• AngelNewsi on March 12, 2024

  FYI - all the recipes call for XL eggs. I typically buy large eggs (and I'm guessing that's true for most Americans.) Just a heads up!

• HazukaPie on December 22, 2023

  This book specifically uses Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is 3 grams per teaspoon. Most other table salts weigh more per teaspoon so you will need less if you don't buy this brand.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Banana bread

  • bwhip on January 01, 2025

    Wow is this some great banana bread. Pretty large, and takes a lot of bananas! I only used one split one for the top. I scaled back the nutmeg and cloves just a bit, since I was worried that they’d be overpowering. Flavor is great, not too sweet. Texture is fairly dense, but not too much so. Especially wonderful when warm from the oven!

  • LifeofPie on July 13, 2025

    I forgot the vanilla bean paste and omitted the sliced bananas on top. This is more of a cake than a dense bread but it is delicious! It seems like a lot of cinnamon sugar topping but just go with it. The parchment paper is definitely worth doing. I used thawed bananas that i had frozen to keep them from going bad and they worked perfectly. Make sure it's nice and smooth before adding the full fat (not greek) yogurt. 2+ cups of walnuts is not too much!

• Blueberry millet muffins

  • KDRonan on November 11, 2025

    I've made these over a dozen times and every time I share them they become a new favorite for everyone. The millet adds great texture with its crunchy bites and the brown butter makes them smell rich and delicious.

• Orange cranberry tea loaf

  • sdeathe on November 08, 2025

    Quite delicious, and pretty, too. A gentle orange flavour. I didn't add the topping, so this was still good a couple of days later. I made one additional small change by increasing the orange zest to 1 1/2 oranges. As I didn't use the topping, the loaf tested done at 55 minutes. Will make this again, especially at Christmas.

• Granola

  • kkmatti on February 11, 2024

    My new go-to granola recipe. Very crispy, good flavor profile, easy to make, and lots of granola clumps. The dates were a bit chewy for my taste so I'll probably leave them out next time.

• Peanut butter cookies

  • locopomtini on December 26, 2023

    Peanut butter cookie page 92. In spite of under cooking the dough, they were still dry and not much flavor. The topping was good and would consider incorporating it into other recipes I prefer. Be aware of how much salt, I love salt and it was a lot when added in several steps.

  • Helin on January 01, 2024

    Made the full recipe, which yielded enough dough for 52 cookies at 21g/cookie. | Be sure to make the divots large enough so that the peanut butter doesn't spill over. | The peanuts. A tablespoon and a half of salt is a whole lotta salt, even for three cups of peanuts (agree with locopomtini about the amount of salt in the recipe overall). Also, 20 peanuts per cookie seems like an insane amount? I maxed out at 10, and even then it seemed like overkill. | 8-9 minutes of bake time produced a *very* soft cookie in my oven, and the peanut butter and peanuts on top seemed to weigh the super soft cookie down.

  • tarae1204 on January 03, 2024

    I had success with this recipe. Step I omitted to manage salt: When preparing the cookies to bake, after making the divot and placing peanut butter in the divot, I did not sprinkle the peanut butter with sea salt. But, maybe if you are *not* adding extra-roasted and salted Spanish peanuts on top, then the extra flaky salt would be good instead. Both could be salt overkill. While making this recipe I found some inconsistencies with the metric and volume measurements for flour - I just stuck to metric. Regarding the divots and inserting the fresh peanut butter into them: it is very hard to measure the amount of peanut butter that will fit without spilling over during baking. I'm not a pastry bag person. So what I did to help is I created the divot, then gently tapped down on the dough to make the divot wall heights more equal. That way, peanut butter wouldn't spill out the lower side of the divot when baking. Ultimately, this is a delicious, slightly tricky recipe.

