• Ravello45 on December 25, 2025

  Grand Marnier Soufflés Terrific flavor with very clear instructions. Successfully made base ahead of time. Served with ice cream, which is a great contrast to the hot soufflés. Make sure you use the correct size ramekin!

• EmilyR on October 30, 2022

  If you pre-ordered this book, be sure to get the extras that Claire has, which includes a very helpful little baking guide .pdf, which is available here : https://woobox.com/3kv9n2

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Persimmon panna cotta

  • tarae1204 on January 04, 2024

    Truly beautiful and delicious dessert. The creamy orange color is just gorgeous. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, because it is a little too loosely set, and it is hard to serve from a loaf shape. I used a knife, a fish spatula, and prayer to transfer slices from loaf to plate. The persimmon flavor is very elusive. The lemon and buttermilk are more predominant, and they are just delicious. I did not have fuyu persimmon slices as the garnish, and I think that would really enhance this dessert in terms of bringing out persimmon flavor and a texture dimension to distract from the richness of the pan cotta.

• Goat milk panna cotta with guava sauce

  • bfish on December 30, 2025

    Pretty good! Used regular goat milk, not evaporated, as suggested in the recipe. Didn’t set up as much as I would have liked, not really sure why. Maybe the sub, maybe I just goofed on the gelatin step? Anyway it was still really good, rich but kind of light and refreshing at the end of a rich holiday meal. Super easy too.

• Tiramisu-y icebox cake

  • funfoodie on March 24, 2025

    I liked that this recipe doesn't use raw eggs, as many traditional tiramisu recipes do. This was easy, but I reduce the Kahlua (too strong/bitter for my taste) to 1 oz and add an additional 1 oz of coffee. I will also add a bit of sugar and vanilla extract to the whipped cream topping because the plain whipped cream didn't have any flavor at all. I made stabilized whipped cream (using gelatin) so that leftovers will hold a little longer; the middle does get more soggy with time, but I'm okay with that.

• No-bake grapefruit bars

  • EmilyR on November 14, 2022

    Recipe can be found here : https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/no-bake-grapefruit-bars-recipe

  • jeff_43hg99 on February 08, 2026

    These are delicious and give creamsicle vibes. Next time I think I’ll add an extra tbsp of butter because the graham cracker crust was a bit crumbly.

• Marbled mint chocolate mousse

  • Staceydee on March 12, 2026

    delicious

• Coconut-jasmine rice pudding with lychee

  • lindsey_x2phf8 on March 07, 2026

    Easy recipe. Great for making ahead and surprising guests after dinner.

• Banoffee pudding

  • Staceydee on March 12, 2026

    Love this recipe

• Chocolate coupes

  • stef on November 14, 2022

    A nice easy dessert to make which isn't too sweet. My pudding set after 6 hours. Adding crushed chocolate wafers makes the dessert. It makes alot. I would cut recipe in half for 4 people next time.

  • bwhip on August 23, 2023

    Oh man, these are really good! Quick and easy. Putting the bowl of pudding in a larger ice bath bowl helps it cool faster, of course. The Nabisco chocolate wafers aren’t made any,ore, but we found some really good replacements - Dewey’s Bakery Brownie Crisp Cookies.” Recipe makes quite a bit. We didn’t have the right kind of glasses for coupes, so I just used ramekins.

• Sweet cheese blintzes with lemony apricot compote

  • Melissa_427 on January 07, 2023

    Was unable to source farmers cheese, so swapped in ricotta. Very delicious treat that we unabashedly enjoyed for breakfast.

  • alicek94 on October 17, 2023

    Despite what it says in the book, you can make the crepes gluten free! I just used a rice flour version and it came out great - froze well too

• Fennel & olive oil cake with blackberries

  • hibachrach on March 07, 2026

    Good texture, which can often be a miss for a yogurt cake. Made in a Pullman pan which gives nice straight sides. I didn’t taste the fennel at all, nor did my friend who had some. You probably will need to adjust the glaze as the it slid right off my fully cooled cake. If you have textural sensitivities, you may want to avoid this as blackberries have small seeds that WILL get stuck in your teeth.

• Rhubarb & oat crumb cakes

  • MonicaMadeIt on May 10, 2023

    I made these today using frozen rhubarb from last year and didn't have applesauce so used greek yogurt thinned with water. Overall, these are super easy and quick to mix up. Love not needing a mixer. They were a touch dry but that could be because of my substitution. Ultimately I wished the rhubarb was distributed throughout the muffin instead of just on top. The oats were barely noticeable and I wished there were more. Ultimately, I feel like rhubarb is such a special ingredient, available for a fleeting time, so I'd rather use it in other recipes.

