Baking Just Got Easier Blog Tour

I’m not a food blogger and I’m not a foodie, but I do love desserts. Recently I’ve been trying to be more organized with cooking and meal-planning, so when Christina Dymock contacted me about this blog tour, I thought it might be fun to participate. I find that most people have different habits and opinions when it comes to food. This review is based on my own preferences, so your take on the same recipes or on this cookbook’s concept could be far different.

I haven’t bought many cook books lately. Usually when I do, I find that I’m only interested in about ten percent of the recipes, and of those, very few becomes ones I use over and over again. When I browse through a recipe book, I normally judge it by a set of factors. Other people will have different criteria, but for this review, I’ll go through the different categories I use and tell you what I think.

Are the recipes healthy?

Not all that applicable for a dessert recipe book. Many of the recipes included shortening and corn syrup, two things I usually don’t bake with. But dessert is about taste, not about nutrients, right?

Are the recipes easy?

I don’t mind baking, but I have lots of other ways I like to spend my time. (Writing spy thrillers, for example.) As promised by the title, the recipes in this book use just one bowl for mixing and one for baking. A few of the recipes even have you assemble the items on the baking sheet, so there is even less cleanup.

Most of the ingredient lists were fairly small. Some recipes are true “make from scratch” recipes, and others start with a cake mix or pre-made cookie dough. I thought there was a great balance between these two types of recipes.

Do the recipes use items I have on hand, or do they require a special trip to the store?

I normally have the basics for things like chocolate chip cookies or brownies (butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, chocolate chips, salt, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, oil, etc). While the ingredient lists for most of the recipes in One Dirty Dish aren’t long, the majority of them included at least one item not normally in my pantry. (But your pantry may be different.)

Is the final product tasty?

Why waste your time making a dessert that doesn’t taste good? (Unless it somehow has the nutritional benefits, of, say broccoli.) I can’t speak for every recipe in the book, but here is a summary of those I tried:

Over the Moon Brownies

These get points for being chocolate. As promised, they were easy to mix up. But I have other recipes I like better (admittedly, my go-to from-scratch brownie recipe dirties two bowls instead of one), and my favorite brownie is still the Ghirardelli mix. Usually my family of four has no problem polishing off a batch of brownies, but we only ate about 2/3rds of these and tossed the rest. They weren’t bad, but it’s a recipe I won’t make again.

Abracadabra Cookie Bars

These bars were tasty. A crust that’s a mix between a cookie and a pie crust, topped with chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, and pecans. It’s a recipe I may make again, especially for extended family get-togethers or potlucks, because it makes a large batch. (I was going to share them with a friend, but she’s allergic to the pecans).

Lemon Bread with Blueberry Streusel

My husband and I thought this was good (3 out of 5 stars), but my kids loved it. Quote from a four year old: “This is the best bread ever!” Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as the picture, but no one at our house cared.

Other Recipes

Since I was able to try only a small percentage of the included recipes, I thought it would be helpful to list the other options below. Many (but not all) of the recipes included a picture. I found the recipes easy to follow, so if you see a lot of recipes that catch your eye, check out this cookbook. It’s available on Amazon.

Small & Scrumptious

Hazelnut Puffs

Mini Bundt Cakes with Pears

White Chocolate Cherry Delights

Raisin Pie Bites

Cookie-Bottom Individual Cheesecakes

Banana Petits Fours

Coconut Cups with Strawberry Filling

Roll-Over Cookie Bites

Little Chocolate Rolls

Mini Pumpkin Oreos

Beautiful Brownies & Bars

Best-ever Chocolate Fudge Lemon Brownies

In-the-Beginning Brownies

Extreme Peanut Butter Bookies

Mom’s Butterscotch Bars

No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars

To-Die-For Pecan Bars

Variety S’mores Bars

Chocolate Cream Cheese Strawberry Brownies

Very Vanilla Brownies

Seriously Chunky Brownies

Sandwich Cookie Bars

Abracadabra Cookie Bars

Chocolate Crispy Bars

Peanut Butter Goodness Bars

Peanut Butter Love Bars

Over-the-Moon Brownies

Decadent Dessert Breads

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread

Almond Bread

Lemon Bread with Blueberry Streusel

White Chocolate Pumpkin Bread

Carrot Bread

Orange Bread

Butter Rum Bread

Enticing Cookies

Coconut Macaroons

Marshmallow-in-the-Middle Cookies

Lemon Spritz Cookies

Snap-and Crackle Cookies

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Nutty Cookies

Banana Cookies

Raspberry Meringue Cookies

Elvis’s Kisses

Paper Bag Cookies

Dark Chocolate and Caramel Cookies

Bud Cookies

Ginger Softies

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cookies

Santa’s Favorite Cookies

Brownie Mallow Cookies

3X Chocolate Cookies

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Divine Sweets

Rocky Road

Rum Balls

Peanut Butter Truffle Bars

Hazelnut Ice Cream Topping

Honey Caramels

Mint Fudge

Salted White Chocolate Peanut Clusters

Upside-Down Mounds

Caramel Mousse

Anything Bark

Turtle Bites

Charming Cakes, Cupcakes, Cobblers & Pies

Graham Cracker Pie

Pumpkin Bundt Cakes

Hummingbird Sheet Cake

Moist Chocolate Cake

Upside-Down German Chocolate Cake

White Chocolate Almond Poppy Seed Cake

Caramel Cake with Pecan Frosting

Blueberry Ribbon Cake

Cheesecake Sundaes

Mint Valley Cupcakes

White Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

Plum Upside-Down Cupcakes

Grandma’s 24-Hour Cupcakes

Vanilla Peach Bundt Cake

Inside-out Pumpkin S’more Cupcakes

Chocolate Cake to the Third Power

Peach Cobbler

Blender Pumpkin Pie

In addition to One Dirty Bowl: Fast Desserts, Faster Cleanup, Christina Dymock has also written The Hungry Family Slow Cooker Cook Book, Young Chefs, 101 Things to do With Popcorn, The Widow’s Mite, and The Godmother Chronicles.

You can connect with Christina through her blog or her Facebook page.

*I was provided an electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.