top. 13 minutes with a heaping 1.5 tbs spoon.

• Homemade Rice Krispies treats

  • gastronom on December 08, 2018

    These are much better than the common Rice krispies treats. The brown butter and vanilla bean are major enhancements!

• Glossy fudge brownies

  • IvyManning on September 12, 2019

    I baked these exactly as instructed (to 206F) 25 minutes in my recently calibrated oven and as other commenters they were liquid under the crust. The doneness description didn't help a bit-- "like your forearm"? Added 10 minutes to baking time and they were still raw in the middle. Put them in the fridge to firm them up, but cold they don't have as nice of a flavor. The description of browning the butter "until completely silent" led me to burn the butter. This is the third recipe I've tried from this book and despite very detailed writing, all three recipes have been losers. Frustrated.

  • rionafaith on January 05, 2019

    Very good brownies, big hit at the party I brought them too. They seemed kind of underbaked when I cut them, but they firmed nicely after chilling in the fridge for a couple hours (I prefer my brownies cold). Still, I would bake for maybe 5 or 10 more minutes next time. I'm not sure if this is my PERFECT brownie recipe yet, but it's up there for sure.

  • anya_sf on November 05, 2017

    I wasn't quite sure how long to cook the butter. I cooked it quite a while (10-15 min) and stopped when I saw browned bits in the butter. I didn't think it would ever be "perfectly silent". Similarly, I wasn't sure about the 25 minute baking time and the description wasn't that helpful. The brownies seemed awfully soft at that point, so I left them in the oven a few extra minutes. They turned out super, duper fudgy, clearly due to deliberate underbaking. I love fudgy brownies, but would consider baking them an extra couple of minutes anyway. They are quite rich, but not as intensely chocolatey as some brownies, so kids liked them too. Overall, really good, fudgy brownies. The top crust was definitely the most crinkly, glossy, thin crust of any brownie I've made.

  • hbakke on February 25, 2020

    These are very good brownies. They do take a bit longer to bake than the recipe states and if using salted butter, remember to reduce the salt. These aren't overly sweet, so the additional salt is noticeable. Ty added walnuts to the most recent batch. Tasty!

  • taste24 on June 12, 2020

    Fabulous brownies. Quite a few more steps than your typical brownie recipe, but worth it given the taste of the brown butter and fudgy texture. The top was indeed glossy and crinkled - very reminiscent of boxed brownies.

• Freeze-dried fruit whipped cream

  • caitmcg on January 09, 2019

    I made this using strawberries (measured by weight) to ice vanilla a sponge layer cake, and it tasted great and performed brilliantly, staying perfectly stable. I found that the freeze-dried fruit and sugar, once ground together, wanted to stick in the corners of the processor bowl, so I took the time to scrape it loose before adding the cream and recommend doing this so they combine smoothly.

  • jackiecat on December 20, 2018

    Recipe on Serious Eats https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/08/super-thick-fruity-whipped-cream-recipe.html

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    Everyone needs to know about this recipe. This freeze-dried fruit whipped cream is my secret desert weapon. It's so stable and so flavorful. It's a great dessert on its own with some fruit, cake or pavlova. You can fill a cake (or swiss roll!) with it and it's a dream.

• Classic cherry pie

  • mlbatt on February 27, 2020

    I used frozen sweet cherries from Costco. Will make this again!

  • khopkins1012 on October 25, 2019

    I used canned sour cherries in water. After draining the three cans in a colander, I didn't have as many cups of cherries as called for but proceeded ahead by slightly lowering the filling ingredients proportionately. My old recipe had me thickening juice on the stove-top with cornstarch; it took a while. I LOVED that this filling was a mix and dump. Making a pie already requires a lot of steps so I loved simple steps and heavenly taste. This is my new cherry pie recipe.

  • anya_sf on November 26, 2017

    I used 2 lbs Trader Joe's frozen sweet cherries, which just filled the crust. I worried the pie would be too sweet, but the overall sweetness was fine, with no ice cream or whipped cream necessary. The checkerboard crust design was beautiful and easy to do. I made an egg wash using just part of a whole egg (leftover from another recipe) and 1/2 Tbsp cream, and it was plenty for the top. The pie turned out great and kept well for maybe 2 days, but after that the crust got soggy. We all enjoyed this pie.

  • Kinhawaii on July 09, 2020

    Agree with everyone else- really good. On the sweet side in a good way & lovely with whipped cream. So much easier with frozen cherries- but took at least 10 minutes longer for me. I am not a lattice fan so overlapped some pie cutouts.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    The filling in this pie had great flavor - everyone loved it!

• Milk chocolate frosting

  • roxlet on June 28, 2018

    This couldn't be quicker to make. I chopped up the milk chocolate (I used Schraffen Berger 41% cacao), put it in your mixer bowl, and pour the hot cream over. Let it cool after the chocolate is dissolved. I put it in the fridge over night and whipped it on the KA the next day. Delicious, and definitely a different taste using milk chocolate.

• Cream cheese frosting

  • roxlet on June 28, 2018

    This is a completely different cream cheese frosting. Yes, it is more work than simply putting cream cheese, butter and sugar in a mixer and turning it on. This version has no grittiness from the sugar and no greasy mouthfeel. It is luxurious and delicious and it even pipes well.

  • LesE on December 15, 2019

    First try with this was a complete failure. I used store-brand cream cheese and cooked the 'custard' according to the times given. The result was like ice cream before it goes into the freezer! Second try was perfect. The difference? I used Philadelpia and cooked the 'custard' at a higher heat until it was almost impossible to move the whisk. Once cooled it was a solid slab with just enough 'give' to whip in. One tip is to cream the butter before adding the cream cheese otherwise you can get specks of butter that don't fully incorporate. If you can get this right it is superb, the best buttercream I have ever tasted.

  • stef on October 08, 2018

    This is a wonderful frosting. It doesn't give you that after taste of powdered icing sugar. Will be using it a lot

  • anya_sf on April 22, 2018

    Not the usual cream cheese frosting. More work, but not too bad, although does require planning. Strong vanilla (pudding) flavor, not so much cream cheese. Nice whipped texture that's easy to pipe.

  • amandabeck on May 07, 2018

    This is the best cream cheese frosting I've ever tried! Not sickeningly sweet, with a present but not overpowering cream cheese flavor. I made the custard the night before and used the follow day out of the fridge. Used with red velvet cupcakes. The recipe is labor intensive, but definitely tastier than varieties that rely on confectioners' sugar.

  • ebalk02 on April 16, 2022

    Requires some advance planning but with an outstanding result. Instead of the two tablespoons of lemon juice I used two teaspoons of distilled white vinegar, just as a matter of personal preference. Worked great.

• Brown-butter carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

  • roxlet on June 28, 2018

    I have now made this carrot cake 4 times, and I think it's the best carrot cake that I have made. For years, my go-to was the Cook's Illustrated version that has you make an emulsion of the eggs and oil, and as a result, it's not greasy, as many carrot cakes tend to be. This is mellow and delicious, and it makes a very large cake. I made the full recipe, and made 6 individual carrot cakes for a dinner party. The other two layers are in the freezer. I double wrapped them, and I will see how they survive that treatment. You can easily cut back the amout of pecans, which are a lot, but I love pecans in carrot cake, and toasting them first make them super delicious. However, don't forget to chop the nuts even though the recipe doesn't say to do this!

  • meginyeg on April 19, 2022

    Made a half recipe of this and it was great. Loved the flavour. Didn't frost it bit put a cheesecake layer in the middle of two cake layers. Will make again.

  • khopkins1012 on April 03, 2020

    I made a 3/4 version of this as a single layer cake in a 9x13 brownie pan. It was very good. In the future I would do some of the prep in advance because doing it all at once left me baking all morning. I skipped the carrot roses and added yellow raisins.

  • anya_sf on April 22, 2018

    I made 1/3 recipe, yielding 13 cupcakes (70 g batter each, slightly larger than stated). They baked in 23 min. The cakes had a very fine crumb for carrot cake, with a sturdy texture (good for layering), drier than most carrot cakes, but still moist enough. The spice flavor was strong. There were perhaps too many nuts. I also usually prefer raisins in carrot cake. The frosting was interesting - the cream cheese didn't stand out, but rather the vanilla (pudding) flavor. It was good though. The frosting was a dream to pipe - beautifully whipped. The overall combination of cake and frosting was very good.

  • stacymarkow on May 21, 2021

    Didn't care for this recipe at all. Was dry, kind of dense, and not really reminiscent of other carrot cake recipes I had growing up as a kid. The search continues.

