Baking My Way Thru The Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book

One of my Christmas gifts from my man, Dan was the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book!  It was a welcome surprise!  Back in the fall when we attended an Octoberfest party the hostess showed me this book and I’m sure I made the comment, “I need this book”.  My husband is good at making note of such a comment – so Merry Christmas.

It’s a darn good thing that the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book has savory as well as sweet recipes because you know, I love my homemade sweets!  On a side-note, I like for my jeans to fit too! Quick breads, muffins, biscuits, pizza, cookies, cakes, pastry, yeast rolls and loaves, griddle cakes, waffles, coffee cakes, soufflé’s, pies and tarts, the list goes on and on.  I admit some of the recipes are a bit intimidating but with such explicit directions I’m sure to give it a go.  In fact I plan on baking my way through this book with no set time limit.  That’s a little candy-ass I realize, but I know better than to set myself up for failure.

These muffins are delicious with their light, tender crumb and tiny bites of banana inside too!

The first recipe I baked was for Bakery-Style Muffins, banana-walnut flavor.  Each recipe begins with this – WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS.  Here’s what it says about these muffins – Jumbo bakery-size muffins should boast a rich, full flavor and a thick, crisp crust protecting their fragile, tender crumb. 

I chose this recipe since I had some ripe bananas staring at me from the kitchen counter.  I also needed a little something to give as thank you to some friends who’d loaned us a card table during the holidays.  This recipe seemed like a perfect place to start.

One of the most unique parts of the recipe was finely chopping the bananas in lieu of mashing up over ripe bananas.  This did give the muffins oodles of banana flavor!  You may notice the ingredients are increased to ensure enough batter to fill up the muffin cups to the top. Another note given is, using thicker liquid such as buttermilk or yogurt, yields thicker batter and muffins with rounded, textured tops.

My muffins did indeed bake up with crisp tops and tender crumbs inside.  I really liked the little bites of banana inside with the crunch of the walnut pieces too.  Not overly sweet and delicious for breakfast or with a cup of tea in the afternoon.  In case you are on a muffin kick here is a yummy recipe for Spiced Banana Muffins.

The next recipe I’ll be sharing from the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book is one for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies that are downright addictive.  Are you a peanut butter cookie lover? If so you won’t want to miss the post for that recipe…coming soon!