I have a confession to make.

I am becoming more addicted to baking cookbooks by the day. I’ve been able to keep it under control lately, buying only one cookbook in the last two months, but today I fell of the wagon (figuratively speaking that is). I have a good excuse though, I had to run errands in town and that means passing directly by the bookstore. Plus, they have a Starbucks inside. That justifies it, right? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Anyway, I picked up a copy of Great Cookies by Carole Walter, who is also author of Great Cakes.

At around 415 pages it’s not one of those wimpy cookbooks filled with a good few recipes and a lot of fluff paragraphs. Nope, this baby has 12 chapters with cute names like “Big Boys”, Roll Call”, “Cold Cuts” and “Around the World”, which contains recipes from well… around the world. Not like that last one wasn’t obvious…

The recipe pages are laid out really well compared to some others I have seen. There are one or two short paragraphs about the recipe then it gets right to the ingredients and directions.

Something that intrigued me – for each recipe there is an “at a glance” section with information such as what kind of pan (cookie sheet, jelly roll, etc) to use, pan prep (lightly buttered, parchment, ungreased), oven temp and baking time, chilling time (if it applies) and level of difficulty.

Not only does it have more than 200 wonderful cookie recipes, but also in the back it contains a large amount of knowledge and helpful information starting with 15 pages containing information on various ingredients and substitutes. Topics include flours and leavenings, sugars and sweeteners, fats, dairy products, eggs, chocolate and much, much more.

After that, there are another 20 or so pages on equipment, techniques, troubleshooting and sources.

I’m really looking forward to baking some yummy cookies from this book. The thing is, I can’t settle on just one to start with. I’ve narrowed it down to Black Forest Chews, Poppy Seed Thumbprints, Palmiers or Triple Chocolate Peppermint Bars. Decisions, decisions…

I bought my copy at Barnes & Noble but you can also find it at Amazon.com.

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Post tags: cookbook review, great cookies