ONE-POT CAJUN CHICKEN ALFREDO by No. 2 Pencil

This recipe is from No. 2 Pencil and it's a great one. I made just half and used rotini pasta. Rotini is shorter than penne. I cooked onion first, then added everything else, and I used garlic powder in place of real garlic. I left out the sausage and just used a piece of baked boneless skinless chicken breast that I shredded and added after the pasta had cooked. I added a handful of frozen broccoli florets too so it could cook in the broth. I used half and half (half cream and half whole milk) in place of heavy cream. I used slightly less cajun seasoning and this was nearly ruined from too much salt from it. The amount of Parmesan cheese is perfect. I didn't add pepper or salt because the cajun seasoning had plenty of both in it. Half the recipe is still too much so I'll make 1/4 of the recipe next time.

I grade this an A!

MOIST WHITE CAKE from I Scream For Buttercream

This cake is from I Scream for Buttercream. It's extremely moist and heavy. It uses shortening, butter, and sour cream. I made half the recipe in two 6" x 2" square pans. The batter filled each one up 2/3 of the way. They baked in 23 minutes and they baked up flat on top, which I like best for layer cakes. I added half of a 10 oz. jar of drained and chopped maraschino cherries and 3/8 t. pure almond extract and an extra 1/8 t. salt, but it needed more. I didn't use the butter and almond emulsion. The frosted cake is only 3" tall.

This cake is a bit sticky from all the sugar, more so on bottom, so make sure you line the bottoms of your pans with parchment paper, wax paper or foil and spray your pan well with nonstick cooking spray and let cakes cool in pan ten minutes before removing them, or just line your entire pan with foil. 

I made my own buttercream for this using 3 c. powdered sugar, not weighed out, 4 T. softened spread (I don't like butter in frosting unless it's chocolate so I use Blue Bonnet), 2 T. room temperature shortening, 1 1/4 t. pure vanilla extract, about 5 teaspoons milk, and two drops of blue and one drop of green liquid food coloring to get pale aqua.

I grade this an A+ but it does require more salt than called for.

BEST CHICKEN TAMALE PIE from Delish

This recipe comes from Delish. I've made it about four times now, twice with ground beef and twice with shredded chicken. I don't add cooked onion because you've got all the flavor you need in the taco seasoning and enchilada sauce. I used milk in the cornbread mix instead of sour cream and I leave out the corn from the mix and add it to the chicken mixture instead. I used a 9" x 1.5" cake pan. The cornbread layer is a little too thick to suit me so I need to leave a little bit out next time, about 1/3 c., which I forgot to do this time. This is always very good and very easy to make.

I grade this an A.

 

EASY CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from I Heart Eating

 

This recipe is from I Heart Eating. It uses melted butter and no hand mixer is required. My 1 T./1.5" doughballs didn't spread much, only 1/2" and I'm quite irritated by it. I weighed the flour using 120 g per cup, so I'm not to blame. My dough balls, I got 26 using half the recipe, were slightly cool when I put them in the oven. I immediately took the remaining dough out of the refrigerator and flattened each and every ball firmly with the back of a measuring cup so they wouldn't be as puffy next time. The slightly flattened ones baked in 8.5 minutes and the flattened ones baked in 7.5 minutes. 

These have a particularity good flavor on the crisp edges. The whole cookie is quite good. I grade these an A.

DUTCH APPLE PIE from Shugary Sweets

This recipe is from Shugary Sweets. I didn't make the crust recipe. I used one that is all shortening. I omitted the nutmeg and lemon juice from the filling and used half the amount of cinnamon. I added 1/4 t. salt but it needed double that. The amount of flour used in the filling was the perfect amount for six cups of apples and 1/2 c. sugar. This didn't need that much sugar. The topping is very good and crispy, made with equal parts white and brown sugar, but needed salt too. 

Overall, a decent recipe but it needs tweaking. I grade this an A-.

ONE-POT CHICKEN FLORENTINE PASTA from 12 Tomatoes

This recipe is from 12 Tomatoes and is excellent. It has more flavor than I thought it would. I think it comes from the sun-dried tomatoes, which are packed in oil and spices. I made just half the recipe. This doesn't call for onion but I cooked some, about 3 T. and I used garlic powder instead of real garlic. I used bowtie pasta in place of the one called for in the recipe, 1.5 c./4 oz, and it took 20 minutes to cook, and I used 1/2 c. more chicken broth, so I used a whole can. I think next time I'll add slightly more sun-dried tomatoes. I used Parmesan cheese in place of Romano because my store didn't have it and thawed and drained spinach instead of fresh. I baked a boneless skinless chicken breast in the oven, shredded it after it cooled and added it to the finished pasta instead of cooking pieces of one in the pan. 

