• ash_2fquo3 on January 25, 2026

  This cookbook is often where I go to try new recipes before I tackle more technical ones. The instructions are usually good (with very good descriptions of what to look for i.e. golden, elastic, bounce and have often helped me significantly) and the end results usually pretty successful, if a simplified or variation on often more complex recipes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Banana bread

  • IvyManning on November 01, 2016

    Who ever heard of a banana bread recipe without any cinnamon or any other spices? The headnote promised not-too-sweet bread, but we found it to be sticky sweet and bland at the same time.

• Carrot-ginger bread

  • MsMonsoon on July 10, 2024

    Surprised how well this turned out! This is the carrot-ginger variation given for the zucchini bread recipe. For the liquid, I used milk (recipe calls for orange juice or milk), used walnuts instead of pecans, used half whole wheat flour as I was short on regular white, and did add the optional candied ginger. Was perfectly baked at 70 minutes instead of 50-60. Nice rise and crumb. May reduce sugar a bit next time since the candied ginger provides sugar. Would repeat this and also try some of the other variations (like chocolate zucchini!)

• Chocolate-zucchini bread

  • ash_2fquo3 on January 17, 2026

    Love this with blood orange. People always ask for this recipe. I do usually leave out the nuts.

• Coffee cake

  • MsMonsoon on October 09, 2021

    Recipe calls for a 9x9. I have only an 8x8 and it didn’t even seem enough batter for this smaller pan. Also, there is no “pouring” this batter the way the recipe states, as it is very thick. Didn’t have enough batter to make a full 2nd layer. I read a suggestion to just have a single layer coffee cake, and makehalf the streusel.

  • SenseiHeidi on December 07, 2025

    As noted by MsMonsoon this is not a "batter" more like a soft sticky cookie dough, and yes, a 9×9 seemed a little too large. I used greased hands to spread the dough evenly in the pan. I made the vegan version. Good flavor and texture, it did rise a little bit as it baked. I used a mixture of walnuts and pecans.

• Leftovers bread

  • ash_2fquo3 on January 17, 2026

    Excellent use of leftover cooked grains.

• Ginger rice bread

  • ash_2fquo3 on April 23, 2026

    Didn't have enough plantains, so I used half ripe bananas. Will try this again with all plantains and I think I will like the flavor more. The texture was really nice and a good gf option that's similar, but different to banana bread.

• Blueberry muffins

  • IvyManning on July 07, 2018

    Don't use the blueberry version of this recipe! It produces rubbery, flavorless muffins. So embarrassed I served this at a brunch ! I'm pitching this book and Bittmans baking book. I've just had far too many dud recipes from him.

  • MsMonsoon on July 11, 2020

    Made the peach oatmeal variation provided with the blueberry muffin recipe. It made only enough for 10 flat, somewhat rubbery muffins. The recipe has no sugar at all, so you will probably want to use the optional streusel topping recipe. I was sure glad I used some leftover streusel I had in the fridge from a Violet Bakery recipe to provide a bit of sweet. Perhaps his "Sweet and Rich Muffins" recipe is better?

  • jessica_ih9yfa on February 18, 2026

    I think folks in comments prefer more sweetness. Muffins are also very easy to overwork, as far as texture goes. I made the blueberry with the strudel/crumble on top. I really like the muffin- not too sweet, great warmed the next day with a smidge of butter. My only complaint or note- the topping makes far too much for 12 muffins. Should be halved.

• Double-chocolate muffins

  • MsMonsoon on August 09, 2020

    Success! This muffin turned out much better than the blueberry muffin recipe two pages earlier in his book. I did the Mexican version, adding 2 tsp. of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. of cayenne and really liked the result. Didn't have dark chocolate so I just used semi-sweet chips. Next I'll try with dark chocolate and the orange version. The recipe says to fill cups 2/3 full but there was enough batter to fill almost to the top. And while the muffins rose, they didn't spill over while baking.

• Banana chocolate chip bran muffins

  • ash_2fquo3 on February 16, 2026

    Excellent bran muffin base. I subbed out 1/2c bran with rolled oats and 2T brown sugar with honey.

