by Maida Heatter
Andrews McMeel Publishing, $19.99, 322 pages
If you love cookie baking, Maida Heatter’s Cookies is going to be a useful cookbook for your collection. However, if you already own several of her cookbooks, you may reconsider buying this volume—this book is a collection of cookie recipes from her previous baking books all the way back to 1977. For a new baker, this presents a nice collection with a good 11-page introduction of cookie basics: ingredients, equipment and techniques. The book is unillustrated (except for a few simple sketches) in plain vanilla edition using a different color for the list of ingredients and decorations along the side edges of pages. But layout is good, fonts large and clear. Unfortunately, many recipes inconveniently flip over to a subsequent page—particularly awkward in baking projects when the baker is likely to have sticky fingers.
The recipes are well written, easy to follow, many with interesting head notes and some with helpful notes in the sidebar. They were selected from the author’s international repertoire. They include cookies and bars, macaroons, tartlets, rusks, biscotti and even crackers. The subject index is extensive and well cross referenced.