Nancy Baggett has a love affair with cookies. Somewhere in my collection, I do have my copy of The International Cookie Cookbook form 1988. And I know I have Simply Sensational Cookies form 2012. Somewhere.
What I do have in my hand now is The All-American Cookie Book from 2001. I’m not just putting this book down. It’s going onto one of those shelves Suzen and I have for the “where the hell is it” cookbooks that drive us nuts. We have a lot cookbooks, perhaps 4,000 now. And we keep them in one of eight sets of shelves over five floors in two residences. [It’s a bad situation and we’re looking for some iPad app to let us finally catalog everything. If you do know of one, please let me know.]
In the meantime, I will guard The All-American Cookie Book as if it were precious. Actually, it is precious.
Over ten chapters, Nancy guides you to cookie nirvana. She is both an excellent writer and a real baker, someone whose recipes and guidance you can trust. Just follow along with her, and in a few minutes you’ll have a warm treat in your mouth.
Unless you make the Rocky Road Brownies, which have to refrigerate overnight. Look for a post after they emerge from my fridge!
Here’s a tour of this lovely and still very important book.
Chapter 1 is How to Make Great Cookies Every Single Time. Nancy has this title with an added note in red type: Read This. It’s only elevenpages but there are great lessons here for you. Lesson Number One? Measure, Don’t Guess.
Chapter 2 is devoted to Sugar Cookies and Shortbreads. My grandmother lived with us and she was pure Scotch. So, I grew up on these cookies:
Nineteenth-Century Sugar Cookies [from 1834]
Cornmeal Sables
Carolina Stamped Shortbread
Caramel-Frosted Sugar Cookies
Chapter 3 deals with what everyone knows is the definition of cookie, Chocolate and White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here you’ll be introduced to new flavor ideas that Nancy believes will entertain you:
Chewy Chocolate Chunk Monster Cookies
Oregon Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies
White Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies
Tutti-Frutti Chocolate Fruitcake Drops
What could be a more natural followup that Chapter 4 with Chocolate and Mocha Cookies. Do you relish mocha? Then consider:
Cocoa-Mocha Macs
Mocha-Espresso Wafers
The First Chocolate Cookie [from 1832]
Brownies, Blondies and Other Bar Cookies abound in Chapter 5. There are 25 recipes here and everyone is something that you’ll want to sample. The book has, to this point, been directed to us chocoholics but now Nancy is writing for the rest of the population:
No-Bake Peanut Butter-Chocolate Crunch Bars
Butterscotch-Toffee Brownies
Strawberry-Rhubarb Streusel Bars
Maple Nut Bars
Apricot-Almond Bars
That non-chocolate theme extends in Chapter 6 with Fruit, Pumpkin and Carrot Cookies. I’m writing this in August and in the fall I can try:
Mini Apple Stack Cakes
Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake Cookies
Pumpkin Rocks with Cream-Cheese Frosting
Spiced Cranberry-Apricot Icebox Cookies
I know, nuts are a problem. The rise of nut allergies among our kids is a mystery and a tragedy. We used to enjoy nuts in our baking far more. The recipes in Nut and Peanut Cookies will tell you why:
Peanut Brittle Cookies
Pecan Praline Wafer
Praline Meringue Puffs
Maple Pecan Sandwich Cookies
If “healthy” is a byword for you, then Chapter 8 with Oat, Coconut, and Sesame Seed Cookies is just for you:
Soft-Raisin Oatmeal Drop Cookies
Honey Currant Oatmeal Cookies
Chewy Coconut Wafers
Best Benne Seed Wafers
In the fall, Suzen and I often turned good old-fashioned spice cookies. Here is the perfect chapter for us, Ginger, Spice, and Molasses Cookies:
Ginger-Spice Crinkles
Old-Fashioned Glazed Molasses Cookies
Sour Cream Hermits
The book concludes with Chapter 10 offering Cooking Decorating and Crafts. You need to see the book to admire Nancy’s Stained Glass and Light Catcher Cookies. It turns out that, yes, a cookie can be a work of art.
There is only one problem with this book: start to scan through it, and you are going to feel overwhelmed. You’ll want to bake everything. Be calm. Be patient. Remember how people took a year to go through Dorie’s Around My French Table? Okay, take a year. A cookie every couple of days. It’s an amazing and exceptional book. It was deservedly an IACP winnerin 2011. Guard your copy well.