This sounds like it might produce a great muffin--the combination of banana and chocolate chip is promising. But this recipe produced a merely serviceable muffin, one that I won't clamber to make again soon. It was sturdy in a good way, and had a fine flavor, but it was not remarkable in any way. The kids let them sit after the first meal of them.

I love good corn bread, and this is a great one. It is so moist and has a great corn flavor. It is a Northern-U.S.-style corn bread, with quite a bit of sugar in it. It calls for buttermilk, which gives it a great depth of flavor. We toasted slices of it the next morning and it was so good even then. So often, corn breads are dry and you can't taste the corn. This one isn't like that at all.

This bread does contain wheat flour, but no eggs, so it would be good for someone who can't eat eggs.

Egg-free

This makes an excellent white bread, made in loaf pans, and good for slicing for sandwiches or toast. The recipe is by Craig Kominiak, and the instructions are written well. Some nice black and white photographs accompany the recipe.

I did not use a stand mixer, as was required in the recipe, and that may have been the reason that this just didn't work out for me. I tried making it twice, and the croissants I made from it were small, ill-shaped, dense, not flaky, light nor tender.

This is excellent, plain and simple. I have made this many times. It makes a dramatic and delicious holiday confection, and you can fill it with so many wonderful things. There are recipes provided for pastry cream, apricot filling, prune filling, berry jam filling, and almond filling. There is a beautiful picture of one on pages 174-175.

Beatrice Ojakangas submitted this recipe.

The technique to make these is a bit fussy. You have to grate half each of two sticks of butter then freeze the shavings for a while. But the end result is worth cleaning up little bits of butter shards off the counter. They are buttery without being too butter-heavy, the blueberries are in the right proportion to the crusty part, and the sugar-flecked topping makes for a nice, slightly crunchy element.

They did not take long to make so, if you can prepare these undistracted, it's do-able on a weekend morning.

Wow, great bread: soft, moist, tall, great crumb, excellent flavor, and beautiful. Plus, it took just a couple of minutes to put together. This bread would be great for sandwiches, either savory or sweet. And it makes -fantastic- toast.

I love Boston brown bread, and I do make it from scratch from time to time, steaming it for a couple of hours, always ruining a new trivet in the process (which, to me, is worth it). So I hoped that these muffins would satisfy my brown bread craving, and they do! They are maybe a touch too heavy on molasses compared to my old Joy of Cooking brown bread recipe, but they have a great moist texture, a great flavor, and they can be made in a flash (and without ruining any cooking equipment).

This was the first cake that I tried out of the book, many years ago. The flavor and texture are unbelievably good. It has a denser, chewy texture than some of the other cakes in the book, which is in its favor, even though the other cakes are stellar, also. It's just that this offers a little bit of a texture departure from the others. The flavor is deep without being bitter or too intense. This is great cake to have plain, or perhaps with the merest dusting of powdered sugar on it, and it is excellent paired with a cup of black tea (an Assam, maybe, or a Keemun) with milk (no sugar).

This cake is exquisitely versatile. It will take any flavoring of frosting or filling, and is even excellent all on its own. It is easy to make, because of the very conscientious instructions and, if you are a baker, you will always have the ingredients on hand (eggs, milk, vanilla extract, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and unsalted butter). It makes wonderful cupcakes, or any shape of cake that you desire.

The flavor of this chocolate cake is very deep, but not bitter or off in any way. It is called a torte, but contains a high proportion of flour. It makes a single layer, and tastes great all on its own, or will take frosting or ganache very well. I sometimes use just a cream cheese-butter-powdered sugar frosting on this, and it can stand up to a dense, unrefined frosting like that, as well as the silkiest ganache or buttercream.

This is a wonderfully delicious and tender chocolate cake. It is deeply chocolatey and tender, and is as good as the Chocolate Domingo cake, also from The Cake Bible. I have made it many times, as my cocoa-splattered pages attest.

