“It’s been a long time,” I said.
“Too long,” Suzen answered. She gave me a kiss. Her eyes were bright.
We were, of course, discussing Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Café by Joanne Chang. It’s been a long time since we found a book with recipes that work so perfectly.
Now, “spectacular” is a serious adjective. But Flour deserves that self-accolade and more. We’ve done three recipes so far from Flour: the Cornmeal-Lime cookies we’ve already blogged, Homemade Oreos, and Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam. All were grand and we’ll post the recipes for the Oreos and muffins later this week.
Flour is an important book for several reasons. First, the recipes are seriously good. Really good. Second, those recipes work flawlessly. Just read the book and follow the recipe. There are times when author Joanne Chang says the batter will be stiff or paste-like. When you get those exceptional results, relax. You are doing just what she needs you to do and success is on its way.
A major reason that Flour is so successful is that all the major dry ingredients are given in both volume and weight proportions. So you take out your digital scale and …
What’s that? You don’t have a scale yet? Or you have one but don’t use it? Time to give in. I was reluctant, too, but watching Suzen make great bread each weekend by very carefully weighing all the ingredients has me convinced. Now if a recipes calls for 614 grams of butter, I weight it out. The results are so well worth it.
Flour presents a mix of recipes, some new and some old. We are anxious to try those appealing new ones, but even those old ones intrigue us, too. The quality of these recipes is so high, that we do want to try her “standard” white coconut cake. Because it won’t be standard.
Here are some of the recipes that have caught our eye and that we’ll be trying and blogging in the coming weeks:
- Boozy Rum Cake
- Cheddar Scallion Scones
- Coffee Ice Cream with Cocoa Nib Brittle
- Deep, Dark, Spicy Gingerbread with Coffee Glaze
- Lemon Lust Bars
- Milky Way Tart
- Nutmeg Spice Cake with Creamy Rum Buttercream
- Toasted Coconut Cream Pie with Lime Whipped Cream
- Yellow Birthday Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Ganache Frosting
There’s even more inside Flour, so you should treat yourself to just a peek at the book. Or, just bite that bullet before you bite the cake and buy a copy. Your sweet tooth will be completely satisfied.