The Good Cookie: Over 250 Delicious Recipes from Simple to Sublime (Hardcover)

by Tish Boyle (Author) "Baking cookies is much more of a pleasure when you have all the right equipment at hand, and it's all top quality..." (more)
Key Phrases: small offset metal spatula, clean parchment paper, repeat with the remaining cookies, Cookie Bite, Granny Smith, Lisa Yockelson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
There are thousands of cookie recipes out there already, and probably hundreds of cookie recipe books. What makes The Good Cookie different, and worth making room for, is Tish Boyle. Food editor of the magazines Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design, Boyle uses her experience as a pastry chef to update, improve, and choose between all those thousands of recipes for classic and best-loved cookies. She also includes recipes contributed by other excellent pastry chefs she's met, and for the remainder she relies on her own creative genius.

With over 250 recipes to choose from, Boyle makes the task much easier with mouth-watering introductions that describe in detail the appearance, texture, and taste of every cookie. The chapters are organized by technique, but the recipes are reorganized in an ingenious index by occasion or use: Ship Well, For Grown-Ups, Over-the-Top Chocolate, Bake Sale Bonanza, and the like. You'll find favorites such as Russian Tea Cakes, Lattice-Topped Linzer Bars, and Hermits, and crowd pleasers like Citrus Sandwiches and Blueberry Crumble Bars. Contributions from others include Chocolate Cranberry Spice Cookies, Ginger Fortune Cookies, and Midnight Brownies (made with Midnight Milky Way bars!). But what makes The Good Cookie priceless are the gems such as the crispy, chewy Tangerine Kumquat Rounds, explosive with citrus flavor, and Boyle's clear, detailed instructions that ensure their success. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Library Journal
Boyle, food editor of Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines, presents more than 250 cookie recipes to satisfy every palate and skill level. Recipes are arranged by type of cookie, including drop, rolled, bar, refrigerator, filled, and decorator, as well as savory cookies and crackers. Readers will relish old favorites like lusty lemon bars and Russian tea cakes, but the strength of this title lies in the author's own imaginative and tempting recipes for orange cream bars, coconut custard squares, raspberry-filled shortbread fingers, monster fudge nut brownies, and other delectables. Recipes are well laid out, instructions are easy to follow, and the color photographs are an inspiration. Baking tips, sources for equipment, storing and shipping guidelines, and a "bite-sized history of the cookie" are informative and will be of particular interest to novices. The "Cookies for Every Occasion" index lists appropriate recipes for everything from "Quick and Easy" to "Bake Sale" to "Over-the-Top Chocolate." Recommended for most cookery collections.
Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (September 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471387916
• ISBN-13: 978-0471387916
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #310,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Cookies ever!, August 3, 2005

By	Jo Ann Peitzmeier - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Good Cookie is the best cookbook I own because every recipe I have tried has been fantastic! (I agree with another reviewer - the chocolate chip cookie recipe is the best ever; I just made another batch today). There is a marvellously wide range of types (bar, refrigerator, decorator, drop, cut-out, etc) and flavors. And there are even cookies from around the world, from fortune cookies to hamentaschen to biscotti (several flavors) to ANZAC cookies to various British cookies. The recipe layout is visually pleasing and easy to follow. There are several pages of color photos to get your saliva glands and desire to bake really going. And every cookie I have tried has been perfectly delectable. I really love this cookbook and couldn't give it enough praise. Comprehensive, easy to use, nice to look at, and delicious. It is the best cookbook I've ever bought!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Only Need One Good Cookie, February 10, 2003

By	"schirls" (Morris Plains, NJ) - See all my reviews

Maida Heatter, a long-trusted name in baking, said "Happiness is baking cookies -- especially when they are as delicious as all these are." I cannot agree with her more. Because of time constraints, I tend toward the easier recipes in this book, and there are so many to choose from. My pregnant cousin does not allow me to visit her anymore without Tish's Chocolate Chunk Cookies; my children finish a dish before I can even get to them. For fans of wonderfully rich, chocolate-y cookies, make sure you try this recipe first! For a great after school treat, be sure to try the Classic Vanilla Sugar Cookies. You can taste each of the simple ingredients that is part of this recipe, and your children will gladly help you sprinkle the coarse sugar. There are many, many more recipes to try, and they range from simple to sophisticated and sweet to savory. In the end, one needs only one good cookie. But it is nice to know that, with this book, you will have many more favorites from which to choose!

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Roadmap to Great Cookies with a Little Tweaking, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

There's a reason this cookbook is called "The Good Cookie" and not "The GREAT Cookie". This is a well researched & well written compendium covering many types of cookies and full of recipes that will give you tasty, satisfactory results. Hoever, it's especially good if you are looking for basic recipes to use as a springboard to truly fantastic cookies or for someone relatively new to baking. I have made about fifteen of the recipes as written and the cookies were tasty but not fantastic or out of the ordinary. However, when I then went back and tweaked the ingredients, I ended up with wonderful results without having to create a recipe on my own. For instance, the ginger cookie recipe is basically a sugar cookie with the addition of a small amount of ginger, which is perfectly fine for people who don't want a spicy, crunchy cookie -- however I wanted a more traditional product. The linzer cookies as-written are too delicate to truly be called a "linzer" cookie and the nuttiness is overwhelmed by the butter. Yet by increasing the nuts, I was able to make a terrific cookie that was sturdier and nuttier, more like a real linzer torte. Having said all this, nevertheless, I salute anyone who takes the time to bake homemade cookies in this day and age so don't be put off: the recipes as-is will make everyone around you very happy. Overall I am glad to have this book on my shelf and I applaud the author for its clarity, the ease of the recipes and the depth of the content, however I now know that I must be prepared to play around after trying the recipes if I want to achieve outstanding results.