Light, tangy, moist, moist, moist, tall, gorgeous. This is amazing. Whenever I make it, I eat more than I know I should. People I serve it to are always impressed.

I do not add the optional flour, and I do not use a crust of any kind, and it retains its composure very well. I have made it with a graham cracker crust and it was fantastic, but it's better without it.

The sour cream in this recipe takes it just a fraction of a notch higher than the Perfect All-American Chocolate Torte, in my opinion. The tang of the sour cream pitches it upward, and it tenderizes it just slightly, making the crumb seem a bit tighter, but still extremely light, compared to the PAAC Torte. This and the Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake from The Cake Bible are my favorite chocolate cakes.

For a while, I made these many, many times in a row. They were my favorite cookie for a long time, and still rate very high. The sunflower seed coating on these makes them truly fantastic. The 1/2 whole wheat flour also gives them a great texture and flavor. These are much better than regular chocolate chip cookies, in my opinion.

Once you shuck enough pistachios to yield 1/2 cup, the rest is very easy and quick. This recipe makes a very tender shortbread-type cookie (kind of like the Danish cookies you can get in a big blue cookie tin) with chocolate coating one end and heavenly pistachios covering the chocolate. Shelling the pistachios is a bit of work, but the result is worth it.

This recipes makes a very tender shortbread-like cookie with a wonderful almond flavor. The chocolate coating on one side makes these look very festive and taste fantastic.

This is basically a tender banana cake with the excellent addition of cinnamon sugar as a topping. I didn't use their recipe for cinnamon sugar but just mixed 1 1/2 tablespoons of white sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon and put the whole amount on top. Also, I used a 9x9-inch pan (81 square inches) because I no longer have a 7x11-inch one (77 square inches), as it calls for, and it worked fine.

This recipe has no eggs in it, which could be of interest to people with an egg allergy, but it does have nuts and wheat flour in it.

This does not make a fancy cookie, but it would be good as one of a selection because it offers a unique flavor (banana with cinnamon) and texture (very cakey and soft) compared to many other cookies.

The ingredients are: an egg, peanut butter and white sugar. When I first made these cookies, I was not very impressed by the flavor. But after they had sat for several hours, the flavor and texture improved so that they became very tasty and excellent.

This is a good recipe for baba ghanoush. It is good even if all you can do is roast an eggplant in the oven; just be sure to roast it until it is collapsing, so that it is cooked really well throughout.

I didn't have to add the water to mine to make it the right consistency, but you can add up to 1/4 cup without diluting the flavors.

This is an absolute staple in my house. I make it at least once a week and vary the seasonings to mesh with whatever else I am making. The basic recipe yields a plain, but still delicious, pilaf. I use stock in the recipe if I have some made, but it is really excellent even with just plain water.

If you take the time to shell pistachios for this, you will be rewarded supremely. This is an excellent recipe for baklava. The walnut version is also divine. Putting the optional orange flower water in the sugar syrup gives this the correct flavor and, to me, makes it transcendent.

This is one of my go-to meatball recipes. I adapt it to include pesto if I have some on hand, but the recipe is great made as stated in the instructions, as well. There are a lot of milk-soaked bread crumbs in them which makes them very moist. The meager amount of tomatoes that Hazan recommends serving them with works in certain circumstances, or you can adapt that part of the recipe to include a greater-volume, more substantial sauce depending on your desired finished product. I often add salt, pepper, an herb (rosemary is very nice), olive oil, a bit of red wine, some sugar, and even a smidge of baking soda if the tomatoes are super acidic.

This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I almost always use. It makes a crisp, flat cookie with excellent buttery flavor and a good proportion of chips to dough. You can optionally add nuts or oatmeal, as well, and both of these variations are even better than when you only use chips.

