TASTE OF HOME'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO BAKING

PUBLISHER: Reiman  Media Group, 2004
GENRE: Cookbooks/Baking
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

FROM PUBLISHER: Index: Baking Basics, Cookies, Bars and Brownies, Cakes, Cheesecakes, Pies and Tarts, Desserts, Quick Bread, Muffins, Biscuits, and Scones, Savory Yeast Breads, Sweet Yeast Breads.

THINGS I'VE MADE

CARAWAY CHEESE BREAD

This is so good. I left out the caraway seeds and tablespoon of Dijon mustard. I added black pepper and 1 t. dried chives and used a little less cheese but should have used the full amount. This definitely needs more salt. It's very moist and uses plain yogurt. I didn't have quite enough yogurt, just had 5.3 oz so I added enough whole milk to it to equal the 8 oz. that was needed. I made this in a 9" x 5" loaf pan, as specified, for 30 minutes. I'd definitely make this again.

The recipe is here on their site.

CINNAMON COFFEE CAKE

I made half the recipe in a 9" x 2" baking dish. It baked in 46 minutes and made a very thick cake. I made my own glaze for it. This has 1c. sour cream in the batter but it's not quite as moist as I'd hoped. There's a layer of cinnamon and sugar in the batter that I swirled with a knife. Instead of putting chopped pecans in the layer I added ground pecans to the batter. This tastes very good and I'd make it again but I'd make half of this in an 8" pan.

CHERRY ALMOND CHEWS

These cookies are made with all shortening, no butter. I left out the coconut completely and added 1 c. of chopped dried sweetened cherries to the dough. I added chopped almonds like the recipe specifies. I didn't add a halved maraschino cherry to the top of the unbaked doughball. I made half the recipe and got 30 doughballs using a 1 tablespoon/1.5" diameter scoop. I flattened each one slightly before baking because I was scared it wouldn't spread out like it should during baking. The dough starts to brown quickly, at just five minutes, and at ten minutes they were too crunchy for me. Those are the ones in my photograph. I baked the second batch for 9 minutes after letting the cold dough sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

This cookie is shown on the back cover, along with a few others. You can get the recipe here on their site.

FUDGE RIPPLE BROWNIES

I made half the recipe in an 8" square pan. These are very most and cakelike. Mine baked in just 15 minutes. I didn't make the vanilla frosting and chocolate drizzle. I did make my own chocolate frosting and sprinkled the top with ground pecans. There's a little too much salt in these and they aren't quite sweet enough. I wouldn't make these again.

BAKED CUSTARD

This is your basic baked custard that gets divided into separate bowls/ramekins and are placed in a large pan that's filled with boiling water. This recipe produced a very wobbly and not too firm custard. The egg-to-milk ratio is way off. This used just 2 eggs for 2c. milk. Most custards are 3 or 4 eggs per 1.5c. milk. This taste good, like all the other ones I've made, but because of how soft and wobbly it is I wouldn't make this recipe again.

I added 1/2c. melted milk chocolate to the mixture and I seriously doubt that affected the outcome. I've done the same exact thing with many other custard recipes and have had great success. The chocolate flavor is very subtle. I used half and half in place of milk. I added 1/2t. vanilla extract though the recipe called for none. I was to use four 8oz. bowls but I used three 10oz. bowls instead. Mine were a little overbaked at 35 minutes because the very top and bottom of the custard in each was curdled.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a large, heavy hardcover book without a dust jacket. It's full-color and has one to three recipes per page and one photo per page. It even has photo instructions for some recipes. I like most of what I made and this is a great looking book.