BROWN BUTTER AND TOFFEE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from Bon Appétit

This comes from Bon Appétit. Watch the video here. I made half the recipe. I weighed the flour, I followed the directions. I used 3/4 c. Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips and omitted the chopped toffee candy bar and used half the vanilla. I got 22 1 T./1.5" dough balls. I baked the first batch of five cookies at the suggested temperature of 375 F for 7.5 minutes and my very cool dough (it had been out of the refrigerator for about 1 hour) didn't spread out as much as the ones in the photo on their website. You could still smell and slightly taste the browned butter. The next batch of 5, I let the dough balls sit out for 90 minutes (the temp of them was 53 degrees F at this point) and I baked them at a lower temperature of 350 for 7.5 minutes and they did spread out but still not flat like the ones in the photo on their site. 

These taste good but ordinary. I've had many that were better so I wouldn't make these again. That combined with having to let the dough warm up close to if not over 2 hours isn't worth it. You cannot taste the browned butter once these have been refrigerated more than an hour or so so browning the butter is a total waste of time, and letting it cool down for 10 minutes, unless you're going to bake the entire batch at once. 

I grade these a B.

 

APPLE CINNAMON BREAD (CAKE) from Mostly Homemade Mom

This excellent recipe comes from Mostly Homemade Mom. It's moist cake, not bread, so I don't understand why it's called bread. I used just one apple because I didn't have two and it was enough. I just mixed it in the batter and didn't layer it in between the batter and on top of the batter. The recipe called for no salt and I cannot understand why that is. I added 3/4 t. fine/table salt and it needed more. I also added 3 tablespoons toasted and ground pecans. I omitted nutmeg because I don't like it and used a little less cinnamon but shouldn't have. The 9"x5" loaf pan took 40 minutes.

I made a glaze for this while the cake was baking and drizzled it over the cooled cake. Recipe: 1 tablespoon melted butter/margarine/spread, 1 tablespoon milk, 1/4 t. pure vanilla extract, a drop of pure almond extract, 1 c. powdered sugar.

I give this 5+ stars.

Edit- I made half this recipe again but in an 8" round pan and it took just 18 minutes. I really only needed a 7" pan but didn't have one.

STRAWBERRY SORBET from Hamilton Beach®

This recipe comes from the booklet of my Hamilton Beach® ice cream maker. It's just strawberries, sugar, water. I added 1/8 t. fine salt. You puree fresh or frozen and thawed strawberries (I used frozen and thawed) with sugar water, chill, pour into your frozen ice cream maker bowl and let it churn until it looks like you think it should. It only took 18 minutes and made about 4-4.5 cups.

I grade this an A. It will only taste as good as the berries you use!  You can combine water and sugar in a 2 c. microwave-safe measuring cup and heat it that way. No need to dirty up a pan to simply heat water to dissolve sugar in.

Recipe is here. I used Food Lion (grocery store) brand frozen whole strawberries and 4 c. cost $3.72 pre tax, so this cost around $4 to make. Not sure what 1/2 c. sugar cost.

ONE-POT SUN-DRIED TOMATO PASTA from goodcook

This comes from goodcook, maker of bakeware and cutlery. It's very good. I made 2 oz. less but needed more than the full amount of liquids. I did cook mine fully, not to al dente, so it makes sense that I'd need more liquid. I cooked this covered though the recipe didn't say to. There wasn't enough liquids in this to cook uncovered as a lot of liquids would have evaporated, so I ended up using close to 1 c. extra milk. It took almost 30 minutes to cook. I added thawed and drained spinach at the end in place of fresh leaves.

When I went to make this I realized it's basically the same as the 12 Tomatoes Chicken Florentine recipe that I'd made in December.

I grade this an A. 

APPLE CUPCAKES from Cupcake Project

This recipe is from Cupcake Project and it's excellent. I recommend it highly. I made half and got 8 using 1/4 c. batter per cupcake. They baked in 17 minutes. I omitted all spices except cinnamon. The recipe doesn't call for salt so I added 3/8 t. but it needs more. I used one large apple, finely diced. I made my own thick glaze for this. 

Edit- I made half the recipe twice since the first time, using milk in place of the 1/4 c. sour cream and 1/2 t. fine salt and they turned out great! 

ONE-BOWL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from Modern Honey

This recipe was a fail and comes from Modern Honey. The dough is dark and greasy looking after baking and they're pretty flat, even when baked straight from the refrigerator. I weighed out the flour so I don't know what could have gone wrong. I know my scale is accurate because I've made things since this that have turned out right. I even baked a batch of these at a higher temperature for a shorter time and they turned out almost the same. The cookies are hard, not crisp, on the outside and basically hollow on the inside. It's like I didn't use enough flour or something. The flavor is decent but I'm really disappointed.

I grade this a C because they didn't turn out. I made an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from the same site and they turned out great, here.

 

LEMON CRINKLE COOKIES from Lauren's Latest

This recipe is from Lauren's Latest. The cookies use both lemon juice and zest, and the dough balls are rolled in powdered sugar. I got 29 1 T./1.5" dough balls. I rolled them in white granulated sugar instead. They spread out as they should, even with cold dough. They taste good but I've had better.

I give these 4 stars.

AMISH-STYLE BAKED OATMEAL from Once Upon a Chef

This is good and comes from Once Upon a Chef. I made half in an 8"x2" round baking dish and got four smallish servings. It took 40 minutes. I used far less cinnamon, no vanilla, no raisins, and I didn't sprinkle nuts on top but did add them to the filling. I chopped my apple pieces much smaller so that they'd cook through more than larger pieces would and they did soften mostly.

