Latest Read: Fine Cooking Cookies
Making cookies is a holiday pastime for me and the family, and I have a few tried and true cookbooks I reference back to just about every season. Fine Cooking Cookies: 200 Favorite Recipes for Cookies, Brownies, Bars & More
Some of the cookies are unusual, but resemble ones I’ve made from another favorite book of mine: Plaisir de Petit Fours, like the Cracao and Pain Turc from Plaisir and the Chocolate-Nut Wafers and Toasted Almond Thins from Cookies. I’ve made each both about a million times and I’d knew I’d seen them before, and was pleasantly surprised to see them included. The list of ingredients are similar, too. Having said that, this is a great collection of a broad range of cookies. The cookie recipes are presented by different people, so the recipes collected from the different contributors ensure that there is a wide range of styles and types.
Cookies by Fine Cooking magazine and Taunton Press has 200 recipes for just about every cookie variety. Chapters are broken down by type: Classic Cookies & Confections; Bars, Brownies & Bites; Fruit & Nut Cookies; Biscotti & Shortbread; Spirited & Spiced Cookies; and Sweet & Savory Sandwiches, which is all about about sandwich-style cookies and confections, including recipes for the fillings. If you have a hankering for shortbread, there are more than a dozen to choose from.
Overall, a great cookie recipe collection that presents both European and American favorites and new ideas in a way that makes it easy for home cooks to recreate in their kitchens. Like all Fine Cooking recipes, the ones I’ve tried have all turned out. The list of contributors is a who’s-who of notable pastry professionals, too.
Book Information:
- Fine Cooking Cookies: 200 Favorite Recipes for Cookies, Brownies, Bars & More; by the Editors and Contributors of Fine Cooking
- The Taunton Press; 2011
Disclosure: This digital galley copy was provided to the author by the publisher. Any opinions are the author’s own.