  • bakingElizabeth on August 01, 2020

    I have made this twice, and it is totally worth the time (agree with other reviewer that it is best to prep components in advance, as suggested in recipe). It freezes well (unfrosted, well-wrapped in plastic/sealed baggies), and works well in mini-form (disposable baking molds). It stayed moist in both formats. The second time I made it, I doubled the recipe, to have a frozen supply on hand for later (unwieldy volume, but worth juggling two bowls). Defrosted minis also make a decadent breakfast, after a few minutes in the toaster oven. I personally prefer a traditional cream cheese frosting, but that is the only thing I swap out.

• No-stress all-butter pastry crust

  • roxlet on June 28, 2018

    I consider myself a very experienced pie baker, and I love this crust. However, I do think the recipe was a bit scant for two crusts, so I converted the weights to grams and scaled it up by 25%. I'm much happier with a slightly larger amount of dough to deal with. Baking the crust with sugar instead of beans is a game-changer for me. Put the foil over the crust as you would before filling it with beans, and then fill with sugar. Make sure to save the sugar separately and you will have Stella's wonderful toasted sugar.

  • stockholm28 on January 13, 2020

    This was the flakiest pie dough that I’ve ever made. The top crust was crisp like a croissant and the bottom crust had no soggy bottom. This dough is made by hand and uses a folding technique to create layers. This is truly a case where a picture is worth a thousand words. This recipe is included in Food 52 Genius Desserts along with pictures of how to fold the dough. I don’t know why the pictures of how to fold the dough were left out of Bravetart, The recipe is on the Serious Eats site (with photos) here: https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/06/how-to-make-a-beautifully-flaky-pie-crust.html

  • rionafaith on November 23, 2017

    Usually I make pie crust in the food processor, but I gave this simple by-hand method a try and it worked out great. Love the technique of folding several times, similar to making puff pastry. So far I've only used this to make the apple pie from the same book, but it came out great and made for a nice flaky crust. My brother, not a pie eater, kept tearing off pieces of the edges to eat and when I called him out on it said, "What? It's good crust!" Later he asked if I could make him "just a pie crust with no filling" sometime. A ringing endorsement?

  • khopkins1012 on October 25, 2019

    Only pie crust recipe that I use

  • anya_sf on November 26, 2017

    I doubled the recipe for 4 crusts, rolling it into a 20"x15" rectangle, then dividing before folding. That worked well. Mixing by hand was surprisingly easy, although I had to add a couple of extra tablespoons of water for a cohesive dough. I had some trouble rolling the rounds, as the dough was very springy. The rolled dough chilled 4-5 hours before pre-baking, and I filled the crusts to the rim with sugar. Still, the crusts needed 75 minutes before they were done, and even so they shrunk, plus some butter leaked out of the crusts and onto the sheet pan. I'm not sure what, if anything, I did wrong, as I tried to follow the instructions precisely, and my oven thermometer said my oven was at 350. Even with these problems, the resulting crusts were so flavorful, flaky, tender, and crisp (even after storage), that I would definitely recommend this recipe.

  • Kinhawaii on January 17, 2019

    I agree with anya_sf, dough was springy, butter bubbled up the sides, needed browning without the foil, had lots of shrinkage. I think I should have rolled it out bigger & refrigerated it, like another website advised, after forming the discs & whenever it felt too soft. My kitchen is probably never cooler than 72°F though. I needed to use lots of flour to keep it from sticking too. It came out crisp & flaky but I felt like I overworked it. I have made lots of different pie & tart crusts & I wouldn't say this one is easy to work with if you are inexperienced.

  • Nlynn on November 02, 2020

    Did not like the results here. The crust was actually crunchy, not what I am looking for in a pie crust. It is also a very difficult dough to work with. Going back to the Kenji Lopez-Alt pie crust that never fails to be tasty and easy to make and work with.

• Effortless angel's food cake

  • roxlet on June 28, 2018

    Fabulous, and truly effortless. Unlike most angel food cakes, you don't have to sit around waiting for the egg whites to come to room temperature -- they go straight from the refrigerator to the mixer, and this delicious cake is done in no time.

  • bching on April 15, 2019

    The best angel food cake I ever made--and angel food is my favorite cake. Moist and airy all at once. The recipe is so well written, too.

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    A friend requested an angel food cake for her birthday so I tried this one, using toasted sugar, and it was delicious! The cake is simple to make and it is so light and moist.

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    Don't look for another angel food cake recipe. This one is the easiest and most foolproof. I've made it several times, with smashing success. The toasted-sugar variation is a caramel-noted submlime.

  • ebalk02 on May 25, 2022

    I made the gluten free version of this cake. Excellent cues noted in the instructions and it came out great. The gf texture is maybe slightly more delicate than a regular angel food cake and kind of melts in your mouth. Can't wait to try the toasted sugar version.

  • jimandtammyfaye on March 28, 2022

    Exceptional! First time ever making an angel's food cake, and it was perfect. Will explore variations.

• One-bowl devil's food layer cake with milk chocolate frosting

  • roxlet on June 27, 2018

    I made this for a birthday party and everyone loved this cake, as I did. I made the milk chocolate whipped ganache frosting but used purchased oreos for the crumbs and decorations. Both the cake and the frosting were super fast and easy to make. I recommend this recipe highly.

  • SugarTreeBaking on October 10, 2018

    Seriously delicious and comes together easily. Important note: the frosting recipe states a 90 minute refrigeration, then the instructions require a cool down period of six hours or more. Make the frosting the night before to save the delay. I made this cake for a coworkers birthday and received rave reviews.

  • ebs on October 28, 2018

    I thought the cake had great flavor and it was simple to make. However I did not like the consistency of the frosting. I assembled the frosting the day before and whipped it the day of, so it worked, but it was just too thick and not creamy enough for me. I guess I really wanted a buttercream.

  • coryelizabeth on November 24, 2017

    I wouldn't recommend this recipe, sadly. It mixes up fairly easily, but the amount of rising agent (1 TB of baking soda) felt excessive when I was preparing it, and I could definitely taste it in the final product. The chocolate flavor is rich and nice, but sadly, the baking soda dominated.

  • inflytur on September 26, 2018

    This makes a massive amount of batter. I baked two dozen cupcakes and two thick six-inch layers. Based on an earlier note I used a scant tablespoon of baking soda and was happy with the results.

  • MarciK on March 26, 2023

    I made this with the chocolate fudge frosting. The recipe was tasty and flawless, except either the baking spray or my pan caused an unpleasant flavor around the edges. Next time I’ll grease the pan with butter. I cut the recipe by 3 to make one 8 inch cake. The cake didn’t rise enough to be worth buying a separate 3” cake pan.

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    I use a different frosting than what she recommends (I am not a frosting/buttercream lover), but this cake is epic. The flavor and richness are so intense. Even though this is a dark, rich cake. I kept wanting to eat it (like, for breakfast). Using good cocoa (Cocoa Barry Extra Brut) and high-quality chocolate is paramount since it plays such a starring role. As with any butter cake, don't eat this cake too cold.

  • rhb on November 18, 2022

    We've made this several times and love it. Swiss Meringue Buttercream (p. 157 and p. 114) with 1/2 c creamy peanut butter was amazing as a layer cake. For a 9 x 13" pan (one layer), I've made 2/3 recipe and baked for less time. Coffee substitute = 8 oz (1 cup) water + almost 1 T espresso powder

• No-knead English muffins

  • MollyB on February 02, 2018

    Loved these and will be making them again. I've tried lots of different recipes over the years, and this is the best version I've tried so far. Make sure to toast them well! They are quite finicky to handle when shaping and moving to the griddle, but it was worth it. I found they were good stored at room temp through the day after making, but then they got really hard to split. Next time I will split and freeze by the second day.

  • stockholm28 on February 29, 2020

    Easy and delicious. You need to start these between 20 and 36 hours before you want to serve them. The first rise is 10 to 12 hours and the second rise is 10 to 24 hours. I cooked in cast iron pan. First batch nearly burnt, but turned burner down to ”3” (GE ceramic top cooktop) and that worked fine for remaining muffins.

  • rionafaith on March 27, 2020

    Made a half recipe and wound up with 5 muffins instead of 6, but that's plenty for just me. So easy! Much more tender and delicious than Thomas's. I'll see how these hold up (recipe says a week in the fridge?) and will make again in the future!

  • Frenchfoodie on July 20, 2018

    So good and so easy. Fry up fine even after 2 nights in the fridge (shaped and cornfloured). Split while still warm.

  • anya_sf on October 11, 2020

    I'd made these before and they turned out well, although irregularly shaped. This time the dough was super slack and stretchy and the muffins ended up huge and quite flat - not sure what went wrong. They tasted good and at least were plenty large for breakfast sandwiches, although challenging to split.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    These are soooo delicious. They have a more elastic, chewy texture, not dry and crumbly like you get at the store or fast food chains for breakfast. Surprisingly easy - just need to make sure you have the time. I made the same mistake as Stockholm and burnt my first batch in the cast iron - just needed to turn down the heat and keep a more careful eye on the bottoms. Will continue to make these over and over.

