I first heard about this book on Dragon's Den. As a writer and
editor who's also learning to cook, I was curious to read a
self-published cookbook/memoir. Then my sister just happened to
give it to me for my birthday. Erin's bubbly personality certainly
comes through in her writing, but it's not really that innovative
or inspiring. It reads like someone didn't edit it (one sentence
made me want to shred the page) but that kind of adds to the
small-town charm of the book.
However, the recipes are the biggest failure of this book. They're
not anything special (four separate recipes for chocolate bark?
Please.) And while the use of common ingredients is nice, the
directions are horrible. Anyone who has melted chocolate knows you
have to melt it in a double boiler, not in a saucepan on the stove.
Yet every direction that involves melting chocolate says to melt it
in a sauce pan.
I attempted two recipes before I gave up on the book entirely: the
sea salted caramels, and the shortbread cookies. The directions for
the caramels include nothing about temperature (which is vitally
important when working with sugar) and makes no mention of ideal
texture or how long to cool the caramel. Even though I followed the
directions to the letter (including burning my chocolate in a
saucepan, which makes the chocoholic in me very sad) the caramels
were a major flop. I've checked other caramel recipes, and the
ingredients are pretty much the same. It's the instructions that
kill it.
When I tried the shortbread cookies, they turned out to be a flop,
too. They tasted all right, but my mother, who's made shortbread
cookies every Christmas for as long as I can remember, tasted them
and announced the flour-to-butter ratio was off, namely that there
wasn't enough flour. I also recited the directions to her, and she
told me how there isn't enough mixing time given to allow the
gluten strands to form properly, which is why my cookies crumbled
to dust if you looked at them wrong.
The only thing that really impresses me about the book (aside from
Miss Bolger's enthusiasm) is the photography. The images are
fantastic, and there are a few I'm considering just cutting out of
the book and hanging on my wall. Because otherwise I have no use
for this book, as I'd never recommend it to any bakers I know, and
I'd feel bad donating it to Goodwill.
This book could have been fantastic. The energy is there, and Miss
Bolger certainly beleives in her book (and I'm assuming that she
does indeed know how to bake, since the Dragons were impressed by
her treats) but it sorely needed an editor with a test kitchen.