The 3-Ingredient Baking Book: 101 Simple, Sweet and Stress-Free Recipes

I bought this used and it was in great shape when I received it. It's a Christmas gift for my 11-year-old grandson. He has shown an interest in easy baking ideas and I thought this would be fun for him to try.

Limited-ingredient cookbooks are usually gimmicky, and often cheat on the number of ingredients, but THE 3-INGREDIENT BAKING BOOK: 101 SIMPLE, SWEET AND STRESS-FREE RECIPES is the real deal! I like it a lot, because it has a gazillion useful tips for speeding up your baking, in addition to a lot of good, simple, 3-ingredient recipes for baked sweets and treats.A few of the tips: (1) if you don’t have buttermilk (for Buttermilk Scones), sour 1 cup of regular milk with 1 Tbsp white vinegar; (2) bring refrigerated eggs to room temperature by submerging them for a couple of minutes in warm water; (3) soften butter by grating it, not by microwaving it.The recipes are NOT loaded with sugar or fat, which is a very good thing. The baked goods aren’t going to taste quite as delicious as the 450-calorie banana-nut muffin you find in the grocery store bakery case--but you’ll be glad that you didn’t use all those daily calories by eating a single muffin.Some recipes that I’m definitely going to try are: (1) Cinnamon Roly-Polies (pie crust dough spread with butter and cinnamon sugar, rolled into a log and cut into slices, and baked); (2) Italian Almond Cookies (almond flour, citrus sugar, beaten egg white, combined and formed into balls and baked); (3) Mandarin Muffins (citrus sugar, self-rising flour, 2 cans mandarin orange segments, combined and baked in muffin pan; (4) Gingery Pear Crisp (3 cans pear halves in juice and minced crystallized ginger, topped with crushed gingersnap cookies and baked).Reading through the recipes, I don’t see any that are overly contrived, hard to put together, or unlikely to produce a tasty result. The recipes are time-savers, very quick to assemble. This is a lovely new cookbook for the busy baker.The recipe chapters are as follows: Cookies; Bar & Squares; Cakes, Muffins & Quick Breads; Pastries, Pies & Tarts; Chocolate; Fruit; Creamy Things; Candyland; Cold Things; Sauces & Toppings.

I'm a little mixed on this cook book. The recipes are generally simple and stress-free, but of the four I've made, the results have been mixed. I think, overall, it's pretty good and certainly handy to have around if you need to whip something up in a pinch. My specific PROs and CONs are listed below.PROS:1. The recipes all only use 3 ingredients, as advertised. I have a 5 ingredient vegan cookbook that regularly has more than 5 ingredients in the recipes. The author apparently doesn't count things like salt or pepper or water or whatever. I was skeptical that you can bake many things with only 3 ingredients (and I still kind of am, honestly) but these recipes legit only have 3 ingredients. (Now, at the beginning of the book, there are recipes for certain ingredients that are used in the recipes later--self-rising flour, vanilla sugar, citrus sugar, cinnamon sugar, so they are kind of cheating a little bit. :) But they present these 4 items as pantry staples, and they are each no more than 3 ingredients themselves, so I guess it's okay. ;) )2. There are wide variety of recipes. There are a lot of different categories of desserts in this book (in fact, not all are baked). There are bars and cookies, cakes, creams and puddings, ice creams, quick breads, and others I am sure I am forgetting. The book is organized into chapters that are each focused on a specific type of dessert, and each has a variety of diverse items in that fit in that category.3. There are lovely pictures of the finished items. (Of course, mine never look like the pictures, but it's nice to get an idea on what the Platonic ideal of each item is.4. There are some general baking tips in the beginning of the book. Nothing earth shattering for me, but useful and important information for beginners.5. The recipes often use pre-made items in them to make the prep time very quick (things like jams, pie crusts/puff pastry, etc.)6. The ingredients are all very common and easy to find. No need to scour exotic grocery stores to find special spices or items.CONS1. The recipes are not terrible diverse, culinary wise. There are a lot of recipes, but all very North America. Nothing from other cultures or countries.1. I've found the final products to be hit or miss. A couple I've had were quite good (the maple popcorn and the brie and jam wrapped thingys) but others were less than thrilling (the banana oatmeal raisin cookies and lemon pots.) The banana oatmeal raisin cookies didn't bind well and were not very sweet (could have used a little sugar IMO. But they were vegan and gluten free so that was nice for the vegans and celiacs who usually can't eat baked goods.) The lemon pots (just lemons, cream, and sugar) didn't set well. I think they probably needed to simmer longer than the 3 minutes the book says. Also the book wanted me to make whipped cream for them with only cream (no sugar). That would be terrible whipped cream, so I went rogue on that and made it with sugar.Of course there are many more recipes to try, and since they are so quick and easy to make, I'll probably make a lot more of them. So far, the results have been mixed. It's fun to experiment with the recipes, but I can't say they are all home runs. I suspect some is due to the 3 ingredient limitation (no ice cream made with condensed milk is going to be as good as ice cream made with milk and cream, and eggs, and sugar. FACT!). I think there may be issues with the actual instructions, as well. When I made the lemon pots, which I assume are supposed to be a pudding like consistency, based on the description, I thought a 3 minute simmer was likely not enough time. After 24 hours int eh fridge, the top was set but it was very liquidy underneath-- not at all the right consistency. I liked the flavor, but something is off. Just needs some tinkering I think.Overall, though, I think it's a good cookbook.

The other reviewers have really nailed what I think about this 3 ingredient dessert book so I won't go into the details of it. But only 3 ingredients - really! This is my kind of recipe book because I love the simplicity. ALL the ingredients are easy to get from any grocery store and these make for a quick dessert for family or just to have some treats. Who would've thought that you could make so many tasty treats out of just 3 ingredients? Good instructions and pictures.

The book's recipe theme is simple and quick. I liked running through it as a memory refresher. There are some forgotten recipes here. The recipes are common or used to be shared, or simply unknowns. The recipes are in the class that was learned from mom or grandma years ago.Then, fast food high speed living sets in and years go by and then you forget some minor step or ingredient that was once a from memory recipe 30 years ago. There's a whole class of ingredients no longer found in a typical pantry ... baking powder not baking soda, Crisco (can strangely make or break the recipe), molasses, etcThen again, it's not grandma's old cookbook recipes. It's current and practical. Excellent cookbook collection adder.

My girlfriend loved this. Shes just starting to get into baking and all the recipes are relatively easy and theres a section in the front of the book with common questions and answers like whether or not you can microwave butter or if it has to be a room temperature for the baking to turn out. It's a very comprehensive recipe book and the recipes state whether or not things can be substituted or if theres an ingredient used in the baking and for decoration it says the decoration is optional. Very easy recipes and it's easy to understand how to make each one. There's even a cheesecake recipe in it.

You will not be disappointed with this cookbook. There are great color pictures of many of the recipes which really helps in deciding what to make of the over 100 recipes. I made a few of the recipes and they really are 3 ingredients and they have all been delicious! This book is worth buying - do it and you won't be sorry!

Has some good Recipes that I will often make for sure. However the "3 Ingredient " Title is a bit of a strecht when Ice Cream or Store bought Pastry is considered an "Ingredient".

The pictures alone are wonderful but knowing that you can successfully recreate these images in your own kitchen and then enjoy them is amazing. The recipes have been tested, clearly written and easy to follow. A great addition to your recipe collection!

Think I'm going to love this book thanks soooo much for getting it to me in great timing love it soo excite to make ronite now woohoo