• Fudge frosting

  • MollyB on May 21, 2018

    I carefully followed the recipe on this, but it was a total failure for me. Reading more about fudge, I think my failure might have been due to the fact that I'm at 5,000 feet of elevation and the lower boiling point here caused problems. I may try again with lower target temperatures. The standard seems to be to deduct two degrees from the temperature required for every one thousand feet of altitude above sea level. (The yellow cake from the cookbook, which Parks pairs the fudge frosting with, was fabulous,)

  • ddenker on June 07, 2018

    I really wanted this to work as I'm looking for a non-confectioner's sugar chocolate frosting that is amazing...my go-to. Sadly, I was disappointed. I made this for my husband's birthday cake (see yellow cake note from 5/21/18). I think I let the frosting cool a bit too long and could never truly fix it per her troubleshooting notes. I literally had to place the frosting on with my fingers as it was so thick and unspreadable.

  • MarciK on March 26, 2023

    This sounded like a good idea until I realized my fudge making skills are not quite advanced enough. I heated the fudge to 235 then took off heat, and watched the temperature on the thermometer clime all the way to 250 off heat. It was half solidified to the pan, but I managed to scape some up to turn into frosting. As I’m beating it, it got thick and creamy, then went beyond to dry and crumbly. I was able to beat it up with a bit of warm water to get it creamy again before adding butter. It never got smooth, but it was soft and spreadable and tasty. If you’re not used to candy making or working with a candy thermometer, this might not be the recipe to try for the first time for a special event. But it is delicious and worth perfecting.

• Coconut muffins

  • Astrid5555 on November 12, 2017

    Halved the recipe and made it into mini muffins. I used the rest of the coconut milk to make a ganache, and then topped the muffins with desiccated coconut. My coconut oil is a virgin one, so the muffins had quite a distinct coconut flavor. Nice, but will not repeat, there are better coconut cakes out there.

  • elena1049 on January 27, 2023

    Made these with 1T lime zest. Not sure if it was the coconut milk or what, but this variation felt more like a cupcake than a muffin.

• Snickerdoodles

  • adrienneyoung on August 22, 2020

    These are like the best cinnamon toast you’ve ever had. Delightful! A keeper.

  • imaluckyducky on July 19, 2020

    5 addicting stars! Easily the best snickerdoodle I have ever eaten, let alone made. I didn't find that the coconut oil, a surprising and welcome addition, overwhelmed the flavor. I was nervous, so I added a dash more vanilla extract and nutmeg to the batter. These cook up to lightly crispy along the edges and simultaneously melt-in-your-mouth and chewy towards the center. I eyeballed the size of the cookie balls, and ended up with 20 or so cookies. These spread quite a bit, which was fine with me. These would make excellent ice cream/cookie sandwiches. Will make again!

  • mamacrumbcake on April 17, 2019

    LOL! I have to agree with coryelizabeth: this recipe is worth the price of the book. I can tear up all my other snickerdoodle recipes. This one is full of flavor in every bite—not just the cinnamon sugar coating but also the cookie itself. Whether you bake it for chewier cookies, or opt for a longer baking time and crunchy cookies, they are delicious. We were all marveling at how such simple ingredients combine to make something extraordinary. I used a #20 scoop to portion my cookies and my batch yielded 15. They did spread quite a bit so do space them 2.5 inches apart. I actually forgot to reduce the temperature for one pan of cookies, baking them at 400 for 13 minutes. They were perfectly fine for eating, pleasingly crunchy, with a slightly more caramelized flavor.

  • coryelizabeth on June 23, 2018

    This recipe is worth the price of the entire cookbook. The final product is beyond excellent; however, I found that the cookies benefited from a brief stint in the fridge before heading into the oven. Otherwise, the dough was too warm and the cookies spread too much. I highly recommend using virgin coconut oil, as the faint flavor really adds to the cookie.....though tastes differ, of course.

  • khopkins1012 on December 31, 2019

    My go-to snickerdoodle. I appreciate the use of solid coconut oil in place of the shortening common to other recipes.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    I was not a fan of these at all. All I could taste was the coconut flavor from the oil? Perhaps I need to give them another go based on the high praise..

  • jimandtammyfaye on February 22, 2021

    This recipe is going in my hall of fame! I only had unrefined coconut oil, which imparted a background coconut flavor (a very happy accident), but I imagine refined coconut oil would remedy that, if desired. Soft and pillowy in the middle with crisper edges. I made the smaller size. Best snickerdoodles ever!

  • ChefJG on September 14, 2020

    So good. Probably my favorite snickerdoodles ever!

  • msmuggins666 on March 18, 2022

    I liked these - my husband liked them more than I did, and he’s not a big cookie fan, so that’s high praise. I agree with other reviewers’ comments about the background coconut flavour, I’m on the fence about it and think I’ll try making it next time with refined coconut oil versus virgin. I’d still make these again but think I prefer her recipe for honey roasted peanut butter cookies, which are literally the BOMB!

• Homemade Oreo cookies

  • adrienneyoung on August 21, 2020

    My baking seems to go from bad to worse. These were ... only ok. Also, my piping skills are not the best. Sigh. Back to the drawing board...

  • darcie_b on August 28, 2017

    These are terrific. The dough gets warm and soft very easily so try to do this on a cool day. The filling makes a generous amount; I used about half of it. It's hard to tell when the cookies are done because they are so dark; err on the side of pulling them out a bit early because they get bitter if overbaked.

  • stockholm28 on October 13, 2019

    I wanted to make these just for the novelty of making them. I agree with previous poster about being careful not to bake too long. 12 minutes of baking worked for me. I baked the first batch for 15 minutes and they were burnt and very bitter and ended up getting tossed. These were very good, but a bit of work for me.

  • khopkins1012 on April 03, 2020

    I had a few friends over one evening and we made these as a group. Everyone liked them. I would make again and be cautious about over baking them.

  • martinhenry on December 03, 2018

    This recipe is pretty perfect. I have made the cream filling with both butter, refined coconut oil, and un-refined coconut oil, and it's been perfect every time. People adored this recipe and the cookies were gone in a flash. I've found that its much easier to handle the cookies if you chill the dough after rolling it out, then cutting the chilled dough and moving the cut out cookies to the baking tray.

• Blackberry ice cream

  • wcassity on September 06, 2022

    Wonderfully smooth and creamy. I used half the berries called for with no other adjustments and it turned out super flavorful.

• White chocolate butterscotch blondies

  • yellowbird531 on August 20, 2018

    It seems like I had the same problem that I've seen going around online-- totally underdone in the middle. Followed to a T and they taste good, just very gooey.

  • Neodymia on August 26, 2017

    Very good flavour and texture, but hard to tell when they were cooked enough. A skewer looked almost clean, but they were uncooked in the middle after 35 minutes.

  • martinhenry on December 03, 2018

    I like a fudgey brownie and blondie, but these were two dense and too sweet--even for a blondie. I tried the recipe twice, and it's just not a keeper.

• White Mountain layer cake with marshmallow buttercream

  • nadiam1000 on July 06, 2020

    I have only made the cake not the buttercream. I like this cake for a versatile base when I have a lot of egg whites saved up. I bake it in 2 9" cake pans and then split each layer in 2. I made it into a coconut cake by soaking the cut layers with homemade coco lopez (basically coconut milk, sugar and some salt) and filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting sprinkled the layers and the sides with toasted coconut. The texture is moist and smooth - slightly dense - not a light and fluffy cake.

  • coryelizabeth on November 24, 2017

    I did not make the white mountain layer cake, but I do not recommend the marshmallow buttercream. The recipe is very fussy and particular, and while the flavor of the final product was excellent (I made the cherry almond variation), the consistency was frustrating and difficult. The icing was much gooier than a traditional buttercream, and the cake layers simply slide apart when I was slicing the final product.

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    This cake is really nice. I like the way that the little bit of coconut oil comes through and adds some interest to the flavor. The icing is delicious, but it is so fussy and it doesn't always turn out for me, but it is still worth making. The bourbon variation is so tasty, too!

  • MarciK on May 19, 2022

    I made this for my and my son’s birthday. The cake was delicious. I found the marshmallow buttercream hard to make because the marshmallow part gets so hard and sticky, and I lost a lot to sticking to the bowl. In the end it tasted good and held up well on the cake, but it had a bit of an oily texture, might be because I used a high fat butter. The cake didn’t rise as much as I expected, but maybe cake pan strips would have helped. I brought a piece of cake to my neighbor, and she called to tell me it was the best cake she ever ate in her life. If I make it again, I will seek out clear vanilla because my vanilla did noticeably tint the cake.

