Customer Reviews

The Complete Muffin Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to Making Great Muffins

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book contains so many intriguing recipes that I couldn't wait to try! I spent a few days experimenting eagerly with the ones that particularly caught my eye: Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins (devoured by the whole family!), Ladda's Lemon Ginger Muffins (my daughter exclaimed, "There's a yummy burst of lemon flavor from the first bite!"), White Chocolate with Raspberry Muffins, Cafe Crumble Muffins, and even French Onion Soup Muffins. I can't wait to try out more of the recipes--such as Orange Cardamom Muffins and Steven's Sun-Dried Tomato Muffins (with spinach).

If you're not used to healthful baking, some of the ingredients might sound foreign, but find a natural foods store or a well-stocked grocery store, and give them a try--they're not only better for you than the white flour and sugar varieties but taste great, too! Pair these muffins with a salad or soup for a lovely, inspired meal.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with a cookbook that contains a recipe for Seven-Factors-of-Enlightenment Muffins! Making these recipes is like a mindfulness meditation--you can slow down and savor the subtle aromas, flavors, and the interaction between the different ingredients, knowing you're creating something that's wholesome for your body, mind, and soul.

Muffins are a favorite weekend staple in our household. Sometimes making a huge breakfast is not possible, and whipping up a batch of muffins is the way to have a quick, delicious breakfast. With that in mind, I picked up this book to add ideas to the simple "muffin mix in a box" that I tend to grab.

I was not disappointed. The book started with great information on ingredients that you can use to make great muffins (including the positives of different types of flour, milk, spices, etc.), the proper equipment, and the basic ingredients to have on hand so that you are able to whip up a batch anytime. Following are chapters including: "Get Up and Go Muffins", "Crunchy, Crumbly, Fruity, Spicy Do-Da Muffins", "Herby Cheesy Muffin Things", "Holiday, Special Occasion, and Good Time Muffins", "Extra Effort but Worth it Muffins", "Low Fat and Still Yummy Muffins", and "Top-Notch Toppings".

Some of my family's favorites include: Catherine's Lemon-Red Raspberry Muffins, Only Kids Need Apply Muffins, Almond Delight Muffins, Apple-iscious Apple Spice Muffins, Chai Muffins, Peachy Peach Muffins, Hushpuppy Muffins, Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese Muffins, Bananas Foster Muffins, Classic Colada Muffins, and Sugar Plum Fairy Muffins.

In my opinion, the only things lacking from this cookbook are a color photograph of each recipe, and a spiral binding to help the book lay flat. Otherwise this is a great cookbook for muffin lovers everywhere. Enjoy!

This is an awesome muffin cookbook! I have been searching for a book just like this one that has recipes for muffins that are tasty and also good for you for years. I love that the author uses whole grains, less sugar in most of the recipes, and adds nutritious ingredients to all of her muffins. Some of her listed ingredients can be exchanged for other ingredients to make the muffins vegan, if you choose. This cookbook is not for the baker who wants to bake with only white flour (all of the recipes call for some other type of flour such as whole wheat, rice, buckwheat, cornmeal, etc) or for those who scoff at alternative ingredients (such as applesauce, fruit purees, fruit juice concentrates, etc), but these recipes are still easy to prepare. I can't wait to try all of the recipes in this book and would strongly recommend it to anyone who also wants a healthy, good for you muffin cookbook!

I borrowed this book from the library because I LOVE muffins. After reading through it, I was surprised to find that the recipes are healthy! They are not loaded with sugar or empty calories, but instead they include whole grains, berries, vegetable purees, and very little fat.

I poured through this book and have made several muffins so far. Despite the natural ingredients, one of the recipes I made was the BEST tasting muffin recipe I have ever made. I am SO GLAD I found this cookbook, and I can't wait to try all of the other recipes.

This book was not designed to be an easy or "basic" muffin cookbook, but rather a wholesome, good tasting one.

I am Diabetic and crave cake. I got this book fromn the library and made several of the recipes, after sampling I bought it. All healthy and easy to find ingredients and wonderfully written commentary goes along with each recipe. I have made about 10 different muffins from this book. Best compliment from my daughter was that they tasted bakery made. As a diabetic I love this book and recommend it highly if you crave cake, some muffins have frosting.

I had high hopes for this cookbook. There's a great variety to the recipes and some wonderfully creative flavor combinations. And, to the author's credit, she places a heavy emphasis on whole grains and low-fat ingredients. However, I found most of the recipes impractical to use. My biggest problem was the author's penchant for using uncommon flours. I'm a fairly experienced baker, and at any time I have around a dozen different kinds of flour in my pantry. Nevertheless, I was rarely able to make a recipe in this book without either buying a new (and usually expensive) bag of flour or making a substitution. There is a guide to different flours at the front of the book which makes substitution a little easier, but the descriptions are a bit vague, and there are few solid conversion tools to help the reader figure out, say, how much whole wheat four to substitute for 2/3 of a cup of brown rice flour. I even understand the author's rationale here--a variety of whole grain flours make for a healthier diet overall. But the sheer range of them used throughout the book seems out of touch with the realities of the average home pantry.

There are also conspicuous editing flaws in the book. For example, the Apricot Sesame recipe simply doesn't include a cooking time. This isn't a real problem if you've made enough muffins to guess how long they should stay in the oven, but errors like these make one wonder if there are more serious and harder to spot mistakes in the ingredients or proportions.

None of this would be a problem if the muffins were particularly good, but I made at least 10 recipes out of this book, and they were all rather bland. Again, I don't expect muffins designed to be healthy to taste like bakery muffins with a ton of fat and sugar, but I've found much tastier low-fat and whole grain recipes elsewhere. Overall, I'll give the author points for her creativity and nutritional ethos, but the execution falls flat.

This is an excellent cookbook. The author clearly put a lot of work into creating a variety of well developed healthy muffins. If you are looking to make interesting, yummy muffins this is THE book for you. My only wish is that it had measurements by weight as well as by volume. Learn how to make real muffins, not cupcakes masquerading as breakfast.

I love this muffin cookbook. Many of the recipes incorporate whole grains mixed with white flour to create a wonderful balance between texture/flavor and nutrition. Also, I love the muffin summary in the back of the book where I can browse and pick a muffin based on the recipe's main ingredients.

Following the instructions and recipes in this book took my muffins from terrible hockey pucks to yummy, fluffy, and healthy. I strongly recommend this book! However, the sweet muffins are not quite sweet enough for our taste, so I tend to adjust a bit and add more sweetner.

I've been making an effort to make more of the breads, quick breads, and muffins I make whole grain and naturally sweetened. I checked out this book from our local library and made several of the muffin recipes. I was very pleasantly surprised with how many of the recipes are heavy on the whole grains, but moist, delicious and flavorful. I liked it so much I am purchasing it for my cookbook collection. Great book.