Kristin Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (10833433)

Whipped Cream Frosting

Reviewed: Apr. 7, 2012

I don't know why I haven't reviewed this recipe -- I've been using it for over 3 years now. It's a soft, light casual frosting to swirl in billows nice and thick. I actually prefer to frost the cake the night before serving and let the frosting settle a bit in the fridge, it's still light that way but just a bit denser. It goes particularly well with cakes containing citrus flavor or filled with lemon curd. Leftover frosting is great on strawberries. You MUST beat the cream cheese and sugar mixture until it's smooth as silk.

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Mom's Coleslaw

Reviewed: Nov. 13, 2011

Good basic coleslaw recipe. I prefer to use white wine vinegar and a tad less sugar. It's nice to add a pinch of celery seed and a drop of tabasco sauce as well.

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Mild Curry Powder

Reviewed: May 10, 2011

I was a curry virgin and this blend was great for me because I didn't have to wonder whether I would open a readymade jar and find that it was spicier than I liked. My whole family enjoyed it; we thought it was flavorful and fragrant without being too hot. In fact we might even add a touch more chili next time.

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Cheese's Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Reviewed: May 20, 2010

I've made this recipe half a dozen times now. I like to substitute half a cup of sour cream for half a cup of the milk, add tomato slices and broccoli, and I've used Canadian bacon, crispy cooked bacon and bulk Italian sausage crumbles instead of the sausage called for. And I grate the cheese instead of cubing it. It always turns out fantastic. This is the only baked mac and cheese I've made that spooned out of the dish with gooey, creamy sauce instead of being custardy. The texture is great. It reheats wonderfully, which is often a big hurdle for homemade mac and cheese. I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it tends to need extra salt or seasonings in the cheese sauce, and because, cubed cheese? what? that's just strange. I don't know how anybody can say it's not cheesy, it has a ridiculous amount of cheese in it and a lot of cheese flavor. Maybe the issue is a low quality cheese?

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Red Velvet Cake

Reviewed: Oct. 18, 2009

Without question, the negative reviews for this recipe can be explained by people not being familiar with the techniques that are used. I subtracted a star because this *is* a more complicated project than a box cake mix, and additional instructions would probably have been helpful. Things that are important to know about this recipe: 1) the vinegar-baking soda mixture is what makes it rise. This is a delicate leavening method because it does not last long. Get the vinegar mixture into the batter quickly and gently and get it in the oven FAST, or you will have a heavy cake. 2) Cakes from scratch have to be timed carefully in the oven because they're not "failproof" like box mixes. Start checking it with a toothpick 10 minutes before the given time and after that every 3 to 5 minutes until the toothpick comes out mostly clean. 3) The flour paste for the frosting must be cooked until it forms a mound that stays in the middle of the pan, and it must be cooled to room temperature but never chilled. The butter and sugar must be beaten for at least 10 minutes before adding the flour paste, to eliminate sugar grit. 4) You must frost a COMPLETELY cool cake; beating warm frosting or frosting a warm cake will produce a runny, oily frosting. Follow these instructions and the recipe *will* turn out. It is a good recipe with no errors.

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Best Buttercream Frosting

Reviewed: Oct. 18, 2009

This is excellent frosting, the best I've ever tasted. The reviewers who have given it low ratings undoubtedly had trouble with the technique and timing, which is not a fault of the recipe. It also is not the fault of the recipe if you don't know standard cooking terms like "till a ball forms" or that yes, granulated sugar can be whipped into butter until smooth. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE POWDERED SUGAR. I tried it, and the result was a heavy and slick frosting; there's a reason the recipe calls for granulated sugar, namely that with long beating the sharp sugar granules incorporate lots of air into the butter for a fluffiness powdered sugar does not create. Acquaint yourself with the cooking techniques, don't let the flour paste cool to cold or stiff, and the recipe will succeed.

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4 users found this review helpful

Stovetop Granola

Reviewed: Oct. 4, 2009

Oh dear. With the suggestion to halve the butter-sugar-honey coating, this granola turns out delicious, but as written I'm afraid it's nearly inedible. Far too sweet, more like an oat brittle candy than a granola. One thing I never did have trouble with was sogginess. You really do need the full 5 minutes and it really does need to be over medium heat at least. If you skip this step you will have soggy granola, because its purpose is to raise the temperatures of the butter and sugars, changing them into candy. I like to use virgin coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, and add unsweetened dried coconut and a lot of flaxseed meal. Add the flaxseed meal at the end of cooking, just before you spread the granola out to cool, so the flax oils aren't damaged by the heat. Poppy seeds are nice too.

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Aloha Chicken

Reviewed: Aug. 10, 2009

Not bad. I added a little chili powder, not having pepper flakes on hand, and also garlic; as written this recipe is definitely bland and sweet. I agree that the sauce is a little scanty.

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6 users found this review helpful

Slow Cooker Lentil and Ham Soup

Reviewed: Jan. 9, 2009

Nice, fragrant, flavorful soup. I like the balance of lentils, veggies & broth. Family members who are "meh" on the idea of lentil soup in general really like it, too. Maybe saltiness depends on the brand/type of ham and the chicken broth that gets used, because I don't like highly salted foods but I've never had a problem with this soup being too salty. 11 hours is not too much time for it to cook in my crockpot; it could cook for hours more, I think, without actually burning, although I wouldn't cook it that long because all the veggies would be mush and the ham would be tough. I start it the night before, and turn it off as soon as the lentils are tender (it keeps cooking for a while after the pot is turned off). Also, this is great with a ham bone or some hamhocks rather than cut up ham.