  • lindydorfman on April 02, 2022

    If it is possible to have a crush on a cake batter it would be this one. The batter itself was gorgeous and fluffy and baked up into one of the most delicious cakes I have ever made. I ended up frosting it with smitten kitchen's cream cheese frosting and filling it with lemon macerated berries.

  • bakingElizabeth on August 01, 2020

    This cake is super moist. Not very sturdy, but I forgive it. Worked well with mini-chocolate chips running between the frosted layers. I've made the marshmallow buttercream for other cakes, but I think this cake works fine with standard buttercream (which is a lot faster).

  • bakingElizabeth on August 01, 2020

    Re: marshmallow buttercream, I have made it many times for other cakes - it is not easy, but often worth it, since it is so versatile. It freezes very well, and has lots of flavor variations - salted caramel is amazing, if you have the time for that recipe. Also works great with homemade praline paste (added after defrosting plain marshmallow buttercream). I agree with other reviewer, it is fussy. But with enough patience/mixer motor power, and 30-minute stints in the fridge, it usually will whip up properly (instead of being a gooey mess). The marshmallow phase is also hard on the stand mixer and messy to get out. I use a flexible silicone bowl for the cooling part, so that is at least a little easier.

• Frankie's coconut cream pie

  • meggan on January 08, 2018

    My meringue didn't triple like the recipe said it would and lay a little flat on the pie filling but that was ok. It was crunchy and delicious unlike the whipped soft meringue one expects on a coconut cream pie. I used a premade crust (gasp!)

  • sbrooksh on March 14, 2021

    This was delightful. I used unsweetened coconut, which was the right call, since I often find stella’s desserts unbearably sweet. Meringue definitely quadrupled for me, and the crust was so easy. I might reduce the sugar next time.

  • D.Barker on October 13, 2021

    This was really good! I think too much meringue for my taste, but the crust was a little salty and contrasted really nicely. I think anyone making this needs to know that it is SWEET. That could have been (again) because of the meringue, but overall really good!

  • rhb on October 28, 2022

    Really good! Next time, we will omit the shredded coconut...no one liked the texture.

• Dulce de leche

  • imaluckyducky on July 24, 2020

    4.5 stars. This from-scratch version cooks up to be so much better than the canned stuff I buy I'm gobsmacked I've never thought to make it before. There is a deep caramel flavor, and the baking soda does wonders for accelerating the process. Half a star was detracted only because it took far longer than 30 minutes to reduce, however this could be because I had my stovetop set to a lower temperature so I didn't have to "stir continuously" for the 30 minutes as described in the recipe.

• German chocolate layer cake

  • imaluckyducky on July 24, 2020

    5 decadent stars! If you like your chocolate cake nuanced with a deep chocolate flavor without being super sugary, then this version is for you! The brewed coffee brings out the cocoa flavor of the batter, and the crumb bakes up fine and fluffy. The sponge is balanced between overly moist and dry, which will complement the texture of the frosting nicely (mine wasn't "gooey" enough for some). Tastes wickedly good heated up for 20 seconds with a slice of coconut vanilla icecream. If you don't like the "naked cake" trend, you can always ice the sides with the milk chocolate buttercream or more of the german chocolate cake icing. Cake cooked in the exact time suggested - 30 minutes.

• Triple-oatmeal cookies

  • stockholm28 on August 24, 2019

    I liked how ”oaty” these were, but mine really spread a lot. Next time, I would chill the dough before baking and I’d place the cookies more than 2” apart. They were very sweet; I might try reducing the sugar a bit.

  • anya_sf on November 15, 2017

    I really liked these, and appreciated the whole-grain goodness of the oat flour and steel-cut oats. I omitted the nuts, as my family doesn't care for them in cookies, so they probably spread a bit more as a result. My cookies were slightly larger, so I got 26 total. Still, the baking time of 12 minutes seemed just right, and they turned out soft and chewy, not crispy at all - just the way I like them. I enjoyed the dried cranberries, but raisins would also be good. I think I'd actually prefer them with pecans, for more textural variety.

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    I really like this cookie. I enjoy the flavor of the oats and it's the perfect amount of cinnamon. I've made them with dates and raisins and with dried blueberries and they're always wonderful.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    These are some of the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had or made. I love the chewy, thin, buttery texture. I make them with raisins. Also note: Stella wrote on article on Serious Eats about the difference between baking cookies on parchment paper vs silpat mats (she always writes recipes for parchment paper based baking).

  • Cmansene on June 18, 2021

    As others have noted, mine spread quite a bit so would recommend chilling and spacing further apart. Otherwise a good oatmeal cookie recipe. Definitely like the pecan and cranberry swaps for traditional walnuts and raisins. Also loved the addition of toasting the nuts. Definitely a lot to glean from this recipe when trying others in the search for the ideal oatmeal cookie.

• Homemade pecan sandies

  • stockholm28 on March 03, 2019

    First, there is an error in this recipe. It should say 1 1/4 sticks of butter (the weight measure of 5 oz is correct). Stella Parks posted a correction on twitter. These pecan sandies are made with brown butter. They are quite easy. You don’t even need to break out a mixer as everything gets mixed into the brown butter. I baked these in two batches. The first batch baked for 15 minutes per the recipe instructions and these were overbaked. I baked the second batch for 13 minutes and I thought these were perfectly baked. They are quite addictive. They are definitely ”sandy”. I thought that the vanilla and brown butter dominated the flavor. The pecan was fairly subtle, but still noticeable. The cookie has 2 tsp of vanilla and I might be inclined to reduce it slightly to see if the pecan flavor might come forward. I did think the cookies were rather sweet, but would be afraid that a change to the proportion of sugar would alter the texture.

  • julesamomof2 on December 22, 2018

    I had some trouble with these. She doesn't say to chill the dough, so I didn't and they spread somewhat. They also were so crumbly that many of them fell apart. They did taste good, but only about half of them looked decent enough to make it on to my holiday cookie platter.

  • julesamomof2 on December 26, 2018

    Christmas update, these were by far the best loved cookie on the platter. Next time I will double the recipe to account for lost crumbly ones. These actually got better with age.

  • mamacrumbcake on April 17, 2019

    Absolutely delicious! Best cookie recipe I’ve tried in a decade. These Pecan Sandies have a rich, roasty, nutty flavor from the toasted pecans and brown butter; the texture is delightfully sandy. They are easy to make too—no need for a mixer. My cookies were slightly smaller than the recipe called for, yielding 34 in all. I baked them for 12 minutes.

  • HalfSmoke on August 11, 2018

    Is there anything better than a perfect pecan sandie? I don’t think so. These are indeed perfect.

  • taste24 on October 23, 2020

    Wow. These were much better than I expected them to be... the brown butter really shines through. The dough was extremely sandy, so I took my cookie scoop and packed the dough in that to be able to have a dough ball to flatten on the baking sheet. Took the recommendations from others and baked for 11-12 minutes. They are perfect!!!

• Honey-roasted peanut butter cookies

  • sarahawker on September 24, 2020

    Peanut forward for sure, we loved them. I do wish my food processor was more professional so ground peanuts were fine, mine had sandy texture. Also no instruction on if we are to use a fork to cross hatch/shape of cookie on tray etc.

  • averythingcooks on December 14, 2020

    Oh yes....these are good! I actually weighed 1 oz balls to keep them uniform and in my oven 14.5 - 15 minutes was good. I also wondered about flattening with a fork but the photo in the book didn't look like it was done and they ultimately do flatten out beautifully with crispy edges and a softer/chewier centre. An absolute repeat!

  • anya_sf on December 21, 2017

    These were truly the best peanut butter cookies I've ever eaten. I followed the directions exactly, but found they were done after 14 minutes of baking. Soft, chewy, super peanutty, delicious!

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    These are so good! They're soft, with crisp edges, and so much peanut butter flavor.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    Delicious. Love the strong peanut flavor and soft texture.

• Classic yellow layer cake

  • ddenker on May 21, 2018

    Made this for my husband’s birthday and while he said it was “maybe the best cake” he’s ever had, the fudge frosting that I paired it with was a total fail.

  • mamacrumbcake on May 18, 2021

    Very pillowy cupcakes with a delightful, soft crumb. Made a half recipe which yielded 12 cupcakes plus enough batter for 1-2 more. Baked the full 22 minutes. I followed the mixing directions exactly. It yielded a soft batter.

  • coryelizabeth on June 23, 2018

    This cake turned out fine, though it seemed a bit dry, and the flavor was quite muted.

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    This cake is delicious on its own, and I've made it with a coconut icing, and with the bourbon variation of the marshmallow buttercream with great results. The chocolate icing that's paired with it in the book is fine, but not my favorite.

