Today's busy bakers want to make a gorgeous variety of delicious Christmas cookies without spending days upon flour-smudged days mixing, rolling, and baking. This is your guide to the Christmas cookie exchange, where everyone shows up with a few batches of homemade cookies to swap. It's all the variety without the fuss! Red-and-white striped edges make this adorable book look like a Christmas present, with 120 recipes to choose from, plus tips for decorating, planning, and throwing the party.
Very Merry Cookie Party
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Barbara Grunes has written more than 45 cookbooks, including The Best Bake Sale Ever Cookbook. She lives in the Chicago area.
Virginia Van Vynckt is a writer, editor, and Web designer. She lives in the Chicago area.
France Ruffenach is a San Francisco-based photographer.
Virginia Van Vynckt is a writer, editor, and Web designer. She lives in the Chicago area.
France Ruffenach is a San Francisco-based photographer.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book includes over one hundred cookie, and a few cupcake recipes along with tips to help the user plan and host a holiday cookie exchange party. The recipes cover most of the basic cookies found around the holidays but some also possess a twist or slight alteration or addition - like Eggnog Madeleines. But if already in possession with a good general cookie cookbook, there may be quite a few duplicate recipes.
Additionally, less than a third of the recipes have a photograph, so if a picture of the finished cookie is an important part of the preparation process, this might be an issue. I find that I use pictures of cookies to help me decide which ones to prepare, particularly when they will be on display at a cookie exchange party and looks are important. The lack of photographs could be easily remedied by taking group shots of the cookies so that each is pictured but additional pages of photographs don't increase costs. This is a publisher's decision, not the author.
Divided into Parts, and the first one is Planning and Hosting a Cookie Exchange which has sections on Cookie Exchange "Rules," How to Make Your Cookies Look Their Best, Presentation and Packaging, Party Themes, Party Menus and About the Recipes. Part two covers Cookies to Build a Party Around which includes Dear Santa: Dressed-up Classics, Ginger and Spice, For Chocoholics and Cookie Ornaments. Cookies by Technique is the title of part three with sections on Drop Cookies, Bars and Squares, Rolled and Cut-Out Cookies, Slice and Bake Cookies, Filled Cookies, Molded and Stamped Cookies and finally Pressed and Piped Cookies. Each recipe contains a helpful tip or comment.
A good index is located in the back of the book which aids in locating a specific recipe quickly. There is also a metric conversion table for measurements along with a small list of sources for spices, cookie molds, etc. The paper quality is good and most spills should wipe up easily. And, paperback cookbooks are notorious for not laying open on the countertop, but this one did reasonably well no matter what page it was on. The font size used for the ingredients is a little small - probably nine point -- so make note if that is an issue.
I prepared two of the cookie recipes and they turned out perfectly and were quite delicious. First, Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies were really good but I substituted semi-sweet chocolate for the chopped milk chocolate and the result was excellent. I also prepared the Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti primarily to see how it compared with my usual version of the recipe. This one fared well and I would be happy to prepare either recipe.
The book accomplishes its purpose and should be helpful to anyone who is new to cookie exchanges or in search of basic cookie recipes.
Additionally, less than a third of the recipes have a photograph, so if a picture of the finished cookie is an important part of the preparation process, this might be an issue. I find that I use pictures of cookies to help me decide which ones to prepare, particularly when they will be on display at a cookie exchange party and looks are important. The lack of photographs could be easily remedied by taking group shots of the cookies so that each is pictured but additional pages of photographs don't increase costs. This is a publisher's decision, not the author.
Divided into Parts, and the first one is Planning and Hosting a Cookie Exchange which has sections on Cookie Exchange "Rules," How to Make Your Cookies Look Their Best, Presentation and Packaging, Party Themes, Party Menus and About the Recipes. Part two covers Cookies to Build a Party Around which includes Dear Santa: Dressed-up Classics, Ginger and Spice, For Chocoholics and Cookie Ornaments. Cookies by Technique is the title of part three with sections on Drop Cookies, Bars and Squares, Rolled and Cut-Out Cookies, Slice and Bake Cookies, Filled Cookies, Molded and Stamped Cookies and finally Pressed and Piped Cookies. Each recipe contains a helpful tip or comment.
