Customer Reviews

Lickin' The Beaters: Low Fat Vegan Desserts (PM Press)

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

 

 

Excellent pint-sized baking book with quite a few recipes... fun, playful stuff you don't see everywhere, like chocolate peanut butter cups, and various puddings, even a plum cake, pies, candies, mango sticky rice. Simple and straightforward directions without a whole lot of hullabaloo, fresh fruit dessert ideas, too. Well done...
Ethiopian-inspired Cooking, Vegetarian Specialties
The Gluten-free Guide to Vegetarian Recipes

When the book came from Amazon, I was surprised at how small it was (less than 6 inches by 6 inches)...I like larger cookbooks...but upon opening it and reading through the recipes, I was very pleased at the low fat approach. The recipes all sound great. I decided to make two--the chocolate fudge and the halvah. Both came out amazing and were simple to make. This weekend I am going to have a dinner party and will serve those along with the lemon merengue pie and The only disappointment with this tiny book is that some recipes (like the halvah and the whipped creem) call for either honey or maple syrup. HONEY IS NOT VEGAN!!!! I was also surprised that some recipes called corn syrup.

I like the cookbook but am only giving it four stars because of the honey!

Charming, cartoony black-and-white drawings illustrate Lickin' the Beaters, a pint-sized cookbook of delectable low fat vegan desserts. From Gingerbread Cookies to Vegan Yogurt, Poppyseed Pineapple Loaf, Blueberry Cherry Crisp, and much more, these tasty delights have step-by-step preparation instructions suitable for cooks of all skill and experience levels. Enthusiastically recommended not only for vegans, but also for anyone who loves a delicious desserts without an excess of fat.

These are delicious and easy to make. Best of all, I can get most of the ingredients at the local grocery store. I brought some to work and my (nonvegan) coworkers loved them!

I was extremely disappointed when I received this cookbook; not only was it very small (a ridiculous size for a cookbook) but some of the recipes included honey as an ingredient, which is most certainly NOT vegan. I also did not like the format of the book either; some actual pictures of the food (even black and white would have worked) would have been ideal. The pictures were cute but not necessarily conducive to the actual recipes.

The difference between great cookbooks and mediocre cookbooks is that great cookbooks are carefully tested to make sure the directions are clear and can be easily replicated in home kitchens, and come out great every time. This cookbook is riddled with problems, and it feels like no one even proofread it once, let alone tested it in home kitchens. In fact, I don't even think the *author* has tried every recipe. Take, for example, the halvah recipe, which begins, "Grind sesame seeds into a nut butter. I wasn't able to do this -- my processor only cut the seeds in halves." Um, ok, if the author couldn't successfully make the recipe, who came up with the recipe, and why is it in this cookbook?