Cover Image: The Cookie Bible

The Cookie Bible

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Member Reviews

Many a cherished baker have published books on cookies. On my own shelf I have Dorie Greenspan’s “Dorie’s Cookies” and Julie Van Rosendaal’s “One Smart Cookie” just to name a few. It’s hard to imagine that there are any more cookie recipes that haven’t been thought up of or baked. Yet here I am, shirt sleeves lightly dusted in flour, sitting on the floor of our kitchen, secretly devouring the first of my just out of the oven Tahini Crisps by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her “The Cookie Bible”. I’ve already mapped out a plan. I’m not sharing these cookies with anyone else in this house. I shall greedily hide them. These lovely, light, perfect serve-with-afternoon-coffee crispy delights are going to be stashed away so that I can selfishly indulge in them for the remainder of the week.

Also, can I just say that Rose’s names for her cookies are absolutely playful? We have "Jumbles" packed full of pecans, almonds and raisins, "Lemon Lumpies" (the lumps are candied lemon peel!), "Cloud Nines" are yeast-raised cinnamon and buttery cookies, and my son’s very favourite: "Caramel Surprise Snickerdoodles". All of these recipes are wonderfully written, and it’s easy to see how much care and attention was put into testing these recipes prior to publication. I never encountered any questionable measurements or baking times…in fact, the only thing I questioned was “is it ok to bake a new cookie recipe every day for two solid weeks?” (the answer is yes, of course).

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Cookie Bible” is such a gift, chock full of gorgeous photos and recipes that will surely be treasured for years to come by this cookie-loving family of mine. I highly recommend this book as a staple in your cookie cookbook repertoire and once you’ve purchased one for yourself, get one for your best friend too because you definitely won’t want to loan your copy out!

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Cookies are my go-to dessert whenever I want to add something extra to the menu or for special occasions. I actually have my mother-in-law's old Cookie Bible that appears to be similar though not by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

There is a wealth of information in this new Cookie Bible with explanations, tips and definitions designed to help anyone, from novice to a seasoned pro. I guess I fall somewhere in between. The photos are beautiful, and the recipes are varied, ranging from traditional chocolate chip and a multitude of bar cookies to holiday cookies, meringues and candies. Some of these seemed fairly complex though and using the recipes digitally made it difficult to follow. It's important that readers/bakers are careful to read all the instructions before starting something of the more complex cookies that require a bit of pre-planning.

I believe the physical book will be easier to use and a welcome addition to any baker's cookbook shelf.

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Rose Levy Beranbaum is my go-to guide to all things baking and THE COOKIE BIBLE is another perfect primer. Like the volumes before it, this book has easy-to-use ingredient charts, a wealth of information, and loads of recipes. I love this cookbook and recommend it to all cookie bakers!

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Biranbaum is the author of The Cake Bible, a book that I used to own, never used, and finally handed off to my daughter. Had I realized this at the outset—and I should have, as it was included in the promotional blurb—I probably would have stepped away from this cookbook. However, cookies are generally an approachable baking project, and it didn’t occur to me that this author might provide recipes that are not.

My thanks go to Mariner Books and Net Galley for the review copy. This book will be available to the public on Tuesday, October 18.

My rating is a compromise, because recipes such as these will elicit a variety of responses, none more valid than another, and so I can see this collection as two stars for unpretentious and somewhat lazy souls such as me, and four stars for those looking for a tremendous challenge, or an opportunity to impress.

I was on a weight loss regimen during the warm months, looking forward to fall and the chance to get back in the kitchen and bake. I held onto this galley as a reward for all the weight lost, and I planned to test a couple of recipes before writing a review. That hasn’t happened, nor will it. I confess I didn’t understand what I was in for. These recipes are the sort one uses for a grand occasion if at all. If there’s a dessert auction on the horizon, or if you are simply looking to flex your baking muscles, or even intimidate other bakers, this book is your book. Be prepared to buy a LOT of ingredients that aren’t standard. Super fine sugar; candied lemon peel; brandy or freshly squeezed orange juice, strained; unbalanced hazelnuts! I believe I’d have to be unbalanced to attempt any of this. Fine sea salt; hulled sesame seeds; Muscovedo light brown sugar; sour cherry preserves. Mine are ordinary cherry preserves. Fail. Crystalized ginger. Oh, and once you procure your super fine sugar, you’ll need to grind it in your spice grinder. You have one of those somewhere, of course.

