cinnamon – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

16-2: Cheesecake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 12, 2025June 15, 2025all-purpose flour, blind bake, butter, cakes, cheesecake, cinnamon, cold desserts, college, cream cheese, crème fraîche, dessert, dried spices, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, folded, fruit, garnish, glazed, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grated, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, melted, meringue, nutmeg, party food, pie crust, revisited, soft peaks, stiff peaks, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, zested

Question: Why did it take me so long to get to 16-2: Cheesecake (especially since cheesecake is one of my favorite foods)?

Answer: Technically, I’ve made it once before–when I lived in my first REAL apartment during college (20 years ago…YIKES). I’ve talked before about my cooking misadventures while in college (I went to a high-altitude school, which messes with baking more than you think), so we’ll take my note below in stride.

OK–why so long to make it again, then?

I held out on this one for so long because I wanted to make it with real dairy–the vegan/fake stuff was never going to do this cake justice. It’s not even a particularly GREAT cheesecake (Junior’s version is the one you want for that–I even won my work cheesecake “throwdown” with that one), but I wanted to at least try to do it right.

Dietary “needs” have recently evolved, so real dairy is back on the menu after many years of using substitutes. In honor of that, let’s give this one another try now that I’m closer to sea level and have 20 additional years of cooking experience behind me.

19-8: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 29, 2025May 27, 2025almond milk, brown sugar, café au lait, cappuccino, chilled, chocolate, cinnamon, coffee, cooking school, espresso, flavorings, French, ingredients, instant coffee, Irish, milk, oat milk, roasted, steamed, tea, West African, West Indian, whipped, whipping cream, whiskey

Finally finishing up Group 19 with the last two cards I have for it–this one, 19-8: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate I and its partner, 19-9: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate II.

Even though it claims to be about coffee, tea, and chocolate, this card is actually only about coffee. You’ll have to refer to Part II for the rest of it.

14-2: Apple Strudel

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 11, 2020August 10, 2021all-purpose flour, applejack, apples, Austrian, autumn, brandy, butter, Calvados, chilled, cinnamon, cornstarch, dessert, dough, dusted, fairly hard, fall, filling, food processor, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, lemon peel, lemons, liquor, melted, nuts, orange peel, oranges, pastry, peeled, phyllo dough, powdered sugar, raisins, rum, salt, strudel, untested, vegetable oil, Viennese, walnuts, zested

I’ll be honest–I’ve started this entry for 14-2: Apple Strudel a bunch of times, and I can’t think of anything exciting to say about it. There’s a lot of apple desserts in this book, and they all just start to blend together for me after a while. Even then, apple strudel is pretty a well-known dish to begin with, so odd are low that you’re going to learn anything new about it from reading Simply Delicious’ take on it.

It took me until NOW (and by now I mean as I’m pushing the keys to type this) to realize that there was actually powdered sugar coating the one pictured above, and they didn’t just peel the first layer of the outside off and say “yep, looks good to me”.

14-21: Pear Pandowdy

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods October 13, 2020October 12, 2020all-purpose flour, American, apples, autumn, baked goods, baking powder, blackberries, blueberries, brown sugar, butter, cherries, cinnamon, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, frozen, fruit, granulated sugar, hot desserts, lemon juice, nutmeg, peaches, pears, pie crust, plums, raspberries, salt, strawberries, toppings, vegetarian

Here’s a very basic dessert recipe: 14-21: Pear Pandowdy. Pandowdies are typically made with apples, but Simply Delicious offers a pear variation which is also popular. Both are in season right now, so either one would work for this recipe if you’re looking for something to do with all of that fall produce.

Here’s more info on pandowdies, courtesy of New England.com:

An old-fashioned favorite, the pandowdy is, by definition, a cooked fruit dessert sweetened with maple syrup or molasses and topped with a pie pastry. The name refers to the act of “dowdying” the crust — that is, breaking it up with a knife and pressing it into the bubbling juices — midway through baking. While it’s not the prettiest of pastries, what it lacks in streamlined good looks it more than makes up for in rich flavor.
Yankee Magazine, August 2020

Let’s see how close Simply Delicious gets to their definition. They sell this thing much better than I do.

20-12: Basic Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 20: Basic Recipes, Section 4: Cooking School December 19, 2017October 18, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, baguette, baked goods, bread series, breads, breakfast, brushed, butter, cardamom, cheese, chopped, cinnamon, coarse salt, cooking school, crescents, cumin, curry powder, dried herbs, egg wash, eggs, granulated sugar, grated, herbs and spices, lunch, melted, milk, nuts, party food, poppy seeds, pretzels, proofed, rolls, saffron, salt, scored, sesame seeds, slit, snacks, sunflower seeds, untested, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

Playing a bit of catch-up here since unscheduled interruptions, other non-food-related projects, and massive amounts of holiday baking have put me far behind in terms of keeping up with posts. I had started working on a Bread Series, starting with 18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I which I published back in October. Covering 20-12: Basic Rolls was intended to play off of that concept, giving you an easy recipe to utilize the lessons presented in both that post and its follow-up, 18-2: Basic Yeast Dough II.

Quick review: the last three chapters of Simply Delicious are part of its Cooking School, intended to review basic techniques, ingredients, and recipes with which all aspiring chefs should be familiar. I’ve covered a few bits and bobs out of those last few chapters, but much of it still remains untapped.

