The Cookie Collection
Artisan Baking for the Cookie Enthusiast
Brian Hart Hoffman’s The Cookie Collection includes 128 recipes from the popular Bake from Scratch magazine that are focused on the “humble heroes of the bake sale.” Despite cupcakes muscling their way to the top of baking lists, cookies are perennial champs—easy to make, share, and eat out of hand.
Recipes are organized into essential and entertaining categories, with elegant color photographs of the finished products included, as well as punchy essential tips for prep and storage. There are chapters for cookies that are all about the spice, including chai and five spice-flavored cookies, as well as cookies that utilize booze, with favorite cocktails transfigured via sugar and flour. A chocolate chip chapter highlights unusual variations of the luscious lunch box standard, including one that incorporates s’mores flavors and a sophisticated whiskey and rye cookie.
A great holiday spread wouldn’t be complete without a cookie tray, and this compilation includes traditional recipes from a variety of cultures, including Finnish pinwheel cookies dabbed with cranberry port preserves, mincemeat rum chocolate sandwich cookies, and tahini chocolate rugelach.
Recipes range in complexity in terms of both ingredients and baking acumen. Some involve common pantry items, while others call for more artisanal ingredients like vanilla bean paste and 66% cacao chocolate. A Stop, Drop, and Bake section features quick and easy cookie recipes, while others pull out the stops with fillings, glazes, and more lengthy and complicated techniques. A chapter featuring “internet-breaking cookies you won’t be able to resist” is more of the latter, with its alluring Red Velvet Peppermint Sammies and two-page spread on macarons, the pastel staples of Parisian bakeries. A concluding chapter on big cookies includes fun skillet cookies perfect for birthdays and parties.
The Cookie Collection is an inviting cookbook suited for enthusiastic occasional bakers and adventurous kitchen veterans alike.
Reviewed by
Rachel Jagareski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
