Happy Foodie Friday y’all! This week I am bringing you a cookbook review. I don’t think I have ever met a person who doesn’t love brownies, have you? In my house, brownies don’t tend to last that long. And the best part is we all have our own preferences as to which part is the best. Personally, I love the fudgy center pieces. While others like the crisper edge pieces. But enough about my household’s brownie habits. Let’s discuss The Brownie Diaries by Leah Hyslop.
The Brownie Diaries will be released in hardcover on April 12, 2022, but has been available digitally since February 17, 2022. With around 50 different brownie recipes, you are bound to find one (or more) that you and your family will love.
I want to thank Bloomsbury Absolute, Bloomsbury USA, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Brownie Diaries. All opinions presented here are solely mine.
Synopsis from Goodreads
Fun and user-friendly, The Brownie Diaries offers brownie-based solutions to all life’s challenges, big and small. From brownies for comfort, like the “Feeling Lonesome Tonight” brownie (an indulgent concoction made from pantry staples such as peanut butter and crumbled cookies), to brownies for celebration, such as the “I Think I Love You” Brownie (with raspberry cheesecake swirl), you’ll find the perfect brownie for every occasion among these pages. Stuck indoors on a rainy Sunday afternoon? There’s a brownie for that, too, along with brownie-inspired twists on classic recipes for cookies and ice-cream sundaes. Complete with a cocoa-dusted smattering of brownie trivia and quick-fixes to stop your brownies from sinking, The Brownie Diaries is the perfect book for brownie lovers everywhere.
My Opinions
The Brownie Diaries contains 50 brownie and brownie adjacent recipes. What does brownie adjacent mean? They are recipes that are brownies but in non-brownie form. Examples include Cracked Brownie Cookies and Salted Honey Brownie Truffles.
The book is broken down into five chapters. The first is the introduction which includes the author’s opinions on what makes a brownie, her favorite supplies, and ingredients. The second chapter is titled Everyday Brownies, which are relatively simple brownies to make yet taste delicious. Brownies for Comfort, chapter three, are the brownies you make when you (or someone around you) need a pick-me-up. Are you in a celebrating mood? Feeling fancy? Then chapter four is perfect for you, as it focuses on brownies that may take a little more time but are ideal for dinner parties. The final chapter is called Brownies (Sort Of) and contains the brownie adjacent recipes I mentioned before.
Pros
I was so excited to be able to read this cookbook. Why? Because I love brownies! And a cookbook related to just brownies has to be perfection, right? Right! The Brownie Diaries is almost perfect for my household. Why? Because unfortunately, there is a nut allergy in my house, and some of the most delicious-sounding recipes contain nuts. Maybe I can kick the husband out to have nutty brownies? I won’t do that because I would miss him too much.
To give a fair and accurate review, I made the ultimate sacrifice and tried three different recipes. I tried the Triple Chocolate Brownies from chapter one, the “I Don’t Have Chocolate” brownies from chapter two, and the After Dinner Brownies from chapter three. Another sacrifice I made for this review was purchasing a digital scale, as all of the ingredients are measured by weight instead of volume. The sacrifices were all worth it! As you can see, I don’t have any photos of the brownies to share with y’all because they evaporated. I think I managed to get four pieces out of the three recipes I tried and the four batches of brownies made in total.
Cons
There are a couple of things of note about the book that I did not know before beginning. As the book is from the UK, a few items are unusual for a North American audience. The oven temperature in the recipes is Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. The measurements of the ingredients are by weight in grams instead of being measured in cups or even ounces.
Speaking of ingredients, a few are not as common in North America. While not impossible to find, they aren’t as common. These include muscovado sugar, golden syrup, and caster sugar. A quick search on Google can help you find substitutes for these ingredients.
Conclusions
Before this book, I was always anxious about making brownies that involved melting bars of chocolate because the recipes always made it sound like you had to use the expensive chocolate bars. The Brownie Diaries proves this wrong! Hyslop even states she used the cheap store brand bars while testing many of the recipes.
If you are a brownie lover, this is the perfect book!
Are you looking for more food-related content? Check out my other Foodie Fridays posts.
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Oh, this sounds really good! Thanks for the tips on the US/UK differences—I already measure my ingredients in grams when I can, but I haven’t needed to convert recipes from Celsius to Fahrenheit before.
Nicole, thank goodness for Google, it makes things like conversions so much easier!
That is a very good point! I’m glad I don’t have to do them manually.
Oooooh yummy!! I’m from SA, so the measurements and temperatures will work perfect for me!
I am trying to get the kids at school to write reviews on different genres. I am so going to show them your review!!
Thank you Mareli! I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have.
I love a good brownie, and I’ve always made them from mixes. I should try this! Thanks for sharing.
Box brownies can be good, but these are better!