Musings of a Wench

Cookbook Spotlight

I was thrilled when Sara invited me to participate in the cookbook spotlight for Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From my home to yours". I firmly believed there is no such thing as too many cookbooks (as my groaning bookshelf proves) and I was thrilled to try out so new recipes.

I will admit - I read every single recipe in the book. Dorie's prose is just marvelous, and she really has one of the strongest voices I've ever read in a cookbook. In reading through it, I also came away with the feeling that everything I will ever try in this book will work. She is exceedingly meticulous and full of helpful hints, timing tips, texture changes to observe, and so on.

As my first test for this book, I choose chocolate chip cookies, which have been my personal nemesis for years. I have never been able to make anything more than a passable batch of chocolate chip cookies in my life. I can do almost everything else, but never had any luck with those. I figured if this book could make great choco chip cookies, then I could probably use it for everything.

Verdict?

They may not be the most pretty cookies ever, but they were hands down, without a question, the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made in my entire life, without a question. (I'm not much of a photographer, sorry.) I sent some with John to work as a thank you for his team for all the crazy hours they are pulling, and was told they got absolutely rave reviews from everyone, so I'm pretty sure it's not just me who wanted to devour the lot in one pass. I really liked her tip about cutting up blocks of chocolate instead of using chips for a more interesting taste and texture. I did blanch at using 2 whole cups of chips, but what the hell, it was worth it.

For my second recipe, I dithered back and forth before settling on the coconut tea cake, and I love both tea cakes and coconut.

It went together really easily and quickly, and it tasted fabulous. Very subtle coconut taste, for all the coconut milk and coconut flakes. The cake was very simple, with a nice dense crumb. John wasn't a huge fan - he found it too dry. (He was raised in a house where the only cake you ever get is about an inch high and very chocolaty, so I don't think his opinion amounts to too much in this cake. This was a very bad dense chocolate cake, but a very, very good coconut tea cake.) Great for randomly nibbling on and off all day. I also liked it because it didn't call for any milk at all. It's hard to find dairy free desserts, and this book had a great many.

To tempt John into helping eat the cake, I made a simple icing of water, icing sugar and vanilla.

I love this cookbook. I can't wait for my mom to have a birthday in a few months, so that I can make her a very impressive cake. I also want to make the world peace cookies with fleur de sel, the lemon tart, one of the half dozen brownie recipes...

posted by peasantwench @ 1:51 PM