Cookie Love: More Than 60 Recipes and Techniques for Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, a Review

I am definitely feeling the love with Mindy Segal's new book Cookie Love: More Than 60 Recipes and Techniques for Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary. Segal, a self-confessed cookie nerd and proprietor of Chicago's HotChocolate Restaurant and Dessert Bar, is, like me, a huge fan of cookies. I would rather have cookies than any other dessert. So this book definitely called my name.

Loaded with mouthwatering color photos, the book is divided into sections based on the various types of cookies:

Drop cookies
Bar cookies
Sandwich cookies
Shortbread
Thumbprint Cookies, etc.

The selection of cookies is unique and varied, with recipes for both the novice and seasoned (if you'll pardon the pun) baker. Each recipe is carefully laid out, with detailed instructions that are clear and concise, along with a bit of history, trivia, or author remembrance placed at the beginning of each. Tips and advice to aid you in your baking are included as well.

In addition to the recipes on how to make cookies, there are also recipes for how to make ingredients to be used in the cookies, making them truly 100% homemade. These include recipes for sauces, jams, and even jimmies! I was very excited at the prospect of making my own sprinkles, so was pleased to, for the first time ever, have a recipe to teach me how to do just that.

Baking tips, suggestions as what to have on hand as staples in your pantry, tricks of the trade, and learning the art of proper measuring, are also included, making this a handy reference guide as well as a treasured cookbook.

I made the Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Scotchies, and Malted Milk Spritz. All of these recipes turned out to be excellent. The Scotchies were a bit sweet and had a trifle more salt than I liked, but a simple notation to cut back on both butterscotch chips and salt content were notated in the margin. The Chocolate Chip recipe, now my “go to,” was excellent.  The Malted Milk Spritz were a bit of work, but well worth it for the beautiful, bakery shop results. I didn't have the piping tip that she suggested using, so just grabbed a large star tip that I keep on hand for piping pretty much everything and it worked out perfectly. 

One caveat: there are some unusual and potentially pricey ingredients listed among the recipes. Halva is not something that I keep on hand (though I could make my own) nor is barley syrup, something needed to make the Malted Chocolate Sauce, so I had to forego making this recipe. But only a handful of recipes call for uncommon ingredients and this should not deter you from buying and using the book.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this honest review.