• Honey-roasted apple cake

  • meggan on November 11, 2024

    I had some yummy chestnut honey and some apples past their prime as well a few pears. It’s dense and not too sweet. We eat it for breakfast.

  • als102 on September 05, 2025

    This is sooooo good. Agreed with the previous comment that it's a good breakfast cake. I served it with Greek yogurt "frosting" and it was delicious!!!

  • nick_ixtfmj on February 16, 2026

    I thought it was pretty good. I echo the sentiment that it is a dense cake, although I did have it for dessert. I found that the skins on the apples made it challenging to cut - I might peel the apples that are being mixed into the batter next time, and just leave the skin on the top decorative slices. I brushed some runny melted honey on top at the end to add some shine. All in all, good and I’ll make again if I have a surplus of apples.

• Blueberry buckle with cornflake streusel

  • Melissa_427 on January 18, 2023

    An incredible amount of blueberries in this! Really enjoyed the bake, I do think I had a slightly undersized pan, so the streusel was a bit excessive but no less delicious. Very impressed with how well this cake held onto its moisture, baked on Saturday and still enjoyed moist slices through Wednesday!

  • Frogcake on September 02, 2023

    We loved this buckle which was busting with blueberries! Served with homemade blueberry ice cream and fresh Quebec wild berries for the full blueberry experience! Second time around I had no cornflakes, and replaced this with large flake oats. Not as crunchy but awfully good too! It’s also amazing with coffee for breakfast.

• Morning glorious loaf cake

  • simone_lu3llo on March 09, 2026

    Tastes like a more breakfast appropriate version of carrot cake. Enjoyed the variety of textures; the maple cream cheese frosting was good as well.

• Cranberry anadama cake

  • rachelblair on November 12, 2022

    Noticed a mistake in this recipe. In the ingredients list is says 1 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar (225g) and then in the instructions it says to rub in zest with 1 cup (100g) of sugar. 2 tbsp of sugar does not weigh 125g so in the instructions it should say 200g not 100g since 1 cup of sugar does weigh 200g. I always cook with weights since it’s more accurate so it’s unfortunate that there is a mistake here. Overall the cake was fine, I had leftover cranberries from making cranberry sauce but I wouldn't make again.

• Sticky pumpkin-chestnut gingerbread

  • als102 on December 30, 2025

    This is the ULTIMATE dessert for the holidays. Sticky toffee pudding meets pumpkin bread. To die for.

• Crystallized Meyer lemon bundt cake

  • cmmills on February 04, 2023

    Good cake, however next time I would add an extra Tbsp of lemon zest to the cake batter to get more lemon flavor in the cake.

  • Astrid5555 on May 11, 2023

    This is a very good lemon bundt. I expected the top to be a little more crackly from the syrup, but still delicious.

  • mirjoy on April 14, 2026

    I followed the previous commenters advice and doubled the zest in the batter, and can only advise you to do the same. Triple might even work! (I have another lemon cake that uses 3 tbsp lemon zest and it’s delicious) The exterior of mine did not crystallize, but the cake stayed moist for days. 4 Meyer lemons only gave me 50g of lemon juice so I ended up using a combo of orange, lime, and regular lemons to get to 120g. I don’t know that this cake particularly needs Meyer lemons, I’d use a combo of regular lemons and orange next time and save the Meyers for something fresher.

  • CaptainPantsless on April 17, 2026

    A beautiful bundt. The olive oil measurement for the cake is wrong in the instructions - use the volume measurement or check the reddit thread with corrections for this book.

• Salty cashew blondies

  • mdcbakers on November 12, 2022

    The flavor of these is great. I did toast the cashews, which was optional. Overall, the cashew flavor is prominent and makes this special!

  • Frogcake on December 10, 2022

    Best cashew brownies I’ve ever tasted. These will be a regular on my Christmas treat platter! I highly recommend toasting the cashews too!

  • Nrnarayan on November 10, 2025

    Amazing! Follow the instructions to line the pull pan with foil - I did my normal routine of cooking spray and a strip of parchment and it was a struggle getting these out. Still worth it!

• Flourless chocolate meringue cake

  • Kinhawaii on November 20, 2022

    Delicious- the inside was light yet somewhat fudgey, the outside was a little friable- maybe because my pan is dark gray?

