• Recluse on January 27, 2011

  A great no-frills baking book. The recipes were well-tested, and are absolutely reliable. I was devastated to hear that this book was out of print, but my Mom gave me her old copy for my birthday, and I treasure it.

• nielsena on August 20, 2010

  Amazing American old school, classic, recipes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Amaretto butter cookies

  • jaelsne on June 05, 2022

    We loved these cookies. Not at all hard to make. They are buttery shortbread cookies with mild citrus and almond flavor. I thought they were worthy of a five. The only reason I didn’t give the cookies a five rating is that I brought them to a pot luck and very few people took any. Perhaps they looked boring? Not sure.

• Basic master recipe: Quick bread

  • jaelsne on September 23, 2012

    I checked my chocolate quick bread early, and removed it from the oven. My oven is usually spot-on. The taste was fine, but it nwas very dry. If you make this recipe, check it much earlier than suggested!

• Kona Inn banana bread

  • jaelsne on December 06, 2011

    Wonderful recipe! The outside of the bread was very dark after baking for the recommended amount of time. I was afraid that the bread would be dry, but it was rich and moist and delicious.

• Irish soda bread

  • louie734 on March 19, 2014

    Added 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds to this. Before I added the currants, the dough seemed too dry, but I'd plumped them in a couple of tablespoons of hot water, so I drizzled in the soaking liquid until I got the right consistency - in this type of bread I prefer a sticky dough. Made a nice big loaf with lots of currants and not too sweet or cakey. Exactly what I was looking for in an American-style Irish soda bread. Could add another teaspoon of caraway - we really like the flavor. PS Subbed skim milk soured with vinegar for buttermilk.

• Chocolate bran cake

  • annapanna on August 30, 2013

    I really wanted to like this cake because I love to use buttermilk and I like the idea of combining bran and chocolate. I tried the recipe twice and both time the cake turned out a bit dry. I think I will try one last time and leave it in the oven for a shorter time. I added the honey chocolate frosting as suggested and the end result was very pretty and shiny. I liked the taste of honey in combination with the cake but my husband didn't, so next time I'll probably skip it.

• Zucchini bread

  • laurenlangston on August 21, 2017

    This is decent but not particularly mindblowing. I used a very big, "old" (read: left on the vine for more than 3 hours) zucchini so it was on the dry side. I doubled it (see: big zucchini) and put it in a bunch of smaller loaf pans to give away and that worked fine.

• Sour-cream spice cake

  • stef on November 08, 2017

    Interesting cake. No butter or oils. I baked mine in a Bundt pan. 40 minutes. Nice and moist and spicey

• Cinnamon rolled biscuits

  • stef on November 25, 2016

    Page 576. What a great fast recipe. Omitted raisins and walnuts and piped a little icing

• Basic master recipe: Classic angel food cake with white mountain frosting

  • Gachabot on June 19, 2020

    Maple Angel Food Cake - substituted maple sugar and maple extract - used 16 large egg whites to get 2 cup yield - outstanding!!!! Served it with maple bourbon whipped cream and fresh strawberries- out of this world delicious.

• Whole-wheat prune pumpkin muffins

  • ricki on February 05, 2021

    An old favorite! Sweet enough with ½ cup of brown sugar. Works fine with a neutral oil instead of butter, either maple syrup or molasses, and just a little nutmeg. Yields 10 to 12 muffins, which take up to 20 minutes at 400.

• Basic muffins

  • ashallen on October 26, 2020

    This basic recipe hasn't changed since my 1965 edition :). My older edition does mention the possibility of using an additional egg and up to 1/2 cup sugar, however, and omitting 2 tbsp from the 2 cups of flour if using all-purpose vs. pastry flour. It also has a variation called "orange muffins" which has disappeared from later editions that calls for mixing in 3/4 c diced candied orange peel. That's the variation I made, using homemade peel I'd packed in syrup that's very tender. I also used the extra egg, the 1/2 c sugar, and an extra 1/4 tsp salt since I thought all that orange peel might need some balancing out. I subtracted the 2 tbsp of flour. These were surprisingly good - the large amount of orange peel was really delicious. The basic cake part did its job supporting the peel and had a slightly springy (but not tough) texture. On its own, it'd be on the plain side, but it's a fine background for various add-ins or spreading with butter and jam.