Hello from the middle of quarantine (still)! I’m back with another cookbook review, because what better way to spend quarantine than to try out new cookbooks? Let’s ignore the fact that I am also working from home and trying to finish renovations on a new house to move into before this next baby is due. Anyway, if you follow me on Instagram, then you’ll know I’ve been trying out the recipes from Magnolia Table Volume 2! I own the first cookbook AND Joanna’s interior design book, so I was excited to see what this next book would hold. Keep reading for a recap of the recipes I tried and my overall thoughts below!
1. Chicken Florentine
4/5 Stars. Easy to make and pretty good! It wasn’t mind-blowingly creative with flavors, but I’d make it again. Note: I doubled the amount of chicken for this recipe because I like leftovers and my skillet is large.
2. Blueberry Rolls
5/5 Stars. Really great alternative to classic cinnamon rolls. Easy to make, love the blueberry flavor, and just overall comforting.
3. Hasselback Potatoes
4/5 Stars. This was my first attempt at making hasselback potatoes! They ended up really good and not nearly as fussy as I thought. Only minus 1 star because I feel like it’s a very basic recipe, nothing very special. You could probably find a million like this on the internet.
4. Honey Thyme Roasted Carrots
4/5 Stars. Again, these were really good and very easy to make. However, did I really need to buy a cookbook for this recipe? There’s already a similar thyme roasted carrot recipe in the Cravings cookbook…
5. Peach Cobbler
3/5 Stars. Very easy to make, tasted alright, but the recipe was flawed. First off, it calls for an 8×8 pan, which promptly overflowed in my oven and caused me a mess to clean up. Second, the peach portion was WAYYYY to sweet for me. I could’ve completely omitted the sugar there. I would still make it again, just with modifications.
6. Ribeye Steak
4/5 Stars. I almost never make big chunks of beef like this, but it was Easter so I made an exception. Overall, this is a solid recipe! I was surprised that the oven could cook steak so well. One note, though, I used my meat thermometer to tell when cooking was done to make sure it was exactly right. I DO NOT recommend going by the times in the book.
7. Asian Salad
3/5 Stars. I mean, it’s whatever. I’ve made Asian salads before that were just as good if not better. Maybe I’m just not a salad person?
8. Flourless Chocolate Cake
4.5/5 Stars. I was really surprised by how rich and decadent this cake turned out to be! I’ve never made a flourless cake before so I didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, they’re super easy and JUST as good as ones with flour? How is that possible? The ONLY drawback was that it was SO rich and chocolatey, it was actually hard to eat more than a small slice at a time. Also, I do want to point out that the recipe is identical to the one on King Arthur Flour… so… not like you need to buy the cookbook just for this.
9. Maple Walnut Scones
5/5 Stars. These scones were easy to make and REALLY good! It always surprises me when something easy ends up being just perfect. I would 100% make again!
10. Tres Leches Cake
3.5/5 Stars. Overall, the tres leches cake tasted really good. My issue is that the recipe was pretty inaccurate in a few areas. For example, my baking time was almost TWICE what it said in the book. It also shows pictures of the cake topped with whipped cream and mentions topping with whipped cream in the recipe… but doesn’t include the cream in the ingredients. The milk soak mixture was also wayyyyy more than necessary. In the end, it had good flavor, but I would probably look for a recipe that didn’t require so much tweaking.
11. Pizza Dough and Margherita Pizza
2.5/5 Stars. Okay, here’s the thing. The dough tasted pretty good, and made in the cast iron skillet, it was BOMB. BUT, the recipe said it would make one 14″ pizza… and I got TWO 12″ pizzas out of it that had pretty thick crust still. How?? Additionally, the recipe for doing a margherita style pizza was really just… okay. It tasted WAY better doing my own toppings and sauce. So maybe just use a pizza dough recipe from somewhere else?
12. Not Pictured: Pulled Pork Street Tacos
2/5 Stars. Meh. Didn’t taste bad but didn’t taste all that great either. Won’t make again. I know there’s better out there.
13. Strawberry Cream Pie
4/5 Stars. Pros: It’s almost no bake (just the crust) and tastes pretty good. Cons: Very sweet and needs to be stored in the freezer but thawed before eating. To be real, by this point, I already knew that Magnolia Table desserts were usually way too sweet for me, so I omitted the powdered sugar that this recipe called for and doubled the lemon juice. With those modifications, it tasted pretty good! Still confused as to why this pie is supposed to be kept in the freezer and how I’m supposed to cut into it when I get a late night craving. Also, the recipe definitely calls for diced strawberries… and yet the picture in the book shows NO strawberry chunks and a bunch of whipped cream on top, which was not in the recipe. What is going on??
Overall Thoughts on the Magnolia Table Vol. 2 Cookbook
As you can see from my ratings above, the recipes I’ve tried so far were really hit or miss. At first, I thought recipes were TOO basic, especially after just having tried the Cravings cookbook. BUT, I realized that there is actually an advantage to having a lot of basic recipes: many of the ingredients I already had in my kitchen, and I wasn’t constantly running to the store for that one weird spice that I’ll never use again.
However, the thing that bugged me was how inaccurate some of the recipes were – baking times totally off, ingredients not listed when they were clearly pictured, etc. Did no one proofread this book? Out of the 13 recipes I tried, only THREE were really good enough to make a lasting impression on me. A few of the others tasted good, but ultimately were not that special, especially considering the amount of amazing recipes you can find online these days. My verdict: get this book if you love Joanna Gaines, are already pretty comfortable with cooking, and like having a library of basic recipes. Avoid if you need very accurate, detailed instructions or are looking for recipes with unique flavors.
Anyone else out there have both Magnolia Table cookbooks? Let me know what you think!