Book Review “The Cookies & Cups Cookbook” Shelly Jaronsky

By Heather Dyer

 

I opened this book, and the inside flap read, “Shelly has a problem. She’s an addict. Of the buttercream variety.” Ok, I thought, this is mah girl.  She’s wisely devoted the first 217 pages of this book to desserts, leaving the last 60 pages for family-friendly main dishes. In short, this book is a keeper. There isn’t a single thing in here that I wouldn’t make. The recipes are simple enough for a novice baker, but with enough great ideas for anyone to learn some new tricks.  I did routinely pass up her advice to use aluminum foil to line baking pans, because my experience has been that foil rips when you try to take the food out of the pan, so I swapped out the foil in favor of parchment paper.

Here’s what I tested from the book:

Praline Bars

In a nutshell, yum! I was a little frustrated with the instructions to pat the dough out into a square on a baking sheet.  I would have preferred to make this in a baking pan because I want edges, and I’d like to have the frosting go all the way to the edge. No complaints about the taste of the finished product, though!

 

 

Cookbook Praline Bars

Cookbook Praline Bars

Here’s the Praline Bars I made:

Home Praline Bars

Home Praline Bars

Flourless Chocolate Cookies with Flaked Sea Salt

I was thrilled to be able to bring a treat to work that I could share with my gluten-free friends and this fudgy cookie packed a chocolatey wallop. It was so quick to make, it was almost embarrassing, and definitely something I’ll make many more times.

Cookbook Cookies

Cookbook Cookies

Here’s the cookies I made:

Homemade Cookies

Homemade Cookies

Kitchen Sink Blondies

Wow, these were sweet, even with the potato chips, but maybe they’re perfect for someone with an incurable sweet tooth. My advice is to cut them into small squares, not big pieces.

 

Cookbook Blondies

Cookbook Blondies

My Blondie:

Homemade Blondies

Homemade Blondies

Other recipes I tried:

Ice Cream Soaked French Toast

My family loved it. My youngest kid said several times that it was the best French toast he’d ever had, and hugged me after the meal!

Frito Pie Sloppy Joes

My picky eater, liked them well enough to eat a whole sandwich, and never caught on that there were peppers in there (mwah ha ha). This will be a staple in our house, although nobody but me makes them with Fritos in the sandwich.

Strawberries and Cream Bars

I did not have strawberries, so I used blueberries. These were very popular at work! It’s a lovely summer dessert, similar to a dessert pizza. I didn’t have the 7 x 11-inch pan that the recipe called for (no doubt to accommodate the shape of the sliced strawberries) so I used a square pan instead.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

I goofed on this one and didn’t give the dough the 24-hour chill called for in the recipe, I think it was only an hour. Even so, it’s a solid cookie recipe that my friends loved.

Junk Food Marshmallow Squares

Okay, how did I not think of this before? Sweet marshmallow squares full of salty goodies like popcorn and pretzels is genius.  Nom, nom, nom.

Okay, yes, I made a lot of these recipes.  But I did it for YOU!  You’re welcome!

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