• Chocolate chunk cookies

  • bwhip on November 20, 2023

    These were excellent. I liked the method of baking them in rings, which gave them uniform size, shape and texture, and led to some delightful caramelized edges. Flavor was really good. My batch made just 13 cookies, using 3.15" rings. I also used just half the amount of chocolate chunks at the end to place on top (4 ounces rather than 8) - which was more than enough. Ours were fully baked in 17 minutes, straight from the refrigerator.

• Oatmeal raisin cookies

  • KDRonan on November 11, 2025

    I've made these several times- at first it takes some getting used to the fact that without the molds they are very loose cookies. But they firm up once cooled and are so buttery and delicious.

• Snickerdoodles

  • ldyndiuk on May 11, 2026

    These are terrible. They are unnecessarily complicated, with the browning of the butter, then cooling it in the mixer bowl on ice so it’s creamy. Then you mix the rest of the ingredients, chill for an hour, and bake a small number at a time. She calls for Demerara sugar for the dough, so it’s got these giant sugar crystals all through it, then you coat with more of that sugar and cinnamon. So many giant sugar crystals everywhere. She suggests cooking in a convection oven, and says (elsewhere in the book) to reduce the heat by 25 degrees for convention baking and that it will take less time. The time listed is 9-13 minutes (which is quite a range) but on the convection setting, mine took 15 and I think they’ll still underbaked. Hard to tell as the markers for being done are slightly domed and lightly browned - well they start as balls so they melt into domes after a few minutes, and they’re already covered in cinnamon and Demerara sugar, so they are already lightly browned.

• Brownies

  • KDRonan on November 11, 2025

    I've made several times and always get the feedback "these are the best Brownie EVER". Super rich but I use really good imported chocolate and high-quality butter to really showcase the ingredients.

• Chocolate chunk hazelnut slice-and-bake butter cookies

  • DKennedy on December 20, 2024

    Made these for part of a meal train basket. They come together in no time and are dead easy to make. Omitted the crushed hazelnuts on the outside and used crushed cacao nibs insted for a bit of texture and extra crunch.

• Rugelach

  • Helin on January 01, 2024

    This recipe worked well. I opted to make the date filling and found that I would have liked a little more of it than what the recipe yielded. The date flavor was less pronounced than the cinnamon sugar and the walnuts.

• Lemon bundt cake

  • bwhip on December 14, 2023

    This cake was good, very lemony, which we liked a lot. Fairly small for a standard bundt cake pan, filling it less than halfway. Texture wasn't what I was expecting, with a thick batter. More bready and a bit chewy, but not at all unpleasant, just different than I was expecting I guess. We definitely enjoyed its great lemony flavor.

• Madeleines

  • jdjd99 on January 29, 2024

    These were perfect. I even used a silicone mold which the author recommended against, but the convection oven made up for it. They had great color, texture, and flavor. Will definitely make again. I used a large silpat mold and halved the recipe and the yield was 16 cookies.

• Olive oil cakes

  • PriyaPath on March 29, 2026

    Everyone who’s has these has loved them. Surprisingly really really good. So moist and can be frozen after baking for a quick treat on hand. Give it a try you won’t be disappointed.

• Basque cheesecake

  • locopomtini on December 26, 2023

    I wish internal temp was listed. Removing cake when it’s pulling away from sides and jiggling led to overcooked cheesecake. Mine was barely pulling away. Final product way over cooked. Used convection oven method.

• Yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting

  • bwhip on November 20, 2023

    This recipe was a disappointing fail for us. Cake mixing method was odd compared to most of this type - mix the butter in with the dry ingredients first (like a scone), then add the liquid ingredients and mix on medium for several minutes. I worried that this would make the texture oddly tough, and it did. The frosting was sort of a ganache with some confectioners sugar and golden syrup, but being made with milk it was very thin and never completely set up. More of a chocolate sauce than frosting.

• Carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting

  • KDRonan on November 11, 2025

    This is a wonderful carrot cake. Really get the flavor of carrots with adding the puree and shredded carrots and the brown butter frosting is addictive. I've made into muffins as well without the frosting and also very nice, moist cupcake.