Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cenk's house cookies

  • Mtetpon on November 13, 2019

    I really loved these cookies. A nice crunch.

• Lime & ginger cookies

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    These cookies have tremendous flavor, as do all of Cenk's recipes. I had hoped that they were more shortbread-like, but they turned out a bit greasy for my taste. However, my friends devoured them.

  • Jane on February 18, 2020

    A simple cookie with clean, fresh taste from the ginger and lime. It's not my favorite kind of cookie (no nuts or chocolate!) but of its type, it is a good cookie. Cenk claims the cookies retain their crispness and flavor for months but mine didn't last that long.

• Hazelnut & caramel cookies

  • Zosia on January 04, 2018

    I love hazelnuts so it's no surprise that I loved these cookies that comprised toasted hazelnuts in caramel supported by a tender shortbread base. I did have an issue with some of the cream mixture running off and baking onto the cookie sheet. The author addresses this and mentions cookie spread preventing this; mine didn't spread so I wonder if allowing the cookies to warm a little from the freezer before baking may help.

• Crispy-chewy oatmeal walnut cookies

  • BasicStock on February 11, 2018

    One could do a Phd on the variations possible to an oatmeal cookie recipe with varying the ratios of butter, sugar, flour and oats. These are mostly oats and not too sweet, with a nice crispness and yet some chewiness. I reduced the walnuts to 2 cups and added 1 cup of raisins. Think I will try the recipe with a larger addition of raisins, their sweetness works well with the less sweet dough and they would add a interesting dimension of chewiness. A stellar cookie recipe.

  • JulieCruz on September 06, 2019

    The texture is great, just the right amount of chew. Definitely not a sweet cookie which allows the toasted walnut flavor to shine. I didn’t go as dark as Cenk suggested on the walnuts but I did push my normal toasting level a bit. Not a disappointment but I probably won’t make again.

• Classic brownies

  • bwhip on October 26, 2017

    First recipe I've tried from this book, which looks absolutely fantastic. The brownies were wonderful! Some of the best we've ever tried (and we eat a lot of brownies :) ). Nice crispy edges, flaky top, and a dense and fudgy interior with deep, dark chocolate flavor. Excellent! Looking forward to trying many more recipes from this wonderful book.

  • anya_sf on March 08, 2022

    The brownies seemed too wobbly after 25 min of baking, so I baked them 2 extra minutes and was happy with the texture. These were super fudgy, chocolatey, and rich! Definitely more of an "adult" brownie. My family loved them.

  • Kinhawaii on March 22, 2025

    Very rich & fudgy with a ton of chocolate. The flavor of which chocolate you choose really comes through. Good!

• Dulce de leche brownies

  • Zosia on June 14, 2018

    This is a variation of the book's classic brownies, an extra chocolatey, fudgy brownie with pockets of gooey dulce de leche. Fabulous (even though I cheated and used store bought dulce de leche).

• Brownies my way

  • marymc on January 27, 2018

    Overall very rich chocolate flavor with a dense, moist and fudgy crumb. Actually a bit more fudgy than I care for.

• Double chocolate bundt cake

  • bwhip on November 21, 2017

    Oh my goodness, this cake is exceptional! Deep, dark, rich, VERY chocolate. Wonderful crumb, and a nice crispy edge. Perfection.

  • anya_sf on September 21, 2019

    My bundt pan is dark-colored, so I should have reduced the oven temperature by 25 degrees, but didn't. The edges of the cake overbaked before the center was done, so the cake ended up a bit dry. Nevertheless, the flavor was very good. The glaze is applied when warm and very runny, so I scraped up the excess and poured over a second coat. Coverage was still fairly thin, but adequate. There was a lot of extra glaze. We enjoyed the deep chocolate flavor of this cake.

  • stpbcyld50 on July 31, 2020

    Good flavor, crusty on the outside and dense. Very brownie like

• Three-bean vanilla bundt cake

  • bwhip on January 23, 2018

    For some reason this recipe appealed to me, despite the fact that I really don't like white chocolate, which is one of the ingredients. I do, however, like strong, pure vanilla flavor, and because we always seem to eat chocolate-centric cakes, the simplicity of a vanilla cake appealed to me as a nice alternative. This turned out great, with really wonderful flavor for days.

• Deeply appley apple cake

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    To be completely honest, this cake takes a lot of work: primarily with cooking down the apples. However, if you use very flavorful (and tart) apples, the resulting cake is absolutely enchanting and appley. My friends were first wondering about the flavor of the cake, then they took a bite immediately hit with the intense apple notes. Next time I'd top this with an apple cider caramel sauce.