  • luluinphilly on December 17, 2022

    Wow. I made this for friend of ours who is gluten free for a Christmas party , but it was a hit with everyone. The inside was fudgy but somehow light. I needed only an hour of bake time and not the 1 hr 10 minutes. My oven tends to run cool , so I usually need longer bake times than recipes suggest, so if your oven is well calibrated , you might want to check things around 50 minutes.

  • mj_h3abuo on March 14, 2026

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• Choose-your-own-ending custards: crème brûlée or crème caramel

  • stef on January 02, 2023

    Made the creme brulee. Creme is made with demerara sugar which gives it a toasty colour. Bruelee is repeated twice which gives you a thicker surface to break thru. The creme brulee is nice and creamy and was ready in 30 minutes. My ramekins were oval.

  • deb_7q5vx3 on February 12, 2026

    I made the Creme Caramel and it was delicious.

• Toasted rice sablés

  • Kinhawaii on January 11, 2023

    Nice & crunchy, I think I would prefer some vanilla in them. I prefer & used crispy brown rice cereal so maybe that’s why?

  • mllamas on January 31, 2023

    Baker beware: these are very "sandy." More than I would've expected. Although, I found I grew to love them once I discovered they are delicious dipped into port wine, or slathered with peanut butter.

• All-in shortbreads

  • kellilee on January 22, 2023

    What a wonderful cookie! Ended up with 32 cookies instead of the 24 suggested. I should have used my kitchen scale to divide the dough because I had two different sized logs and of course the cooking times were different. Substituted turbinado sugar for demerara sugar. Also I substituted semisweet chocolate chips for finely chopped semisweet chocolate and that caused some challenge when it came time to slice the dough logs. Claire points out the "Potential Pitfall" of hitting a larger piece of chocolate or pecan causing the square to break apart but that happened with virtually every slice for me. I just pressed the pieces back together into a square and cooked. So crunchy and yummy!

• Baked semolina pudding with clementines & bay leaves

  • kellilee on January 29, 2023

    I've never had a clafoutis so not so sure if this dessert is clafoutis-like but it was definitely spoonable and custardy and pretty tasty. I cut the recipe in half since Claire indicates that this pudding is best served warm from the oven and there was only two of us. Note: By the time I woke up this morning, the rest of the pudding had mysteriously disappeared. I tried to cut my clementine into thin rounds but the skin was so loose around the clementine that the cutting was a big fail so instead I peeled the clementine and separated it into sections and proceeded with recipe. Visually it was pretty (even if not quite as intriguing as cookbook photo) but I'm not sure it produced the syrup flavor that was expected. The syrup was OK but not sure how much it added. I followed the directions for the making of the pudding and although I was not quite sure what consistency I was going for, Claire's directions were clear and the result was good. This was a unique and light dessert.

• Raspberry almond thumbprints

  • Astrid5555 on February 04, 2023

    I had high expectations for these cookies because of their looks, but we did not like them at all. My dough balls did not flatten during baking, so half way through the baking time I pressed down on them with a spatula. The final cookies were very dry and had only a very faint raspberry taste despite being coated in pulverized freeze-dried raspberries and filled with raspberry jam.

  • Melissa_427 on July 18, 2024

    I built this dough a couple months ago and then stored it in the freezer until our book club was able to meet in person since one member requires gluten free options. I finally got to bake these on Tuesday and everyone really enjoyed them and were so impressed with the quality and flavor given their own previous experiences with almond flour. I maybe undercooked the dough slightly and found using the end of a wooden spoon to create the thumbprint a little awkward (such a small space) but would happily make these again to serve especially if I'm with a group that requires some GF options.

  • katsrising on December 02, 2024

    I love these. I love a strong baking soda flavor so its possible that between that and the raspberry jam, these were design specifically for me. I make my own raspberry jam if I have too many that summer and honestly that makes a big difference!

  • lindsey_5xsrit on December 26, 2025

    My cookies came out a bit dense and I think I may have over baked because creating the imprints didn’t work as expected. I’ve made a dozen or so of Claire’s recipes, including ones with techniques I’m unfamiliar with, all with great success. This one was a bit awkward to follow - especially when branded as an easy recipe in book full of simple desserts.