  • SweetLittleBytes on January 22, 2021

    You definitely want a candy thermometer for the fudge frosting. It also dries out very quickly unless it's frosted, so if it has cooled down but you're not ready to frost it yet, wrap it really well until you're able to finish the cake.

• Hot cocoa 'mallows

  • annmartina on January 25, 2018

    These are stupendously good

• Chocolate sprinkles

  • annmartina on October 30, 2017

    The mixture needs to be the consistency of stirred natural peanut butter that is warm so that it can flow as it's squeezed from the piping bag. I started with the parchment coronets and eventually switched to a disposable pastry bag with a writing tip. Less futzy.

• Apricot-white chocolate oatmeal cookies

  • e_ballad on May 27, 2018

    So my hubby proceeded to eat 5x, then begged for me to hide them as “I can’t stop!” They are quite a crisp biscuit, rather than chewy (the latter being my personal preference), but they were delicious nonetheless.

  • amandabeck on April 06, 2018

    The combination is a bit unusual for a cookie. These were delicious! Great oat-y flavor, chewy texture with a slight crunch. I didn't have steel cut oats, so I just used extra regular oats...still turned out great, can't wait to try them as they were intended!

• No-fuss apple pie

  • rionafaith on November 23, 2017

    Simple apple pie that was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. (Even my aunt who usually avoids grains and sugar had two slices.) I made and rolled out the crust 2 days ahead of time, then sliced and macerated the apples the night before, storing them in the fridge -- the recipe says you can hold them for up to 8 hours, but it was more like 12 or 13 and it didn't seem to hurt at all. This did bubble over a LOT in the oven, glad I had a silpat-lined baking sheet underneath. I ended up baking it closer to to an hour and a half to reach the indicated internal temperature, so the crust was very brown, but the technique of putting a baking sheet on the rack above the pie worked very well (better than my usual pie shield, which this puffy rustic crust was just a little too big for!)

  • anya_sf on November 29, 2018

    This pie is relatively easy to make, but the apples shrink a lot during baking. Stella says the thickness of the slices is important, but I wonder if thinner slices with a shorter maceration time would work. The crust leaked some butter during baking, but otherwise turned out beautifully. The pie tasted delicious and the crust was very tender and flaky.

  • stacymarkow on December 29, 2019

    Very heavy on cinnamon. Would cut back next time.

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    Overall great flavor. I found the dough was easy to work with. I don't think I cut my apples correctly, as I found a large gap between the filling and top crust.. Oh well - still very tasty!

• Snickerstreusel

  • rionafaith on May 22, 2020

    Used a half batch of this streusel to top some muffins and it was delicious, but a lot of the crumbs did fall off so I think it needs to be pressed into the batter more next time rather than just being spooned on top. I used pecans as the nuts.

• Top-shelf muffin mix

  • rionafaith on May 22, 2020

    Made a batch of this homemade muffin mix a while back and used half of it to make a half-batch of muffins immediately and then kept the other half in a sealed container on the shelf until yesterday, which still baked up just fine. Makes for a rather thick batter and dense-ish muffin, but one with good flavor so it's a pretty good base recipe.

• Five-minute muffins

  • rionafaith on May 22, 2020

    Made a batch of this homemade muffin mix a while back and used half of it to make a half-batch of muffins immediately and then kept the other half in a sealed container on the shelf until yesterday, which still baked up just fine. Makes for a rather thick batter and dense-ish muffin, but one with good flavor so it's a pretty good base recipe.

  • lindydorfman on March 12, 2022

    Top shelf muffin mix felt like a pie dough, once I mixed it into pumpkin muffin variation the batter was really a dough. Almost biscuit/ scone like. They baked up beautifully and were very tender and not too sweet. Which I appreciated.

• Classic blueberry muffins

  • rionafaith on April 02, 2020

    Basic blueberry muffin, nice texture. I used frozen blueberries and they did tint the batter a bit blue but it doesn't bother me -- dusting them in flour probably would have helped, in retrospect. There is quite a large amount of berries in these too! The batter is very thick, to the point it was difficult to dollop out, but I guess that prevents the berries from sinking. I used ungreased silicone muffin cups and these released totally cleanly.

• Quick condensed milk

  • khopkins1012 on October 25, 2019

    This tasted good but I won't be convinced that its worth the effort until I am able to do a side-by-side comparison.

  • jimandtammyfaye on January 14, 2023

    This took much longer than recipe suggested, likely because I used a 4qt pan instead of 5qt. Milk solids didn't begin to form on sides of pan until over halfway through process, but occasional stirring is still necessary. Once the mixture came close to being condensed, the color began to change from white to lightly golden. Flavor is delicious and texture is lusciously creamy, perfect for Key Lime Pie.

• Magic Key lime pie

  • khopkins1012 on October 25, 2019

    Made exactly as directed including the homemade condensed milk and graham crackers. This tasted really good.

  • D.Barker on April 25, 2021

    Sooo good! Added to personal recipe collection. We didn't make our own graham crackers but did make our own condensed milk. It turned out delicious and wasn't as tart as I feared. It was a good amount of lime flavor and we will definitely look again.

• Crispy whole wheat graham crackers

  • khopkins1012 on October 25, 2019

    These were a hit with my family. I used honey. I did burn one batch so need to watch towards end of bake time. Will absolutely make again.

  • martinhenry on December 03, 2018

    One of my favorite recipes to make. This recipe is simple, quick, one-bowl and is hands-down the best graham cracker recipe I've found. (And I've tried about a dozen different recipes.) I make mine with honey, but golden syrup is fine, too.

• Marshmallow meringue

  • inflytur on September 26, 2018

    Made the Marshmallow Buttercream (pg 157). Easy enough but not my favorite.

  • TonyInSeattle on November 24, 2018

    Made the marshmallow meringue and it was absolutely fantastic. I had a favorite sweet potato meringue pie recipe that I made every Thanksgiving, but the meringue was too grainy and weepy. I finally decided to replace the meringue with this one this year and was thoroughly impressed. The recipe calls for a cup of egg whites, which gives you an enormous mound of meringue for one pie. Don't skimp! It's beautiful to have a towering meringue on your pie slices... I tried making the option roasted sugar for this recipe and did not have luck. It might be that my glass baking dish was dark colored and was too hot for the sugar. But it's fantastic with regular sugar. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    Ok, Stella this is just a really great Swiss meringue recipe. I find that this is the most stable meringue for pies and tarts, ever. I've had it hold up for five days, with minimal (if any) weeping. This is the only meringue recipe that's been this sturdy for me. Don't even think about using a french meringue on a lemon tart/pie if you're not planning to eat it right away. This is my go-to pie and tart meringue recipe now.

  • rhb on November 23, 2022

    Great recipe. We've made it numerous times, for the Frankie's Coconut Cream Pie and as a base for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Using regular sugar works perfectly; our first time making this was a fail using the Roasted Sugar.

• Trail mix cookies

  • averythingcooks on November 28, 2022

    This is one of the variations she gives for her Triple Oatmeal Cookies and they are really good. I did have to use whole wheat flour as a sub for oatmeal flour (as she suggests) and I also had to top my pecans up with a good handful of walnuts which turned out to be a good idea. There is a lot going here...both re: textures & flavours... and these are definite repeat!

• Homemade Fudge Stripes cookies

  • bwhip on April 10, 2018

    These turned out quite good, and certainly reminiscent of the original. Nice and crispy. A few steps involved but certainly not difficult to make.

• Homemade Lofthouse-style cookies

  • C_Richardson on December 10, 2018

    Amazing! Will make again soon!

  • dprostrollo on September 28, 2018

    Phenomenal

• Dark chocolate cream pie

  • C_Richardson on April 27, 2018

    One of the best chocolate cream pies I've ever made! It was a big hit with the family. This will be my go-to recipe with its creamy chocolate center and meringue on top.

  • koolMoD on November 25, 2017

    This was a big hit with my guests. Would make this again!

• Homemade cinnamon rolls

  • C_Richardson on September 11, 2018

    This recipe was incredible! I've tried several cinnamon bun recipes, but they've never really been successful. The ones I've tried with a sweet bread dough tend to be dry and heavy. BUT Stella's cinnamon buns knocked them all out. My Kitchenaid mixer took on the heavy work of kneading and mixing, but it was well worth it. The dough was light and fluffy, while the cinnamon filling was creamy and gooey. Oh MY! The whole family loved them and has requested another batch soon. This will be my go-to from now on. Thanks, Stella for a great family favorite. I can't wait to make more (and fresh a batch or two for the holidays)!!

  • Frances17 on May 14, 2018

    Doable without a standmixer. It is just very boring and hands-on.

