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Over 140 Recipes Inspired by Your Favorite
Entenmann’s Products
Kathleen Robbins
Parragon Books Ltd.
September 2011 / 978-1-4454-4930-4
Cooking / Food
Amazon
Reviewed
by Leslie Halpern
This book offers 40 recipes using variations on Entenmann’s
products, plus more than 100 more original recipes inspired by the
Entenmann’s line of desserts. Each recipe is beautifully photographed
in its final state, often accompanied by attractive garnishes. Contents
include chapters titled: “Almost Homemade,” “Donuts,”
“Danish and Puffs,” “Crumb Cakes,” “Muffins,”
“Loaf Cakes,” “Brownies and Bars,” “Cookies,”
“Pies,” “Indulgent Cakes and Desserts,”
“Party Cakes,” and an index.
These recipes are clearly not for the health conscious. Some recipes
call for eight eggs, four sticks of butter, whole milk, and other
rich ingredients to enhance the flavor and texture. Lower fat or
lower calorie options are not provided, presumably because they
would adversely affect the outcome. The chapter on “Almost
Homemade” provides the most adaptable recipes, where Entenmann’s
products can be matched with fruits, puddings, creams, and other
ingredients to make quicker, easier, and more nutritious options,
if that’s the baker’s intention. For busy, nutrition-conscious
cooks like myself, this chapter offers the most creative and useful
recipes in the book.
I selected three recipes to sample: Blueberry Muffin Supreme (Muffins,
page 128), Banana & Cranberry Loaf Cake (“Loaf Cakes,”
page 158), and Chocolate Oat Bars (“Brownies and Bars,”
page 214). The blueberry muffins (also provided as a loaf cake recipe
in a different chapter) turned out well without much preparation
required and with plenty of berries in each muffin. The texture
and appearance were very appetizing, and the taste was pleasant
without being too sweet.
The banana & cranberry loaf had mixed reviews among my selected
taste testers. The tangy citrus flavor mixed with cranberry and
banana delighted one taster and displeased another, who complained
of too many flavors competing for attention. The drizzled glaze
on top added to the cake’s attractiveness and provided just
the right touch of extra sweetness. Preparation required more time
and utensils than I would have liked.
The Chocolate Oat Bars were my final experiment. These delicious
bars were simple to make and used common ingredients that I already
had in my pantry. This dessert pleased all my taste testers, who
raved about the mixture of textures and sweet combination of flavors.
I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between this recipe
and the age-old favorites, Seven-Layer Bars and Congo Bars, which
I’ve been baking since I was a child. The welcome addition
of quick cooking oats to this new recipe adds a little extra flavor,
texture, and health benefit to recipes for similar bars.
In terms of holiday baking, the “Party Cakes” chapter
features Chocolate Spider Cake for Halloween and Daisy
Cake for Easter, but otherwise focuses primarily on cakes for birthday
parties and other special occasions, rather than specific holidays.
Holiday-oriented desserts appear throughout the book in other chapters,
such as Spiced Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Pumpkin Pie, and Candied Sweet
Potato Pie (Pies pages 241-269).
Reviewer Notes: The reviewer baked a cake, muffins, and
bars using recipes from this book. |
