FAVORITE COOKIES: More Than 40 Recipes for Iconic Treats by William-Sonoma

PUBLISHER: Weldon Owen, 4/2017
GENRE: Cooking/Baking
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: This comprehensive collection of over 3 dozen cookie recipes provides all the much-loved classics, along with tips and variations on how to make them unique. The beautifully photographed volume will feature recipes for holiday and gift giving, but will also include drop cookies, bars & sandwich cookies. The recipes are simple enough to be understood by beginning bakers, and share a timeless quality that will make them cherished by cooks of all levels. The recipes are the type home cooks will return to again and again.

Whether you’re an avid baker or a novice, the experts at the Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen have you covered. Inside this inspiring volume, you'll find 37 recipes for all types of cookies, including drop cookies, holiday cookies, sandwiched cookies, and bar cookies. Step-by-step photography and instructions illustrate how to roll out dough, cut cookie shapes, and decorate with panache.

Drop Cookies: Chocolate Chip; Peanut Butter; Oatmeal Raisin; Cowboy; Coconut, Butterscotch, and Macadamia; Chocolate Crinkle.

Holiday Cookies/Gift Giving Cookies: Sugar; Gingersnap Molasses; Gingerbread molasses; Spritz; Snickerdoodle; Candy Cane; Peppermint bark; Thumbprints; Meringues; Florentines; Almond Crescent.

Sandwich Cookies: Chocolate pretzel and peanut butter sandwich cookie; Lemon cream cookie sandwiches; Homemade Oreos

Bars: Blondie; Toffee Triangles; Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Brownie Bars; 7-Layer Bar; S’more Brownie; Orange Creamsicle.

THINGS I'VE MADE

PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These cookies taste alright but they aren't perfect. They're ordinary and the doughballs didn't spread much at all. I had to flatten the rest of the unbaked balls with the back of a measuring cup. I won't be making these again and mine look nothing like the ones in the book. They're like two different cookies.

Using a 1.5" diameter/1T. scoop I got 53 doughballs. I used 1c. mini semisweet chocolate chips and 1 1/4 c. toasted and chopped pecans.

OATMEAL-RAISIN COOKIES

These are very good and the recipe is basic. They use rolled oats and both types of sugar, white and brown.

LEMON CREAM SANDWICH COOKIES

I didn't make the lemon filling because I don't like cream cheese so I just used raspberry jam. This cookie dough was very easy to work with and is in fact the best roll-out dough I've ever worked with. Unfortunately it's basically the same as a shorbread cookie and the baked cookie is crumbly and the cookies soften a lot, even in an air-tight container. For that reason alone I wouldn't make these again because I don't like a soft cookie. I got 32 2" sandwich cookies.

MY THOUGHTS: I'm not at all impressed with this cookbook. Only one of the three recipes I made turned out good. Most of the cookies look unappetizing.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.