• Blueberry pie

  • anya_sf on July 07, 2019

    The crust was crisp, tender, and flaky, although it did leak a little butter during baking. The filling bubbled over quite a bit. We couldn't wait 3 hours for the pie to cool, so I put it outside for an hour and a half (temp in the 50s) hoping it would cool off sufficiently, and it seemed cool enough to slice, but the liquid all came gushing out. So make sure you allow several hours for this pie to cool. Despite the messy appearance, we loved it anyway. The pie was just sweet enough to be enjoyed on its own without whipped cream or ice cream.

• Silky chocolate pudding

  • anya_sf on February 01, 2018

    I used sheet gelatin, cut in small pieces, which mostly worked OK, although we discovered a few lumps in the final pudding. The puddings were rich enough with 1% milk (so not too indulgent). The pudding will taste strongly of whatever cocoa you use; I used Pernigotti, which was good in this. It isn't as deep or complex in flavor as some puddings, but since it's meant to be like a box pudding, I thought that was OK. It's quick and easy to make, but requires a few hours to set. After the final beating, the texture was nice and silky.

• Tahitian vanilla pudding

  • anya_sf on November 12, 2017

    Steeping the milk for 24 hrs gave the pudding a strong, perfumey vanilla flavor. I substituted half-and-half for the cream and it was plenty rich. The chilled pudding is very stiff, so either serve it warm, as recommended, or reduce the cornstarch, unless you're making the mousse or pie filling. It's also fairly sweet, so you could reduce the sugar. I love the use of egg whites here instead of the usual yolks, as I often have leftover egg whites.

  • ashallen on February 12, 2022

    Personally I prefer the custardy flavor of pudding made with egg yolks, but this is a good pudding with a lighter flavor and texture. My husband, the true vanilla pudding aficionado in the house, thought it was very good and didn't miss the yolks. Like anya_sf, I love that this can help me work down my egg white oversupply. Previously frozen egg whites worked fine. I didn't have a vanilla bean and used homemade vanilla sugar and 2 tsp extra Madagascar vanilla extract instead - vanilla flavor was still very good. After chilling, my pudding had a slowly pourable texture so it's been pleasant to eat chilled but might be marginal as a cake filling. Pudding that got left behind in my saucepan cooked a bit more and had a much firmer set that would probably work better for pies/cakes so I'd err on the side of cooking it more for those uses.

• Whole wheat Wonder Bread

  • anya_sf on October 04, 2018

    For the whole wheat flour, I used white whole wheat. I used 1% milk because that's all I had - not sure if it affected the result. Even though my kitchen was 68 degrees, the coconut oil remained as little icebergs in the dough, so I had to warm the dough to incorporate it; next time I'd melt it. Despite weighing the ingredients, I had to add more flour, and knead it for nearly 30 min, to even sort of pass the bubblegum test. Also, I failed Loaf Shaping 101 and had to refold the dough to fit properly in the pan. Nevertheless, the loaf rose and baked beautifully. It's perfect for sandwiches. My son thought it was white bread and was pleasantly surprised that it was healthy. It was slightly dry, but I may have overbaked it (baked 50 min as it wasn't 200 degrees after 45 min). I'll definitely make this again.

• Lemon meringue pie with marshmallow meringue

  • anya_sf on November 26, 2017

    I couldn't believe this used 8 (!) egg yolks, but at least the meringue used all 8 whites. I was nervous about heating the whites for the meringue, but actually it was straightforward - just required some patience and lots of temperature taking. I loved that it did not require a special double boiler. I used the roasted sugar from baking the pie crusts in the meringue, and the optional rose water, thinking that might add some flavor. I'm not sure if it did, but I liked this meringue better than any I've made before. This pie is so impressive due to the height of the meringue. My guests said this was the best lemon meringue pie ever. Leftovers still tasted great a few days later.

  • Kinhawaii on May 29, 2019

    Very yummy but I did have some problems. My 8 pasteurized egg whites were a little short of a cup, so decreased the rest of the meringue slightly. Made a beautiful high pie but did have some weeping not sure from where. Next time I will weigh all that I can since the recipe does say it needs precision. My Williams Sonoma metal pie dish has a different slope or something from the pyrex ones I usually use because it was difficult to get the pieces out with such a high pie. In the struggle, the meringue started separating from the lemon bottom. I refrigerated the bottom for a few hours before I applied the meringue, but maybe it would have been better sooner?

• Butternut pumpkin pie

  • anya_sf on November 26, 2017

    I found the quick condensed milk relatively easy to make, and roasting the squash wasn't hard either; I did those steps ahead of time. Mixing the pie filling itself was quick. The no-stress all-butter crust tasted great, but took a long time to pre-bake, and also shrank a bit, so I had some extra filling. Overall, though, we didn't love this pie. It was too sweet and too thick/dense. It's better with whipped cream, and the flavor improved after a couple of days. Still, next time I'll choose a different recipe.

  • Nlynn on November 02, 2020

    My favorite pumpkin pie ever! The filling is so much richer and denser than other pumpkin pies I have had and had and it has great depth of flavor as well. I savored every bite. Given the richness, I recommend a smaller piece of pie than you would normally serve up. The whipped topping recipe to go with this I found to be very sweet. It works well with the pie but alone it tastes like melted soft-serve ice cream. The only weak spot here is the crust. It came out brittle and crunchy rather than a butter layer pie crust style. We will go back to the Kenji Lopez-Alt pie crust that we prefer next time. And there will be a next time!

  • Annaasmith on January 02, 2021

    Very light and silky smooth compared to other pumpkin pies I've baked. It is a bit sweeter than other pumpkin pies. I took it out of the oven once it reached 200 degrees internal temperature although it looked quite wobbly still--I think that was the key to a light texture! I was concerned that it might not set, but as it cooled it set just fine. Will definitely make again! I did not make the whipped topping but just made a barely sweetened whipped cream to accompany it, which worked well given the sweetness of the pie.

• Brown-butter carrot cupcakes

  • anya_sf on January 22, 2020

    I made 1/3 recipe, yielding 13 cupcakes (70 g batter each, slightly larger than stated). They baked in 23 min. The cakes had a very fine crumb for carrot cake, with a sturdy texture (good for layering), drier than most carrot cakes, but still moist enough. The spice flavor was strong. There were perhaps too many nuts. I also usually prefer raisins in carrot cake. The frosting was interesting - the cream cheese didn't stand out, but rather the vanilla (pudding) flavor. It was good though. The frosting was a dream to pipe - beautifully whipped. The overall combination of cake and frosting was very good.

• Roasted sugar and vanilla bean angel's food cake

  • anya_sf on April 09, 2018

    I had the roasted sugar left over from blind-baking pie crusts. This recipe was truly quite effortless with my large stand mixer. The mixing method was a bit different, but I followed the instructions exactly, and it worked perfectly - even with previously-frozen egg whites. I appreciated the precise instructions, as I probably normally overbeat egg whites. Having the temperature for the baked cake was especially helpful; I checked the cake a few minutes early and probably would have put it back in the oven, except that the temperature was already 206 degrees. As a result, this was the moistest angel food cake I've ever made.

• Pumpkin cheesecake

  • anya_sf on February 11, 2020

    I made 1/2 recipe in a 6"x3" springform pan. I should have checked the cake early and it overbaked slightly and cracked on top. Nevertheless, the texture was still good. The spices were pretty strong, so if you prefer more pumpkin flavor, reduce them. My family loves most cheesecakes and this was no exception.

• Upside-down pineapple cutout cake

  • anya_sf on April 14, 2018

    I had to read the instructions on how to prepare the pineapple a few times before I got it, but it was actually really easy. Cutouts like these enable you to squeeze in more pineapple. I added both rum and vanilla. The cake and topping were very quick and easy to mix. I don't have a 10" cast iron pan, so I used a 12", as I think smaller than 10" would have overflowed. Plus the stated yield actually says one 12" skillet cake. The cake turned out fairly flat, but to me that's just a high ratio of topping to cake, so it's all good. It baked in 50 minutes. I was worried it would stick (you don't grease the pan), but the cake didn't, although some pineapple pieces fell out, so I had to reassemble the top. It was delicious - loved the coconut with the pineapple.

• Pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls

  • anya_sf on November 12, 2017

    Fantastic! Nice pumpkin spice flavor (not too PSL), sweet but not overwhelming. I made the dough first to let it rise (took 2.5 hrs in my chilly kitchen), then the frosting, then the filling, which I didn't bother putting in a bag (easy to spread from the bowl). The dough was so soft at first that it wasn't even dough - had to add more flour, but tried to add very little. It was still so soft that I didn't have to roll it out, just patted it. I did not have 8"x3" round pans, so I used 8"x2", which worked. The instructions don't mention greasing the pans, but I did butter the sides, in addition to parchment on the bottoms. I LOVE that these are assembled and refrigerated overnight. I worried they wouldn't rise enough, only being out of the fridge while the oven preheated, but they rose perfectly to the height of the foil during baking. We ate them immediately and they were very soft and tender. They'd benefit from cooling for an hour or so before serving, but good luck with that plan.