A good index is located in the back of the book which aids in locating a specific recipe quickly. There is also a metric conversion table for measurements along with a small list of sources for spices, cookie molds, etc. The paper quality is good and most spills should wipe up easily. And, paperback cookbooks are notorious for not laying open on the countertop, but this one did reasonably well no matter what page it was on. The font size used for the ingredients is a little small - probably nine point -- so make note if that is an issue.
I prepared two of the cookie recipes and they turned out perfectly and were quite delicious. First, Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies were really good but I substituted semi-sweet chocolate for the chopped milk chocolate and the result was excellent. I also prepared the Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti primarily to see how it compared with my usual version of the recipe. This one fared well and I would be happy to prepare either recipe.
The book accomplishes its purpose and should be helpful to anyone who is new to cookie exchanges or in search of basic cookie recipes.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Cookie Lover
Format:Paperback
My mom bought this book so we could make cookies for my family and I to enjoy. I am 14 and was very excited for all the cookies we were making that day. We found a few great cookies that we wanted to make. We were very excited to start baking. Right from the start the cookie recipe was wrong. The first thing we tried to bake were the linzer squares. They were horrible! The book said it was supposed to be "doughy" when it really was more like crumbs, and it stayed that way. We tried this twice and had the same result each time. We then tried to make oatmeal cookies, these came out as rocks, and it had so much oatmeal in it, the cookies were more like dust. We double checked everything and it still came out that way. The last "experiment" we wanted to try were the Black and White cookies. These came out alright, but not good enough that you could bring to a party. We were all very disappointed after spending money for this cookbook, which cooks probably didn't even try! I would not recommended this book to anyone. It would be a disgrace to bring these cookies to a party, you can't even call them cookies, mush or rocks would be a better fit. I definitely would avoid this cookbook if your looking for good cookies.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't really understand all the negative reviews for this book-I personally really enjoyed it! Great pictures, graphic design, colorful and fun- it put me in the mood to do some Christmas baking! Of course you can find numerous cookie recipes online, but I would argue there are some wonderful, unique ideas in this book, in addition to old favorites, and it's nice to have it all in one, printed package. At the current amazon price, I would highly recommend!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice cookie recipe book.
This is a beautifully printed book and the recipes look very appealing. I have only tried one recipe so far so I can't testify to their quality. Read more
Published 8 months ago by K. Donovan
3.0 out of 5 stars
The book was okay...
The cookie recipies along with the other recipies (that were not cookies) are great. But to make sure I made the cookies right, I would've appreciate more pictures.
Published 10 months ago by amazoner
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cookie Exchange
My wife bought a copy for our daughter a year ago and she has used it several time with good results. My wife decided she needed a copy, too. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Jr
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Merry Cookie Party
What a great book! All the recipes that I have tried work perfectly and are delicious.
It is wonderful to have such a variety of cookies to choose from.
Joan Maniff
It is wonderful to have such a variety of cookies to choose from.
Joan Maniff
Published 17 months ago by Joan Maniff
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just not enough there...
I have had a cookie exchange party for over thirty years, and so I got this book to see what I could do new - but I was disappointed and no cookie recipe reached out and grabbed... Read more
Published on December 21, 2010 by Judith C. Morris
1.0 out of 5 stars
NOT NOT NOT a "how-to" book... COMPLETE disappointment !!!!!!!!!
If you are looking for a how-to book on organizing a cookie exchange, keep looking, like I will be doing, or possibly I will write one since this one is a complete waste of time... Read more
Published on November 2, 2010 by jeepmom
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