  • sberes on September 20, 2019

    A little bit of a project. I used a tart apple from New York. The batter before the addition of flour tastes amazing. It lost a bit of apple flavor during the bake. We had a piece still warm and the crumb is amazing. I baked it 45 minutes. My family gave it 5 stars but I give it 4. I will make again but I would definitely bake the purée longer this time. I baked 45 minutes and although it looked like stiff whipped cream I had about double the amount of purée left over. I wonder/ hope it would make a difference in the amount of apple flavor once baked

  • chawkins on November 29, 2019

    Deeply disappointed with this cake. Mind you, it is an excellent cake, moist and nicely spiced but just not as appley as I expected it to be. It is just a glorified apple sauce cake. I probably did not reduce my apple mixture enough because I had quite a bit left over and I used honey crisp apples. None the less, I'm happy I tried this recipe, it allowed me to use my latest thrift store find, a Nordic Heritage bundt pan for $5. ETA: the leftover apple sauce was absolutely delicious, no need to add sweetener, just wonderful.

  • anya_sf on September 15, 2025

    I made 1/2 recipe using local Gravenstein apples and was very happy with the flavor. This is really a spiced applesauce cake, but the tang of the apples definitely came through. Although my sauce reduced in the oven for an hour and held its shape, there was much more than stated. My cake baked 45 min which was probably a few minutes too long, but the cake was still pretty moist.

• Sour cherry & almond upside-down cake

  • TrishaCP on June 25, 2018

    This cake is delicious. I was worried about the amount of fat in the batter (10 tablespoons of butter plus almond flour), but it was moist and not at all greasy. I needed 10 minutes more of baking time so that the center of my cake was cooked through. Even so, my cherries weren't as dark as in the picture.

  • martinhenry on December 19, 2018

    I assume that Cenk was using darker sour cherries that he has available in Turkey. The montmorency (or balaton if you're lucky) that we get from Michigan are much lighter in color, but still amazingly flavorful. This cake is a bit of a revelation. I adore sour cherries, but don't always have time to make pie. This cake is so simple, and comes together in a (relative) flash. I added 1/4 tsp of almond extract the second time I made this cake, and I really liked the ever-so-slight flavor it added.

  • jzanger on July 30, 2025

    I agree, this is a delicious way to enjoy sour cherries. I made this in a 10” pan using 1.5x the cake batter and about 2x the cherries (with 1.5x the sugar). I had only Diamond Crystal kosher salt and I used about 1 1/4 tsp which was perfect to us. After awhile of simmering I drained cherries, put them in the cake pan and then allowed the cherry syrup to continue reducing until thickened. If you have a few quarts of sour cherries and you want to make the most of them, I highly recommend this recipe. Definitely serve it with vanilla ice cream.

• Raspberry & pistachio crumb cake

  • anya_sf on June 24, 2025

    Delicious. I used 70 g more raspberries as I had them. My cake took quite a bit longer (maybe 20 min?) to bake. After 55 min, I covered the topping to avoid overbrowning, but that seemed to be preventing the center from baking so I removed it after 10 min and the topping was okay. It's good the pan was lined with parchment as the edges got borderline dry. It's a tall cake - would maybe use a 9"x9" pan next time.

• Banana walnut muffins

  • anya_sf on September 14, 2019

    White whole wheat flour worked well instead of all-purpose. I just greased the muffin tins with cooking spray (didn't flour them) and the muffins didn't stick at all. After 27 minutes in the oven, they were already a little overdone, so check early. The muffins tasted delicious, although sweeter I'd usually make. I loved the coconut.

  • Zosia on April 28, 2020

    These had great banana flavour, the crumb was tender even made with whole wheat all purpose and pastry flours (half each) and we loved the crunch of the toasted walnuts on top. Bake time was 23 minutes in my oven. I omitted the coconut.

  • jvozoff on January 28, 2024

    Cut sugar by 1/3 and didn’t top with walnuts. These are my family’s new favorite banana muffins.

• Orange & poppy seed olive oil cake

  • anya_sf on September 07, 2019

    A lovely, moist, tender cake. I loved the combination of orange, almond, and poppy seed. The olive oil flavor wasn't particularly noticeable. My orange only yielded 1/4 c. juice, so I made less glaze, but it seemed like enough. Unlike some other loaf cakes, this glaze merely coats the outside of the cake, rather than seeping into it.

• Chocolate cheesecake

  • Jane on November 13, 2017

    A lovely though very rich cheesecake, great for a dinner party if following a light main course. I did follow his instructions and make the cookie crumbs though I’m not sure how much different they were than bought cookies. It’s a dense cheesecake with a strong chocolate flavor - some people at the dinner didn’t realize it was a cheesecake. I used Valrhona 64% Manjari rather than his suggested 70% which would have been even more chocolatey.

• Triple raspberry & lemon birthday cake

  • leilx on April 02, 2022

    Not too challenging and very good. Love the fresh raspberries in the middle.

