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Hold on to your cookie sheet! Here’s a delicious new cookbook that’s sure to keep your oven lit for the long haul.
The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics by Stacy Adimando is the perfect go-to cookie book. You’ll find many of your standard favorites here: chocolate chip, brownie, fig bars, and chocolate sandwich cookies. You’ll also find holiday favorites like gingerbread men and sugar cookies. Adimando even has a “fancy” cookie section for French macarons, alfajores, and the like.
Brownies made from The Cookiepedia.
In addition to the tasty, easy-to-follow recipes, the user-friendly layout makes this cookbook handy. Every cookie in the book has an accompanying photograph so you know exactly what the finished product should look like. Recipes are divided into unique sections including Fruity Cookies, Spicy Cookies, and Buttery Cookies.
The book is sprinkled with tips. “This technique works for most cookie doughs,” Adimando writes next to instructions for making Rolled Icebox Cookies. Each recipe has a “notes” section so the cook can jot down their own lessons learned or substitutions. This should be mandatory for all cookbooks!—and it speaks to the home cook-centered nature of this book.
Another ideal feature that enables this book to succeed in a well-used kitchen: it’s bound on wire rings. The book’s binding won’t begin to fall apart as the book ages, and as you work on a recipe, the book lies flat. The pages won’t flip mid-recipe, and you won’t need to set a jar of honey on top to prop it open.
The book uses playful illustrations that kids will love. I made the Brownies with my nieces, and they easily followed the recipe without much assistance from me. The finished bars were light, airy, and cakelike with the fudgiest bits at the corners.
One of my favorites: the Cornmeal Cookies with Rosemary. Golden, crisp, and not too sweet, these reflect the simplicity and elegance that I love in a good cookie.
Win a Copy of the Book!
Wouldn’t you love to get your hands on a copy of this book for the holiday baker in your life? You’re in luck!
Leave a comment below. Tell me: What’s your favorite cookie? Be sure to leave your email address, too. On Saturday, December 10 at noon I will announce the winner on my Facebook page, and I’ll email the winner directly.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Fun, fun, fun to hear about a new cookbook! While the cornmeal and rosemary cookie you describe hits a cord with me, my favorite will always be a soft and chewy ginger cookie! I can never have just one.
I still reach for my original Betty Crocker cookbook, although my daughter tells me I need to step into the current century. Perhaps my chance to win this new cookbook!
I’ve been making mocha nut balls rolled in powdered sugar for the holidays for years. This will always be one of my favorites.
Ooh! Grace, those sound like great cookies! I remember a rum-based chocolate ball cookie that a neighbor used to make. I always loved getting the plates of cookies from neighbors during the holidays. Haven’t had those rum balls in years!
As much as I LOVE trying all kinds of delectable cookie concoctions and seeking out the “best” soft ginger cookie or the most “almondy” of almond paste cookies which send me into a trance-like state, nothing rings my bells more that a traditional, well done, semi-sweet chocolate chip cookie with walnuts. Home semi-sweet home!
Haha! Pat, my aunt and uncle used to own a bakery. I used to dunk their giant, crisp chocolate chip cookies in milk as an after-school snack. They were as big as my face! Oh, such fun!
Lynn–You’re in luck! They have a great ginger cookie recipe in this book, too. 🙂 I love those myself.
The cornmeal and rosemary cookie sounds amazing! I have to admit, though, a fondness for the classic chocolate chip – I make an amazing chocolate chip cookie 🙂 But fall and early winter are the perfect time for chewy ginger cookies, and now I have the urge to go make some…
Kathy–you sound like me–a cookie for every season! Cookies are my favorite dessert. What’s the secret to your chocolate chip cookies? I definitely love a recipe with plenty of brown sugar. 🙂
Chocolate chip is my favorite! But anything with chocolate will do just fine too.
Chocolate is sounding good right about now. A little sweet treat this time of night. 🙂
Cookies made with fruits are by far my favorites. At Christmas I love a super-soft cookie with orange juice and orange rind in both the cookie and the frosting. My Mom still makes me apricot bars that have a buttery base layer topped with a brown sugar-walnut-apricot layer. Then the whole cookie is rolled in powdered sugar while it is warm. Date-pinwheel cookies with loads of brown sugar in the dough also suit my fancy. Even though they have no fruit in them, I can’t make it through the holidays without a soft, frosted sugar cookie or two.
Three favorites! I can’t pick just one, either. Haven’t had those date pinwheels in ages! I need to make those again soon.
Hi Amber,
My favorite cookie is called a Molasses Krinkle. Ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and molasses are it’s primary flavorings, and paired with a cup of tea, it can brighten up your whole afternoon!
Dianne
Dianne–that sounds really delicious!
I can’t resist a good peanut butter cookie!!
Allison, my neighbor makes really good peanut butter cookies. And she tells me the recipe every time: 1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla. 🙂
I absolutely love a good chocolate chip cookie! I tend to favor the soft ones over the crispy ones. In recent years I’ve been substituting mild olive oil for the butter in my chocolate chip cookies. To me, it gives it a slightly caramelized flavor. And it has the added bonus of allowing me to think I’m being a little bit healthy (kind of, sort of).
April, that sounds like a unique twist. If you’re adding walnuts to your cookies, I could see that really pairing nicely. I use olive oil in a wonderful corn cake with berries. It’s fun for sweets, and we often forget about it for that use.