THE TREATS TRUCK BAKING BOOK by Kim Ima

PUB. INFO: William Morrow, Nov. 2011
FORMAT: Hardcover 159 pages
GRADE: A

From Publisher: Hi! My name is Kim (or the Treats Truck lady), and I love treats. I love them. A lot. And I’m very excited to share with you my favorite recipes for cookies, brownies, bars, cakes, pies, and specials from the truck. Mix and Match with your own touches as you wish! Bake for your friends and family! Neighbors! Coworkers! Classmates! Secret crush! Beloved great-aunt! (Or just for your own delight!)

CHOCOLATE CHIPPERS: This is your basic chocolate chip cookie. I made half the recipe, which made 26 and they turned out perfectly. They weren’t quite sweet enough so when I made them again I added an extra 2 T. of white sugar. This recipe is a keeper for me.

CHOCOLATE TRUCKERS: This is a chocolate sandwich cookie with a white cream filling. I cut way down on the cocoa powder, using just 3 T. instead of 16. Yes, you read that right. Unsweetened cocoa powder is very strong and I knew 3 T. would be plenty, and it was. I didn’t think to use extra flour in place of the absent cocoa powder so the cookies turned out a bit flatter than I liked. Instead of rolling the dough out and cutting out small cookies, I rolled the mixture into balls using a 1 t. measuring spoon. I ended up with about 33 sandwich cookies. I chose to use my own vanilla frosting recipe, which uses part margarine and part shortening, as I don’t like classic buttercream frosting, which is what the recipe in the book called for.

If you roll the dough into small balls instead of rolling the dough out, this is a very simple and easy recipe to work with. Next time I just have to increase the amount of flour to make up for lack of cocoa power I’ll be omitting and they should turn out less flat. This recipe is a keeper for me too.

SUGAR DOTS SUGAR COOKIES: This is a basic all butter sugar cookie recipe, pictured above as a sandwich cookie. Instead of rolling the dough out and cutting out cookies, I chose to roll the firm dough into small balls and flatten them with the bottom of a glass. Make sure you bake them until they’re a deep golden color around the edges. The cookies will be crunchy on the outside and softer in the middle. I thought they were a little too sweet so I’ll use 1/3 c. of sugar next time instead of 1/2 c. I’m not a big fan of an all butter sugar cookie but was impressed with the good flavor this one had. I made sandwich cookies out of this one and used my own white frosting recipe and added minced maraschino cherries to it. Next time I make these, I’ll not make sandwich cookies out of them.

OUR FAVORITE VANILLA CAKE: I made half this recipe and got 12 cupcakes. I followed the recipe exactly and added about 1/4 c. minced maraschino cherries to the batter. The cupcakes tasted OK but I didn’t like how heavy they were. I used my own recipe for white frosting.

I plan to make a few more things from the book. I like the smaller size of this hardcover. It’s heavy but not bulky. I’d have preferred more photos but felt it had a decent amount. All recipes were very easy to follow.

Catagories are: Cookies, Brownies, Bars and Squares, Cakes and Cupcakes, Pies. There’s also a recipe index in the back. I’m happy with this book and would recommend it it others.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All photos in this review came from inside the book.