I got a great birthday present this year that I get to share with all of you – my exceptionally talented friend Susie Litman, Editor at Harlequin Books and baker extraordinaire has agreed to finally show off some her chops here on my blog reviewing cookbooks on a monthly basis starting today.

Susie doesn’t know it but she’s famous on this blog as my New York friend whose surprise birthday I nearly spoiled by almost bumping into her during my #SecretVacation5K in San Francisco this past summer (see below).   Susie knows and loves good food and her cookbook collection is to die for.  I love her collection but I love my fellow 80’s fan and her wares even more.  I’m very excited to be able to share the talents of one of my favorite people in the world with people who love food.  So here’s Susie with some virtual (not sexual) chocolate right now (if you got the 80’s movie nod- high five to you).

The 2 people I’m NOT supposed to see in San Fran – my friends!

When Melissa invited me to do a monthly cookbook review on her blog, I was thrilled to do it. Melissa and I have known each other for a long time now, and she knows how much I love to cook, read about food and cooking, talk about cooking . . . you get the idea. I grew up in a family of amazing home cooks, and some of the best times we’ve had (craziest stories, worst jokes—and most scandalous family gossip!) have always been shared either in the kitchen during the process of putting a meal together, or at the extended family table. So food to me has always meant being social, being together. And, if you’re really lucky, something yummy.

Since we’d be starting this series in February, I couldn’t resist making chocolate the subject. After all, Valentine’s Day is (well, was) this month. Plus, if you’re an East Coaster, you are no doubt hunkered down somewhere, desperate for warmth and an end to the blast of cold and snow we’ve been battered with. (And of course, a certain blog hostess just celebrated her birthday, and to know her is to know how much she just looooooooves chocolate!) So this is really a celebration of The Valentine RD herself, since I couldn’t share this birthday with her in person.

Mast Brothers Chocolate

I had just received the gorgeous MAST BROTHERS CHOCOLATE: A Family Cookbook by Rick Mast & Michael Mast and found it both wildly interesting and a challenge. The Mast Bros. are well-known for their dedication to craft chocolate, which is the process of making bean-to-bar chocolate using traditional methods – basically, handmade from roasting to wrapper (and if you’ve seen those Mast bars anywhere, those wrappers are stunning!) Their chocolate consists of two ingredients only—beans and sugar. So you know you’re getting a quality product.

Mast Brothers Philosophy from their headquarters. Image: minor9th

And the photos in the book—Mmmm. Even though I’ve never been insane about chocolate (personally, I prefer vanilla or caramel) the images here had me wanting to bake. Right. Now. So I marked up a bunch of recipes, bought more chocolate (their introduction suggests using any good-quality 70% chocolate) and got started. I was a little nervous – I’d noticed a lot of comments on Amazon from people who had had some issues with these recipes (batters too runny or too stiff, cakes not baking up properly, etc.) But I figured I’d see for myself. Plus, every single oven operates differently—and my oven is a beast, so I knew I’d have to watch everything carefully.

In the end, I opted to try three recipes. Also, Melissa had me on a tighter deadline than my Managing Editor typically does. So time was of the essence! *Cheater’s note – I had actually tried one additional cake back on New Year’s Eve, and will disclose the results here as well.

A note about the way these recipes are written—this is not a book for a novice cook or baker. I’m not a novice (though I wouldn’t classify myself as an expert, either), and I have to admit, I found this book really daunting. The recipe steps are a little simple, occasionally vague, and here and there the ingredients lists can be as well (you’ll see what I mean in the peanut butter cookie recipe.) This lack of specifics can be frustrating, and might even affect the outcome of the recipe in flavor at the least, or texture at the worst. I experienced both, though one texture problem was probably my fault.

First and foremost—the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie. This batter came together quickly and very easily, so I’m not sure about several of those Amazon comments. I was pretty surprised to see there was no vanilla extract in this batter. No room in the Mast Bros. recipe for the most classic CCC ingredient? Hmm . . . also, they use a full teaspoon of sea salt. I love the combination of sweet and salty. Then I tasted the batter, happily risking salmonella for the sake of an honest review. My first thought was “Holy GOD this is salty!! This is PUCKERINGLY salty!! Are they kidding??”

Then I baked them up, and WOW. They smelled incredible, and sure enough, tasted like the perfect chocolate chip cookie – fantastic balance of batter/dark chocolate/and only a hint of that salt, thank goodness. (I do wonder if the addition of vanilla might temper the salt, and I might try it next time. I did love the cookies, as did my husband.)  My only other quibble is, they claim to get 24 cookies out of this recipe, using 1 tablespoon batter per cookie. Well, I used 1 tablespoon per cookie and got about 60 – so who’s measuring the tablespoons in that test kitchen?

Chocolate Chip cookie making in the Litman Kitchen

Next up: the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. (My peanut butter addiction is well-documented, so you can imagine how much I was dying to make these.) Here’s where the lack of specifics I mentioned became an issue. The recipe called for 2 cups of chopped peanuts. Off I trotted to Whole Foods, looking for peanuts, when I realized . . . it didn’t specify salted or unsalted. Roasted, or unroasted. GAH! After literally 20 minutes of dithering, I finally chose roasted/unsalted peanuts, using the kitchen wisdom (hardy har har) that there was a cup of peanut butter in the mix, which would SURELY provide plenty of salt. Right? Because there’s also NO salt in the ingredients list. Which I also thought was weird, but the first time I make any recipe, I tend to follow it exactly, and then improvise the next time around based on the outcome.

