Last week, the TBT Cookbook Review was Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies. This week, it’s Maida Heatter’s Cookies. Are these not great ones, too?
Ah, the confusion of amalgamation! Maida had written three previous cookbooks, including that Great Cookies. This 1997 volume combines all 220 cookie recipes from all her books, including Great. Personally, I find all the recipes to be great.
My copy here has a humorous anomaly: after you get to page 180, then pages 149 to 180 are repeated, and then you jump to page 213. Yes, my copy is missing 32 pages of recipes [from page 180 to page 212] — which is why I have ordered a new, and hopefully, corrected. I’m waiting, patiently.
How are the 220 recipes presented here? By cookie type, with Maida’s strong preference for chocolate on display. The book’s chapters are:
- Chocolate Drop Cookies
- More Drop Cookies
- Bar Cookies
- Icebox Cookies
- Rolled Cookies
- Hand-Formed Cookies
Maida’s recipes for icebox cookies are quite famous, cookies like:
Peanut Butter Icebox Cookies
New Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies
Black and white Coconut Slices
Her heart is owned by those chocolate drop cookies and the twenty-seven recipes here are destined to steal your heart as well. The ideas here include:
Chocolate Hermits
Bug Sur Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Fudge Candy Cookies
Santa Fe Chocolate Wafers
Chocolate Banana Cookies
Chocolate Applesaucers
Chocolate Raising Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Cookies
Maida has been a cookie genius in her ability to combine chocolate with fruit and nuts. That talent is on display here in page after page.
And if you are not a chocolate fanatic — Good heavens, what is wrong with you? — then the chapter on More Drop Cookies should give you sustenance:
Old-Fashioned Spiced Pecan Cookies
Giant Oatmeal Spice Cookies
Tea Cakes
Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies
Pumpkin Rocks
Sour Cream Ginger Cookies
Jumbo Lemon Wafers
Oatmeal Molasses Cookies
Poppy-Seed Wafers
The spectrum of cookie ideas here is vast and rich. You are sure to find several recipes here that become your personal favorite. More than one favorite? Sure. That’s why Maida wrote this book.
There are no photographs in this book. You’ll have to use your imagination or just take the plunge: bake, eat, and delight.