Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book!: 200 Delicious Cookie and Dessert Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields [Hardcover]

Debbi Fields (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: Time Life Education (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783552661
• ISBN-13: 978-0783552668
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Best Ever, June 29, 2005

By 

jerry i h (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book!: 200 Delicious Cookie and Dessert Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields (Hardcover)

Those who are expecting to discover the secret of Mrs. Fields wonderful cookies will be sorely disappointed by this book, as will be others just looking for a good baking book with good cookie recipes. This book is not one of the better cookie books, and I suggest that you avoid it.

There were a few bright spots. Each recipe is generously formatted on one page, so you will not need to break out the reading glasses to read the recipes. Each recipe also comes with a full color picture so you can see what the end result will be, which is a nice editorial decision that I wish more cookbooks would emulate. I also noted that the recipe procedures have all been standardized (virtually all cookie recipes call for ungreased cookie sheets), so that if you can do one cookie, you can do all of them. Interestingly, although I got a couple of really good chocolate chip cookie variations, the non-cookie recipes were actually more interesting than the cookies, viz: White Chocolate Pudding (a new twist on a venerable classic), Rum-Soaked Chocolate Malibu (layered chocolate cake, rum syrup, ganache frosting), White Ivory Cream Cake (white chocolate cake and white chocolate ganache frosting), and Caramel Fudge Mac Tart (pate sucree, ganache, caramel, toasted nuts). Were it not for the paucity of recipe steps, this book would make a fairly interesting chocolate cookbook (tarts, assembled cakes, pudding, ice cream cakes, and candies).

The problems are many:
1) the book title, as only half of the recipes are for cookies
2) there are no basic instructions for beginners (or anyone else, for that matter) on how to actually make and bake cookies
3) the book only refers to "electric mixer", and does not specify hand-held or stand, but one infers from the procedures that the author intends the latter, one picture of a hand held not withstanding.
4) the method of flour measurement is never specified (scoop and sweep, spoon and sweep, etc.). This will significantly alter the cookie texture.
5) it is often difficult to tell if the cookies will be thin and crispy, thick and cakey, toll-house like, etc. You can sometimes tell from the picture, sometimes not, and there are no descriptions of the end cookie result.
6) interestingly, most of the cookies specify an ungreased cookie sheet, but many of them spread considerably in the oven.
7) many of the recipes do not specify how to tell when a cookie is done baking. Some specify and time range only, while others give vague descriptions: "until set", but the author does not tell what this means.
8) the recipes are often lacking in important steps or sufficient information on unusual or difficult steps. For example, the author expects you to already know how to make and fold meringues, and how to use a pastry bag.
9) some recipes are difficult, but the procedures give no warning, and even here the steps are casually tossed off in a few sentences.
10) the introductory information is ambiguous: are you suppose to use a regular cookie sheet, or an insulated one? The end cookie will be dramatically different, depending on which one you use.

Here is the recipe count: drop 50, filled 15, decorated 15, bar 25, non-cookie (pie, cake, pudding, ice cream, candy, etc.) 110.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You want to eat the pictures!, December 8, 2001

By 

Bonnie Stinson (Concord, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book!: 200 Delicious Cookie and Dessert Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields (Hardcover)

This book has the most wonderful pictures of cookies ever! I love being able to see what the cookie will look like, some folks can tell from a recipe, but I need the visual!

Also, the recipes are very good. BUT they use a TON of butter.
This is NOT for folks who watch their butter intake. (Fat tastes good?)

The recipes are easy to follow, the results are great.

The choices of types of cookies is okay, but it doesn't have all of the basics.. they must be in one of the earlier books.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars worst ever cookie book, December 17, 2005

By 

Wendy S. Dumas (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book!: 200 Delicious Cookie and Dessert Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields (Hardcover)

This may be the worst cookbook I have ever used. I received it as a gift and tried several of the recipes. Every single one was a flop. And I am not a beginning chef! Don't bother with it. I wasted a lot of money in ingredients for things that ended up in the trash.