Anonymous
Posted May 3, 2009
Some friends of ours brought his aging mother to their house to live out her final days. Another friend paid a social call on them and brought some brownies as a gift. A few days later the mother died. The giver of the brownies called and expressed her condolences on their loss. The friend who was the mother of the deceased said. "Thank you...we're pretty sure it was the brownies." Since then we have teased the one friend about her "killer brownies." When I saw a book titled "BROWNIES TO DIE FOR!" I had to get it for her.
The last time we got together the baker of the "Killer Brownies" made a batch from one of the recipes in the book. It was outstanding...and nobody died!
Anonymous
Posted August 18, 2006
Ok. I've tried only one recipe so far but I had to write a note because there aren't enough positive reviews on this book! I got the book from the library - the cover picture looked awesome (so was the title) and I had to get it. Before I chose a recipe to try, I checked out the reviews on the internet - there weren't many which wasn't surprising because it's fairly new but the ones out there didn't sound very positive about it. So, I thought of returning the book back before trying any recipes. At the last minute I changed my mind and decided to try at least one recipe on my own, so I made the cover recipe ('Many Swirles Brownies') and to my pleasant surprise it was EXCELLLENT!! It's the stuff you'd get at a great city restaurant (that you'd pay $7.50 a piece for with a little whipped cream and decorative mint leaf on top) and totally not the out-of-the box or coffee shop quality. I would've been totally disappointed if it didn't turn out decent sicne I spent $15 for the ingredients to make a batch but this was definitely worth it. The recipe said to bake it 30-40 minutes, and after 30 minutes it looked not done and the reviews said the baking time was off so I decided to leave it in the oven for another 10 minutes but to my surprise it started to get dry and cracked at the top at 37 minutes (at which point I took it out of the oven to cool). I thought I totally overbaked it but after it was cooled and chilled in the fridge it became moist again. (And the author was totally right - the brownies were much better after being in the fridge 12 hours rather than right after!). I can't wait to try other recipes now! And yes, I'm definitely buying a copy of the book for myself and maybe a few more to give away!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 30, 2006
'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 teh cooking time before this situation. 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!
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Posted March 19, 2009
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Anonymous
Posted November 30, 2008
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