Notes about Recipes in this book

• 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?

• 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.

• 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.

• Snickerdoodles

  • jbny on December 22, 2022

    good, and easy

• 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!

• 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!

• 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!

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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, and we have a grapefruit tree in the family!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Thumbprint cookies

  • mjes on October 19, 2019

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

• 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.

• 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