A Disappointing Cookbook Review

the mushroom thyme brioche weren't much to look at, but they were the best recipe

You'd think someone who loves food and reading as much as I do would love cookbooks. I love reading through them (and yes, I do mean reading; the chef's introduction better transport me to their childhood/restaurant/home kitchen or it's a big red flag) and getting recipe inspiration, but owning books in general isn't my bag.

A Boston chef had a cookbook released last fall that I put on hold immediately and finally got my hands on a few months ago. Joanne Chang is a big deal, especially in Boston. She owns the Flour Bakeries and the restaurant Myers + Chang and her sticky buns beat Bobby Flay in a bakeoff showdown. Her latest cookbook Pastry Love was highly anticipated, and I was excited to add some winning recipes into my archives. What I got was pretty much the exact opposite.

I could tell almost immediately that I was going to have a problem with this book; rather, it wasn't made for cookbook readers like me. I absolutely hate cookbooks where the recipe lists other recipes. Like, if you want to make banana cream pie and you find the recipe and it says "1 pie crust, p17, 1 serving pastry cream, p22, 1 serving whipped cream, p30." Get the hell outta here with that.

Seeing a recipe written like that is intimidating and time consuming right off the bat. Just list it out like a normal recipe. If you're including 20 recipes in your book that need the master chiffon cake, maybe you need to expand your repertoire a little bit. 

Moving on to my next issue; the recipes don't work. That's kind of a problem with a cookbook. To be fair, I didn't make every recipe. Of the handful I did make, the results varied. Some were okay, only because I, as someone with professional pastry experience, knew when to modify. Some were really good. Some were total crap. 

The master brioche dough came together easily and I was excited to use it on her famous sticky buns. Actually, these weren't her famous sticky buns, they were an apple cider version because can you think of anything more perfect for fall?! These were the first thing I wanted to try. I made the brioche early in the week. I made my "cider goo" as the recipe called it the day after. On the third day, I had everything ready to go. I poured the cider goo into my baking dish and thought "wow, that's A LOT of goo, but she knows what she's doing," and proceeded to put my unbaked cinnamon rolls on top. The goo came up nearly halfway to the buns, but again, I deferred to Chang to know the measurements and this bake time. I understand all ovens are different, especially commercial grade kitchen ovens, but these poor buns didn't stand a chance. They took FORVER to bake. I finally kicked the heat up and covered them in aluminum foil b/c I was getting antsy, but it was a wrap. They were underbaked, and the worst part was, when I inverted them to see the signature spiral, all the sticky, scalding hot goo spilled onto my kitchen counter. That sure was fun. 

I'll take the blame here; I've read enough recipes to know that sometimes they're a crapshoot. I should have been able to tell from the goo-to-dough ratio that these buns wouldn't bake properly. 

On to my next recipe; the mushroom thyme brioche. I made the "master recipe" of brioche to begin with, which was enough for two recipes worth. These mushroom thyme brioche were so good. The problem here is that she forgot to include the rising time in the recipe. I know as a baker that the brioche needs to proof at room temperature for a few hours; the recipe omitted this step and would have home cooks putting their brioche from the fridge straight into the oven. That won't end well.

Last night I had a stuffed pepper soup simmering on the stove and I was cautiously optimistic when trying her ciabatta bread. My starter was nice and yeasty and every hour or so I turned the dough, getting more excited for the final product. The final product was a bread that tasted fine but didn't darken at all. I didn't know this was something a bread could do; bake in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes and still look pale AF. I've been to Flour and eaten her ciabatta bread; this was in no way that recipe.

There were a few other misses in this cookbook, enough for me to conclude that this was just a cash-grab for her. You owe your fans and fellow cooks better. This cookbook is a disgrace. Not even b/c (some of) the recipes don't work, but b/c she proclaims herself as a perfectionist, as someone who loves sharing food with others and will try a recipe 100 times until she gets it right. This book doesn't reflect that at all. Don't waste your money or your library queue space.