• Eton mess

  • anya_sf on September 22, 2019

    I'm not sure if I did something wrong - I'm not an expert with meringue or jam. I thought the meringue was done after the stated baking time, but discovered when I started assembling the dessert that it was not dry in the center. I used the dry edge pieces, but couldn't make the dessert look very nice. The strawberry syrup cooked very quickly, so the temperature got too high and it hardened. I ended up just mixing the meringue shards, berries, cream, and almonds together, so this dessert was truly a mess. It did taste good though.

• Raspberry, white chocolate & yogurt tart

  • Jane on January 01, 2018

    Lovely dessert, both delicious and pretty. Creamy tangy sweet tart filling topped with raspberries. Pastry is also great. A repeater - and he suggests other fruits so it’s a good year-round recipe.

  • anya_sf on September 06, 2019

    I made half the recipe in 7" tart pan. It was fairly easy to make and turned out perfectly. The white chocolate and yogurt filling may be a new favorite - just delicious with the almond pastry and raspberries. 2% Greek yogurt worked fine in the filling.

• Chocolate & salted caramel tart

  • Zosia on February 15, 2020

    Very rich and decadent. The filling was equal parts caramel and chocolate ganache, a ratio I haven't seen in my other recipes of this type. That ended up being a little problematic as the caramel oozed out and made the tart difficult/messy to eat. Flavour was excellent though.

• Pistachio frangipane & apricot tart

  • anya_sf on July 03, 2025

    Although my apricots were small, 8 of them were pretty crowded on the tart; in hindsight, I should have only used 7. The frangipane took 10 minutes longer to set (due to crowding and apricot juices, I'm sure), and as it cooled, I realized it actually could have used 5 more minutes. The crust browned too much, but luckily did not burn. The tart was really delicious, even without whipped cream on top.

• Tomato confit & pesto quiche

  • anya_sf on September 08, 2019

    My tomatoes were smaller and falling apart, so I used more of them. In the pesto, I substituted almonds for pine nuts. The pesto was fairly dry, which was good with all the oil/cream/butter in the other components. I needed to prebake the crust an extra 10 minutes covered and an extra 5 minutes uncovered, but that could be because my quiche pan was ceramic. With a rather thin amount of filling and not much egg, I'd call this more of a tart than a quiche, but regardless, we absolutely loved it. The crust was tender and flaky and the flavor of the filling was divine.

• Rosemary & sea salt focaccia

  • anya_sf on July 23, 2020

    I've tried several focaccia recipes recently and this one strikes a good balance of being relatively quick to make (i.e., done in half a workday) and having great texture and flavor. After folding the dough after the first rise, I had to wait nearly 40 minutes before I could stretch the dough completely, but otherwise the recipe worked perfectly.

• Whole-wheat & kefir Pullman loaf

  • anya_sf on September 15, 2019

    This bread was easy to make by hand, but does require the special Pullman loaf pan. In my 70-degree kitchen, the second rise took closer to 2 hours. My loaf baked in 50 minutes. It had a close texture, making it easy to slice, and tasted hearty but not heavy (reminiscent of Eli's Health bread). We used it for smoked salmon and avocado tartines, and also enjoyed it simply toasted with butter and/or jam.

• Salted caramel ice cream

  • pattyatbryce on May 12, 2021

    Excellent ice cream. The custard didn't taste salty, but the overnight rest and addition of the caramels made the whole thing come out perfect. Don't skip the step of adding the caramels. They take this from good to great.

• Roasted strawberry ice cream

  • sberes on September 22, 2019

    Roasted strawberry ice cream - The Artful Baker ebook. So amazing. 10 stars - is there such a thing. The ice cream was smooth, creamy, and the caramelized pieces were the perfect slightly tart complement. It was the best strawberry ice cream I’ve ever tasted. P.S. not real sweet.

  • anya_sf on October 13, 2019

    This was the best strawberry ice cream I have ever made - so creamy despite having only one cup of cream, and excellent strawberry flavor. Note that this recipe makes 1.25 quarts, which slightly exceeded the capacity of my ice cream maker.

  • Twysbeek on June 12, 2021

    The roasted strawberry chunks are so good. It is a very strawberry intense ice cream. Good, I would definitely do the roasted berries again. Not honestly a big fan of strawberry ice cream in general, and this was a whole lot of steps. I would likely utilize the roasted strawberries in an another recipe next time. I made this in April, not peak strawberry season.

  • jimandtammyfaye on January 08, 2023

    This received high praise from all who tasted it. It has intense strawberry flavor and a rich texture that is smooth and creamy. The custard contains strawberry puree, the juice drained from macerating the strawberries, as well as roasted strawberry pieces. I made the roasted strawberries and strawberry puree ahead of time and stored them in the fridge until evening when I had a chance to make the custard. Well worth the effort! Best strawberry ice cream I've ever tasted.

