Customer Reviews

Brownies to Die For! (Cookbooks to Die For)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was so excited to get this book--I love to bake and love making homemade brownies. When the book arrived 2 weeks ago, I was not disappointed. Great sounding recipes, very pretty book. I believe I have pasted about 50 sticky-note tabs to the pages of the brownies I wanted to try.

So why two stars? Well, I've now made 4 different batches of brownies, and not one has turned out. The biggest problem seems to be baking time--upwards of 20-25 minutes off the time stated in the book to get them past pure "goo" stage. That would be fine if they turned out ok in the end, but that was not the case. With the extended baking time, the perimeter of the brownies (at least 2 inches in) curled up and was very overbaked before the centers were anywhere close to being ready. I salvaged what I could.

I will use this book for ideas about flavor combinations, but I'll stick with my Cook's Illustrated brownie recipe since it works.

"Brownies To Die For"? That title was screaming for me to investigate!

I admit, I like my sweets, especially chocolate. But I needed to know...would I die for these brownies like the title indicates I will?

Bev Shaffer, the author, has been baking brownies for years. She appears to be a true master! Her publisher is Pelican, and having seen Pelican's books before, I knew what to expect.

A comprehensive cookbook on everything brownie related! There are SO many recipes here, it is amazing.

I decided to make a batch. With my sons' input, we decided to make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies. The recipe was easy-to-follow, really quite straight forward. The one hitch, the recipe was supposed to cook for 35 minutes or until only a couple of crumbs are on a wooden toothpick. Well, I cooked mine for 55 minutes, and we never got to that stage. I decided, in the end, to remove the brownies, and be able to sample part of the batch.

When this happened, I had to think...what did I do? I went over the entire recipe. Was my pan size correct? Yes. Did I preheat my oven long enough? How's 45 minutes?! Did I follow the recipe completely? I thought so. Did I measure everything effectively? Yeah! Is my oven really heating up to 350 like it needed to be? Well, I am not sure, BUT I am a food writer, cookbook reviewer and recipe developer. Does that make me infallable? No. But what that does say is I am cooking ALL the time. I am trying new recipes all the time. And I honestly have not had such a discrepancy with the cooking time before this situation. An idea I had later was maybe it was a typo, a keystroke error, perhaps, as 3 and 6 are near each other. Maybe the cooking time is supposed to be 65 minutes! (Anyway, I am open that the error is on my side.)

But...were the brownies good enough to die for? Well, I asked my taste testers. My husband - not a big sweet eater - thought they were too rich. My boys gobbled them up! Mine was good! So, I asked...were these brownies good enough to die for? Except for my husband - the non-sweet eater - yes! In fact, they were good enough to kill for!

Great recipes, but I have a tendency to want to know what the finished product is going to look like, especially on the more complex recipes. Very little pictorial representation is the only drawback that I can find to this book.

I love brownies and was very excited to find this cookboook. I make brownies all of the time, and I make different types, but I'm always looking for new kinds. I tried 2 of the recipes and both turned out awful! The recipes seem to have too little chocolate, too little butter, too many eggs and very long baking times. I wasted some really good chocolate testing these recipes! After reading a few more of the recipes, I just decided to throw it out!

My sister brought this book home from the library and it looked wonderful, so I made up the Kahlua brownies right away. Can you say Fab-u-lous! Since we had to return the book to the library, I bought the book so as never to be more than an hour away from a brownie treat.

The next batch of brownies I made (cream cheese layered) were better than the first batch. This book is a solid home run. If you love brownies, you will love this book.

Many recipes call for a basic brownie to start with, and others are far-fetched variations on a theme, but there are enough excellent twists (and great instructions) to make the book a worthwhile addition to the library of any decadent brownieholic.

Every one of the brownie recipes that we have tried from this book were excellent. We took the brownies to church and everyone raved over them. I would definitely reccommend this book to anyone who loves chocolate and loves brownies. They are to die for!

With patience and an understanding that not all ovens are the same, I waited with great anticipation as my first batch of brownies from this book emerged from the oven. A little moist, I simply continued to bake just to the right point...let them cool and devoured them with friends. Can't wait to try the rest of the recipes and get copies for gifts!

Brownies To Die For! is an amazing collection of the most tasteful and delightful brownie recipes drawn from her years of experience by Bev Shaffer. From Brownie Parfaits; Orange Brownies; and Chocolate Brownies, to Chocolate Carmel Sauce; Brownie Pudding Layer Cake; and White Chocolate Round Brownies, Brownies To Die For! covers every imaginable type of the scrumptious and soft sweet treats. Brownies To Die For! is enthusiastically highly recommended to all readers with a taste for these tasty chocolate treats!

I searched three different bookstores on my last day in the US, so desperate was I to have this book. Just when I was about to give up, I was able to procure the last copy that they had at Barnes & Noble.

I read this on the 15 hour flight back home, and I must say that I prefer Lisa Slater's <U>Brownie Points</U>. While Brownies to Die For! has a more captivating title, and is hardbound, I'm a little wary of the photos, which I feel are very amateur for a published book, especially one by a food writer and recipe developer. Reading the past customers' reviews about wayward recipe cooking times only increases my trepidation of whether this book was worth my fervent search for it. Save yourself the grief and buy Brownie Points instead.