  • jenburkholder on October 01, 2022

    Agreed, these were fabulous. Super tender and buttery, pumpkin flavor is mild but present, and the spices are perfectly balanced. I followed the order given in the book and it worked out well - minimized cleaning. I also just spread the filling and the frosting, since I hated the idea of wasting two bags. Baked in a 9' x 13' aluminum pan and they fit perfectly. Only tricky part of the whole thing was that I don't have a stand mixer, and the dough was so soft and sticky that kneading by hand took the better part of an hour with a bench scraper helping. Didn't have to add any extra flour though. A good amount of work, but made for some very happy coworkers! Definitely worth making again.

• All butter muffin mix

  • anya_sf on October 08, 2020

    This version cannot be made ahead, but I mixed the dry ingredients the night before and the muffins still basically only took 5 minutes to mix in the morning.

• Strawberry muffins

  • anya_sf on October 08, 2020

    I made this to use up strawberry solids left over from making ice cream. I used 1/2 recipe of the all-butter muffin mix (made with white whole wheat flour) and the full 1/2 cup of strawberry solids, plus lemon zest and poppy seeds as suggested in the recipe. Yield was 7 muffins which baked in 21 minutes. The muffins were very tasty with a classic muffin texture.

  • sharone7 on June 25, 2021

    I had leftover strawberry-raspberry puree from making shrub, so I made these muffins--extremely worth the minimal effort! (I roasted the puree in the oven for maybe 10 minutes to dry them out more, and that was fine.) I keep forgetting I don't have a regular muffin tin, so I made them into mini-muffins (about 30g of batter each), baked for about 20 minutes. I ended up with 30 mini muffins.

• Strawberry frozen yogurt

  • anya_sf on July 07, 2020

    Super creamy and great strawberry flavor, with a noticeable tang from the yogurt. Roasting, straining, and cooking the strawberries takes some time, but is worth it and can be done ahead. I cooked the syrup a bit long (1 1/2 cups) but it was fine. For the liqueur I used chambord. I couldn't taste the rose water in the end - not sure it added anything.

• Peach ice cream

  • anya_sf on July 16, 2019

    I didn't have quite enough peaches, so I supplemented with a few apricots and also used apricot liqueur. I omitted the rose water. Roasting, straining, and reducing the peaches takes a while, but isn't difficult, and the resulting concentrated peach flavor was worth the effort. The texture of the ice cream was wonderfully creamy. My son thought this was the best peach ice cream ever. I agree that it's the best I've made, but felt the heavy cream masked some of the peach flavor, so I wonder if it could be made with lower fat dairy.

• Red (wine) velvet cake

  • amandabeck on May 07, 2018

    Super recipe! Bizarre that it includes wine, but the flavor dissipates after cooking. Mine turned out a light brown, not red, color-- but I suspect it was because I had to substitute dark brown sugar for the light brown sugar, which the front matter of the book specifically says not to do. No matter, the taste was delicious and they made excellent cupcakes paired with the cream cheese frosting.

• Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies

  • Kinhawaii on September 21, 2022

    Tasted really nice but my filling was like very soft marshmallow- it is hot here but I did leave it to firm up in the fridge overnight. I was worried about it being too firm so left it out the next day while baking the cookies. Been having baking issues personally so not surprising to me but ended up with oozy filling which was disappointing.

• Icebox chiffon pie with fresh raspberries

  • Kinhawaii on January 17, 2019

    I had my doubts after I made the pudding part but after folding in the cream, its appearance improved. Nice rich vanilla flavor, creamy texture- but not airy like other chiffon pies I've made- some may prefer it. Definitely nicer with fresh raspberries. Made with the all butter pastry crust instead, which I had shrinkage issues with, but came out fine.

• Danger brownies

  • Frances17 on January 18, 2018

    Oh great - another recipe I can now use to eliminate literally every other brownie recipe. Note: adjust cooking time DRAMATICALLY with use of pyrex: use thermometer to achieve correct internal temp.

• Homemade McDonald's-style baked apple turnovers

  • Frances17 on December 04, 2017

    Able to halve the recipe successfully using 1 leftover pie crust.

• Homemade Magic Shell

  • ChelseaP on May 22, 2021

    So easy and delicious! Make this and you'll never buy magic shell again. Keeps well in a jar too, just warm it up to serve.

• Butterscotch Magic Shell

  • ChelseaP on May 22, 2021

    Delicious!

• Fluffy yeast-raised potato doughnuts

  • anwade88 on January 07, 2018

    I would plan to make this recipe in advance and refrigerate the dough overnight (as directed in the notes). I didn’t—but this is a lengthy recipe (due to rise times.) Wow. My husband says this has ruined donut shop donuts for him forever. Not overly sweet, the texture is perfect. I ended up making a vanilla sugar glaze for ours (powdered sugar, vanilla, water). I will absolutely make these again!

• Honey buttercream

  • Sheli on July 25, 2018

    I didn't care for this variation of the marshmallow buttercream--the honey flavor is just too strong.

• Mango upside-down cake

  • dprostrollo on September 28, 2018

    This is fantastic. Used mango pieces I had frozen from fresh, so not beautiful like the picture but SO GOOD. Used Nelson's Blood rum.

  • Cmansene on June 18, 2021

    Tried this variation and the bake turned out perfectly. My only comment was that the coconut milk was really prevalent in the flavor, and it wasn't ideal. Although I think maybe the brand of coconut milk I used may have been the culprit so will try again. Would note to try and squeeze in as much fruit as possible on the bottom. Mine shrunk and moved when the batter it was poured and baked, so the ratio of fruit to cake was a bit off.

• Pumpkin spice layer cake

  • dprostrollo on September 28, 2018

    This was lovely. Made them into cupcakes.

• Cinnamon ice cream

  • dprostrollo on January 02, 2020

    The infusion means you get the cinnamon flavor across nicely without being pungent or overpowering. Really nice accompaniment to GF angel food cake.

• Chewy caramel

  • dprostrollo on January 07, 2019

    This was really good and worked well. (Caramel sauce variation) Saucy but still spreadable. Used on banana bread!

• Banana bread snickerdoodles

  • Lsblackburn1 on August 20, 2018

    I couldn’t find oat flour, but it didn’t seem to matter. These are awesome! Like the best part of banana bread - the crunchy top when it’s fresh!

• Peanut butter swirl blondies

  • Jviney on May 08, 2019

    I have made these four or five times now, to rave reviews every time. Even in an aluminum pan, my bake time is probably ten minutes longer than suggested for barely-done blondies, but this is a great recipe.

• Brown butter chopped chocolate chip cookies

  • Jviney on May 21, 2019

    These are delicious, and such a smooth, lovely dough to work with. The instructions say to cool the brown butter back to a semi-solid consistency...I rushed this and the cookies flattened out like pancakes. Looking forward to trying them next time and being more obedient to Stella’s instructions...but everyone loves these.

• Make-ahead whipped cream

  • Nlynn on November 02, 2020

    This whipped topping is very sweet! Eaten on its own, it tastes like melted soft-serve ice cream. Not what I am used for whipped cream but this version has its place.

  • ashallen on March 08, 2022

    I have a big sweet tooth and found the sweetness level in this whipped cream to be fine, particularly since I made it as a component of the Lemon Mousse recipe in which it's folded into a tart lemon custard. The cream held up well during and after folding into the lemon custard. My cream did whip up faster than described in the recipe, perhaps because it was pasteurized which tends to whip up faster than ultra-pasteurized.

• Extra fluffy biscuits

  • MarciK on October 29, 2022

    I cut the sugar by half because I wouldn’t be using these for dessert, but I don’t think the full amount would be too much either. I also added 1/4 tsp baking soda to the leavening, an idea that I got from another book. I had King Arthur all-purpose flour, which has a little higher gluten content, so I mixed it with cake flour. I brushed the top with milk to enhance browning, but not sure that it did much. All the substitutions turned out great. I got 7 biscuits instead of the 6 in the recipe. Until now, I’ve been struggling with getting a good rise in biscuits, and for the first time I got the rise that I expected. Making in a cast iron pan was a game changer. This version uses less butter, and next time I might try the kind that uses more to compare. A great recipe for biscuits, and this will go in my favorites.

• Buttered vanilla marshmallows

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    This is honestly the most perfect marshmallow recipe out there. Do not look elsewhere. The temperature guides are key here. And you don't need the 1 tbsp of butter, but it really does some magic in creating tenderness and carrying flavor. Follow Stella on Instagram for some more variations on this recipe (toasted sugar! maple! peppermint!).

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    Very clear directions which help immensely. I make these for my grandma every year, and she prefers them over all other marshmallow recipes I've tried. Outstanding.

