Now that I have a copy of Maida Heatter's Cookie's I shall never need another book of cookie recipes. This one has them all. This edition, published in 2011 is a reprint of earlier editions from 1977, 1982, 1985, and 1997 and is organized in this manner: Chocolate drop cookies; More drop cookies; Bar cookies; Icebox cookies; Rolled cookies; Hand-formed cookies; And more; and Crackers and extras.
I have one of her cheesecake recipes and admit that I haven't made it. I should. Wolfgang Puck's introduction to this edition of the cookie book does her great justice and calls her the "fairy godmother of anything sweet, spicy, crunchy, chewy, or fluffy that you could possibly imagine baking." He mentions a gingersnap flavored with pepper and mustard, and that, I must try.
Just in looking through her recipes, she makes each one compelling, even though I don't want to make a chocolate chip cookie recipe, her words alone tempt me to try it, to give it a go. Or, her words of advice let you know whether the cookie is appropriate for a picnic or a tea party, or whether it's small size, or large size will feed a few or not enough. Her advice on these matters steers the cookie baker in the correct direction deeper into the book.
Who knew there were so many varieties of cookie? Not I. And before I'd run out and buy any of the spate of new-fangled cookie books that you might find in bookstores--and I seem to recall seeing some out there lately because every food goes through trends, like cupcakes,--I'd stick with Heatter's books because they've stood the test of time and it's likely that the cookie upstarts have used her recipes as a basis for their own.
There are several macaroon recipes. I've searched for an adequate recipe for sometime. Heatter shares Craig Claiborne's chocolate macaroon recipe, though I may skip the chocolate bit.
The index, of course, is useful. Specifically, I searched for cardamon as an type of cookie, or main ingredient and found it once: Cardamon cookies from Copenhagen. It'll be helpful for finding gingersnaps, shortbread, and snicker-doodles, as those are big favorites in my household.
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