Member Reviews
If you're looking at this book, you are already interested in banana based recipes. All 50 look delicious. There are many that are vegan or gluten free. Every recipe has a photo, but there are no nutritional breakdowns (if that matters to you). There are cupcake and muffin recipes, desserts, shakes, and more.
I was really looking forward to seeing some new, exciting recipes. Unfortunately, I was really let down by this book. The photos are great. The cover grabbed my attention. I like the clean layout. But the content is lacking. There are repeated recipes. The cheesecakes, ice creams, and all those date balls could be reduced to one basic recipe with noted variations. The repeated recipes seem to be filler content. The recipe descriptions don't add any value to the book. That's a waste of space and a missed opportunity to explain what makes the recipe healthy or unique. Use that space to explain why the reader should buy this book and take the time to make this recipe instead of pulling a free recipe from of the internet. The list of kitchen essentials and lack of details in the recipe instructions made me question the intended audience for this book. Is this a cookbook for kids? And finally, the book description posted mentioned savory recipes, but there isn't single one in the book.
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of The Banana Cookbook! Overall, this is a fun read and has some very yummy-looking recipes! There is a photograph to accompany every recipe, which I very much appreciate as a consumer (pun-intended). The colors and graphics used throughout the book are simple, but with bright colors that give the sense of fun that the author intended! The recipe descriptions and instructions are simple and straightforward, and I appreciate the many vegan and gluten free options within these pages. While the tone of this book is simplicity, I did find that I was a tad disappointed with the recipes offered. Some seemed to be repetitive and gave me the sense that the author was reaching for more ideas than can truly be enumerated by one ingredient. Additionally, one of the opening photographs pictured some bananas with grill marks on them, but there were no recipes included in the book for grilled bananas. Neither were there any recipes that pushed the boundaries of the humble banana into the savory realm. I would have enjoyed seeing some creative entrees with bananas as a featured ingredient. I did very much enjoy this cookbook and the ideas that it engendered for the many uses of banana. I would definitely qualify this as a wonderful gift book to give to friends who are particularly fond of this beloved fruit.
It's a pandemic! And we have a bunch of bananas! What to do? Find banana recipes.
This little cookbook is loaded with ONLY banana recipes. Perfect for my scenario! There's everything from smoothies, to cakes, pies, cookies...and more. There are a lot of vegan and gluten free recipes in this book. We are neither a vegan or a gluten free household so we didn't have a few of the ingredients on hand for some of the recipes. (thanks, pandemic!) Each recipe is accompanied by a color photo and the recipes are clearly written and easy to follow. I've bookmarked several recipes to try out with my kids, who luckily are banana-fans.
Everyone who loves bananas should definitely own The Banana Cookbook: 50 Simple and Delicious Recipes, by Sam Brooks. Of course most of us buy bananas, and before eating them all, find that they are overripe. This cookbook has recipes for using those old bananas. However, it also includes recipes using bananas before they are overripe and instead of fats and dairy. There is a good variety of recipes, including breads, muffins, crepes, desserts, pies, cakes, and ice creams. Brooks has included something for every banana aficionado.
Included in this cookbook are the regular banana recipes that most of us make anyway at home: banana bread (a good recipe, in fact), Oaty Banana Muffins, and Chocolate and Banana French Toast. But there are also unique banana recipes, like Banana Chips, Banana Millionaire’s Shortbread, as well as the famous UK dessert, Banoffee Pie. The Gooey Chocolate Brownies are to die for, and definitely worth taking the time to make. Some of the recipes are fairly easy, and the instructions are easy to follow. There is even a one-ingredient banana ice cream that is a no-brainer.
One of the best parts about this cookbook is that it has beautiful photographs of almost all of the recipes, making it difficult to choose which recipe to make next. One recipe that will be in everyone’s queue is the Banana Upside Down Cake; it is mouthwatering. There are also batter dipped deep fried bananas, as well as frozen banana pops, which will appeal to everyone, especially children.
If you love bananas, and if you want to cook with them, then this cookbook is for you.
Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.
Bananas are one of my most favourite fruits, so I was excited to read this book. I liked the simplistic layout and I also liked that there is a photo to accompany each recipe. There is a generous selection of different recipes but I do wish there had been at least a few more savoury dishes included.
My family loves bananas and I always try to find new ways to integrate them in our meals. I found some really interesting flavor combinations for smoothies that I can’t wait to try. The Banana Cookbook also gave me some new ideas for healthy baked goods. All the recipes sound delicious and it’s great that most of the recipes consist of ingredients that I have at home already.
The best part about this book for me was that many of the recipes are vegan – so I can enjoy those treats as well!
At first glance, I really loved this cookbook. There's a big color photo for every single recipe, it's full of vegan and gluten free recipes, and there's a really great selection of recipes. But then a few things made me go hmmm.
First of all, I got to the end and found out that all of the photographs are from Shutterstock. That means they're not necessarily even of the recipes in the book. The author/editor seems to have had a subscription and found every good looking food photo that seemed to have to do with bananas and then either found a recipe online that seemed close or made one up to match it. But that doesn't mean that if you make the recipe it will actually look anything like that picture. In some cases, you can clearly see that following the directions will NOT give you anything close to what the picture shows. For instance, the banana chips show a delicious looking bowl of banana chips that appear glazed in syrup and fried. The recipe is for bananas tossed in lemon juice and then baked in a low oven. Will this recipe really give me banana chips that look anything like this? It's hard to say. As another example, the mint chocolate chip ice cream looks delicious but it looks like a regular full-fat ice cream with big chunks of chocolate and not the recipe (frozen bananas, mint extract, dairy free chocolate chips, nothing else). That just seems like it's setting the reader up for some disappointments.
Also, the author is listed as Sam Brooks and no information is given about this person, but the copyright page says it's by Claire Berrisford. The whole thing just comes across as one of those quickly put together kindle books with recipes from the internet and stock photos. I don't know. It would help me as a reader if there was any kind of note by the author about who she/he was, why the love of bananas or anything that gave the impression that it came from a real human who actually made the recipes.
I'm still giving it 3 stars for liked it, but it feels a little hinky so I'm not raving until I've actually tried some of the recipes and had success with them.
No nutritional information is provided. As mentioned, color photos are provided for every recipe.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
I always appreciate a cookbook with a simple, straightforward layout and design. I also gravitate towards cookbooks that offer photographs of the recipes (so I can see if my results are at least close to the original) -- and The Banana Cookbook has a photograph for each and every recipe! I can't wait to try some of these!
When I think of bananas the first two things that come to my mind are muffins and smoothies. I love bananas, I will eat them as a snack every now and then (not too often because they are high in natural sugars) and I love to make baked goods with them. My whole family loves smoothies so we use them a lot in smoothies as well. The Banana Cookbook gave me so many more ideas I wouldn't have thought of for sweet yet healthier than sugar filled desserts and baked goods. I would literally eat anything in this book and look forward to trying all of the recipes.
A bright and versatile cookbook with all sorts of banana related recipes, presented through clear and concise recipes with some great photography accompanying each dish.
Oh my gosh, can I rate this book higher than 5 stars somehow?!? After I got a copy of this book, I thought to myself, I'll keep an eye out for easy vegan substitutes and low and behold, Sam Brooks literally says at the beginning that many of the recipes are vegan! I was so excited to see this. I absolutely love bananas and I am vegan so this book is amazing. The recipes all look super delicious and easy to follow and I don't recall seeing any super odd ingredients or anything. I'm so excited to go back through and decide what to make first 🤗 ☺