PROS:
Many basic recipes for basic stuff, but with a little twist and a beautiful photo, makes you feel like making it. The recipes are for basic pancakes, muffins, pudding, pie, cookies, ice cream, popcorn, smoothies, cake, frosting, chocolate sauce, etc. and are either straightforward (nothing new added), or they offer up one or two different ingredients in them, like browned butter or vanilla bean. This is a great book for a beginner or someone who just enjoys a new little idea here and there, and fun photos. There are some tips up front but again, basic, yet for people who didn't know these tips, they can make all the difference.
Every recipe gets one page for the recipe and one page for the photo. Easy to take into the kitchen. Nice!
She absolutely does not go on and on about getting a boyfriend - she talks about her family, but most of all she talks about the forthcoming recipe. And there are NOT tons of avocado recipes like one reviewer said. psh!
CONS:
I made the Dark Chocolate and Anise Biscotti (photo in the photo area top left). Turned out great but the shaping directions left me a little flustered (only 2 dimensions were mentioned when there are 3 dimensions to an object, and it just didn't look right), although it all worked out. Another example of confusion is that I wanted to make the Araby Spice cake (sounds interesting) but the recipe calls for a 9" round cake pan yet the photo of it is a cake with a hole in the middle (remember My Big Fat Greek Wedding?), yet it didn't look like a Bundt Cake - it was too shallow. Made me wonder how the cake would turn out in a regular round cake pan. But even more so, I wondered why it wasn't photographed in the recommended form? Did it not look as pretty? Probably. Another area of confusion was the title Dark Chocolate Biscotti, yet the recipe ingredients calls for semi-sweet. A Google search taught me that semi-sweet is a form of dark chocolate, but hey, most people don't know that. Why not just say chocolate and not confuse people?
It sounds like I'm being picky, but those were my first three recipes I looked at. And I don't want to have to wonder and do internet searches to feel confident in getting started on a project.
Some of the recipes out of the 100 are BASIC STRAIGHT UP BAKED GOODS:
Texas Sheet Cake, Hot Fudge Sauce, Hot Chocolate, Buttercream Frosting, Apple Crisp, Cheddar Chive Biscuits with Jalapeno, Cinnamon Rolls with Buttermilk Glaze, Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies, Granola Bars, Pecan Pralines, Banana Bourbon Bread Pudding, Gingerbread, Caramel Corn, Trail Mix Cookies, Individual Molten Chocolate Cake, etc etc.
Some of the recipes out of the 100 are BASIC, BUT WITH A SLIGHT SPIN:
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (add Bourbon), Lemon Bars (add lavendar), cream cheese frosting (add cocoa powder to make chocolate), malted milkshake (add pineapple), ice cream pie (add coffee), Banana Cake (add rum), Chocolate Pudding (add crushed cookies with whipped topping), Banana Cream Pie (add toasted coconut), Black and White Cookies (make the cookies Pumpkin instead of plain), Pancakes (add oatmeal & raisin), Chocolate Bread Pudding (add malt powder), Caramel Sauce (add salt), Banana Blueberry Smoothie (add toasted oats), Fudge Pops (add chocolate chunks & fresh raspberries), Snickerdoodles (add vanilla bean), Roasted Cashews (toss them with honey & dried mustard first), Rice Krispie Treats (add browned butter & peanut butter).
Some of the recipes are FROM JOY'S WONDERFUL BLOG, but with a slight change:
Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies (same as on blog but adds more sugar and chopped peanuts), Dutch Baby Pancake (make it tropical with toasted coconut, banana & pineapple), Pie Crust (push it in the pan with your hands instead of rolling). Probably more but I don't want to take the time to compare recipe by recipe.
Every single recipe is one page recipe and one page photo, so for Hot Chocolate, you get a big photo of Hot Chocolate and a whole page of a 4-ingredient recipe.
I think this would make a great gift for someone who is 30ish and younger and/or is new to making their own treats and/or wants to support young, hard-working entrepreneurs and/or loves new cookbooks with good photography.
FOLLOW UP 1 YEAR LATER: I was wondering why a couple people thought my EXTENSIVE review was "Not Helpful". So I re-read my review and realized that I actually only made one recipe, and it did turn out fine, but only after googling other biscotti recipes to see what the shaped log is supposed to look like. Plus I've read others' reviews by now who were honest about recipes that didn't work out. So in summary, I think this is one of those cookbooks in which some recipes will work for you and some won't. And some people will be able to figure out the inconsistencies, and others won't. Some will be pi**ed off about a recipe that didn't work out or was difficult to make work, and others won't. Personalities and expectations vary.