• Coconut chocolate chip oatmeal muffins

  • MsMonsoon on August 13, 2022

    These are terrific! I like the way the oatmeal gave these muffins a bit of heft. They have a full cup of chopped dark chocolate so they are not exactly healthy. (This is one variation of many for the recipe -- the blueberry one and others would be healthier.) I made a batch of oatmeal just to make this recipe and it was still warm when I mixed it up with the melted coconut oil, milk (used soy milk), eggs, and vanilla, and it worked great. My soy milk substitution made these dairy free.

• Cardamom-orange pinwheel biscuits

  • MsMonsoon on May 19, 2021

    Quick, easy and versatile, and the cardamom orange variation is delicious. They are not very sweet and many reviewers at the King Arthur site preferred to add more butter, sugar, or a sweet glaze. But as long as you’re not expecting a gooey cinnamon roll, these are fine. There is an awful lot of baking powder (1Tbsp) here and you can taste it. The online recipe, which seems to be a revised/corrected version of the book’s, has much less baking powder (1 tsp), baking soda (1/2 tsp), and salt (1/2 tsp), and the instructions are more detailed, recommending wrapping and freezing the roll for 15 min before slicing: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cinnamon-pinwheel-biscuits-recipe

• Chocolate scones

  • MsMonsoon on January 25, 2021

    I made the chocolate orange variation of these and they rose nicely and have a nice flavor. (Just did the sugar on top, not the optional orange glaze, although that sounds good.) The dough was quite wet and sticky so I had to add more flour. Compared to some other scone recipes, these don’t have a lot of fat (5 tbsp of butter instead of Cheese Board’s two sticks!) so the result is a little more bread-like instead of a rich and buttery pastry. Recipe says use an ungreased baking sheet. Some bits did stick so I’d use parchment or Silpat next time.

• Whole wheat feta and rosemary scones

  • MsMonsoon on October 07, 2020

    These were bland and the finished product was begging for butter, cheese, and/or condiment. Even slathered with butter, these didn’t come alive until I spread on some Marmite!

• Popovers

  • MsMonsoon on February 25, 2025

    These were a total failure. Dense like scrambled egg or custard and barely any rise. And then they collapsed, making them even shorter and denser. Maybe my batter was too cool, or the oven hadn't reached 425.

• Caraway-fennel seed soda bread

  • MsMonsoon on January 12, 2026

    This was a half whole wheat, half AP flour recipe, and I used buttermilk. I didn't get the craggy exterior I've seen on other loaves of irish soda bread, but it did rise and split at the cuts. Quite dense, as I think soda bread is supposed to be? I did like this variation of caraway and fennel seeds. It seems like it can go both sweet or savory. I had it toasted with butter and jam.

• Lemon ricotta pancakes

  • Juleslovesgoldies on March 28, 2026

    Wow! I tried this recipe for the first time today and these ricotta pancakes are the best. So delicious; with a fluffy, soft, custard like texture on the inside. This will be my new ‘go to’ ricotta pancakes recipe.

• Apricot-cardamom pancakes

  • MsMonsoon on July 13, 2021

    I had some cooked, frozen apricots my dad had given me from his tree, so I pureed them for this recipe. This is one of the variations given for the pumpkin pancake recipe, and it's really good. Fluffy pancakes and the delicate cardamom flavor came through. (I added a little extra of both the cardamom and vanilla.) They were really good with maple syrup, or with whole milk yogurt mixed with a touch of honey. Later I tried modifying a pumpkin muffin recipe from Moosewood's to have this same apricot-cardamom flavor and it was a fail -- they didn't taste nearly as good as these pancakes!

• Beignets

  • lou_weez on April 15, 2017

    These doughnuts reminded me of the ones my Nonna used to make. Really delicious with a mug of hot chocolate. They do need to be eaten on the day they are made, so we halved the recipe and still had 20 little sugar coated spheres to get through!