The batter smelled amazing, but yes, didn’t taste quite salty enough. Did I add salt? Of course not! I baked anyway. Once again, the recipe said “makes 24.” Their test kitchen must have borrowed tablespoons from Hagrid and Hogwarts, because I, too, used a tablespoon to measure my batter out, and once again, got about 60 cookies. Sigh. These were deeply chocolaty, nicely crispy on the outside, very peanutty and slightly brownie-like inside, even after cooling. But I would have liked just a touch more salt, so if I made these again, I would either try using natural peanut butter, which is much saltier than my boyfriend Skippy, or else I would just try adding maybe ½ a teaspoon sea salt to the batter and see how they turn out. (Or, maybe roasted, salted peanuts?) There are plenty of ways to experiment with adding that hint of salt here, and the basic recipe is already wonderful—so have at it, folks.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. Yum!

I was absolutely dying to try the Chocolate Marble Cake, because I love marble cake, as well as any buttermilk cake. (Plus, I had a lot of buttermilk that I really had to use up, and this cake uses 2 cups. What could happen, right?)

Well, my husband has now poetically renamed this cake the WTF? Cake. I don’t think Melissa will let me share MY name for it on this blog. I’ve been baking a long time. I could tell you funny stories about mishaps, including the first cake I ever baked (a story so embarrassing I won a contest with it.) The yellow cake batter was the runniest batter I have ever seen, bar none. Smelled fabulous (all that buttermilk!) But it was really clumpy (could be my fault, maybe I didn’t blend well enough?)

Also—this is a multi-bowl recipe (annoying if you don’t own a fleet of mixers, which I do not.) After moving the yellow batter out of the mixer, washing the mixer/paddle, I made the chocolate batter, which came together much more smoothly. This was a thicker, denser—in a good way—batter. It was very fluffy and airy—the opposite of the yellow batter. Super-smooth, and unbelievably yummy (I did not skip the “licking the bowl” part. Baker’s privilege.) I used the chocolate as the bottom layer, poured the yellow on top, then used a skewer to marble the two, or so I thought. (Note – there are no instructions in the recipe re: how to layer the batters. The Mast Bros. have clearly not read Martha Stewart. That woman is irritatingly detailed, but there is a reason all of her recipes turn out perfectly. Perhaps I should have put these side-by-side instead . . . ) Anyway, the batter literally came to the absolute top edge of the pan—instinct told me to wrap the pan in foil, which I’ve never done before. I had measured the pan, so it was the correct size. For once, though, I listened to instinct. And yay me, because that thing overflowed in the oven!

The prescribed 45 minute baking time didn’t work for me—whereas the cookies worked perfectly according to the recipes, here I needed close to an additional ten minutes. I’ll gladly admit that it could be my oven, but the same thing happened with the Minnesota Fudge Cake that I made from this book for New Year’s Eve (which required nearly an additional 20 minutes, so perhaps it is in fact the baking times? No way to know. Again, this was a recipe in which the steps seemed just incorrect compared to other similar cakes I’ve made. Maybe I was wrong, so I’d try it again following more closely to see. That cake did have an intensely fudgy flavor, but it was ultimately too dry, likely from being overbaked, or not blended correctly. End of my NY Eve cake fiasco disclosure.)

But the reason we call this the WTF cake is because when we sliced into it, it hadn’t marbled—the chocolate and yellow layers had switched places! The flavors were incredible—on first tasting, this might be one of the lightest, airiest cakes I’ve probably ever made, and the hint of tang from the buttermilk certainly made me very happy. But it was just too weird . . . Also, while the chocolate layer remained fluffy the next day, the yellow layer got gummy and icky. Semi-fail.

The making of the WTF Cake aka Chocolate Marble Cake.

I did try one of the savory recipes, too—the cocoa dry rub. This was a raging success (until the hubby suspected he was having a minor allergic reaction to one of the ingredients—not the recipe’s fault. I’d still use it again and just keep him away from the food!) This uses, among other things, ground cacao nibs AND cocoa powder, brown sugar, cayenne and chili, and a few other spices. Combined into a small jar and well whisked, this can be rubbed onto nearly any kind of meat and grilled or roasted (we rubbed onto a London broil and stuck it in the broiler, which I don’t recommend because using it indoors so close to a flame produced too much smoke and burned the sugar a little, rather than carmelizing, which is the desired effect.) On red meat, this was phenomenal—outside of the CC Cookies, this was my fave thing so far, and so useful. The brown sugar carmelized (well, should have!) and blended beautifully if slightly extra-crispy with the smokiness of the chili and other spices. (Maybe cut back a little on the cayenne . . . this was really spicy!) Summer will be here (maybe? Eventually?) and this would be a perfect rub for the grill. I’d even love to try it on a roast chicken or turkey.

So, that was the month (well, actually two-and-a-half weeks!) of chocolate. I’d recommend the Mast Bros. book with the caveat that it might not be the most kitchen-friendly (except for that amazing rub!) But if you have access to their chocolate, it is a must-try. In the meantime, I’ll be focusing on a healthier book for next month’s review—must get rid of the chocolate chip cookie calories clinging to my waist.

If you want to get to know this well caffeinated entertainment savant, cookbook addict and all around 80’s music lover even better, she’s probably on Twitter right now at @susan_litman.  I also got her to join the rabbit hole known as Instagram – help her build a following at @susanl73,

Help a girl out – what cookbook(s) would you like for Susie to review in the future?