I had never cooked a pork butt before. I love the Cajun seasoning I had on hand, by Penzey's, and this recipe's only flavoring comes from Cajun seasoning, so I thought I'd give it a try. After six hours in a slow oven, a beautiful pot of well-seasoned shreds of pork amounted from the super-easy recipe. I put some chimichurri on it and had it on a hamburger bun and it was like summer time!

This is an elegant dish that is very quick and easy to put together. You can vary the ingredients a bit depending on what you have on hand. Either vermouth or white wine works well in the sauce. I often use fresh sage instead of the tarragon it calls for. I have used minced onion in place of the shallot. The cream in the sauce gives the dish enough body to overcome the leanness of the chicken breasts. When serving it, garnish it with some of the same herb you used in the dish (either chopped or whole) to brighten the color.

This pop was marred by a too-chunky texture and a too-earthy, not-sweet taste. This pop wasn't a treat, as such--it wasn't refreshing and sprightly--but it tasted healthy.

This was a good pop--refreshing and just sweet enough to be a treat. The lime flavor is just right, not overpowering nor too subtle. Putting the rind layer on is a nice touch, but it would be just as good if made with only the pink part of the watermelon through and through.

I have made this recipe a couple of times and it is not spiced correctly nor is the seasoning intense enough. I do not have another recipe to suggest using instead of this one, but I can say that canned baked beans are actually better than these. The dish is edible--it's good enough to give it 3 stars. But we have not finished eating a batch of these. They just aren't good enough to go back to more than a meal's worth.

This is a go-to snickerdoodle recipe. If it's snickerdoodles you want, you'll get a good one if you make them from this recipe. It works really well with Penzey's Ceylon cinnamon. The cinnamon, the egginess and the soft, chewy texture make this cookie so fabulous, so it's really special if you use very good cinnamon.

Sometimes I get a craving for brown bread with cream cheese that I just can't shake. If the only kind you've ever had is from a can, or if you've never had it all, it may not beckon you. But once you've had a good one, you may agree, and want it at odd times.

It is a steamed bread, so you "bake" it on the stove top wrapped up inside a pot of simmering water for a long time, which makes it excellent to make on a cold, dry winter day.

When it emerges from its lengthy steam bath, you are presented with a dense, pleasantly mealy, subtly sweet cakelike bread that goes well with butter, cream cheese, ham, preserves, or any of a number of other toppings. It is traditionally served with baked beans, as another option.

This is a great all-purpose frosting to use on cakes, cupcakes or cookies. It has an excellent flavor in the vanilla version, but you can vary the flavor however you like, with lemon, chocolate, liqueur, cinnamon, etc. It makes a dense, slightly gritty frosting, so this is not what you want if you're looking for a silky texture or lightness.

I made this once as a dip for a platter of in-season summer fruits for a party and it was devoured very quickly.

I decided to give this recipe 5 stars because it is good enough that I make it often. With equally good results, I have used ground beef, ground turkey, or the Morningstar Farms meatlike crumbles instead of the boneless beef chuck that is called for. In fact, if you want a vegetarian chili, the crumbles version is really outstanding.

As always, if you use really great ingredients, you will be rewarded. Great chili powder (the kind with added cumin, etc.) is a must, but you can vary the chiles to suit your taste. The recipe calls for fresh jalapeños, but I often used roasted New Mexican chiles.

If you are in a hurry, you can skip putting in the full amount of water called for, and you'll have a chili thick enough to eat in a half hour or so. But, if you have the time, adding all the water and cooking it down from there makes a very nice end product, good the day you make it, without the need to rest it overnight to develop the flavors.

This recipe makes a very good gingersnap. If you use freshly-ground spices, the flavor is very strong and delicious. Even if your spices have been ground way ahead of time, this still makes a nicely spicy cookie. The texture is kind of firm and chewy. They are easy to eat many of in a sitting.

This makes a good cream-based biscuit. The dough is very easy to put together because the fat in it comes from cream only; you do not have to work butter or shortening into this dough. This recipe has no eggs in it. It is good used as the basis for strawberry, or other fruit, shortcake, as the title implies. Be careful not to overbake the biscuits or they will be tough and won't taste good, either.

