Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have been baking and cooking since I was a small child. While I am no pastry chef, I generally can follow a recipe and have made thousands of successful meals in my lifetime. I recieved this book as a wedding gift 5 years ago, and over the years I have TRIED and TRIED to make these recipes to no avail. Baking times have been off (I have had to bake things as long as 45 minutes to 1 hour over what was given), ingredients have been off, things don't turn at at ALL like the picture, and today was the last straw. I have needed to add over 1 cup extra of flour for more than one recipe, in others, the cookies spread across the cookie sheet until they merged into one huge cookie. I have tried dozens of these recipes, and only one has turned out. I warn anyone before buying this cookbook - DON'T. It's just not worth it. I keep telling myself to just throw it away, but always I torture myself into trying one more recipe to let the book redeem itself, but this is it. I'm done. You want Mrs. Field's cookies, go buy them at the mall.

This is a great book for any baker. The recipes are easy and who doesn't love a cookbook with pictures!

I love this cookie book. It has my very favorite cookie recipe on page 15, Malted Milk Cookies. Mmmmm. Whenever I am invited to a wedding, if the couple is registered for baking items, like cookie sheets, this is what I get them along with a copy of this book and a reference to page 15.

The other reason I love this book is because starting when my son was around four years old, we'd sit on the couch with it and pick out cookies that we wanted to bake based on the photographs. Of course, the downside is that kids love repetition and it was almost always the Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies (he never picked the malted milk ones).

As mentioned in another review, the recipes are each on one page so you don't have to worry about turning the page which can be quite annoying, particularly when you have your cook book in a plexi-glass holder, and the type is big so with this book, I don't have to search for my reading glasses to find out the next step in the recipe.

I've tried a BUNCH of recipes from this book and they have all been delicious and several have made the roster on my annual Christmas cookie baking marathon (eggnog cookies, chocolate mint cookies, pecan pie bars, triple lemon bars, brown sugar shortbread cookies, white chocolate macadamia cookies, mini chocolate chip macaroons are just a few of the many I have tried). It's not just cookies - there are desserts too - and many are downright decadent. There's a picture for every recipe and thus far my results have looked exactly like the pictures.

I love this cookie book it has been a life saver for me. I have been baking for years and I find myself reaching for this book the most. You at times may have to add more flour or more of something but like ever good baker knows the weather play's a part in that and other things. I have baked for so many different people and everyone thinks I brought these for a store. A most have.