18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School October 5, 2017September 30, 2020all-purpose flour, anise, baked goods, beer, bread series, breads, breakfast, butter, cake yeast, canola oil, cinnamon, cooking school, cumin, dairy-free, dried herbs, dried spices, durum wheat flour, eggs, fennel, garlic, granulated sugar, herbs and spices, milk, olive oil, poppy seeds, rye flour, saffron, salt, sesame seeds, shortening, snacks, untested, vanilla extract, vegetable juice, vegetable oil, vegetarian, wheat germ, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, whole wheat kernels, yeast

I’ve made a lot of bread during the 3.5 years I’ve been working on this project (both for the project and outside of it), and I hear a lot of the same remarks whenever I talk about making bread: “Oh, that seems hard”, or “It’s too much work to make bread”. I used to feel the same way, and shied away from yeast recipes for a long time out of a fear of failure. In cooking (like most things in life), you have to be ready to embrace failure and learn from it–otherwise, you’ll never get past heating up Hot Pockets in the microwave.

Simply Delicious even notes in their recipe blurb that bread making is perceived as hard. It’s maybe not the easiest thing in the world, but you’ll make a lot of friends fast if you can make them fresh bread. 18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I is the first in a three-part series on bread making, where you’ll learn some tips and tricks for improving your bread baking, as well as a few basic recipes that you can use.

17-14: Nutty Muffins

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 15, 2017August 31, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, at work, baked goods, baking cups, baking powder, breakfast, butter, candied, chopped, cinnamon, citrus, creamed, dessert, dried fruit, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hazelnuts, melted, milk, muffins, nuts, oranges, pecans, peeled, reduced, simple syrup, snacks, tangerines, toppings, untested, vegetarian, walnuts, zested

Here’s one of the last few recipes left from the chapter on baked goods, Group 17: Baked Goods. I made 17-14: Nutty Muffins for work–I thought they’d make a nice accompaniment to everyone’s morning coffee. ☕️

See? Even Simply Delicious shows them being served with coffee. Wikipedia offers a deeper dive on the history of muffins if you’re interested/bored. There’s a difference between these types of muffins (referred to as “quickbread” muffins or “American” muffins due to the fact that they’re very similar to a cupcake or other types of sweet, dense, cake-like bread) and the traditional “English” muffins that you get with Eggs Benedict or an Egg McMuffin.

7-13: Thai Pork Loin

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses June 8, 2017October 15, 2020Asian, boiled, bone-in, boneless, braised, butter, canola oil, chopped, cinnamon, cornstarch, cubed, deboned, deglazed, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fish sauce, green onions, herbs and spices, hot sauce, leeks, lunch, Oriental, peeled, pork, pork loin, salt, sautéed, scallions, sliced, slurry, soy sauce, sriracha, Thai, Thai soy sauce, untested, vegetables, white onions, yellow onions

Pork and pineapple are two of my favorite ingredients. Sweet and Sour Pork from almost any Chinese restaurant makes me happy. Simply Delicious finally put these two powerhouse ingredients together in this recipe for 7-13: Thai Pork Loin.

Looking at the size of the chunks in the sample photo, I see how I could have cut my ingredients differently, however, I still stand by the choices I made. The method of preparation I chose is what Jamie and I would prefer versus what the book tells you to do.

9-19: Meatballs on Skewers

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses June 7, 2017October 19, 2020allspice, almonds, appetizers, beef, broiled, chilled, chopped, cinnamon, cornstarch, dinner, dried herbs, eggs, fairly easy, gluten-free, grated, Greek, grill pan, grilled, ground beef, ground lamb, ground meat, ground veal, herbs and spices, inexpensive, kebabs, lamb, lemons, lunch, meatballs, Middle Eastern, mint, nuts, olive oil, pan-fried, party food, peeled, salt, sautéed, skewered, tzatziki sauce, untested, veal, yellow onions, yogurt, zested

Gyro is probably my favorite preparation method of ground meat, so when I saw this recipe, I got very excited. This recipe, 9-19: Meatballs on Skewers is basically the same recipe as gyro, just served differently. However, I wish I had just bought a container of tzatziki at the store instead of making the yogurt sauce.

The rabbit handle piece on the end of the skewer in the example photo is simply incredible. I’ve never seen a set of skewers quite like that. It looks like the other skewers have other animal handles, I think I see a cat and a chicken on the other skewers that are slightly obscured by the meatballs. The serving dish is very neat, I’d like to add one to my collection.

17-65: Giant Caramel Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 16, 2017November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking cups, breakfast, brown sugar, brunch, butter, caramel, chopped, cinnamon, dark corn syrup, dough, easy, eggs, filling, gift ideas, granulated sugar, herbs and spices, inexpensive, melted, nuts, pastry, pecans, proofed, rolls, salt, Silpat, snacks, untested, vegetarian, yeast

A recent Sunday brunch called for a special treat: 17-65: Giant Caramel Rolls. Similar to “sticky buns“, these rolls have been taunting me for a while. I decided to make a batch and drop them off for brunch–that way most of them gets eaten by everyone else.

Don’t get me wrong–there’s still two in my freezer as I type this. But that’s better than ALL of them. Plus, there wasn’t room for all of them–I still had 16-14: Orange-Almond Cake in there, too. The rest of these ended up in my mom’s freezer instead.

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