• Chocolate-chocolate chunk cookies

  • MsMonsoon on March 10, 2024

    Way too much butter (2 sticks) for the amount of flour (2 cups). Cookies were flat, greasy, and ran into each other. After cooling they could barely be held, flopping over on themselves and breaking. Thinking it was the hot oven temp (375 F) and room temp batter, I chilled dough balls overnight and baked in 350. Same issue. Terrible, wrong recipe. Probably needs flour increased from 2 cups to 3.

• Banana oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies

  • julesamomof2 on February 05, 2018

    Disaster--this recipe was obviously not tested. With no flour, it was a liquidy mess.. I could tell they weren't going to work, so I kept adding flour until they became a decent consistency, around 6 tablespoons. I like the fact that he offers a lot of variations on base recipes, but not if they can't be trusted.

• Vegan peanut butter cookies

  • Kmatazz on July 30, 2017

    Made the vegan version - very good. I would add the chopped peanuts next time - did use crunchy peanut butter. A little larger than suggested - took 3 minutes longer.

• Thumbprint cookies

  • mjes on October 19, 2019

    A typical thumbprint cookie made special by the use of Alaskan spruce tip jelly.

• Snickerdoodles

  • jbny on December 22, 2022

    good, and easy

• Madeleines

  • MsMonsoon on April 10, 2023

    These worked out rather well and I even got the signature hump. Apparently the key is chilling the batter well before baking — from one hour to overnight, says this recipe. I worried I had overdone it at nearly 24 hours, but then read elsewhere that you can even make the batter 4 days ahead. Perfect for prepping ahead to whip up a fresh batch to take to someone. Surprisingly my new nonstick USA madeleine pan gave a crisper and more golden crust than my thin tin molds which I thought would be more traditional and perform better. The tin ones may have been further from the heat source; they were pale and less defined.

• Mango bars

  • ShayLRoss on May 16, 2026

    This is fine, but I think the mango variation does not stand out as much as the standard lemon. I opted to not include coconut on top as suggested and I did have to bake about 10 minutes longer than indicated.

• Cinnamon-spice crazy cake

  • jchern on April 09, 2017

    Messing around again. Used 1 1/4 c white whole wheat flour and 1 cup regular; cut sugar by 1/4 cup. Added a shot of espresso as part of water and used olive oil. Only really new for me was the slightly less sugar and the espresso--done that with chocolate version but not spice before.

• Yellow cake

  • MsMonsoon on July 02, 2025

    I've never made yellow cake before. This was a bit dry but I probably overbaked. My sheet pan was dark so I used a lower oven temp, but then the middle wasn't done at 25 min, so I went about 14 min longer! I also used regular AP flour instead of cake flour. This takes 8 egg yolks! I'd probably try a different recipe next time I'm making yellow cake. Perhaps Sally's Baking Addiction.

• Blueberry pudding cake

  • MsMonsoon on April 17, 2021

    Never made a pudding cake before. It’s interesting how a single batter turns into a two-layer dessert. A little fussy with a blender, mixer, and bain marie, but still easy. I might reduce the sugar by a couple tablespoons next time. The corn blueberry version sounds interesting, too.

• Lemon gooey butter cake

  • ash_2fquo3 on January 25, 2026

    I think this was over baked, even cutting back on the recommended time (and I have a thermometer I was keeping track of since my oven dial doesn't quite match the temp). Might have done better in a glass dish instead of cake pan. I also think the addition 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to the topping without any other adjustments for increased liquid could have been an issue, my first time making this so I don't have a lot to compare. It is very tasty and yeasted cakes are very cool. P.S. this cookbook is often where I go to try new recipes before I tackle more technical ones. The instructions are usually good and the end results usually pretty successful, if a simplified or variation on often more complex recipes.

• Sticky toffee pudding

  • MsMonsoon on November 05, 2021

    This recipe is easy to make, but there has to be an error with the pan size. The 9x13 it called for made a very thin, flat cake. The recipe says you can make individual puddings by using a 12-well muffin tin -- and that is not equivalent to a 9x13 (which would be more like 24 muffins). I might try an 8x8 next time. But I'll probably try another recipe first, maybe a steamed one, as I hear these create a very nice texture.

