Customer Reviews

The Great Big Cookie Book: Over 200 Recipes for Cookies, Brownies, Scones, Bars and Biscuits

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I selected this very attractive book as a gift for a baker friend; before wrapping, I browsed through it and was so intrigued I bought another copy for myself. Unfortunately, everything I have made from it has been disappointing. The 'Cheddar Pennies' (p. 120) were oily and lacy, and although I don't consider myself an expert baker, it would appear that there is probably an error in the quantity of flour. The 'Blueberry Muffins' (p. 200) were also oily in texture and somewhat bland in flavor. My friend made the 'Chocolate and Nut Refrigerator Cookies' (p. 57): The cookies were good, but she had trouble getting them to come out the way they were supposed to. On page 112, there is a recipe for 'Decorated Chocolate Lebkuchen'. It calls for 'one recipe of Lebkuchen mixture', but when turning to page 14 (where the index indicates Lebkuchen will be found), there is a photo tutorial on measuring ingredients. It is a beautiful book, but it would appear more appropriate for the coffee table than the kitchen.

I received this book as a gift from my mother-in-law, who knows I enjoy cooking and baking. I consider myself a fairly accomplished baker and cook, although I'm not a professional. Nevertheless, all of the recipes in this book that I tried were complete flops. It made me wonder if any of the recipes had been kitchen tested at all. None of the recipes I selected were terribly complicated. The Chocolate Chip Hazelnut cookies I tried looked all right to start, but they came out resembling something more like a puff pastry, but not nearly as appetizing. The chocolate macaroons were soggy and gooey, not at all like the picture in the book. The gingerbread squares came out dense, heavy and pretty much inedible. The pictures are very nice to look at, but I fear that's all this book may be good for.

Every recipe I have tried from The Great Big Cookie Book has been an utter failure. It's not obvious if I did something wrong, or if they are just bad recipes. I made snickerdoodles, and they came out like little scones. My mom pointed out later that their recipe is missing a key snickerdoodle ingredient - cream of tartar. In fact, all of the cookies I have tried from this book have the consistency of cake rather than what I consider cookie texture. And they are very bland - whatever you do don't make the peanut butter cookies if you are craving a sweet treat! I have had much better results with other baking books, so keep searching!

I thought this book was great but the lady fingers dont turn out!! Other than that I would greatly reccomend this book to anyone else!

I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK. THE ILLISTRANTIONS ARE GOOD FOR A BEGINNER AS I AM. I HAVE TRIED THE CHEESE CAKE AND IT TURNED OUT PERFECT. I AM HAVING A BABY SHOWER AND WANTED TO MAKE THE CHEDDER PENNIES SO I TRIED THE RECIPE AND IT WAS HORRIBLE. THE CHEESE AND BUTTER MELTED AND THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT AFTER 8 MINUTES IN THE OVEN. I AM GLAD I TRIED THE RECIPE PRIOR TO THE SHOWER.

This is a beautiful coffee table style books with some very interesting baking ideas. While the title might be deceptive, this is not just a cookie book. Most of the treats are sweet, but there are also recipes for "Lavender Scones," "Dill Potato Cakes," and "Curried Crackers."

It might take a lifetime to make all 200 recipes, so I recommend this book as a holiday treat book. The gingerbread Teddy Bears (complete with painted on pajamas) and Chocolate Nut Clusters have "Christmas Gifts" written all over them!

While I have seem many Scottish Shortbread recipes, this is the first book which explained how to make them look very professional by shaping them in a mold. There is also a recipe for Lavender Heart Cookies which Jerry Traunfeld has also helped to make famous. Here and there you will find a bit of interesting information.

"In folklore, lavender has always been linked with love, as has food, so make some heart-shaped cookies and serve them on Valentine's Day or any other romantic anniversary."

"Coconut cookies are sold in Israeli street markets during Passover."

There is also a lovely recipe for Ladyfingers which are used as the basis for Tiramisu. The book is worth the money for that recipe alone.

~The Rebecca Review

When I took this book at the library, I checked my amazon.com review. It was bad, so I decided to try the recipes. I tried sugar cookies (lights), chocolate chips muffins (my bests so far), cornmeal biscuits (tasty and lights), coconut oat cookies (now I understand what is chewy). All where great, so I think this cookbook is not as bad as some would like to say. I really appreciated the fact that the sugar rate is lower than in most of the american recipes I tried so far.

I recieved this book as a Christmas present from my mother last year, and right away was impressed with the detail that obviously went into making the book, all the directions are illustrated, in full color and are a great help. I have made about 3 types of cookies from this book so far and they all came out great!

Being one of those people who never met a cook book that he did not like, I must admit that I was somewhat dismayed when I checked this one out from the library...twice no less, and found that both sessions with this work yielded dismal results.

Now this is a petty book; truly a wondrous thing. The photographs of the baked goods presented here are absolute mouth-watering. I am a complete pushover for cookies and my wife and I have spent many years collecting recipes and books on the subject, and have indeed "invented" a few ourselves. When I first brought this book home, we tried the snickerdoodles and the brownies. Both were an absolute embarrassment; an assault on our pallet, and certainly unworthy of serving to friends and family. The second time we tried a number of the fruit bars featured; again it was a disaster!

I nor my wife claim to be cookie experts by any stretch of the imagination, no, no, no! But on the other hand, after baking such goodies for well over 60 years now (that is like 120 years of cooking baking experience between us, we cannot be considered beginners either, nor did either of us just fall of the turnip wagon when it comes to cooking...any sort of cooking. We know how to follow a recipe. We also know unworthy cookies when we lay a tooth to them.

This book includes directions as to how to make cookies, brownies, scones (the scone recipes here are horrid), fruit bars and biscuits. The book is filled with baking tips and covers equipment needed, the pantry, measuring techniques, mixing, rolling, cutting, shaping tuiles and cigarettes, piping, decorating techniques, storing and gift wrapping.

The photographs are great.

The number of cook books addressing cookies and such probably number in the thousands. In our collection alone we have at least 35 books devoted to just this subject. If you are going to spend your hard earned bucks on a book, then I suggest you look further than this offering. It is a pity, as there was a tremendous amount of work that went into this thing.

It pains me to tell you that I cannot recommend this particular work

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

So far the recipes I've tried have turned out great. I like that they aren't as cloyingly sweet as many cook recipes are. This is definitely a book I will keep handy near holidays, both to make the cookies as presents, and to make the biscuits and muffins for holiday dinners.