I think this needs a little less oats and a pinch more salt and less sugar as it's awfully sweet. I think this would have worked better with quick oats since they're not quite as firm as rolled oats, and they're smaller. The top is a little too firm because the liquids (egg, milk) sank to the bottom, only wetting the oats there.

I grade this a B. 

LEFTOVER RICE PUDDING from Taste of Home

This comes from Taste of Home. I used to make "leftover rice" pudding often over 10 years ago but got sick of it and haven't made it since. You use leftover salted white rice, or make some fresh, which is what I've always done, including this time, add milk, salt, and sugar to it and simmer it until it thickens. That's it. Very simple and basic, and good. I added cinnamon, less than 1/8 t., raisins, and 1 c. diced apple. This recipe called for a little too much milk, in my opinion, so I used 1/4 c. less and that was perfect. This calls for way too much vanilla. I didn't use any.

Because of calling for too much vanilla and not enough salt, I grade this an A-. The directions didn't tell you how much uncooked rice you'd need to equal 2 cups cooked (you'll need 2/3 c. rice and 1 1/3 c. salted water, by the way since rice triples in volume) so if you don't know how much rice increases in volume you'll have to look it up online and you shouldn't have had to. The recipe should have told you.

LEMON CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA FROSTING from Sally's Baking Addiction

These cupcakes come from Sally's Baking Addiction. They were a failure. I made half and used a mini loaf pan (2/3 c. capacity cavities, standard muffin cups are 1/2 c. capacity) and got five using 1/3 c. batter for each cavity, so this made a little more batter than the recipe said it would. I got about 1 2/3 c. batter. I added 1/2 t. poppy seeds, not part of the recipe, but it wasn't quite enough. If you make half a batch you'll need about 3/4 t., which is 1.5 teaspoons for the whole recipe. I made my own glaze for it.

The cupcakes are very dense, holey, shiny, sticky, and sank in the middle. They're edible but something went wrong. Reading the comments on her site others had the same problem as me though we're in the minority with our failures. If I'm at fault I must not have beat the butter and sugar enough.

These get a D even though they're edible. This is the second failed recipe of Sally's in just a few days time.

DUMP AND BAKE CHICKEN PARMESAN from 12 Tomatoes and Happy Go Lucky Blog

This comes from 12 Tomatoes, which they got from Happy Go Lucky Blog. I have to grade this recipe a C just because the amounts of liquid and bake time was way off. I made half and needed an additional 1/2-3/4 c. of water and 22 minutes bake time, so this took 62 minutes in a 9"x2" square stoneware dish. I learned that the hard way when I made this for the first time about 1 1/2 weeks before the second attempt and had to keep opening the oven, letting all the heat out, to add more water. So this time I started with more water, and extra seasonings.

The flavor of this is good but that will depend on which store-bought pasta sauce you use. The topping uses both mozzarella and Parmesan cheese but far more mozzarell. I left out the breadcrumbs. This needs at least equal parts of each cheese since mozzarella is practically flavorless and Parmesan is full of flavor. I added, for half the recipe, 1/8 t. each dried oregano and basil just to give it a little more flavor since the sauce gets watered down, literally. I'm not sure what the purpose was in covering this with foil for just 20 minutes. The liquids are barely warm at that point. I was going to do this on the stove top and wish I had since it's easier to monitor things. Before baking this I baked a boneless skinless chicken breast and shredded it while the pasta baked. After about 54 minutes, when the pasta was almost finished, I added it to the dish, then topped the pasta with cheese. So what should have taken up to 45 minutes according to the recipe took me 62. If you read the comments at Happy Go Lucky Blog you'll see many people agree that there wasn't enough liquid and they had to add more. 

I grade this a C. I would make this again but on the stove and will transfer it to the oven to melt the cheese. 

EASY APPLE CRISP from Life is But a Dish

This recipe comes from Life is But a Dish. I used a 13"x9"x3"/4 qt. baking dish. I chose this one because the topping uses a mixture of brown and white sugar, which I prefer. Most use all brown sugar and I'm not a fan of that. I sliced my apples thin then cut them crosswise to make smaller pieces. I omitted nutmeg and lemon juice/zest from the filling and I added 1/2 t. table/fine salt and 2 T. flour to it. I used 7 T. margarine and 3 T. butter in the topping. I softened both slightly in the microwave because it's much easier to cut into flour and oats if it's not hard as a rock. I truly feel that butter is wasted in an all-butter crumb topping. You get the exact same results with using mostly margarine and you don't get the strong butter flavor.

I'll grade this an A- because the filling, which has a large amount of added sugar, had no salt in it but it desperately needed some. I always use a heaping 1/4 t. fine salt per 6 apples no matter how much sugar is added. This had 4 lbs. of apples (8 medium ones) and a full cup of sugar so it's criminal that we weren't told to add any. The recipe states to use "oats" but didn't say which type, quick-cooking or rolled. Someone in the comments asked the author if they could use quick cooking ones and was told by the author that those "should be ok" so I used rolled oats. It should have been made clear in the recipe.

Edit- I think the topping should use 2 T. less each flour and oats. It's more crumbly than it should be, and I think it makes a little too much for this recipe. You taste the topping more than you do the apples, and the cinnamon is too much. I'd use 3/4 of the topping next time for this size pan but it truly is a great one.