• Cookie crumb crust

  • MsMonsoon on July 17, 2022

    Made chocolate wafer cookie version following the cookie recipe in the book. The crust slumped terribly. I read on Cook’s Illustrated that this is due to too much fat — combined fat from the cookies plus the butter in the crust recipe. A cookie much lower in fat, like a Graham cracker, would likely work better. Seems a flawed recipe.

• Mint-chocolate icebox pie

  • MsMonsoon on July 18, 2022

    Cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk make the filling somewhat heavy. I believe other icebox pies have whipped cream. I forgot the confectioners sugar and salt in the filling but it was plenty sweet. The chocolate cookie crust was a failure. It slumped in the oven so I had a thick bottom and no sides. When I went to slice the pie, the knife wouldn’t go through. I got the entire pie out of the nonstick USA pie pan and onto a plate, where I could really go at it with a knife. The dense crust made it difficult to eat! Despite this failure, I will still try the grapefruit version as I so rarely find grapefruit desserts.

• Simplest vanilla pudding

  • MsMonsoon on August 15, 2023

    Still quite runny, like yogurt, after a couple hours in the fridge, but thickened a bit more overnight. A slightly strange flavor (the cornstarch?) which also improved overnight. Not the best-tasting pudding, but three stars because it’s at least easy.

• Tapioca pudding

  • crandall57 on March 31, 2024

    Excellent tapioca pudding. Not mentioned in the recipe is the fact that egg whites whip easier when at room temperature. Also, I tempered the egg yolks, before adding them to the pudding.

• Mexican chocolate tofu pudding

  • crandall57 on May 19, 2025

    These were very tasty and easy to make. I used Enjoy Life dark chocolate morsels and melted them in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time. I used Kashmiri chili powder and the spice level was just right.

• Socca or farinata

  • mjes on April 23, 2018

    Not that there is much variation in socca recipes, but this is the one I chose to start my grandnephew on. It is very well written for a beginning cook to follow. It is especially useful because of Bittman's related uses for the socca once it is done. Don't laugh, I was introduced to socca in a flatbread and crackers course that failed to discuss uses.

• 100-percent whole wheat bread with pumpkin and sage

  • MsMonsoon on January 24, 2024

    The dough was not at all wet and batter-like as the recipe says. I added extra water and still it wasn’t anywhere near batter-like. The bread didn’t really rise much on the first or second rise and the baked loaf was totally brick-like! Maybe my yeast was too old.

• Challah

  • Niemie on March 27, 2017

    Braid the loaf loosely, otherwise it will tear. Also, proof at least 2 hours after the final shaping. Consider baking at 325 to avoid too much oven spring.

• Pita

  • MsMonsoon on March 26, 2024

    This dough (made in a food processor) was easier to handle than the one from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. HOWEVER, the temp listed in the recipe is 350 F which seems completely wrong. Most recipes for pita call for an oven temp of 450 - 550 degrees. I swear, this book is so frustrating!

• Afghan snowshoe naan

  • trmarvin on May 17, 2017

    If you decide to make this early enough in the day, for very little work you can have an outstanding addition to a dinnertime curry. It requires two rises of 2-3 hours each (one for the sponge and one for the dough), as well as 30 minutes after shaping. It all comes together in the food processor with a little hand kneading - a fun technique. My three young children devoured these two very large loaves and even tried a little tikka masala. I chose this version of naan because it does not have any dairy in it; it's a lean dough.

• Chocolate buttercream

  • MsMonsoon on July 02, 2025

    Made this to go with the yellow cake recipe also in the book. I was surprised that it was rather light in color and not a dark brown. Perhaps one needs to use cocoa powder for that. The flavor is fine, though, and it's easy enough.

• Georgian cheese bread

  • ash_2fquo3 on January 17, 2026

    Easy and a family favorite. I made some ghost ones for Halloween.

• Chicken pot pie cobbler

  • lori_i37jku on February 28, 2026

    Love the topping!

• Food52

  Mark Bittman's the man whose taught us all how to cook everything. Now, he's teaching all of us how to bake. Phew!

  Full review