A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies (Spiral-bound)

~ (Author) "This is the first-ever Field Guide to Christmas Cookies!..." (more)
Key Phrases: generously rounded tablespoon, heating until light, light golden brown around edges, United States, Classic Rolled Sugar Cookies, King Arthur Flour The Baker's Catalogue (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dede Wilson has collected 75 delicious recipes from around the world in this festive collection of fun homemade treats. With recipes arranged chronologically by holiday and broken down into simple, easy-to-follow steps, home bakers are sure to find a perfectly delectable treat to suit any occasion or mood. With everything from lollipops, taffy, and sugarplums to truffles, nougats, and fudge, there is something for everyone. This book also includes recipes for classic candies, new twists on old favorites, and even "adult" candies, like Chocolate Walnut Rum Balls.

About the Author

Dede Wilson is the author of the Baker's Field Guide series, including Chocolate Chip Cookies, Christmas Cookies, and Cupcakes. A contributing editor to Bon Appetit, Wilson has worked professionally for more than 20 years as a restaurant chef, bakery owner, caterer, recipe developer, radio talk-show host, spokesperson, and frequent television guest. She is a host of The Holiday Table, a PBS cooking show.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 176 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558322639
• ISBN-13: 978-1558322639
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,950 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Cookie cookbook!, December 6, 2003

By	"wkniii" (Out in the boonies in Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews

Having purchased many, many cookie cookbooks, I have gotten really picky about buying new books. When this book first published, I found it on a bookstore shelf and fell in love with it. This book has almost everything one could ask for.....BEAUTIFUL photographs with EVERY recipe, history and description of each cookie, type of cookie, place of origin with it's international name if it has one, very well written directions for baking, batch yield, "lifespan" (length of storage)and "field notes"...little tidbits of information regarding the cookie itself or the ingredients within. This book includes the good ole American AND International favorites. In addition to recipes, Ms. Wilson has included directions for things such as tempering chocolate, toasting nuts and decorating cookies. She has very detailed information regarding equipment, ingredients, storing and mailing cookies, and resources for supplies and ingredients. It is very simply written and elegantly designed. This book is excellent not only for the novice bakers, but the seasoned ones as well. It would make the perfect gift for anyone. I have been baking cookies every Sunday for many years and this is, by far, one of the best books I have used. I highly recommend it to everyone.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good reference for all the standards. Recommended, December 9, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This `A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies' by Dede Wilson is a perfect example of how the same subject can be served well in two very different ways. The obvious touchstone against which to proof this volume may be Rose Levy Beranbaum's book on Christmas cookies. But, this would be an unfair comparison. Beranbaum's work covers the very high end of Cookie making, ending with a truly glorious creation of a gingerbread cathedral of Notre Dame. Beranbaum also covers just about every little issue you may possibly encounter in baking cookies and provides us with lots of unusual recipes.

Dede Wilson, on the other hand, has given us a very practical kitchen reference for lots and lots of common cookie recipes baked for Christmas, including several ethnic favorites such as the relatively difficult Moravian Ginger Cookies.

My favorite thing about Ms. Wilson's contribution aside from its spiral binding which lays flat on the table is the fact that you often have more than one recipe for a particular type of cookie. For a rolled gingerbread / spice cookie recipe, there are at least three alternatives, not even including the difficult Moravian cookie. That generally means that if you want to make a particular kind of cookie, you have your choice between an easy, intermediate, and hard recipe.

Other very nice features are the fact that every recipe falls on two facing pages, begins with a very clear picture of one or two of the cookies, states the type and (very cute here) habitat, gives a description of the cookie and alternatives, gives the shelf life under proper storage conditions, and gives appropriate tips on making this and similar cookies. I think the recipes are well written and leave little room for error, although I was just a bit confused by the instructions to form rolled gingerbread dough into a disk. This sounded more like instructions for a freezer cookie than a rolled cookie.

The introductory material to the book gives nothing near the detail of Beranbaum, but gives enough to avoid any egregious errors. It also does not give lessons on using piping bags and other decorating techniques, but none of the cookies require elaborate methods.

The book does include an appendix on sources, most of that are probably familiar to regular bakers such as King Arthur, KitchenAid, and Wilton. Several are unfamiliar and welcome to me, especially New York Cake and Baking Distributors and The House on the Hill.

If I were the author, I may have included a bibliography of major works on cookies such as by Malgieri, Heatter, and Beranbaum, especially for help on decorating, but the book does a pretty good job of standing on its own as a great reference for common cookie recipes. It really fits its `Field Guide' metaphor well.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, creative, and original, November 30, 2004

By	Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What a creative idea for a cookbook! The book literally follows the standard format for a field guide to animals or plants. For each cookie it provides the type, habitat (country the recipe is from), description, field notes (where the recipe came from, origin of name, etc.), and lifespan (how long the cookie will keep). Of course it also has ingredients and directions for making the cookie, and total yield for the recipes.

These are some truly creative recipes that children will love, like the Night Before Christmas Mice, which actually look like mice, and traditional favorites like snickerdoodles or pizzelles. It even has a recipe for salt-dough ornament cookies - totally inedible but can be decorated to make permanent Christmas ornaments. A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies is fun, creative, and recommended.