  • skvalentine on October 20, 2022

    PERFECTION. I have made many many marshmallow recipes and this is my new favorite. The detailed instructions make all the difference. Can't wait to try some of the flavor variations.

• Boston cream pie

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    This is a great classic recipe. The genoise sponge recipe is great, foolproof. I'm not the biggest fan of this pudding filling, but it has tons of flavor and people really ate it up.

• Roasted sugar

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    I always have a batch of roasted sugar on hand. One note: it seems to work best with cane sugar, not beet sugar like we get here in the Midwest. Do not use organic sugar, but pure refined granulated cane sugar. It's a bit of a chore to make, but it really helps cut back the one-note sweetness in some desserts for a more complex less-sweet-tasting flavor.

• Chocolate angel's food cake

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    One day I really needed chocolate cake (naturally), and I had a ton of leftover egg whites from making ice cream. After falling in love with the regular angel food cake recipe, I used Stella's chocolate variation. Shockingly, this chocolate cake is deep and darkly flavored yet light as a cloud. You feel like you can eat half of the cake and not feel a tinge of guilt. I add 2 teaspoons of chocolate extract and 2 teaspoons Mexican vanilla extract to give the cake some deeper flavor notes.

• Devil's food chocolate ice cream

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    Want the chocolateiest chocolate ice cream out there? This is the recipe for you. Rich, dark, chewy, amazing. Don't even try to add a mix-in--the chocolate is so intense that it will hide any other flavors. Trust me.

• Caramel sauce

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    Best, simplest caramel sauce recipe I've used. A kitchen staple.

• Gluten-free White Mountain layer cake with marshmallow buttercream

  • ebalk02 on November 20, 2022

    Flavor was delicious, but the texture was a bit off. Sort of dense? I followed the recipe to the letter, but my assumption is that I did something wrong - possibly by refrigerating overnight. Not sure I'll try this one again.

• Gluten-free oatmeal cookies

  • ebalk02 on April 28, 2022

    Another winner. I used 3oz raisins instead of the 6oz dried cranberries as a matter of preference. Next time I would add more cinnamon. Baking took longer than the recommended 12 minutes. Loved the toasted pecans.

  • jenburkholder on July 15, 2020

    These are indistinguishable from the original recipe, and utterly delicious. Best oatmeal cookie ever.

• Double chocolate chopped chocolate chip cookies

  • ebalk02 on November 07, 2022

    Used two of the alterations to make gluten free double chocolate cookies. These were so delicious eaten warm, and definitely not overly sweet. Not quite as good after they had cooled completely the next day, but that may be more of a reflection of the gluten free nature, and wouldn't make assumptions about the standard cookie.

• Gluten-free carrot cake

  • ebalk02 on April 16, 2022

    Made a half recipe into gluten free carrot cake cupcakes. Baking required an additional 5 minutes on top of the suggested 20. Came out with a wonderful texture and flavor. Not overly spiced. Will make this again.

• Lemon mousse

  • ashallen on March 08, 2022

    I'm a big fan of both whipped cream and lemon flavors in desserts, so this really hit the spot. Really delicious. Very creamy but with good, strong lemon flavor. Texture is smooth, rich, creamy, and light. My egg yolks must have been smaller than the author's - I needed 10 to reach the 5 oz called for. The lemon custard was quite firm once chilled so some custard lumps survived my stirring and showed up as yellow blobs in the mousse (still delicious though). I didn't pay attention to quantities before starting and was a bit surprised to end up with 7 cups of mousse. That's a lot of mousse! I froze some of it in individual cups. The lemon flavors still come through great after freezing and the texture is like a dense semifreddo - very nice!

• Snow white vanilla mousse

  • ashallen on February 12, 2022

    This is a delicious variation on the Tahitian Vanilla Pudding recipe. Since the whipped cream folded into the pudding isn't sweetened, it helps cut the pudding's sweetness while also adding (even more) rich creaminess and a wonderfully lightened texture. My pudding had a slowly pourable texture after chilling, so folding in the whipped cream was easy.

• Creamsicle angel's food cake

  • ashallen on February 08, 2022

    Ooops, I managed to mess up an angel food cake for the first time ever by not watching carefully enough with this recipe! I followed the beating times and speeds with my Kitchenaid mixer precisely and ended up with a much stiffer and more voluminous meringue that the author describes. It lost some stability during baking so the cake didn't rise beyond the pan rim and has a coarse, shaggy, somewhat rubbery crumb. Fortunately the cake didn't collapse completely and the flavor is very good. I substituted 2 tsp vanilla extract for the vanilla bean, but the vanilla bean would have been excellent! Next time I'll focus more on the visual cues the author provides vs. the clock. I used previously frozen egg whites which might have contributed to the timing mismatch since I've read they whip up a little faster than fresh egg whites.

• Homemade Fig Newtons

  • Joanne117 on November 06, 2019

    If you are a Nabisco Fig newton fan, you will love these cookies. These cookies are even better! Clear, precise directions make the recipe very easy to follow and create successfully. Soft, fruit-filled cookie - pairs great with a cup of tea, glass of milk, and coffee.

• Brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts

  • taste24 on June 18, 2020

    These were pretty good, but instead of the classic brown sugar cinnamon flavor, the most pronounced flavor here was the dried apples. I would cut back on those (if possible) next time. The crust is spot on!

• Hazelnut brownies

  • jenburkholder on August 31, 2022

    This is her gluten-free variant of the regular brownie recipe, subbing in hazelnut meal for flour. It was very good, the texture really perfect. I halved the recipe and baked in an 8" square pan for the same amount of time. I am not sure that the hazelnut really added a ton of flavor so would consider trying with almond meal if I didn't have hazelnut around. Good keeper, too!

• Homemade Cracker Jack

  • jimandtammyfaye on March 12, 2023

    Really good. Different from my regular caramel popcorn that bakes slowly in the oven in that this coating is more deeply flavored, perhaps harder. Recipe didn't use all the popped popcorn. Will try other variations.

• Souffléed cheesecake

  • senzler on January 28, 2022

    Lovely cheese cake. I used sour cream and mascarpone because I hate goat cheese. Sometimes top with Rose Levy’strawberry sauce. My nephews love it that way

• Swiss meringue buttercream

  • rhb on November 23, 2022

    Love this buttercream. We use 1/2 t vanilla instead of vanilla bean and regular sugar instead of Roasted Sugar (we tried Roasted Sugar and it didn't work). Plain is a little "plain". We've made the milk chocolate version which was great. For the peanut butter version, we've made it with 3/4 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup, both so good. Recipe is actually on both pages 156 and 114.

• Baltimore fudge

  • rhb on November 18, 2022

    I made this for my dh because he loves fudge...I don't love fudge but I really liked this! I had a lot of trouble with the bench scraper part. The fudge stuck to everything except the parchment. I want to try this again, but for the bench scraper part, I will put a piece of parchment on top of the fudge and squash down on the parchment (the fudge layered between two pieces of parchment).

• Food52

  Most recipes in this book are preceded by an archeological dig, what she calls “culinary time travel,” which explain exactly how each is an integral part of American culture.

  Full review

• Food52

  With Parks’ recipes, you can make at home the classics you thought you could only get from bakery cases or supermarket shelves.

  Full review

• Food52

  ...the clarity of Parks’ writing, along with the fantastic “troubleshooting” tips or “key points” that accompany each recipe, made execution fulfilling and…fun!

  Full review

• Eat Your Books by Jenny Hartin

  Bravetart will change the way you bake.

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• Eat the Love

  ...my new go-to baking cookbook for rock solid recipes that not just imitate but improve upon the sweets I had growing up. This book is for every home baker in the America who loves American desserts.

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• Food in Jars

  This whole book is a worthy investment, but the pie section is the one I find myself turning to most often.

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• Simply Recipes

  This book is exhaustingly researched...well worth the wait. She tackles classic American desserts from basic yellow cake and traditional chocolate chip cookies to Oreos™ and Twinkies™

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• Food52

  Picked for Food52's November 2017 Cookbook Club.

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• Bake at 350

  ... she provides a history lesson with each recipe. The cookbook reads like a textbook...a FUN textbook. As I was reading it, I kept thinking, "THIS is what I should have studied in school!"

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• Bakerella

  ...tons of classic dessert recipes inside plus recipes...to recreate your favorite American brands like Twinkies, Oreos, Cracker Jacks, Pop Tarts, Fig Newtons, Snickers, Thin Mints and so much more.

  Full review

• Food52

  ...she insists on precision with her recipes, but she never forgets that sugary treats make people happy....making me want to try every one of its variations, bake more and more and more.

  Full review

• Food52

  ...classic American desserts like chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and carrot cake...Expect technique instruction, variations on classic themes, and history lessons along the way.

  Full review