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, ORCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.