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Chocolate Pecan Pie III

Reviewed: Dec. 25, 2008

I've made pecan pies before that no one touched (and not because I'm a bad cook) but this one had a glowing reception at Thanksgiving and it was requested again for Christmas Day. When I made it with cocoa powder, the chocolate settled to the bottom half of the filling, which was interesting but not intended. Using bittersweet chocolate instead (1/2 cup) solved that.

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Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread

Reviewed: Oct. 12, 2008

This is an excellent, reliable cornbread that's moist, light and slightly sweet. (Actually, I reduce the sugar to 2 Tb, otherwise it's sweeter than I care for a savory cornbread to be.) I use sour milk instead of buttermilk -- 1 Tb. lemon juice to the milk called for in the recipe, and I let it sit while I mix the dry ingredients.

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Apple Crisp I

Reviewed: Jul. 15, 2008

I don't know how the author fits 8 apples in an 8x8 pan -- 5 filled it nicely for me. But this is very good. I added 2 tablespoons of butter to the crust mixture thinking maybe it would make it a little softer (because I'm OK with soft, and with butter). It was still really crunchy and I was dubious as I chipped through it to serve the crisp, but it added a delicious texture. I served it with "Southern Boiled Custard" poured over, and it was fantastic.

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Ham and Potatoes Au Gratin

Reviewed: Apr. 28, 2008

I've made this with and without ham and it's yummy either way. The proportion of sauce to potatoes is very nice so it's creamy and delicious, never mealy. Reheats wonderfully and very filling. I like to add chopped green onion, broccoli or washed baby spinach. I only took off a star because of the issue with the cooking time, which parboiling the potatoes does take care of nicely.

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Eclairs II

Reviewed: Apr. 12, 2008

I'm only rating the pastry shell and glaze parts of this recipe, since I filled them with the French cream recipe. It was a very easy dough to make and to handle, and turned out lovely looking eclair shells (my MIL marveled at how pretty they looked) even without a pastry bag. I took a reviewer's advice and baked them at 400, but sadly I think I undercooked them; this could have been the reason for the slightly heavy, eggy texture. They were delicious all the same. The glaze is a very good doughnut type glaze, not what I think of as eclair glaze which in my experience is smoother and lacks the powdered-sugar flavor. It was still tasty though.

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French Cream Filling

Reviewed: Apr. 12, 2008

Yummy, but I'm not clear on the point of the egg white and milk. If I wanted to end up with something that tasted exactly like whipped cream, I would have just whipped the heavy cream and had done with it with less trouble than this recipe. Final product was was very very soft, light in texture and delicate. It didn't stand up very well to the 3-hour delay between filling eclairs and serving them.

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5 users found this review helpful

Southern Boiled Custard

Reviewed: Apr. 10, 2008

I am unfamiliar with custard but an apple crisp recipe suggested it as a topping so I found this recipe and gave it a try. I can't imagine drinking it personally (then again I won't drink eggnogg, either) but it made a very nice topping, rich and not overpowering in flavor but not bland either. By the way, I found out that for a stirred custard like this one you want to aim for between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit. Since I started using my candy thermometer my results have been a lot more consistent.

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Chantal's New York Cheesecake

Reviewed: Dec. 31, 2006

I made this recipe for Longest Night (cheesecake for Longest Night being a tradition in our family) and it was absolutely delicious. I was terrified I'd overbaked it because of the springy feel it had by the time I turned the oven off, but it turned out to be slightly *less* done than I like! The middle was done, but creamy and soft, whereas I prefer a dryer, almost crumbly texture, which the edges did have. Next time I'll bake it longer and with more confidence, and believe me, there will be a next time.

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Hermit Bar Cookies

Reviewed: Dec. 9, 2006

Different than any cookie I've made before, but nice. I don't generally like strong molasses flavors, but the coffee (I made it extra strong, almost like espresso) gives it an entirely different twist. I added 1c chocolate chips, and I like the combination. Might be nice with nuts as well. The dough was really soft and ended up spreading into essentially one big cookie in the oven, but it cooked OK without burning; next time I'll add the extra flour someone else suggested. It does seem like a cookie that would be tasty with ginger and orange zest as well.

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The Whole Jar of Peanut Butter Cookies

Reviewed: Nov. 30, 2006

These were gorgeous. I had no difficulty at all turning out 3 pans full of the most delicious, tender, perfectly-chewy, addictive peanut butter cookies I've ever made (plus a quart bag full of preformed dough balls in the freezer). I used Adams unsweetened no-stir peanut butter and whole wheat pastry flour and they're not too sweet, just right. I did have to bake them for much less than 12 minutes though -- 7 was more like it -- maybe walnuts are bigger in Kevin's part of the world? Hee hee. I'll make these many more times.

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Chewy Brownie Cookies

Reviewed: Nov. 21, 2006

These are very, very good. I love chewy, mostly flat cookies but I am forever finding recipes that claim to be "chewy" but actually yield soft or rounded cookies. These are dense, satisfyingly chewy and flat with a nicely crackled/wrinkled top. The chocolate flavor is just right. I like them best completely cooled for the chewiest texture.

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