Saturday, January 10, 2015

Tasty Delights--Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies + Review (Sugar Rush)


Sugar Rush is a complete baking course in a book with everything a home baker needs to confidently turn out 150+ sweets with sophisticated flavors.

James Beard–award-winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini returns to basics, sharing his expert tips on fundamentals such as making caramel and mixing butter cakes, with accompanying step-by-step photographs, before moving on to recipes for Salted Caramels and Sticky Caramel Date Cake. After mastering the simple method for making light-as-air meringues, anyone can make ethereal espresso marshmallows, mile-high soufflés, and chewy French macaron sandwich cookies. Readers can finally expand their cake and ice cream horizons to embrace flavors as thrilling as those in Brown Sugar-Molasses Layer Cake and Bitter Orange Ice Cream. The 250 photographs include both instructive technique shots to reassure bakers at every turn as well as stunning photographs of the ready-to-eat treats. With Sugar Rush, baking at home has never been easier—or more inviting.

Type: Cookbook
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Rating: 4.5

Amazon | Goodreads

Now this is a beautiful cookbook. Everything about Sugar RUSH was lovely. The photos, the layout, the feel and the recipes. It's full of tips and techniques to help bakers of all experience levels and done in an easy going way that just makes you want to dig in a little more and keep looking, learning and trying things.

It's broken up into different baking categories like--Custards/Creamy Desserts, Eggs/Meringue, Cakes/Cupcakes/Brownies/Muffins, Tarts/Cobblers/Crisps, Yeast Doughs. Each is a mixture of recipes, tips, tutorials and explanations. So dang handy for someone new to the baking game and was really interesting as well.


I was definitely impressed and very much enjoyed the author's voice and methods. And the tasty treats made--I baked some damn fine chocolate chip cookies. Yums!

Delicious? Everything looked incredible! While there were a number of recipes that would require some shopping--fresh ingredients or different liquors--most of the ingredients are ones that would be fairly easy to find at your local shops.

The recipes were easy to follow, planned out nicely and when needed tips were given in the form of step by step photos, etc.


Stunning! They're warm and inviting and seriously plentiful.
This one is chock full of photos/images and I loved that!
Both of the actual foods and of the baking process/steps and of the baker himself in the kitchen.
I kinda liked that touch. It's nice to see the person behind the recipes/etc.

Alright this doesn't do the book justice at all (had to take pictures of the book for them) but I wanted yall to see some of the images.


Oh so many things but my top thing is that there are step by step guides.
Not for every recipe but for different techniques.
That's incredibly helpful for inexperienced bakers or those still learning.
I know if the past I've read a recipe and gone...what the heck does that mean or look like?
Well that's fixed in this one. I loved the tutorials and how easy he made everything to understand.

There were also information pages mixed through out the recipes on the differences between different terms and such. I really liked that. Knowing the difference between different fillings and whatnot.


Crumb Cake
Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies (delish!)
Pecan Shortbread
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
Bacon, Cheese and Scallion Biscuits
Caramel-Walnut Tart
Cinnamon Rolls

How could I resist Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies?!!

Yeah these cookies take quite a few ingredients.

 Mix the sugars and butters until a sugary paste is made.

 Slowly add in the eggs.
Then the flour until combined.

 There's a large chunk of chocolate that needs to be coarsely chopped.

 Then mix the chocolate into the batter.
I ended up doing this by hand because this batter is THICK.
Roll balls.
Flatten slightly with base of a glass.
Bake!


Not bad at all! These cookies smell incredible. 
They have a little almond extract in them which gives a great flavor and smell.
Mine didn't flatten quite like the ones in the cookbook but they were still tasty!
Next time I'll shave off just a little of the baking time. They were perfect right out of the oven but got a bit firmer than I prefer once they were cooled. I just like a bit more chewy.
Other than that...Cookie Win!

*I received a copy of Sugar Rush via Blogging for Books


Alright! I wanna hear from you!
Do you have a favorite 'secret' ingredient you add to your cookies?

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