The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe

The Southern Comfort Apple Pie recipe alone is worth the price of this book. The apples are first cooked in a creamy SoCo and cinnamon spiked caramel sauce before being piled in the crust, and then the whole thing is covered with pecan-studded streusel topping. It far surpasses any other apple pie I've ever made or tasted. The Texas Pecan Pie Bars were also really excellent.

Unfortunately, I've had issues with a couple of the other recipes I've tried. I actually found the Bacon & Cheddar Scones a bit bland, but I think they could be great with a bit of improvement - maybe some minced jalepeno or something for a little kick? Then, when I made the Bourbon Pumpkin Tart With Streusel Topping, all the crumbs of streusel sank to the bottom and show more mixed with the pumpkin custard, so the whole thing had a kind of weird half-crumbly half-creamy texture.

There are still a lot recipes in here I want to try, so hopefully I won't have any more disappointments! show less

Made Cafe Chocolate Cherry Cookies for a party at work using dried rainier cherries I brought back from Seattle. They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself! There are a few more recipes I'd like to try.