I'm so happy with this recipe and I grade it an A+.

DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. I first made them in 2016 or 2017 when I saw them in a cookbook of theirs that I'd just bought, called Baking. This is the third time I've made them and I made half this time. Half will yield five or six standard muffins but I used a jumbo muffin pan and got three, using a scant 1/2 c. dry measure of batter for each. I do use slightly more salt and I double the vanilla. I also add a thick glaze to most muffins I make so I did for this.

I grade these an A but like all the other chocolate muffins I've made, these are drier once they've cooled completely. I just microwave them for about 8 seconds before eating once they've cooled and they're very moist again.

LEMONDOODLES from No. 2 Pencil

This recipe is from No. 2 Pencil via The Kitchn. The unique thing No. 2 Pencil did was she not only melted the butter, she browned it too. Sadly you can't taste it in the baked dough at all. The browned butter made the dough darker and made the baked cookies looked overcooked. 

I made half the recipe and got 23 1 T./1.5" dough balls. I used lemon extract, 3/8 t., instead of zest and rolled them in plain white sugar, not lemon sugar (sugar and lemon zest combined.) My room temperature dough baked in just 7.5 minutes on a much lower temperature, 375 degrees F. 

Like both recipes state, these are cakey, which I don't really like but I still wanted to try them. They have good flavor, especially on the edges. I'm trying to figure out how the cookies in the photos from The Kitchn are flat like I prefer yet she said they're 'cakey', which you usually get with a thicker cookie, but the ones from No. 2 Pencil are somewhat thick in her photos, as are mine. I weighed out both the flour and eggs, since I need 1 1/2 eggs, so I know I'm not at fault. Also, the cookies are baked at a very high temp, over 400 F, which makes absolutely no sense. That's done to prevent cookies from spreading out too much. The high temperature causes the cookie to set up quicker. I baked my second batch at 350 F and I flattened the dough balls pretty flat so as not to produce a thicker cookie like the first batch, but they didn't spread anymore than the first batch.

I grade these an A-.

CHOCOLATE CAKE from Crisco®

This recipe is from Crisco®. It's made with all shortening. I made half the recipe and instead of using a 9" round, I used two 6"x2" rounds*. They baked in 22 minutes in a Breville Smart Oven. The frosted cake is only 3.5" tall. I doubled the vanilla. This needed a little more salt. It's moist but lacks flavor. I think it has too much cocoa powder. So less cocoa and more salt would have likely made a difference. Twenty-four hours later it seemed to be just as moist but close to two days later it was drier. For those reasons I wouldn't make it again because I've had better.

I grade this a B. 

*I bought the set of pans from Amazon. Model number 21055636.

THE BEST PEACH COBBLER by Food Network

This recipe is from Food Network and it's your basic cobbler recipe. Lots of sugar, too much in the filling. I like how the topping thickened up the filling while baking, as I feared the filling would be runny.

I used two 16 oz. bags of frozen peaches that had been thawed. They were just under the required 5 cups. I used 1/4 t. less vanilla extract in the topping. I omitted the lemon juice from the filling. I was scared the mixture would bubble over so I used a 2.5 qt. dish though the recipe called for a 2 qt. dish.

I love how the topping looks but because of this being too sweet, unnecessarily so, I grade it a B and if I made it again I'd use 1/4 c. less sugar in both the filling and topping.

THE BEST TWO-LAYER WHITE CAKE from The Spruce Eats

This recipe is from The Spruce Eats. I made half the recipe and used homemade cake flour (all-purpose flour and corn starch), weighing out each ingredient. It uses vegetable oil and egg whites, which you don't have to beat separately and fold into the batter. I added a heaping 1/4 c. of finely diced maraschino cherries, which is just over half of a drained 10 oz. jar. I added 1/4 t. pure almond extract and 2 T. of lightly toasted and ground sliced almonds. The recipe states the 9" round cakes takes 27-30 minutes but mine only took 22 minutes in my Breville oven but I think it was probably finished a few minutes sooner. I used my own white frosting recipe for this.

I grade this a C. It's dense and though I used 1/8 t. more salt than called for, it needed at least that much more. It wasn't worth the trouble and I'm very disappointed though it's edible.