80+ unique and inspiring cookie recipes from the “Babe Ruth of Cookies” ( Making cookies is both an art and a craft. With Try recipes such as: Tiger-Striped Sables Earl Grey Shortbread with Blood Orange Glaze Striped Black and Whites Chewy Ginger Crinkles Strawberry Iced Oatmeal Cookies Pecan Linzers There is no one more qualified to take you on this baking journey of joy than Susan Spungen. As food editor at Cookies are connection. Whether making them together or sharing the delicious results with others, no other food has the power to bring people together and spread as much joy as cookies can.

Autorentext

Susan Spungen is a cook, food stylist, recipe developer, and cookbook author. She was the founding food editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia from its inception. She was the culinary consultant and food stylist on the feature films Julie & Julia, It’s Complicated, and Eat Pray Love. She is the author of Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook, What’s a Hostess to Do?, and Strawberries (a Short Stack Edition) and co-author of the bestselling Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook. She lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.

Leseprobe
Introduction

Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you. —Maida Heatter

I couldn’t agree more, Maida.

If you’re not familiar with Maida Heatter, she was a prolific pastry chef and cookbook author who guided my early baking projects and shaped my point of view, and who truly was the cookie queen. I don’t presume to have stolen her royal title, but I have been called the Cookie Queen so many times, it started to stick. Hence, the title of this book. It is meant with some humor, but I hope that after baking from this book, you will soon be crowned queen (or king) by your friends and family too. It’s a title I’m willing to share!

Some big moments in my life have been punctuated by cookies.

The very first recipe I ever wanted to make was a cookie recipe that came from my Weekly Reader, which was a newspaper distributed in my kindergarten. I could barely read, but I really wanted to make these cookies, and my mother complied. That was just the beginning.

There’s a reason cookies are the first recipes most kids learn to cook by themselves—they’re easy and accessible and offer instant gratification, as well as being forgiving when it comes to rudimentary baking skills. It’s also instantly obvious to a kid that you can make people (including themselves) very happy by giving them warm cookies. I learned this myself early on, and baked cookies often, mostly trying to improve on the Toll House recipe on the back of the bag and, yes, making people happy. I loved eating cookies myself, of course, and still do, whenever possible.

Later, in my twenties, when I first moved to New York City, I made tins of cookies for friends at the holidays, toiling away with my hand mixer, making mistakes, and teaching myself to be a better baker. I got so much joy out of putting together these little assortments, maybe even more than those who received them. I thought then, and still think now, that a homemade and delicious gift is the very best gift you can give.

Although it can be pretty labor intensive to bake a variety of cookies, it never feels like work to me because it’s so much FUN. There is something about the assembly-line nature of cookie baking: the repetition, the anticipation, the shaping, and the decorating that brings so much happiness and invites others to join you in the kitchen to lend a helping hand and taste some cookies along the way.

Cookies are not only little bundles of joy, they can be mouthfuls of art, if you want them to be. Whether a cookie is what I call “self-decorating,” with layers or swirls of colored doughs speaking for themselves without a hint of icing, or glazed or iced with tinted icings or chocolate, I believe they should lead with flavor. The visual effect should be bold, but never contrived, and easy for anyone to pull off.

My influences for these inspiring yet approachable cookies come from a variety of sources, including art, nature, and the ingredients themselves. Some of my best flavor-driven ideas are sparked by something I find in my pantry that I just have to work into a cookie recipe.
The techniques I use are easy, and anyone can master them. My detailed recipes will walk you through them step by step. Decorations are simple yet impactful. Ingredients are occasionally unexpected but still accessible. Flavor combinations are inventive but familiar. All these qualities add up to cookies that are beautiful, delectable, and craveable.

**What’s so great about cookies anyway?
**
For most of us, making cookies was our very first baking project, and the very act of doing it brings back all those warm and cozy (not to mention aromatic) memories of baking with our moms, our best friends, or all by ourselves. Cookies are not a big commitment—a batch can be whipped up at a moment’s notice, and the result is always delicious and comforting, and well worth the effort. Amping up that deliciousness is what I always strive for when I’m creating a new recipe. I want the flavors to sing. I want there to be a salty-sweet party in your mouth that leaves you wanting more. Advanced baking skills are not necessary for most recipes, although there are a few that will challenge you slightly and hopefully teach you something new. The final result will give you a feeling of accomplishment.

Best and perhaps most important of all, cookies are connection. Whether it’s through the activity of making them together or sharing them with others, no other food has the power to bring people together and spread as much joy as they do. Everyone loves cookies!

I want this book to be an exciting and fun resource for anyone looking for a single cookie recipe (to win the cookie swap perhaps?), but invaluable if you’re embarking on a cookie box project, a holiday activity that in recent years has risen to the level of competitive sport.

Making cookies is part art, part craft, and part science. I’ve got you covered in all those areas. These cookies look as good as they taste (or do they taste as good as they look?) and are fun to create. They are never too sweet, nor do they sacrifice flavor in the pursuit of good looks. The recipes have been extensively tested to make sure they work in your kitchen.

The chapter organization takes a modular approach to building a cookie box or curating a selection for a party platter. Want to bake but not sure which cookies would go well together? (See Cookie Box Combos, pages 30–31.) Whether you want to make three different cookies or thirteen, picking from the different sections will give your boxes and platters variety. No need to spend a lot of time planning to figure out what will taste good and look good together. This mix-and-match approach is baked into the concept. Try something from “Classic for a Reason,” like Creamsicle Meltaways (page 45), tack on something from “Rustic and Natural,” like Crunchy Granola Cookies (page 83), add something from “Instant Gratification,” like Biscoff Raisin Cookies (page 127), and top it off with one from “My Kid Could Do That,” like Chocolate Brushstroke Cookies with Yogurt Glaze (page 219), and you will have a winning combination. And, yes, your kid could do that. And so can you.

It’s always a good time for cookies.