Mixed Berry Crisp with Cornflakes | Cook This Book by Molly Baz review

A juicy mixed berry crisp is one of my favorite summer desserts. Especially when you’ve gotten a load of fruit from a u-pick farm or a nice neighbor who had a glut from their garden. But really, you can make fruit crisps anytime. Even with frozen berries you might have stashed in your freezer. This cornflake studded crisp (or crumble) from Cook This Book by Molly Baz was a surprising winner. I haven’t had a bowl of cornflakes in years. The only person I know who eats cornflakes is my dad (lol). They added the perfect crunch and corn flavor to the topping. If you eat this with vanilla ice cream, the last few bites remind you of cornflakes and milk. Especially when the ice cream gets melty. So nostalgic!

As an Amazon associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

How I adapted this recipe for mixed berry crisp.

The first time I made this recipe, I followed it to the letter. The recipe actually calls for blueberries only. While I love eating blueberries, I didn’t enjoy this berry crisp as much with only blueberries. They cook down to a sort of gelatinous, mushy texture that I don’t particularly love. Also, cooked blueberries don’t have much complexity in flavor. So, I decided to make this again with mixed berries instead and it was so much better! I also dialed down the sugar a bit too. The crisp was a little sweet for me and I think I hit a nice note of sweet and sour. Since the cornflakes were such a nice texture, I also made sure to add some whole flakes to the crisp topping after rubbing the butter in. Before, they all got smooshed during this step. This ensured some whole flakes as well as some crushed ones.

Best things about this mixed berry crisp?

• It’s relatively simple to make and in one bowl! No appliances needed.
• It’s delicious! I loved the added lemon and cardamom. Who knew lemon and cardamom could be best friends? If you don’t have cardamom or don’t like it, skip it or use cinnamon instead.
• Uses mainly pantry ingredients. I used frozen berries, which I always have in the freezer. The only ingredient I had to buy was cornflakes and the flavor and crunch they added was so unexpectedly good!
• Perfect dessert for backyard cookouts! Serves a lot of people and can stretch, especially with ice cream.

My thoughts on Cook This Book by Molly Baz.

First off, I’ve been a fan of Molly Baz since her days at Bon Appetit. She wasn’t my favorite of the crew but her recipes were always creative and definitely delicious. So when I started hearing buzz about her upcoming cookbook, I thought it would be interesting and probably full of nice recipes. When I finally got my hands on a copy, I was quickly wowed.

The first thing I noticed was the design. It’s definitely very eye popping with its’ use of primary colors, cool graphics and high contrast, brightly lit food photography. I noticed the book design company was from France (oh la la!). There’s also a bunch of merchandise called “Molly Merch” with this look, including cross back aprons, which she helped to wildly popularize while at BA. It’s all very cool and hip. Stuff “the kids would wear” aka people under 30.

The premise of this book is to give you a crash course in culinary skills while delivering delicious recipes. Her motto is “you don’t need to go to culinary school to be a good cook”. I think this is true. I’ve been to culinary school and it was the best time I’ve ever had in school but it definitely was the most expensive education my life. You can learn on the job by working in restaurants and/or learning at home.

Cook This Book starts out with “Molly Wisdom” and her “Golden Rules”. How to stock your pantry, the basics of kitchen tools, pots and pans and things to always be aware of are helpful for first time cooks. The rest of the book is divided up into very specific chapters such as chicken, beef, seafood, eggs, noodles, grains and legumes, salads and veggies. Even if you don’t eat animal protein, there is something here for everyone.

A few things I liked and didn’t in Cook This Book by Molly Baz.

At first, I was a little overwhelmed with this book but once I did a deep dive, I started to understand how she broke down the recipes. For instance, the ingredient lists are broken up by things like “produce”, “seafood” and “pantry”. I found this annoying initially but once I actually started cooking a recipe, it made a lot of sense! Remember how Rachel Ray pulls everything out of her fridge and pantry before cooking on her show? Same idea.

Another awesome thing about this book? There are QR codes for each recipe that links you to videos of a cooking technique being used in the recipe! Being a visual person myself, I thoroughly appreciate this. It’s much easier to watch someone chop an onion than read about how to do it. The codes are also inside a graphic of a cute little egg character.

My only gripe about this book is the use of shortened, cutesy words. Yes, I know it’s a HUGE part of the Molly Baz brand. Cae Sal is caesar salad. Pepp is pepper. Noods are noodles. Frispy = fried and crispy. You get the picture. I can only imagine how confusing this could all be for someone who doesn’t speak English as their first language? One almost has to be clued into her, ahem, interesting verbiage.

All that aside, I can get past it because the recipes are so delicious and easy to accomplish. I can’t wait to try her miso marinated pork shoulder chops and make her solid caesar salad recipe again. I have cooked a surprising amount of recipes in Cook This Book and it’s a big two thumbs up from me.

Pin it!