Egg-free.

Delicious. Simple to make and excellently flavored with any pre-mixed curry powder you like and some added cumin. Homemade chicken broth makes this soup especially wonderful.

This is creamy and flavorful with no heat at all. You can add some extra cayenne to it to spice it up, and it would take that nicely. You can start the recipe ahead of time and add the cream just before serving.

I often add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the recipe. I mix the dough right in the pan I have melted the butter and chocolate in, so this an easy recipe that is easy to clean up after. The brownies are deeply chocolate-y, with a smooth, moist interior and a little bit of a crust on the outside. This is my favorite brownie recipe, especially if I have Scharffen Berger 62% on hand.

As Heatter said herself in the recipe caption, "Dark, thick, soft, covered with a thin, dark chocolate glaze. These are easily mixed in a saucepan." I gave this my highest rating of "excellent" when I made this cookie. To ensure success, use top-quality ingredients.

These are really outstanding. They are crisp and chewy and so delicious. When I made them, everyone in the family was trying to be judicious and not eat them all at once, but all of us kept coming into the kitchen to have another one and another until they were quickly gone. But note that you have to use -very fresh pecans- to make them so excellent.

This makes a great cookie if you use a top-quality butter and very fresh spices. The texture is cakey (they are called rocks because of their shape, not their texture) and very soft. Their softness makes them difficult to store, and the flavor is really best the day of and the day after baking, so they don't keep well flavorwise, either. But I love these cookies and have made them often.

These have a subtle lemon presence. There is sweetened condensed milk in the filling, so if you like that with a lemon flavor, you'll like these. These are not elegant cookies, but they are good tasting.

The caption reads: "These are Austrian. They are coal-black, chocolate, black-pepper cookies--buttery, crunchy, and spicy." I liked these a lot. They were unusual but not challenging in their flavor. It turns out that chocolate and black pepper, surprisingly, can be a good taste combination.

A very tasty appetizer. I made them for a party once, and a 12-year old boy couldn't stop eating them. I think he may have eaten more than a dozen. I ate several myself. You have to bake the scones, then split them, then assemble the sandwiches, but it's not too time-consuming.

These are quite easy to make and very well-flavored with thyme. Cooking the apple slices right in the same pan as the pork chops is a great idea because the apples are so warm and freshly-cooked and very well flavored by the pan juices.

Not that you really need a recipe for this, but I decided to follow it once just to see how the proportions came out and the salad was well-proportioned with lots of cheese and tomatoes to go around, and it was well-seasoned. This salad, as are all salads, especially, is very ingredient-dependent. Only make this at the height of tomato season, use good-quality cheese and very freshly-picked basil, and you'll have one fine dish.

I was skeptical that these would be excellent--the salt, cinnamon and vanilla seemed to be called for in too-small amounts--but, no, these muffins are great. They are quite sweet, but the zucchini and cranberries have a real presence in these. And, as much as I love nuts, it was refreshing to have a nut-free muffin for a change. These don't need nuts to be delicious.

These are large and chewy with a slightly crisp outside. The chocolate flavor is very pleasant, not bitter at all. They are very easy to make and will stay good tasting for a few days.

These have a little bit of a dull flavor, probably put off a bit by the coating of cocoa powder, but they have a nice crispness to them. They are a bit like a chocolate shortbread or chocolate Mexican wedding cakes/Russian tea cakes. There are no nuts in these, though. They are very easy to make.

Here's a link to the recipe.

These are pretty good, but they are rather dry and crumbly, and the chunky ingredients (sweetened coconut, semisweet chocolate chips, walnuts, dried cherries) are all too much for one little cookie. They look cute, in little foil or paper muffin liners, so they would look good on a tray of mixed cookies.

Here's a link to the recipe.