GREAT COOKIES: SECRETS TO SENSATIONAL SWEETS by Carole Walter

PUBLISHER: Clarkson Potter, 11/2003
GENRE: Cookbooks/Baking
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: Packed with more than 200 delectable recipes and more than 150 tantalizing photographs, Great Cookies skillfully and joyfully answers the call for a colorful, all-inclusive cookie book. From traditional favorites like Snickerdoodles, Oatmeal Raisin, and Favorite Lemon Squares to future stars of the cookie jar like the trail mix–inspired Teton Trailers and chewy, chocolaty Midnight Macaroons, Great Cookies provides something to satisfy every taste and every occasion.

There’s even a section devoted to the quintessential American cookie—chocolate chip. With nuts or without? White chocolate or milk? Chocolate dough? Oatmeal in the dough? Carole provides a dozen chocolate chip recipes in all, plus definitive research on a crucial issue: “Not All Chocolate Chips Are Created Equal.”

Drop cookies. Bar cookies. Piped, pressed, and rolled. Great Cookies covers every conceivable method for baking these tasty confections. In the more than thirty years that she has studied and taught baking, Carole has cataloged a wealth of helpful tips and troubleshooting hints that for the first time are gathered in one collection.

THINGS I'VE MADE

SAM'S GLAZED LAVISH LEMON COOKIES

This is a cookie made with all-purpose flour, cake flour, egg yolk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I made half the recipe. I didn't use cake flour but used all-purpose flour in its place and left out two tablespoons. I don't like the flavor of lemon juice in baked goods but went ahead and used it anyway. The directions for this recipe are ridiculous. We're to form the chilled dough into a disc, divide it into eight wedges then roll each wedge into a huge ball and flatten it before baking. Then make a lemon glaze. I didn't do that at all.

I chilled the dough for two hours because it took that long for the dough to be cold enough to not stick to my cookie scoop while scooping. I used a 1 1/4" diameter/2 teaspoon scoop and got 32 dough balls. I rolled each ball in sugar. I didn't flatten the cookies before baking and they spread out beautifully to 2 1/2" rounds. I baked them for 10 1/2 minutes on 350 degrees. The edges brown quickly and are crispy and the insides of the cookies are perfectly soft. These taste exactly like a lemon bar. This is a really good recipe but next time I'm going to use two tablespoons of water in place of the lemon juice and use lemon extract in place of the zest. I love the flavor of lemon extract in cookies and cakes, much better than lemon zest.

SUPER SUGAR SPARKLES

I made the full batch and added 1.5 t. lemon extract to it. These didn't spread out as much as the one in the photo in the book. These taste very good, buttery, and the flavor's not overpowering.

I used a 1.5" diameter/1 T. scoop and got 44 dough balls. The baked cookies spread out to 2.25" diameter.

APPLE PIE BARS

These are great but are a lot of work since there's three different steps/layers to these. I made half in a foil-lined 8" square pan. The thin bottom crust is prebaked (20 min.) then you add your fully cooked apples to it then top it with a crumb topping that has chopped nuts in it and bake until the topping has browned, 30 minutes. All three layers have brown sugar in them. Next time I'd use white sugar in the crust in place of brown. To the apples I omitted lemon juice and honey. I added 1/4t. cinnamon to the apples and left it out of the crumb topping.

I recommend you make the crumb topping in advance and store it in a zip-top baggie in the freezer so it's ready to go when you need it.

MY THOUGHTS: Everything I made turned out great. There are a lot of color photos but not one for each recipe. Most recipes in here are things I wouldn't make.

I purchased this book myself.