I found one recipe that I thought I could manage. There were 2.5 pages of densely printed instructions. I could see that I was supposed to have 60-62% cacao dark chocolate, but after reading the recipe four times, I couldn’t find the place where I was supposed to have added it. I did find the place where I should have added something else on top of it, but as far as I am concerned, if the recipe isn’t clear after four readings, then it’s not clearly written.

Next!

Once again, if you have occasions when you are ready to pull out all the stops, you may like this thing, but do make sure you read your recipe well in advance, as I suspect you will have to special order tools and ingredients.

Not for me.

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As Someone who primarily bakes cookies, I was very excited to receive this ARC and it did not disappoint! Besides the absolutely beautiful photographs, I appreciated the "Golden Rules" section at the beginning. I bake pretty often but it's nice to get a refresher and even pick up a few new ideas/strategies. This is perfect for a newcomer.

The recipes start with, of course, a chocolate chip cookie dough recipe. I'm sure most bakers have their preferred recipe (and I certainly do) but this one looks so good I'll have to put it to the test! The section that most intrigued me was the meringues and candies section, as I've not dealt very much in those areas. The Meringue Mushrooms and Crown Jewel Macarons intrigue me! I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy once this is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This review will be posted to Goodreads/Twitter upon publication date!

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Regardless of religion, we all love cookies. This one is the only book you’ll ever need to make all of your cookie dreams come true. This one includes baking basics and also the three best methods for mixing, which will forever change your cookie creations. Honorable mentions and shoutouts go to: Cranberry Chocolate Chippers, Lemon Lumpies, Caramel Surprise Snickerdoodles, Churro Nuggets, Bourbon Balls, Brownie Doughnuts, and more!!

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I really enjoyed reading this book and can't wait to start baking! This author has a lot of helpful tips. These recipes are great for beginners and experienced bakers alike.

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Fun book with a short description of varied cookies that can be created. I loved the pictures and the forward from the author, otherwise this is a typical cookie cook book in my opinion.

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Let’s start with what I liked:
-It’s rare for cookbooks to give measurements in both metric and US imperial so I was really happy about that! It made it much easier to not have to convert everything.

-I liked the baking tips with each recipe for things to substitute or add in

-Nostalgia: I saw the bourbon balls recipe and instantly felt nostalgic for Christmases with my Nanny! I think she made rum balls instead of bourbon, but I was so excited to try making these and reliving some childhood memories

-Who doesn’t love seeing delicious pictures of cookies

Now the things that I didn’t like/frustrated me:
-Each recipes gives a baking time but that’s far from an accurate timeframe of how long it actually takes. Maybe I’m being picky but I prefer a total time estimate for the overall process

-This feels waaaaay more intermediate than for beginning bakers so not what I expected or hoped for. Even the “easy” recipes require a minimum of 3 hours total baking time so this is not a “I feel like whipping up some cookies and need inspiration” book. It is purely reference for making specific types of cookies that you want an expert’s perspective on

-Like someone else said, it lacks good instructions; it’s all over the place and made me constantly paranoid I was forgetting things especially with the “add flour mixture, mix” “now add the lemon mixture and mix” in the instructions and the separate mixes being somewhere else in the recipe (just tell me what to do in ONE SECTION) and please don’t make me use so many different bowls for 3 ingredient mixes that will be added to the big bowl immediately after anyways?! (If it’s wet vs dry or something needs to be chilled/heated before adding that’s one thing but this was insane)

-Some recipes require a bit more pre-planning which is fine but just be warned that it’s not told to you in the beginning and I like to know before deciding on a recipe what I should be planning for (again this goes back to the lack of a total timeframe).

-As someone with ADHD, I found the amount of info per recipes overwhelming, especially considering the instructions were not written very well (it was info overload for my poor brain 😫)


Overall thoughts:
This book is neither good nor bad; it just wasn’t for me and has its place in the world for anyone who wants a reference book. If you enjoy baking but want to challenge yourself and are okay with large time commitments, or you want a specific be-all-end-all reference book then you’d love this! But if you’re a beginner like me who just enjoys baking casually and whipping something up in the span of a couple hours or less, look elsewhere. In the end, I did only make 1 recipe from this because I was so overwhelmed/over-stimulated/frustrated with how the recipe was laid out that I had no desire to go any further, and will stick to my basic chocolate oatmeal cookies and snickerdoodles!

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I made several recipes out of this book, and they were all excellent.. I think this would make a really great gift for anyone who enjoys baking

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Call me the cookie monster. I can pass on cake and some other treats. But cookies? We all have room for a cookie, right? There are so many recipes in this book! There are classics like chocolate chip and oatmeal, and some that I can’t wait to try like Pecan Freezer Squares and Brownie Doughnuts. Some of the recipes require some pre-planning and are a little fancier than dump in a bowl and bake. I am sure that anyone who reads this will find their new favorite cookie in these pages. The pictures have me drooling and planning my next baking day!

