Joy of Vegan Baking has graced my pantry shelf for going on five years now, and it is the most-used, best-loved cookbook in my kitchen. The book falls open to chocolate chip cookies, and the gingersnap and pancake pages are stained from repeated viewings. Even my non-vegan friends clamor for my cookies, and Joy is my secret. I don't know what possessed me to give a four-star review. The error has been corrected.

My improvisational cooking style tends toward reinventing the wheel. Joy of Vegan Baking has saved me, time and again, from endless internet searches and my own needless fiddling. If you love to bake, vegan or not, Joy of Vegan Baking is winner. ( )

I haven't yet gotten around to reviewing The Joy of Vegan Baking - but you can see some of the recipes I've tried here: http://www.easyvegan.info/tag/the-joy-of-vegan-baking/

This is a fairly good cookbook. My biggest problem with it is that everything is way to sweet, and I have a very sweet tooth. The cheesecake recipe is probably the best although I take out 1/4 cup of the sugar. Worth buying for those that like playing around with recipes. ( )

recommended for: EVERYONE who bakes or wants others to bake for them

I generally read my cookbooks from cover to cover, but I picked up this one for an initial cursory look only and couldn’t put it down and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting.

Not hyperbole: This is an amazing and remarkable baking book, for experienced bakers and novices alike. This cookbook has everything needed to successfully create delicious baked goods. It’s also a beautiful book, containing many mouthwatering photos of the completed recipes.

Great vegan book too. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is a true hostess and nurturer. She gives her vegan story concisely and not with a hitting others over the head style, but effectively. Various vegan/animal facts tips are interspersed throughout the book. Good short explanation of why we REALLY don’t need cow’s milk. (And the fact is, the flavor of vegan baked goods is undetectable from those baked goods that use animal products.)

And the cookbooks I love the most have delicious recipes, of course, but I usually like the ones with humor also; this isn’t a funny book, but it is incredibly informational. Most recipes have extra information: a Compassionate Cooks’ Tip and/or a Did You Know and/or a short section on Food Lore (history of a food in a particular recipe), all of which I found so interesting. I’ve never seen a baking/cookbook with better instructions for having a positive experience making the recipes. The Appendixes are truly amazing and especially helpful for someone like me who doesn’t always know what baking terms mean.

Great Defending Desserts section taking up 2 pages of the book, about how desserts are for treats, not for every meal eating, and so when making them one doesn't need to use healthier ingredients. (I usually do prefer whole wheat pastry flour to white flour though.)

from the book’s table of contents:

The Whys and Wherefores of Choosing Vegan
The How-to’s and What-nots of Vegan Baking

the recipes:

Muffins, Biscuits, and Scones
Savory Quick Breads
Cakes and Cupcakes
Pies and Tarts
Brownies and Bars
Crumbles, Cobblers, Crisps, and Whole Fruit Desserts
Strudel, Crepes, Blintzes, and Pastries
Yeast Breads and Rolls
Mousses and Puddings
Confections and Candy
Sorbets, Shakes, and Smoothies
Crusts for Pies and Tarts
Hot and Cold Beverages
Frostings, Sauces, Syrups, and Spreads

from the appendixes:
Baking Staples Ingredients
Essential Kitchen Tools
Resources and Recommendations
Glossary of Terms (these are cooking terms)
Cake Pan Substitutes
Common Ingredients Yields and Equivalents
Baking Soda and Baking Powder What’s the Difference?
Suggested Reading
Suggested Viewing

Her index of recipes has 3 parts: a general index that includes all of the recipes, and then a Seasonal recipe index (winter, spring, summer, fall), and a Celebrations and Occasions index (Holiday - including food gifts, Breakfast & Brunch, Tea Party, Children’s Birthday Party.) ( )

The thing about this cookbook that rubbed me the wrong way is that most of the recipes call for Ener-G Egg Replacer. I feel like that's an admission that these recipes are somehow lacking in something that non-vegan recipes aren't. A good vegan recipe should work around the lack of eggs without Ener-G, as there are at least 10 things you can use as egg replacers that aren't called "Egg Replacer."

Also, I have made some recipes in this book and the recipes themselves are written poorly. Things like, grease a baking sheet, mix the dough, and then wait an hour. Then put the dough on the baking sheet. Why grease a baking sheet an hour before its use? I also accidentally made 3x of a recipe because I used triple the water without realizing it until I got to the end of the recipe. Oops!

Other than that, lots of recipes in here. At this point I already have a cookie cookbook, a cupcake cookbook, a quick-bread cookbook and an amazingly easy and delicious brownie recipe, so I'm only bookmarking a few recipes. It's not a cook book I'm dying to go out and purchase for my own library.

Best part of the cookbook is the soft pretzel recipe. I made them and they were a definite hit at a party. (And I was even glad I had made three times too many!) ( )