This is the peanut butter cookie recipe for us from now on. It make a dense, chewy, almost peanut butter fudgey cookie that is divine. The only changes I made were for convenience sake: I used a jar of crunchy, all natural peanut butter - the kind you mix yourself, and omitted adding the chopped peanuts, and I always bake on parchment, so I omitted greasing the cookie sheets. The dough keeps well in the fridge for days - haven't tried freezing it yet but I will. I now double the recipe because they go so quickly. Definitely chill for a minimum of two hours. I try to chill the dough overnight for greatest ease in handling. It's hard to keep everyone's hands out of the batter bowl, though!

Reviewed On: Jul. 15, 2011

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on. It is beyond delicious - very moist and fudgie with a deep cocoa flavor. I love that it is a one bowl cake - nothing fussy about it but the end result is sublime. The only change I made was to replace the boiling water with a cup of freshly brewed French roast coffee to deepen and enhance the cocoa flavor. Try it - you don't taste coffee at all in the baked cake. I stirred it into the batter by hand, otherwise my mixer would have spattered it all over the place - it gets pretty goopy. I also didn't bother to split the layers. I made this cake for my son's birthday, and I've already had three calls for the recipe. I frosted it with whipped cream whipped with fresh strawberries and it was the perfect accompaniment for the richness of the cake. We were disappointed there were no leftovers, but my husband's birthday is tomorrow and guess what cake he is getting?? Yippee!

Reviewed On: Feb. 24, 2011

This recipe exceeds five stars - it has been my standard pasta sauce for a few years, and it is pretty much fail-proof. It doesn't take long to make - I think chopping the onions is the most time consuming part of the entire recipe, other than just waiting for it to simmer properly. Do make sure your onions begin to carmelize, that adds a nice sweetness that can counteract any tomato tartness. Otherwise, you may want to add a tablespoon or two of sugar. I usually add a capful or two of Mrs. Dash's garlic blend to add some nice flavor, and on occasion a table spoon of crushed red pepper flakes to give it some bite. I use the stick blender right in the pot to make it perfectly smooth just before I add the cream. The result is a gorgeous, velvety sauce that freezes beautifully. I've used it for every kind of pasta under the sun, and most especially for baking manicotti. This recipe is sublime - without a doubt my favorite recipe from Allrecipes in the over ten years I've been visiting this site.

Reviewed On: Dec. 31, 2009