• Banana-sesame cream tart

  • kellilee on February 26, 2023

    This is an interesting combination of flavors (sesame and banana) that works. This book is my first experience baking with Claire Saffitz but her recipes so far have been quite unique. I used graham crackers instead of Nilla wafers, toasted sesame seeds and added those to the crust as instructed. The crust baked up fine and held its shape when removed from the tart pan. The banana custard was a bit challenging. I'm not sure it set up perfectly but it is also possible that it needed a few more hours to chill - we ate our first slice at exactly four hours. You add toasted sesame oil to the custard before placing it in the baked tart shell - so different. Finally, the cream on top is simply sour cream and heavy cream. I whipped to medium peaks as instructed but I wish I had gone firmer with the whipped cream. I ended up with slightly soft custard topped with slightly soft whipped cream but a nice crunchy crust. Overall, the flavors were amazing and not too sweet.

• Roasted lemon tart

  • Camille92 on March 26, 2023

    Delicious, but struggled with the shortbread crust -- stuck to the sides of the tart pan (was unable to lift out of sides) and difficult to cut clean slices. Possibly user error on my end, but everything tasted very very good, good balance of sweet and lemony tartness

• Marbled sheet cake

  • bwhip on March 31, 2023

    Didn't love this one. Photo looked good and intriguing, but I think it would be much better with chocolate frosting rather than the cream cheese one, which was quite sweet. The cake texture was okay, but flavor was sort of meh for us.

  • kaylasa1012 on January 11, 2026

    Very moist and the flavors meld well together without fighting. We made one side the cream cheese frosting listed and one side the chocolate frosting from her first book - they both bring out good flavors from the cake.

  • Chibblywibbly on February 04, 2026

    Cake was fine - very boxed cake mix in a good way. Icing was a disaster (turned out so liquidy) and the cream cheese kind of overshadowed the cake itself.

• Blue & white cookies

  • kellilee on April 08, 2023

    This recipe is easy but it does take time as there are several steps. But you end up with cookies that are yummy and soft and big and oh-so-pretty. Got the best possible compliment from 3-year-old twins whose mother tried to serve only half of the cookie but both kids insisted on eating the other half immediately. That makes the work worth it!

• Caramel peanut popcorn bars

  • MonicaMadeIt on December 19, 2023

    I made this for a holiday party. They were so good that our neighbors stole the leftovers. I did make it in a 9x13 pan instead of 8x8, since the photos showed a very thick bar and I didn't want that. There could have been a little more caramel, which would have solved the only problem of the bars falling apart upon slicing. Otherwise, an easy, delicious hit.

• Cocoa-chestnut brownies

  • MonicaMadeIt on January 01, 2024

    Made these w/gluten free flour for a holiday party. They were good, and the chestnuts did add a nice flavor/texture, but not worth seeking out chestnuts when they are not readily available IMO. I made 140% of the original recipe because roasted chestnuts were only available in 5-oz packages and I didn't want to have a small amount of chestnuts left over without a plan.

• S'mores tart

  • lavenderfields on February 17, 2024

    This was really, really delicious. Refrigerated after the 2nd day and the marshmallow still held up great, though I might've whipped mine up a bit firmer than intended. Beware of typo in the ingredients--the 3/4 cup sugar is a misprint, doesn't go anywhere.

• Sugar cookies

  • lindsey_5xsrit on December 25, 2025

    This is a great, basic slice-and-bake sugar cookie. Made them a few times and they’re always get compliments. They’re not a fancy cookie but a foolproof homemade version of the classic - plus I love that I can roll them in colored sugar for the holidays.

• Hot fudge sauce

  • ljl1989 on January 21, 2026

    Overly finicky recipe with an outcome that's not worth the pain. My fudge cooked and split much faster than the recipe calls for, even on the lowest flame my stove will go to (and if you watch Claire's video version of the recipe, the same thing happens to her so uh...maybe it shouldn't cook for 45 minutes??). You have to stand over it the entire time to prevent burning and crystallization. I think the finished texture is borderline too thick. Basically - I'd just try another sauce. Deb's recipe on the Smitten Kitchen site is much easier, and I prefer the finished product.

• Malted banana upside-down cake with malted cream

  • apalmer91 on February 09, 2026

    Absolutely incredible. One of Claire’s best dishes.

• Glazed spelt graham crackers

  • lindsey_5xsrit on February 26, 2026

    A delicious cookie - the graham cracker itself isn’t too sweet and has great flavor. I found the glaze to be unnecessary but my husband liked the added sweetness. Take the time to roll them nice and thin as they do puff a little in the oven. Would make again and do think the cracker would make a great crust.

• Cinnamon-&-sugar apple pie

  • kathryn_4apxor on April 18, 2026

    used a pie bird with the double crust - perfect!