**I received a copy of The Cookie Bible from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

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Everything you need to know about cookies. My tummy was rumbling all the way through reading this book and I enjoyed it a lot. A recommended read

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This is truly a great book for anyone, novice to expert, to use to create a wide variety of cookies following the clear, easy to follow instructions. The illustrations are gorgeous and made me want to try so many of the recipes,

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The Cookie Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is the real bible! all so delicious. Made all the cookies possible
so easy to follow and a good read

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I love Rose Levy Beranbaum's Books and recipes. If you love baking and love Beranbaum's recipes, you'll love this book.

Just like the title, this book has every possible type of cookies and bars you can imagine including something you have not heard of and very intriguing. This is a very detail-oriented book with lots of tips and information for both beginner bakers and the advanced. Layout is great, there are measurements of both grams and cups, it's easy to read and presented nicely especially for long recipes with lengthy steps. One thing I love about this book is there is variation section of each recipe where you can tweak recipes to your liking, not to mention every recipe includes mise en place, mixing methods, baking, cooling, and "Baking Gems" which are tips on ingredients, techniques, storage and etc. I only wish there was a photo of each recipe, especially for recipes that are not familiar to most bakers and for visual learners.

All in all, this is a very comprehensive cookbook that is well-written and full of great recipes for bakers of all levels. I can't wait to add this book to my library when it publishes. Highly recommended! #TheCookieBible #NetGalley

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Between the beautiful photography and the wide variety of recipes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. My two favorite recipes were the Brandy Snap Rolls and the Double Ginger Molasses Cookies - but you can't go wrong with any of the recipes!

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I think this is a great baking book for cookies and bars/other treat similar to cookies. I think the tips offered by the author are great and helpful especially for new bakers. The recipes are great and there's a great variety for different types of cookies. I personally prefer chocolate-y type cookies and am not a particular fan of cookies with fruit in them, so having that variety was very nice. One thing I would've liked is if there was a picture to go along with each recipe. I know that requires more ink and more pages and would therefore increase the price of the book, but I've always found that visual of knowing what the cookie is supposed to look like helps more than having to read through the recipe and understand from that what the end result will look and taste like. The visual aspect is an important part to cooking and baking and not enough books take advantage of that by incorporating pictures for each recipe.

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I usually wait until closer to the publishing date to review books, but I just could not help reviewing The Cookie Bible. With inspiring photos, though I wish there were more, the cookbook features excellent recipes with easy to follow instructions. The author takes the time to introduce basic methods, great tips and hints for success, essential ingredients, and helpful equipment. The recipes are divided into logical sections, which I have listed below with some of the standouts.

Rolled by Hand: Cranberry Chocolate Chippers; Jumbles; Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies; Tahini Crisps; Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

Dropped or Piped: Chocolate Phantoms; Florentines; Churro Nuggets

Shaped by Hand: Cream Cheese Butter Dough for Rugelach; Apricot Walnut Rugelach; Strudel Cookies

Rolled and Cut: Coconut Crisps; Lemon Jammies; Chocolate Wafers; Turkish Ginger Lime Cookies

Holiday Cookies: Gingerbread Folks; Spritz Cookies; Pizzelle

Bar and Cake Cookies: Cocoa Brownies; Baby Cheesecakes; Brownie Doughnuts; Whoopie Pies; Lemon Cranberry Squares

Meringues and Candies: Meringue Mushrooms; Lacy Susans: Bandy Snaps

Extra Specials: Dulce de Leche; Wicked Good Ganache; Lemon Curd; Raspberry Jam

I appreciated that the index was located in the front of the cookbook, for ease of use. The instructions for the more specialized cookies were extremely helpful, as measuring and laying out certain cookies can be difficult.

Overall, as someone who has baked many cookies over a number of years, I would recommend The Cookie Bible to anyone wanting to make delicious cookies and bars.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Cookie Bible by NetGalley and the publisher, Mariner Books. The decision to read and review this cookbook was entirely my own.

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Loved this! I tried quite a few recipes and they were SO good. Highly recommend! We all know cookies are good but this makes them even better

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Just made the chocolate chip cookies from this book - delicious! I love whenever golden syrup can be added to a recipe! Add in brown butter and that is a fantastic cookie! Be sure to read the recipe fully before starting, the format is a bit more verbose than I expected

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