  • mamacrumbcake on August 08, 2025

    Delicious strawberry ice cream, with fresh, vibrant strawberry flavor.

• Blackberry swirl frozen yogurt

  • anya_sf on February 22, 2020

    Fage 5% Greek yogurt worked well. Watch the sugar carefully, as it melts very quickly; the first time I made caramel and had to start again. To me, there didn't seem like there'd be enough blackberry swirl (the best part, right?), so I doubled it, but actually that was a mistake since the yogurt flavor was lovely, the tartness needed to balance the intense sweetness of the blackberry jam. The texture was quite smooth and creamy.

• Isabella grape & kefir ice cream

  • anya_sf on January 22, 2020

    This is more like sherbet, or almost sorbet, than ice cream, as there is much more grape juice+sugar than kefir. I used Concord grapes since we don't get Isabella grapes here. The ice cream was fairly smooth in texture and tasted a lot like your standard purple grape juice (not too surprising, since that's typically made from Concord grapes). The kefir added a hint of creaminess and balanced the sweetness a little.

• Salted butter caramels

  • pattyatbryce on May 12, 2021

    These came out great. They were wonderful in the salted caramel ice cream from this book or just on their own.

• Passion fruit caramels

  • Xyz123 on March 08, 2021

    I grow my own lilikoi and so I know how tart they can be, but this recipe was incredibly tart. Worse than a lemon drop. I didn’t care for it.

  • jimandtammyfaye on January 03, 2023

    Wonderful texture but did not enjoy the passion fruit flavor as much as the raspberry caramels. I played around with different flavors: white peach (a little bland/pair with another flavor) and pear with cinnamon honey (still lighter flavor than raspberry but quite nice)

• Million-dollar raspberry caramels

  • jimandtammyfaye on January 03, 2023

    These are extraordinary. They make wonderful treats to share at Christmas. Would not have attempted the recipe had it not been COVID 2020, but these were the perfect project. Hardest part was waiting for seeds to be removed from raspberry puree.

• Raspberry lemonade

  • anya_sf on July 10, 2025

    The raspberry syrup turned out fairly concentrated and viscous with good raspberry flavor, a great use for past-their-prime berries. The lemonade was a perfect balance of tart and sweet, good as written but also nice as a cocktail with lemon vodka. The syrup was also enjoyable mixed with sparkling water.

• Green apple pectin stock

  • mamacrumbcake on August 14, 2020

    This worked out really well in the Raspberry Jewel Pluot Jam. However, unless you have a ready supply of green apples (like your own tree) I don’t think it makes sense to make your own pectin. Apples are expensive.

• Raspberry jewel pluot jam

  • mamacrumbcake on August 14, 2020

    Delicious jam with gorgeous color and bright, fruity flavor.

• Almond short tart dough

  • anya_sf on September 08, 2019

    Easy to make, although I had to add a bit of water for the dough to come together.

• Flaky pie dough

  • anya_sf on September 08, 2019

    I needed the full amount of water for the dough to come together. Rolling the crust between parchment sheets was a bit awkward, partly because my parchment sheets are precut for a half sheet pan and the crust needs to be rolled wider than the narrow edge. The dough started to stick to the parchment, but I managed. My quiche pan was ceramic so I didn't do the freezing and trimming the edges step (and the edges were thick enough already), just trimmed them slightly above the pan rim, then froze for 20 min before baking. I had to bake the crust an extra 10 minutes covered and an extra 5 minutes uncovered, but it turned out great for the quiche: tender and flaky, no soggy bottom.

• Tomato confit

  • anya_sf on September 08, 2019

    I skipped the thyme. My tomatoes were very ripe, and after 2 hours in the oven, they were totally falling apart and didn't really hold their shape at all. I was too lazy to baste with olive oil, which I think was fine since I used them in the quiche, but I'd do it if I were serving them differently. The tomato oil made a delicious vinaigrette.

• Pesto

  • anya_sf on September 08, 2019

    This is a fairly standard pesto recipe, albeit on the dry side, which I prefer as one can always add more oil to taste. I didn't have pine nuts, so I substituted almonds. The food processor method worked well.

• Cocoa short tart dough

  • Zosia on February 15, 2020

    Great recipe. Good chocolate flavour, not too sweet and baked without cracking. I appreciate that the author tells you how much dough is required for different tart pans; I made .75 of the recipe for a rectangular tart pan.

• Vanilla bean short tart dough

  • anya_sf on July 03, 2025

    Easy to make, no rolling or overnight rest needed. I skipped the vanilla bean, just used extract. Not all the dough was needed for the 4"x13" pan (extra would make tasty cookies). Blind baking (on a lined baking sheet) worked well, just needing a few extra minutes uncovered.

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