Review: The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler : Raspberry Buttermilk Muffins

I was offered to review the cookbook, ?The Berry Bible? by James Beard-award winning cookbook author Janie Hibler. I was sent an advanced reader's copy of and uncorrected proof from AmazonEncore. This book was released on June 22, so the published version will be different from my copy.

In ?The Berry Bible,? Janie Hibler gets to the heart of berries, from their health benefits to how they are best put to use in the kitchen. In her research, Hibler traveled the world, visiting the Canadian prairie to search out Saskatoon berries; Alaska to pick wild blueberries; and Europe to peruse the markets for the best strawberries. ?The Berry Bible? contains 175 recipes, as well as instructions on how to properly wash berries, freeze them, measure them correctly, and more.

What I didn't like about this book, are the recipes being listed one right after the next. I like recipes to be posted one per page, not having the title on one page, the ingredients on the next and the start of the next recipe at the bottom of that page. Very confusing. Also the titles of the recipes were not bolded, but the ingredients list was. ??

From reading reviews online, the published version has a recipe index which my copy did not have but has a table of contents, so finding a recipe to review meant I had to really flip through the pages and read the recipes to find one. Also there are no photos posted in this book, but the cover has a beautiful photo of frozen berries? Too bad. Again, my copy was an advanced copy, so maybe the published version is different?

Anyhow, I plan to flip through more berry recipes and see what else I can make. Perhaps the Grilled Paprika Chicken with Blackberry Sauce or the Swedish Meatballs with Lingonberry-Ginger Sauce?


Anyways, I decided to make the Raspberry Buttermilk Muffins for breakfast. This is recipe was a little different than other muffin recipes I've made. This one, you cut in the butter to make a dough then mix in the buttermilk to make the batter. You also sprinkle cinnamon sugar in the muffin tins which was a neat idea. I had my two little ones in there helping me (taste test) and they just wanted to eat up all the frozen raspberries.

I baked mine for 20 minutes and let cool a bit while I made scrambled eggs to go with. I have to say these muffins were great!! Maybe they were a little dense, but they were moist and wonderful from the buttermilk and raspberries.

Raspberry Buttermilk Muffins
from Janie Hibler?s The Berry Bible
Makes 12 regular muffins or 9 jumbo muffins

?Ground cinnamon for sprinkling
?1/2 cup sugar, plus sugar for sprinkling
?2 cups all-purpose flour
?1 teaspoon coarse salt
?2 teaspoons baking powder
?6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
?1 large egg
?1 cup buttermilk
?1/2 pint (1 cup) frozen raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or huckleberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar.
In a large bowl, sift together 1 3/4 cups flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Cut in the butter with 2 knives or a pastry blender.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Blend with the dry ingredients until just combined?it will still be lumpy.
In a separate bowl, toss the berries in the remaining 1/4 cup flour, and fold into the batter.
Fill the muffin cups to the top, and sprinkle generously with cinnamon and sugar. (If you?re making jumbo muffins, pour a little water into the empty muffin cups.)
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Serve warm.

I wrote this review for "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" about The Berry Bible. I received free product to keep for this review. All opinions for this review are that of myself & family. Product info & stock images provided by PR.

enjoy,