Let's Dish - May 2024 🍪

If you've talked to me in the library, you know that I am a huge fan of movies and TV. Something else I'm very passionate about (and need to make an excuse to do more) is cooking & baking. I love trying new foods and recipes and sharing that with loved ones. With this blog series, you get to come along for the ride. So, let's dish!

This month, I wanted to do more baking than usual, so I took a quick browse of our new nonfiction shelves. If you haven't been in since renovation, our non fiction is now where our mystery books used to be. The collection is condensed, but we still have plenty and are always ordering new books! While in the shelves, I stumbled upon Good Housekeeping's The Best-Ever Cook Book. I love making cookies and I just had to see if this lived up to it's name.

The book is divided into 6 chapters: a chapter with tips and tricks; Drop Cookies; Slice & Bake Cookies; Bars, Blondies, & Brownies; cookie creations, and holiday cookies. I like the wide variety of types of cookies, including the bars.

As stated, the book starts with the basics. This includes helpful tips if you aren't used to baking, equipment needed, how to measure properly, and equivalents. From there, it also includes some basic doughs, how to decorate cookies, and and helpful tips for hosting a cookie swap and gifting your cookies.

The book has a ton of recipes, everything from your basics like sugar cookies and chocolate chip to more specialty cookies. There are even a few savory cookies. For the most part, the recipes are easy to follow, even if you're not a confident baker. A lot of them have just a few ingredients and don't required a ton of time.

The recipes I made were the Red Velvet Cookies, Frosted Lemon Ricotta Cookies, and the Double-Stuffed Brownies. Each recipe was pretty simple and were delicious.

The red velvet cookies were my favorite. Very similar to making a chocolate chip cookie, but using cocoa powder and red food coloring for that iconic red velvet flavor and color. I could've added a little more of the food coloring to get a brighter red. Otherwise, they turned out great. They're soft and a great alternative for chocolate chip if you're really a chocolate lover.

The double-stuffed brownies are very rich. The main batter is very rich, plus there is the addition of the Oreos. I made these prior to a dinner-and-movie night with my mom and brother (I dog-sat for him while he went on a work trip, so we spent some time together before he took his dog, Isla, home). My mom ate multiple brownies before we finished cooking dinner, so I think I did a good job with them.

The lemon ricotta clearly did not turn out the way they should have. To be honest, I made the biggest mistake you could make in baking and didn't measure my lemon juice. For the frosting, it's a basic glaze with powdered sugar, liquid, and in this case food coloring. Instead of measuring, I just squeezed the lemon right into my powdered sugar resulting in a very liquid-y glaze that wasn't going to harden. But aside from them not looking quite right, they were delicious. I love lemon flavored desserts and the cookies were nice and soft (which is how I tend to prefer my cookies).

Overall, I do think that, yeah, the book lives up to it's name. There are so many recipes for different tastes and skill levels. It would allow for you to get more comfortable baking if you're not already there, and even offers some new flavors. Some of the other recipes I'd like to try at some point are the Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortbread Bars, Salted Chocolate Caramel Cookies, the Mini Chocolate Chip Sandwiches, Peanut Butter Balls, and the Fancy Fortunes.

A bit of a bonus, I was excited to see an Alfajores recipe in the book. I found a recipe online a while ago after seeing Pedro Pascal talk about them in an interview (they're common in his native Chile). The recipe in the book calls for store bought dulce de leche, but also features a recipe to make your own in the slow cooker. I have made mine on the stove top. It's time consuming (several hours between cook time and cool down time), but it's incredibly easy and the results are amazing. I've made them quite a few times for friends and always get compliments on them, so while the recipe in the book is a bit different than the one I'm used to, I still highly recommend giving them a try.